Curriculum Decision Making

Curriculum Decision Making

 

Executive Summary

Curriculum refers to the idea of the course that children take through most of their years on the quest to adulthood. These course and learning are not only limited to the aspect of the school and toe academe, but all throughout and beyond the formative years of the child. The curriculum is a psychological process. The people who make the curriculum decisions are probably people who adeptly understand these processes. These people who understand the needs of the developing students are in a better position to select and use the methods and techniques that will promote effective learning. With this kind of insight, the curriculum decision makers will become more competent and more professional in dealing with educational problems, particularly in various classroom situations.  The center of any educative process is the learner. Without the learner, there would of course be no need for teaching. Since it is the task of the instructor to guide the learner, in the learning processes at various stages of his development, the instructor’s success will depend greatly upon his insight into the various factors basic to growth an developmental characteristics of the learner. The success of the instructor will also depend upon his understanding of each learner as a unique individual who is responding to a very complex environment. The following is the life stages of a person, according to Super.

 

Life Stages:

When Super developed his model, peoples lives tended to move through five clearly defined “Life Stages”, which were a major feature of the model. Today, people’s careers tend to follow a less predictable pattern, so if you want to use the Life Stage idea (which may or may not be appropriate) we recommend you adjust them to fit the pattern of your own life.

 

Super’s stages were:

 

1. Growth (ages 14 and under) – This Life Stages focuses on physical growth, and is a time when people begin to form ideas about their self-worth. During this time people start discover many of their interests, talents, and abilities.

 

2. Exploration (typical age range 14 – 25) – This stage is when people start learning about the different types of work available and what is required to be successful in different careers. During exploration, the more you learn, the more committed you become to a few of the choices and you start to narrow the field to those types of jobs you would like to pursue. Near the end of the exploration stage you will (ideally!) have analyzed the career options against your personal skills, talents and interests as well as your expectations from a career (salary, hours, benefits, opportunity for advancement.)

 

(Explained like this, it sounds like a well-thought-through process. In reality it is not, which means we often make “quirky” career choices. While your first experience with this stage happens usually between the ages of 14 and 25, it is increasingly likely you will return to this stage at least once later in your life as you think through your choices again, hopefully in a more rational and considered way.)

 

3. Establishment (typical age range 26 – 45) – This Life Stage starts as people settle into their chosen career, and become productive members of society. This stage is marked by increased responsibility and personal satisfaction from work and career.

 

4. Maintenance (typical age 46 – 65) – People at this stage are maintaining their current career and participating in career development activities that will keep them up to date in their present job.

 

(With the much-heralded “end of lifetime employment”, people may or may not enjoy such a settled, stable period. Recent trends have shown discrimination against people in their 50s and 60s, although anti-discrimination laws may reduce this in some countries.)

 

5. Disengagement (ages 65 and up) – This is the stage when someone has chosen to slow down and eventually retire from their career. During this stage the emphasis moves away from paid work and leaves people with time to concentrate on the other roles they engage in like leisurite, home-maker, and citizen. ( 1980).

            With all the above statements in mind, the paper will deal mostly on the curriculum decision that thoroughly affects the individuals, the learner and the instructor. Theories and aspects will also be touched in this research paper. Moreover, the paper will tackle certain viewpoints on the curriculum taken up by the many schools today.

Introduction

            As was mentioned, curriculum is the course that people take in order to effectively develop. That is why it is vital to consider many factors before coming up with a curriculum decision. There are many factors to consider in doing this. Factors like growth and development of the learner should be taken into consideration. The terms growth and development have been continually used in most readings in psychology. Many times, these terms are used interchangeably, although in certain respects, both terms, though parallel, imply different definitions. Growth essentially refers to the quantitative changes in an individual as he progresses in chronological age. It may refer to increase in size, height, or weight. Development, on the other hand, refers to the progressive series of changes of an orderly and coherent type of leading to the individual’s maturation. This definition implies that for development to be progressive there is a direction in the manner in which changes occur. Development is also coherent, essentially because the sequence of changes that occur are related to each other and do not occur haphazardly or abruptly. For these definitions, one can notice that both growth and development imply contrasting types of changes in the individual, both are, nonetheless, related and complimentary processes.

            In many cases, people meet children of varying ages and wonder why many of them display various characteristics. The focus of the study of development precisely points to these observations. A teacher who expects to meet the needs of his learners must be aware of various developmental differences among his learners.

IT has a dramatic effect on both people’s personal and professional lives. IT is also changing the nature of organizations by providing opportunities to make fundamental changes in the way they do business. Many of the opportunities are recognized and understood. Yet a tremendous number of issues and consequences are only vaguely perceived while other questions are just now being raised (Beard, 1996). The technology is changing rapidly, with computing speeds and the numbers of transistor equivalents available in a given area of a microprocessor chip both doubling approximately every 18 months.

