Reflection week 6

The topic for our learning for this week six is Curriculum Design.

Curriculum Design

- Arrangement of curriculum elements into a substantive entity.

Basic curriculum components

- Aims, Goals and objective

- Subject matter

- Learning experiences

- Evaluation

Theoretical Framework

Curriculum Vs. Instructional :

Curriculum - total plan that arranges the four component into the curriculum (objectives, content, learning environment and evaluation)

Instructional - specifically to one component, the potential experiences for the student learning activities (method and organization)

SOURCE OF DESIGN

1. Science

- Focus on the scientific method, with a focus on observable and quantifiable elemets and emphasis on how 

   to learn.

2. Society

- Design should be aligned to social situation.

- Both political and social parties influence education system.

- Support idea of social.

3. Moral

- Design stresses content

- Believe the implemetation of spirituality is an important consideration in curriculum design.

4. Knowledge

- Design is content specific - formed by information that  important to know.

- Has specific organization and process.

5. The learner

- Design focus from "knowledge of student"

- support idea of development

Dimension of curriculum design

Scope

- breadth

- content, topic, and learning experiences

- integration

- linking all the knowledge and experience with the 

   curriculum.

- assist in making meaning for the learners

Sequence

- ordering of knowledge

Articulation

- interrelatedness of various aspects of the curriculum.

Balance

- Appropriate weight be given to each aspect of  the design.

Representative Curriculum Design

1. Student-centered design

2. Learner-centered design

3. Problem-centered design

Instructional art

- present suggested assignment contributing to the student mystery include such activities as group project, 

   individual project, written, oral, critical thinking activities, and experiments.

Malaysian Curriculum Design

Reflection week 5

For this week 5, we learned about the psychological foundation of curriculum which is topic 4. This topic covered about three major theories of learning which is behaviourist, cognitive-information processing theories, and phenomonological and humanistic.

Before we learn and understand about the three learning theories, we have to understand what is the definition of the psychology.

Psychology - concerned with the question of how people learn. It provide basic for understanding the teaching and learning process.

The three major theories of learning:
1. Behaviourist
    - Deals with various aspect of stimulus-response and reinforces.
2. Cognitive- information processing theories
    - View the learner in relationship to the total environment and consider the way the learner applies
       information.
3. Phenomological and humanistic
    - consider the whole child including his or her social, psychological, and cognitive development.

Behavioral psychology

Edward Thorndike
- focused on his work on testing the relationship between stimulus and a response (classical conditioning)

James Watson
- leaning was based on the science of behaviour.
- what was observable and measureable.

Skinner
- believes in both positives and negative reinforcement.

Cognitive-information processing

Phenomonological and humanistic

Maslow's Human needs hierarchy
- psychological needs
- safety needs
- love and belonging needs
- esteem needs
- self actualization







After our class dismissed, my group going to library and discuss about our assignment. We divided the task and will be combined after we all do our part.

Reflection for week 4

Topic 3 : Philosophical Foundation of Curriculum

Learning outcomes : 1. Identify Psychological Foundation of Curriculum

                                  2. Identify the Types of Major Philosophies

                                  3. Identify the types of educational philosophies

For this topic, I have learn about the meaning of philosophy, the major philosophies, and the types of educational philosophies. 

Philosophy is the combination of the Greek word "Philos" (Love) and "Sophia" (Wisdom) - "Love of Wisdom". Philosophers is the people who seek after wisdom and curious about what other have put forward. They also proposing the new philosophies. Therefore, philosophy of education is the collective works of other philosophers.  It is also the academic exploration of various question. The Philosophy of education recognizes that the development of a civil society depends on the education of the young as responsible, thoughtful, and enterprising citizens which is challenging  task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, practical theory, aesthetics and economic. The most prominent philosophers in education is Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Dewey, Adler, Confucius, Al Farabi, Tagore, and Howard Gardner. They provided powerful critical perspectives revealing the problems in education. The philosophy and curriculum is the beginning point in curriculum decision making and is the basis of all subsequent decision regarding curriculum.

