AIOU Curriculum Development and Instruction 838 Past Papers PDF
Course Name: Curriculum Development and Instruction
Course Code: (0838)
AIOU Curriculum Development and Instruction 838 Past Papers PDF Semester Terminal Exam Autumn 2020
Question No 1
How National development is linked with curriculum development in Pakistan? Discuss problems in the curriculum development process and give probable Solutions.
Answer:
What is Curriculum?
While thinking about education, the most important idea that comes to mind is the curriculum. The curriculum is a channel that school administration needs for giving educational and life skills to students.
However, unluckily, in the Pakistani context, this idea is highly misunderstood due to which students do not get enriched educational experience in schools.
National development is linked with curriculum development
The curriculum plays a crucial role in national integration and harmony. Curriculum role as observed in the National Education Policy (1979) should aim to enable the learners to learn knowledge, develop conceptual and intellectual skills, attitudes, values, and attitudes conducive to the all-round development of their personality and proportionate with the societal, economic, and environmental realities at national and international level.
It is, perhaps easier to educate a child in the beginning than re-educated him. when he has already formed. Therefore, books for children are not simply a source of entertainment rather inculcate intelligence and values. In Russia, America, and Japan children’s literature is considered a great cultural and educational phenomenon, and the creation of books for children is the responsibility of the states. The manifest and latent functions of children’s literature are to transmit knowledge, myth, mores, values, folkways, legendry personalities, superstitions, and beliefs which are integral parts of a culture.
Textbooks
Textbooks are the most widely used as a teaching tool that represents our national culture.
Questioning methodology:
Questioning methodology is a powerful tool to built analytical and critical skills in pupils. In the world of knowledge the emphasis has not to be merely mastery to extant the knowledge but on the acquisitions of capacity to think and analyze facts logically and conclude on its own.
The curriculum does not change in Pakistan
Ghulam Haider in his article, “Process of Curriculum Development in Pakistan,” says that curriculum is not a static process, but it is a dynamic exercise that must undergo changes according to society’s new demands.
In Pakistan, curriculum development is a static process. There are many reasons for the failure in developing a proper curriculum. Some of them are discussed below.
Problems in curriculum development
- Curriculum is outdated
Firstly, the curriculum is outdated, which does not meet the local needs of Pakistani society. Raja Omer Shabbir in his article, “The curriculum problems,” notes that our present generation is learning the same knowledge that the previous two generations have learned.
As students from different parts of the world get difficult mathematical and scientific knowledge by activity-based learning, our students are forced to know scientific concepts through cramming.
- Involvement of government officials
Secondly, both Haider and Shabbir note that the involvement of government officers in the development of the Pakistani curriculum is proving harmful to our education system.
Haider suggests that the current process of curriculum development is based on a uniform policy for the whole country that has its particular aims and goals, but he thinks that it is not possible to apply national educational policy to different regions of the country with equality.
- Lack of academic research
Thirdly, the problem that the process of curriculum development faces in Pakistan is improper academic research for writing school textbooks. Haider points out those experts sitting in the curriculum development boards use materials of their own choice for instruction in schools.
- Absence of school teachers’ involvement
Fourthly, it is seen that the academic experience of teachers from different schools is also not considered in designing and revising school curriculum. Daniel Tanner and Laurel N. Tanner in their book, “Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice,” suggest that without intelligent participation of school teachers, meaningful curriculum development will not be achieved.
Solutions:
- Re-evaluate goals or objectives
What is the goal your university strives to achieve? Is it just getting the students to get the best grades they can and help them get a degree? Well, that might be the wrong approach to take. The goal today, for every university, needs to be the equipment of students to hone their skills and talents through knowledge in a bid to make something of themselves where their career is concerned.
- Keep a track of employee skills that are sought after
The kind of skills that companies seek the most are dynamic. What is today considered a skill worth developing may not be as vital or considered as important over time, depending on the jobs that are booming at the time. In fact, research even proves that universities now have the challenge to prepare students for jobs that do not exist! It certainly is a daunting task without proper curriculum development in education.
- Take job trends into consideration
This is yet another factor that can help improve the set curriculum that universities follow. Apart from offering courses that would be beneficial to the students in terms of skill development, it is important that job trends also be taken into consideration when the curriculum is decided upon. And with the task of preparing students for jobs that don’t exist falling in the hands of universities, keeping this factor in mind can prove to be most advantageous to students, universities, and the employers of the future.