 

Organizations are acquiring more and more technology systems to assist in everything from manufacturing to the management of information to the provision and improvement of customer service. Harnessing and coordinating this computing power is the challenge. New tools and innovative perspectives with which to examine, interpret, and comprehend these rapidly evolving environments are always needed and sought (1996). IT creates changes not only in organizations but in institutions as well it makes jobs easier and it helps in making things be done faster.

The project is focused on determining the benefits and disadvantages of IT in education. As mentioned in the previous part IT can give benefits to companies and institutions. It can create big changes and make life easier at the same time it can be said that IT can cause some negative things and can create problem. Through the study a better understanding of how IT works in education can be initiated. How IT is used in education can also be given attention.

 

Discussion

Personal theory

One problem with IT in education is not all teachers or instructors can easily comprehend or make use of such. A probable solution to the problem is to give additional seminars and conferences to teachers/instructors for them to gain more understanding and knowledge of IT and its uses. The teachers/instructors can also be given hands on training on such so that they can ask questions to the persons giving them added knowledge.

The expected form of answer revolves around IT and education. The answer should focus on the benefits of IT on education and also its disadvantages. It should reinforce the need for IT on education and it should strengthen the relationship within the two. Moreover the answer will provide more evidences of the changes IT can do. Through the answer the changes IT can give will be known more and be more visible.  Through the answer a better understanding of IT can be done and additional knowledge of IT can be known.

The answer can create a strategic business IT outcome that will be valued by business. Through the answer a business engaging in IT will have more reasons to continue developing products and services that can be used in education. The answer will boost the need for continuing in developing the field and creating measures to make it more efficient and useful.

 

Summary

The project will focus on IT in education wherein the benefits and disadvantages of such will be given attention. IT creates changes not only in organizations but in institutions as well it makes jobs easier and it helps in making things be done faster. Through the study a better understanding of how IT works in education can be initiated. How IT is used in education can also be given attention. To collect primary data the best method to use is interview of people involved in education sector. This acquires answers that can assist in making sure that the goal of the project will be realized. The answer can create a strategic business IT outcome that will be valued by business. The research method used will be descriptive method. Descriptive research tries to explore the cause of a particular event or situation. It also wants to present facts concerning the nature and status of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study

Over thirty-five years have passed since academics began speculating on the impact that information technology (IT) would have on organizational structure. The debate is still on-going, and both researchers and managers continue to explore the relationship between IT and organizational structure. This relationship is becoming increasingly complicated by both the rapidly changing nature of IT and the increasing environmental turbulence faced by many organizations. As organizations need to process more information under these uncertain conditions, IT is one possible way for organizations to increase their information processing capability. However, other, more organizational tools are also at their disposal for processing more information. These include task forces, lateral relationships, self-contained work groups, and slack resources. Thus, the relationship between IT and organizational structures is not a simple one (1998). IT is transforming the way that business is conducted. Computers prepare invoices, issue checks, keep track of the movement of stock, and store personnel and payroll records. Word processing and personal computers are changing the patterns of office work, and the spread of information technology is affecting the efficiency and competitiveness of business, the structure of the work force, and the overall growth of economic output. This transformation in the way in which information is managed in the economy constitutes a revolution that may have economic consequences as large as those brought about by the industrial revolution (1994).

 Many people believe that the primary driving force behind this information revolution is progress in microelectronic technology, particularly in the development of integrated circuits or chips. Thus, the reason that computing power that used to fill a room and cost million now stands on a desk and costs 00 or that pocket calculators that used to cost 00 now cost is that society happens to have benefited from a series of spectacularly successful inventions in the field of electronics. But fewer people understand why the introduction of information technology occurred when it did or took the path that it did, why data processing came before word processing or why computers transformed the office environment before they transformed the factory environment. Because this technology oriented view of the causes of the information revolution offers little guidance to the direction that technological developments have taken thus far, it offers little insight into the direction that they will take in the future ( 1994). 

 

These reasons and benefits of IT to other sectors make a need to understand the importance of knowing how beneficial and how disadvantageous IT is to the education sector. It can further the importance of IT in people’s lives. The main research question is what are the benefits and disadvantages of using IT in education. Through such question the use of IT towards that specific sector will be known and what problems IT can cause towards the sector will also be known. The answer should focus on the benefits of IT on education and also its disadvantages. It should reinforce the need for IT on education and it should strengthen the relationship within the two. Moreover the answer will provide more evidences of the changes IT can do. Exploration of the benefits and disadvantage of IT to education sector can assist in improving IT and education respectively and in a way cohesively. 

