The major problem facing teachers is
that they are using a curriculum that is based on factual knowledge. Teaching students
only facts will limit them and make them easily lost. Curriculum designer
should make a shift from topic based to concept based curriculum. Concepts are
wider and more comprehensive, it include all facts and it allow students to
relate these facts together. Concept-based curriculum will allow student to
transfer knowledge and to be more creative. Also it will stimulate their
critical thinking. Curriculum designers should design new curriculum based on
new standars. It is very important that students as well as teachers to
participate in setting these standards to make them more suitable. Our society
is in need to students thinking critically to improve and enhance our lives,
this is accomplished mainly when we tend to design for students a suitable
curriculum allowing them to transfer their knowledge to the surrounding environment.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
New Curricula
The major problem facing teachers is
that they are using a curriculum that is based on factual knowledge. Teaching students
only facts will limit them and make them easily lost. Curriculum designer
should make a shift from topic based to concept based curriculum. Concepts are
wider and more comprehensive, it include all facts and it allow students to
relate these facts together. Concept-based curriculum will allow student to
transfer knowledge and to be more creative. Also it will stimulate their
critical thinking. Curriculum designers should design new curriculum based on
new standars. It is very important that students as well as teachers to
participate in setting these standards to make them more suitable. Our society
is in need to students thinking critically to improve and enhance our lives,
this is accomplished mainly when we tend to design for students a suitable
curriculum allowing them to transfer their knowledge to the surrounding environment.
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The curriculum that teachers nowadays are dealing with is mostly based on facts as you said and we are aiming to have a concept based curriculum. The professionals in setting the curriculum should hurry up and try to change the current curriculum with the help of the teachers because they are the ones who will deliver this concepts to the students. If we as teachers or future teachers keep waiting for the curriculum designers in order to make the changes, we will wait a long time, thus the teachers while planning should be selective and choose the main concepts in order to teach and the facts will stay as examples.
ReplyDeleteYou are right dear, facts are too hard to be memorized and even if we memorize them they will not be stored for long time in the long term memory.Every day a lot of facts, researches and discoveries are found so its hard to force students to memorize them all. The main solution for this problem is to shift the curriculum from being based on facts to become concept based curriculum.when concepts are taught, its easy for students to form a bridge between the different facts that code for this concept.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers we need to help students to make sense of what they are learning and relate this learning to real life experiences. We should use holistic curricula to integrate learning more and more to students lives and experiences. Students will be able to make connections that are meaningful in the subjects they are exposed to.
ReplyDeleteWith the topic based curriculum students just add facts and memorize ideas however the lots of facts make it hard for the student to memorize them all. Hence, we are in need to have a shift from a topic based curriculum to a concept based one," we're in need a new curriculum that is a mile wider and an inch deeper".
ReplyDeleteIn fact students need to understand things at an increasingly higher level, they need to reach an enduring understanding, they need to see the big picture, this will help them apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate.
A concept based curriculum can raise expectations for students, and can provide flexibility and consistency across grade level. Also, with such curriculum teachers work together as true team and students can understand why???
After all a concept based curriculum help in raising an independent thinkers and life long learning.
As a new teacher farah i have faced many problems specially with book. since using new methods of teaching the national books we use are not good at all and they are not satisfied for the teachers nor the students. to dove this problem in math i searched for new books that are approved in other countries of better education like Singapore where i have found that their books are perfect specially in directing students to the main objective i advice you to look for such books they are amazing
ReplyDeleteAs teachers our main role is to help students focus their learning, and allow them to understand the big ideas and main concepts rather than memorizing facts. Concept based curriculum is what we need nowadays; we need to develop students’ critical thinking and provide them with suitable skills to become problem-solvers. We should shift from lower level of thinking such as knowledge and comprehension toward higher level of thinking such as creating, analyzing, and synthesis. They should be able to apply what they learn to their real life situations, and be able to make connections to conduct results and understand deeply.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers we need to make everything authentic to students, in other words relate their learning to real life experiences. Students need to see the whole picture before analyzing the details. It is essential that our children become thinkers and problem solvers, not just memorizers of facts (rote learning). Concept-based curriculum, is the best choice for new curricula it teaches themes that have abstract concepts different from the 'Bear and Winter', the abstract concepts stimulate higher-level thinking, that aims the rise above the fact to adopt a deeper understanding.
ReplyDelete