- Make advanced technology a constant in courses offered
Technology is advancing, and it is time for people to walk parallel to all of these innovations. With every company, be it a small scale business or a large corporate firm, seeking employees that are efficient in managing basic technology, making courses that offer basic technical know-how mandatory is a step further in helping students improve their skills through thorough curriculum planning and development.
Apart from helping students hone their academic skills, making them efficient in every way to prove themselves exceptional employees in the future is what universities need to focus on when they take up the task of preparing proficient employees for the future.
Question No 2
Analyze the relationship between culture and curriculum
discuss that why we need a value-based curriculum in Pakistan?
How it can be developed?
Relationship between culture and curriculum
Culture is an important factor in curriculum planning and drives the content of every curriculum. This is because the essence of education is to transmit the cultural heritage of society to the younger generation of society. A curriculum is a veritable tool for attaining the educational goals of a nation. Education is the hub of all ramifications of development in any country. No country can develop if its educational system is weak.
Curriculum planning should therefore endeavor to integrate the components of culture, which is the essence of education in curriculum planning to ensure that the products of the educational system would be functional members of their society.
value-based curriculum in Pakistan:
Values-based Education is an approach to teaching that works with values. It creates a strong learning environment that enhances academic achievement and develops students’ social and relationship skills that last throughout their lives.
A positive learning environment is achieved through the positive values modeled by staff throughout the school. It quickly liberates teachers and students from the stress of confrontational relationships, which frees up substantial teaching and learning time.
It also provides social capacity to students, equipping them with social and relationship skills, intelligence, and attitudes to succeed at school and throughout their lives
NEED FOR VALUE-BASED CURRICULUM:
Achievement of educational aims
- Fixing limits
- Development of democratic values
- Development of citizenship
- Development of character
- Satisfaction of needs
- Criteria of suitable teacher
- Acquisition of knowledge
- Development of personality
- Reflects trends in education
- Discoveries of and inventions
Development of Value-based Curriculum:
The development of an effective curriculum guide is a multi-step, ongoing and cyclical process. The process progresses from evaluating the existing program to designing an improved program, to implementing a new program, and back to evaluating the revised program.
Planning
- Convening a Curriculum Development Committee. Such a committee, consisting primarily of teachers who represent the various schools and grade levels in a district, administrators, members of the public, and perhaps students, becomes the driving
force for curriculum change and the long-term process of implementing the
curriculum. It is critical that an effective, knowledgeable, and respected chairperson lead such a committee and it includes knowledgeable and committed members who
gradually become the district’s de facto “experts” during the development phases of the process as well as the implementation phases.
2.Identifying Key Issues and Trends in the Specific Content.
The first step in any curriculum development process involves research that reviews recent issues and trends of the discipline, both within the district and across the nation. This research allows a curriculum committee to identify key issues and trends that will support the needs assessment that should be conducted and the philosophy that should be developed.
Articulating and Developing
- Articulating a K-12 Program Philosophy. These fundamental questions guide the overteaching philosophy of the program.
- “Why learn (specific discipline)?”
- “Upon what guiding principles are our program built?”
- “What are our core beliefs about teaching and learning in (specific
- discipline)?”
- “What are the essential questions?”
- “How will we use assessment to improve the program and student
- learning?”
As such, the program philosophy provides a unifying framework that justifies and gives direction to discipline-based instruction.
Identifying Resource Materials to Assist with Program Implementation. An
effective curriculum guide goes beyond a listing of objectives and identifies
suggested instructional resources to help answer the question, “What instructional
materials are available to help me meet a particular objective or set of objectives?” As teachers and programs move away from a single textbook approach and employ a broad range of supplementary materials, instructional modules for particular units, computer software, and the like, it is increasingly important that the curriculum guide suggests and links available resources to curriculum objectives.
Developing and/or Identifying Assessment Items and Instruments to Measure Student Progress. In many cases, a set of grade-level criterion-referenced tests, performance-based tasks, and course final examinations that answer concretely the question, “How will I know that my students know and are able to do what is expected of them?” holds an entire curriculum together. This piece of the curriculum development process helps to focus instruction and ensures the often elusive, but critical, alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Essentially the assessment piece of a curriculum is what drives curriculum.