Literacy is changing. Once it was entirely shaped by the technologies of the printing and publishing industries and their associated cultures. Now, however, in an age of burgeoning new media of communication, information and representation, there are more and different technologies available. These are increasingly deployed in working and playing with texts, in the practice of new and different literacy. Indeed, people are now able to recognize and acknowledge that, for schooling and education, print is simply one of a range of available techno-cultural resources. Accordingly, account needs to be taken of a profound media shift in literacy, schooling and society, a broad-based shift from print to digital electronics as the organizing context for literate-textual practice and for learning and teaching (1999).Although this does not mean the eclipse of print technologies and cultures, it does mean that people need to employ a rather different, more flexible and comprehensive view of literacy than teachers are used to in both their work and their lives. Print takes a new place within a re-conceptualized understanding of literacy, schooling and technological practice, one which is likely to be beneficial in moving parents, teachers, administrators, their children and students into a new millennium ( 1999).

 

It is estimated that there are over 43 million hosts connected to the Internet worldwide, and somewhere between 40 and 80 million adults in the United States alone have access to around 320 million unique pages of content on arguably one of the most important communication innovations in history. As a nation, Australia is also adopting technology-driven environments with increasing enthusiasm, as computer chips become ever more versatile and pervasive. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that in 1999, almost 23% of Australian households were connected to the Internet. Significantly, of these 1.6 million households, almost 71% were located in capital cities, and the heaviest users are the young: more than 74% of 18-24-year-olds accessed the Internet in the 12 months to August 1999 and some 52% of 25-39 year olds ( 2000).  For those aged between 40 and 54 years, however, the figure drops to 39% and a mere 13% for persons 55 years and over. Over the next decade, Web usage is expected to increase dramatically. The 1999 Commerce Net/Nielson Internet Demographic Survey suggests that over 90 million Americans are regular users, and this is expected to increase to over 150 million over the next couple of years. Electronic commerce is also predicted to explode. Anderson Consulting predicts that an estimated 200,000 American households are currently purchasing their food and household goods on-line, but by 2007, that number is expected to hit 20 million (2000).

 

Recent moves in international education policies confirm that governments the world over are becoming more and more committed to a technology-saturated future. In 1998, the United Kingdom spent 220 million (pounds sterling) on technology in education. In Singapore around billion was set aside to be spent over five years along similar lines. The US government also approved in 1998 a five-year, billion program called the Technology Challenge Literacy Fund; its primary purposes being to encourage `computer literacy’ and to connect schools to the Internet by the year 2000. In Australia, which is second only to the United States in its per-household use of personal computers, state governments are equally intent on ensuring that Australian students of the twenty-first century are given every opportunity of participating in and benefiting from this bright new world that will demand technologically-skilled workforces if countries and nations are both to keep pace with change and position themselves favorably in an increasingly global economy (2000). 

 

In 1998, the Victorian government committed .4m for access to computers, the Internet, on-line curriculum materials, and technology training for teachers. Similarly, over four years the Western Australian government pledged 0 m to similar projects. Tasmanian students living outside metropolitan areas are soon to be supplied with access to on-line training and education, while the Northern Territory is set to install PCs in all schools and throughout their Department. In New South Wales (NSW), 4 m is being spent over four years on computer and information technology in schools, including a number of new modes of delivery for development and training of teachers, like CD-ROM, Web-based training, email support and video conferencing. It is rather unusual to hear of such large sums of money being thrown at education, particularly for such specific goals, but technology seems to have been taken on board the education band-wagon. Time will tell if the hype has substance; but in the meantime, the notions of literacy are undergoing dramatic changes as people struggle to keep up with the digital revolution (2000).

 

People can do many things better than computers. Foremost among them are being a human being, understanding human values and what it is like to be a human being, posing problems that humans want to answer, and interpreting the results that are produced as attempts are made to solve the problems. On the other hand, computers can do a steadily increasing number of things better than humans. Educators are faced with the problem of how to educate children for adult life in a world in which computer capabilities will continue to grow very rapidly and already exceed humans in many areas. The educational system needs to develop and use authentic assessment methods to measure its success in addressing different problems (2001). 

 

A non-authentic test of information retrieval skills would be to send a person to a conventional, hard copy library and ask that person to solve a computer chess information retrieval problem. Without a significant amount of training in the use of the various types of indexes available in a library, the person might well fail to find the needed information. Of course, even if  that person succeeded, it would have taken him/her a huge amount of time relative to what  actually expended while sitting at home using the computer (2001).    

Another aspect that should be touched in the curriculum decision making is the aspects that make up the individual. The curriculum should be able to harness and foster these innate talents so that the individual may be able to put these talents into good use. An example of which is creativity.