The next things that I learn from this topic is the major philosophies. There are four major philosophies which is Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, and Existentialism. 

Other than that, from these topic, I also learn about the educational philosophies. This educational philosophies also consist of four types of educational philosophies. There are perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructionism.

Reflection Week 3

Topic 2 : The Role of Curriculum Workers

Learning outcomes : Identify the roles of curriculum workers.

Before we identifying the roles of curriculum workers, we need to understand who is this curriculum workers. From what I have understand, curriculum workers is the people who work on curriculum engage in many different types of endeavors. They had the first time approach that appeared both comprehensive and workable. This curriculum workers is responsible to concentrate on student behavior in devising objective for a unit to emphasize appropriate learning experiences. This curriculum workers divided into two groups which is curriculum practitioners and curriculum disseminates. Curriculum practitioners include the teacher and school administration, meanwhile the curriculum disseminate is including the curriculum evaluator, curriculum advocates, curriculum developers and curriculum theories. Each of these curriculum workers have their own roles.

Curriculum Practitioner

- Use curricula within the instructional arena and supervise its use.

> Classroom teacher

- Plan instruction

- Implement the curriculum in teaching by writing a lesson plan

- Design the curriculum based on the learner characteristics.

> School Administration

- Make curriculum adjustment

- Implement team teaching

- Encourage teacher to utilize instructional method

Curriculum Disseminator

- The people who spread about this curriculum and the proper method to use it.

> Curriculum Evaluator

- Evaluation concept is so comprehensive that contains several evaluation activities with the common    function of investigating.

- Their roles is collect, examine and assess data for the purpose of reporting on the effectiveness, 

   efficiency, and worth of the endeavors and creations of other curriculum and workers.

- Employed by a private testing service, the central administration of a school district   

   and government.

> Curriculum Advocates

- Educators and members of the general public who are concerned about and attempt to influence

  what is taught in schools and how it is taught.

- They may be a parents, citizens, politician, and community.

> Curriculum Developers

- Intentionally create curriculum materials and strategies for other to use in the instructional arena.

- They may be a textbook writers, the teacher that works in curriculum committees, curriculum  

   specialist (people who work for private education organization) and concerned citizens (design

   instructional materials for homeschooling).

> Curriculum Theories

- Examine the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of existing curricula.

- Study how curricula used, disseminated, created, and evaluated.

- Speculate on what curricula should accomplish, probe the "whys" of their own examination.

In conclusion, the role of curriculum workers can be concluded into four heading:

1. Coordinate the curriculum planning and development

2. Define and application of curriculum theory

3. Design and application of curriculum research

4. Provision of aid in filling in-service.

Reflection for week 2

In week 2, we learned about topic 1 which is Foundation and Domains of Curriculum and Pedagogy. In this topic, there are two learning outcomes. At the end of this topic, we will be able to identify the concept of curriculum and pedagogy.

From the topic 1, what I have understand in this topic is the concept, definition, and some interpretations of the curriculum. The concept of curriculum is "all planning for the classroom" that stated by Begg, 2005. Eigner and Vallance also says that concept of curriculum is "what can and should be taught to whom, when and how?". From this concept, curriculum can be defined as a set of courses and their contents, which are offered at a school or university. The other things about this curriculum is its also referred to all the experiences that individual learners have in program of education. There is some interpretations of curriculum that I get from the learning in this week 2, which is curriculum is a what is taught in school, a set of subject, content, a program of studies, a set of materials, and the sequence of courses.

Other than understand about the curriculum, the other things that I get in this week is the definition of pedagogy. Pedagogy is referred to the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept. In other words, it is the science and art of how to teach in schools. As a broad field of study,pedagogy involves research on teaching and learning, classroom management, school organization and teacher-student interaction.