StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

My Experience with Curriculum - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The writer of this essay discusses a wider experience with the curriculum. He has had teaching experience from 2010 and within this period he has come face to face with the challenges bedeviling the curriculum and its dispensation. He worked as a teacher in an Islamic studies High School…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97% of users find it useful
My Experience with Curriculum
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "My Experience with Curriculum"

My experience with curriculum al Affiliation My experience with curriculum Introduction Being a master’s in leadership I have had a wider experience with curriculum especially in the countries I have taught in. I have had a teaching experience from 2010 and within this period I have come face to face with the challenges bedeviling the curriculum and its dispensation. I come from Egypt and I have had an opportunity to work as a teacher in an Islamic studies High School. Within this time I have developed a greater passion for the profession because of the interactions I have had with my students. It’s been a fulfilling experience for me and through this time I have tried to change most of the conventional methods employed by the other teachers we have worked with and introduced more effective ways to involve the students, more so in learning. Curriculum, in my understanding, and in an educational context broadly defines the experiences that one undergoes through the educational processes. The term as defined by a variety of scholars majorly refers to a planned sequence of instructions often set by organization instructional goals. The curriculum in this sense should be able to incorporate all the learning usually organized, planned and guided by the school, carried out in groups or individually and done both inside and outside the school environment (Null, 2011). The curriculum should define the reasons for doing particular things, the range of activities to be carried out and also the designated times in which these activities are to be carried out. In totality it involves among other things the skills, performances, values and attitudes that are to be expected from students or pupils that are in the schooling systems. When taken specifically in the education system, the curriculum should entail such aspects as the contents of the syllabuses offered, the strategies used to achieve their set targets and also the norms and values accepted by the school systems. The curriculum as defined and applied in the several spheres of the learning environment and other setups include the explicit, implicit, hidden, excluded and extracurricular curriculum and are as described: Explicit curriculum; includes those subjects and courses that are taught, the set objectives of the school, and the specified skills and knowledge that are expected from students that undergo the schooling system successfully. Implicit curriculum; also defined as the unintended curriculum, involves the lessons that arise due to the culture of the learning institution and its behaviors, its attitudes and the various expectations that are associated with these cultures. Hidden curriculum; this in its sense refer to the things that students often learn not through those activities that are planned or organized by the school management but through the way in which the school operations and the planned activities are carried out. This type of curriculum often benefits the learners a lot and builds on their various experiences through their learning process. It includes both the physical environment of the learning institutions and the relationships built among students or between the students and their education seniors (Swim, 2014). Excluded curriculum; these often involve those topics and aspects that are usually excluded explicitly from the specified curriculum. Extracurricular; these include activities and programs; either organized and sponsored by the learning institutions themselves or are community based, often intended to supplement the academic aspect of the learning experience offered by the school systems. Those activities organized by the schools often include such activities as sports, performing arts and academic clubs. These activities often explore and improve on the different and diverse talents of the learners undergoing schooling and place them to more constructive and better use. The community based extracurricular activities usually organized by the surrounding communities and which in most cases take place in the schools do not in a particular way have a direct link with the school laid down systems. Such activities often include environmental and religious clubs and/or groups and also scouting. These programs usually broaden on the curriculum often obtained from the classrooms. A particular topic of discussion could be taught and discussed in a classroom environment and the knowledge gets to be further enhanced through and developed through these community based programs and activities (Null, 2011). The experiences I have obtained from the learning process have proven the importance and validity of the inclusion of all these aspects in the curriculum. It helps in molding character, talents and intellectual capabilities of the different learners (Walker & Soltis, 2004). The teaching fraternity and experiences, which has been a profession of choice in my carrier and curriculum development has provided me with a lot of challenges and intrigues that has contributed to a larger extent on my existing knowledge. Having a passion for the teaching profession, my curriculum development has focused greater on the various methods that have been used in the dissemination of knowledge and the general involvement of the learners in the whole process. With the monotonous nature of the strategies that have been employed by a variety of the teachers, mine has been that of an integrated process and that which seeks for an active audience. My interactions with the various curriculums in the different learning institutions in different places helped in establishing the effectiveness of an active classroom as compared to that of a passive one. In order to attain this, I have attached a significant interest in the modification of the various teaching strategies and methods employed. Instead of the straight approach used by most educators, I have introduced various methods of teaching geared at increasing the level of involvement and participation of the learners. Some of these include the introduction of classroom debates, group and individual topic presentations and others that would increase the level of interactions. These debates and class activities enhance and promote the learning process in several ways. Apart from the knowledge the student gets from me as their educator, they are able to challenge each other and learn from themselves. This has proven to be more effective than the conventional strict teacher to student learning process. The introduction of such methods often improves the thinking process and capability of the learners because it is more of student centered. The application of these methods also often helps in exposing the needs, strength and weaknesses of these students so that if special attention might be required then it is given appropriately (Walker & Soltis, 2004). In cognizance of the various aspects of the curriculum often needed in schools and with the desire to introduce newer and more effective strategies of learning especially in my carrier field, I have often employed the following procedure in the development and advancement of my curriculum; Diagnosis of needs; this is where I determine the different and diverse needs of the students I teach including their strengths and weaknesses. Formulation of objectives; after this determination, I set the general and specific objectives that would ensure that these needs are met. Content organization; this involves coming up with the range of topics and ideas to be disseminated. Selection of the learning methods and strategies; to meet the objectives, I select the suitable learning methods. Organization of these learning strategies and methods; once the learning methods are selected, I organize them in order to ensure that the learning objectives are met systematically. Determination of the evaluation process and parameters; once all these processes have been carried out, I choose on the appropriate evaluation means to determine the success of the whole process. My experience with the curriculum has established the effectiveness of a proactive process of learning. When the students are involved appropriately and extra activities are carried out, the learning process becomes enjoyable and that which is more successful (Costa & Kallick, 2009). References Null, J. W. (2011). Curriculum: From theory to practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Swim, T. (2014). Infants and toddlers: Curriculum and teaching. Walker, D. F., & Soltis, J. F. (2004). Curriculum and aims. New York: Teachers College Press. Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2009). Habits of mind across the curriculum: Practical and creative strategies for teachers. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Write an essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/education/1674556-write-an-essay
(Write an Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/education/1674556-write-an-essay.
“Write an Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/education/1674556-write-an-essay.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF My Experience with Curriculum