Implementing
Putting the New Program into Practice. Too often, traditional practice entails sending a committee away for several after-school meetings and two weeks of summer writing as a prelude to a back-to-school unveiling and distribution of the updated or revised curriculum. The process envisioned here entails a much more in-depth and systematic approach to both development and implementation. Instead of assuming that the process ends with the publication of a new guide, an effective curriculum committee continues to oversee the implementation, updating, and evaluation of the curriculum.
AIOU Curriculum Development and Instruction 838 Past Papers PDF
Question No 3:
Answer:
You are working on a course design, and now it is time to decide on the content and how to organize it. As is often the case, we have far more to say about a topic than we can possibly cover in a term. One rule of thumb is to have students spending from 8-10 hours per week on your course, including in-class time. So how to decide? Following are some tips to help with these time-consuming yet crucial tasks.
Finding Content
- Check-in your department for past syllabi if you are offering a pre-existing course. Also, be sure to check your institution’s course calendar and read the course description to ensure that your course meets that stated description.
- Locate similar courses at other institutions if your course is new (or you would like some new ideas). Talk to your colleagues in your discipline area or go to the Web to find courses.
- Review textbooks in your discipline area. This can be a very easy way to locate not only possible content to cover but also ready-made organizational structures. Publishers will send out texts for you to review. Keep your students in mind when choosing texts – not only their abilities and past experience with the topic areas but also their time limitations.
- If texts are not available or not appropriate, you may need to create a reading package or course notes. It will take more time to compile this type of resource, so set aside a few months for this activity.
AIOU Curriculum Development and Instruction 838 Past Papers PDF
Selecting Content
Set some type of criteria to help select appropriate content for your course. Course design literature suggests the following criteria. Course content should:
- Fit with your course learning goals
- Have importance in the discipline
- Be based on or related to research
- Appeal to student interests
- Not overlap excessively with student past experience or knowledge
- Be multi-functional (help teach more than one concept, skill, or problem)
- Stimulate search for meaning
- Encourage further investigation
- Show interrelationships among concepts
Organizing Content
Many variations on concept mapping techniques exist to help you decide on an organizational structure for your content. The key idea is to name, in a word or two, the major topics or concepts for your course, then try to visually place them on the page. You can use a hierarchical approach or put the concept in the Centre of the page and work out from there.
Some suggestions for ordering the topics or concepts include:
- Topic by topic – There are no set relationships amongst the topics, so the ordering is not critical. This works well for courses that revolve around current issues, for example.
- Chronological – Moving from past to present is very common and easy to implement the organizational pattern.
- Causal – The course presents a number of events or issues that culminate in some final effect or solution.
- Cumulative – Each concept builds on the previous one(s).
- Problem-centered – Problems, questions, or cases represent the principal
organizing features of the course. - Spiral – Key topics or concepts are revisited throughout the course, with new information or insight developing each time.
Within each class, also consider how to organize your material so that students can both learn and retain it. Different philosophies of learning are represented. Some ideas to consider are:
- Start with what students already know and then move to the abstract model or theory.
- Start with concrete examples, such as cases, news items, or other real-world situations, then generate the abstract concepts.
- Start with a solution, conclusion, or model and work backward to the question.
- Give students time to reflect, individually or through discussion, on what and how they are learning.
- Build-in practice time, with feedback, either in class or on assignments so that students learn to work with the concepts and can receive assistance with problem areas.
Subject Matter Curriculum:
In terms of what the content of these processes might be, subject knowledge is a major element of what is transferred, along with teaching skills. Subject knowledge has a very important role to play because high-quality teaching rests on teachers understanding the subjects they are teaching, knowing the structure and sequencing of concepts, developing factual knowledge essential to each subject, and guiding their pupils into the different ways of knowing that subjects provide: subjects create disciplined ways of knowing. It is also clear that when there is a lack of subject expertise, or it is unevenly spread across teaching groups, then the quality of teaching and students’ exam results are at risk.
Moreover, there are countless examples of children and young people being motivated by teachers whose love of the subject they teach is so thrilling that it inspires pupils to pursue the subject themselves when they move to university and the world of work.
AIOU Curriculum Development and Instruction 838 Past Papers PDF