Curriculum visualized at different level
Answers
A curriculum is an educational programme of experiences offered to the learner under the guidance of the School in order to effect certain changes in his behaviours”. An educational planning for a success. Curriculum planers need to establish very clearly what they hope to achieve with the learners, then decide on how they hope to achieve with the learners, then decide on how they intend to do this and finally consider how successful they have been in their efforts.
Some curriculum experts to mean the same thing have used the terms curriculum planning and curriculum development. Any difference that may exist between the two terms should be in significant.
Curriculum Planning: Curriculum planning can been seen as the decision making process in which the focus is on the determination of the nature, organization and orientation of the curriculum design. It is considered as being choice oriented and can be viewed as the process of arriving at decisions that will lead to the building of a programme of learning experience that will enable learners in a School system attain pre-specified goals and objectives (Ugbamadu 1992). Decisions have to be taken about the aims and objectives that the school system should endeavour to achieve; the content and learning experiences and how to evaluate the students level of attainment of the aims and objectives.
Curriculum Development; curriculum development refers to the actual implementation of the results of the decisions reached during curriculum planning (Mkpa 1987). This means that when decision have been made in respect of the nature, organization and orientation of the curriculum, it becomes the place of curriculum development to proceed to build the curriculum based on the decisions. One can see from this that curriculum planning precedes curriculum development, but both are essentially inseparable. According to Nicholls and Nicholls (1978) the planning of learning opportunities intended to bring about certain changes in pupils and the assessment of the extent to which these changes have taken place in what is meant by curriculum development. Curriculum planning and development has been visualized as a continuous and dynamic process.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FOR DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION
The different levels of education in our educational system in Nigeria include pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary levels, each with its own peculiarities especially in respect of planners within the levels. While the strategies for curriculum planning and development may be the same, some factors are given adequate consideration for a given level. For each level, different agencies and individuals usually carry out planning and development curriculum.
Considering the pre-primary level, any curriculum planning and development endeavours must consider the purpose of pre-primary education as contained in the National Policy on Education (1998). Section 2:13, stimulates that the purpose of pre-primary education should be to:
a) Effect a smooth transition from the home to the school.
b) Prepare the child for the primary level of education.
c) Provide adequate care and supervision for the children while their parents are at work (on the farms, in the markets, officials, etc).
d) Inculcate social norms
e) Inculcate in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity through the exploration of nature, the environment, art music and playing with toys etc.
f) Develop a sense of co-operation and team spirit
g) Learn good habits, especially good health habits and
h) Teach the rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms etc through play.
The objectives for the pre-primary level of education as outlined clearly point to the type of curriculum the pre-primary school child should be exposed to since one of the main objectives of the pre-primary school child should be exposed to since one of the main objectives of the pre-primary level is “preparing the child for the pri0ary school level” it follows that the pre-pri0ary school curriculum should essentially not be more detailed than the component of the primary school curriculum.