Math Instruction: An Overview

Usually, standards- based curriculum define specific skills and knowledge a student must exhibit so as to qualify the student in a… For example, a third grade student from a public school in Pennsylvania is expected to use whole number and fractions to represent quantities ( Pennsylvania Code 2.... The important relationship between standards and curriculum was defined by Marzano and Kendall (1996) who stated that many educators consider the publication of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) as the "initiating event of the modern standards movement....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Early Childhood Education: The High Scope Curriculum

The objective of this assignment is to critically analyze the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating high scope curriculum in primary education.... After several years of research and findings, there have been numerous educational curriculums that have been developed for the High Scope curriculum process.... People accept the approach across the country due to the high levels of research that has gone into developing this curriculum.... he High Scope curriculum, centers on recognizing and supporting the unique differences of children and utilizing these to develop their self-confidence and abilities (Henniger, 2009)....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Analysis and Evaluation of Current Curricula to Improve Student Learning and Success

Additionally, owing to the size of the institution, the number… However, numerous students have continually complained about the low levels of diversity within the institution, resulting from the fact that the implemented curriculum does not encompass the diversity aspect (Banks, 2006).... This has nificant impacts to the overall development of the students both academically and socially, hence the need for the assessment and the need for simultaneous transformational within the institution's curriculum....
5 Pages (1250 words) Coursework

Curriculum Foundations

curriculum foundation encompasses a consideration of all important aspects regarding the society including their historical background, psychological, philosophical as well as the social context.... It considers the various issues influencing the curriculum as well as a… In this context, the designation of the curriculum aims at covering American history right from the time of birth and the path followed to arrive at where we are at The first part is to cover all the important events up to the end of the civil war while the second part to proceed with all the reconstructions through to the present....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Curriculum in a Learning Institution

 This essay discusses the design of a curriculum which determines the students learning process hence a need for good curriculum design to bring out the best from each learner.... Total information gain and experience in this learning institution is not determined by the institution's curricula but this curriculum affects the way we view learning process, promoting love or hate for it.... nbsp; curriculum in a Learning InstitutionAttending a learning institution is one of the fundamental things a person needs to go through....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Successful Cultural-Based Curriculum for Native American/Indian American Children

The author states that the culture-based curriculum movement should not be abandoned and the first theory on cultural discontinuity is not valid because it has been proven to be wrong… The cultural-based approach has become popular in the Native American society.... Their main aim has been to establish culture-based and culture-based schooling curriculum  Natives of Alaska and American Indian children experience a number of risk factors in their psychopathological development....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Experiential Learning in Pyramid Club

Increasing children motivation to learn is done through engagement in the learning experience as witnessed in experiential learning.... The paper "Experiential Learning in Pyramid Club" describes that Piaget divided his cognitive-developmental stage into four distinctive stages namely the sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Tracking in School

The essay "Tracking in School" takes a keen look at a policy of curriculum development that confines the learners to their economic classes thereby making it difficult for the learners to achieve either equality or excellence, limits the abilities and development of children.... However, the success of the curriculum relies on strategic structures that encourage inclusivism.... This implies that the family backgrounds of the learners influence the quality of their learning experience thus development (Goodlad, 1983)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us