There is an ample need to understand and analyze the process of creativity among people in applying the needed information that helps integrate the importance of creativity within the development of the problem solving skills amicably. This means that the creative process is an essential tool that describes the application of such creative information that could be a part of the cognitive skills that entails the process for enhancing certain problem solving skills. Moreover, creativity and problem solving (CPS) skills cultivate whole brain thinking that helps in their search for ideas for efficiencies in procedures and coping with changes in the environment. Thus, nurturing creativity in individuals can come up with creative ideas as needed. Many people think creativity is soft and fuzzy used as an excuse for wasting time and believe creativity is not practical since it only involves with fine arts such as music and dance. Creativity needs to be encouraged within the appropriate intelligence in order for the individuals and groups to be creative and intelligent within to act freely and right in the views of other people. Creativity is arguably the most important element in achieving success in life goals as it is argued that, to encourage and enhance creativity people involved in every aspect should address the effects of fear of taking risks and criticism. (1991)

The Importance of Creativity

            Creativity is at once the least scientific aspect of advertising and the most important (1998). To be successful, it must have impact, quality, style and relevance. Ideas must be unique and relevant to the product and to the target audience in order to be useful as solutions to communications problems (1998). This is because a “winning creative idea,” one that stands out from the crowd and is memorable, can have enormous impact (1992; 1997). Academic researchers (1982; 1999) have found creativity to be among the most complex of human behaviors to describe. It has even been suggested that creativity cannot be defined or measured (1991; 1982). The importance of creativity is acknowledged by the scale and scope of the research activity that has been conducted both to understand it and to examine its application in diverse fields. (2000)

            Then, creativity is important because in a way creativity lead to different understandings of a situation within the process of generating new ideas for the benefit of something useful such as in organizations. Thus, creativity involves the foundation the development of technology and helps promote and discover useful solutions to practical problems and ways of doing things. Creativity provides the impetus to develop new technologies and new products to satisfy the needs and wants of society. Thus, such excitement is experienced in the challenge of a quest to find a better way as  (1999),  (1999),  (1995) and  (1987) identified certain attributes that are important to the development of creativity.

Challenge: students are inspired and motivated to be creative.

Resources: sufficient resources such as time, tools and materials are available.

Environment: the physical facility is attractive, and examples of creative work are present.

Atmosphere: the affective environment is supportive, trusting, free and open.

Technology of Creativity: tools and techniques associated with creativity are utilized

Educational Environment: the administration, school and community support creativity.

            The excitement of a challenge is at the heart of a creative classroom in technology education. Competition through Technology Student Association (TSA) provides open-ended problems that encourage creativity and motivate students to do their best. The essence of the problem in the Structural Challenge event is to design and build a balsawood structure that will carry a maximum load. Students who are motivated will not be stopped. They are enthusiastic and will do whatever it takes to solve a problem. A challenge brings out the best in people and stimulates an individual’s motivation to succeed. A strong sense of passion and individual commitment is necessary to sustain the effort required to achieve a creative solution to a technological problem. “Task motivation makes the difference between what a person can do and what a person will do” (1987). Teachers need to provide challenging problems that motivate students to be creative.

            It takes resources to be able to solve a problem creatively. Relevant information and knowledge must be gathered and applied to a problem. Tools and materials must be available to try out and test ideas. Sufficient time is also important to elaborate upon ideas and develop creative solutions. Having a sufficient variety of information available provides the critical fuel for a creative solution. Factors related to information resources were ranked as the most important factors for technological problem solving in secondary technology education programs (1991) and that creativity doesn’t just happen by chance as the prepared environment nourishes it.

            The technology education classroom environment can have a positive effect and inspire the creativity of students. Models and examples of creative work can be displayed. The facility should be attractive and well-organized to enable students to efficiently try out their ideas. “Scores on tests of divergent thinking are affected by both the physical objects in the room and the activities that precede the test. Students are more likely to generate fluent responses in a stimulus-rich than stimulus-poor environment” (1995). “The total creative process requires a drive to action and the implementation of ideas. We must do more than simply imagine new things; we must work to make them concrete realities” (1996).

Atmosphere

            The climate of the classroom is critical to the development of creativity. Creative ideas are easily extinguished with ridicule and a lack of acceptance of unusual ideas. Creativity must be encouraged, recognized and rewarded. Students need to be open to new ideas and help each other to be creative. Miller observed that “creativity is a group phenomenon as much or more than an individual one” (1999). Each person is unique and this is an important characteristic of creativity. Diversity must be encouraged in the quest for broad thinking and the consideration of all possibilities. The diversity of the group contributes to the dynamics and richness of a creative solution. Hence, Ekvall in his study of creative organizations concluded that debate and critique in the spirit of improving and developing better ideas are important positive qualities of a creative group. On the negative side, he also concluded that conflict in the environment of an organization is counterproductive, lf conflict permeates the environment and then new ideas will be squashed (1999). If conflict is present among students and between students and the teacher, the production of creative ideas will be diminished. (1999) The challenge is to apply such findings to individual technology education classrooms and establish an environment that supports and encourages the development of creativity.

            The technology of creativity includes the tools and processes that enable a person or group of people to develop a problem solution that is original and purposeful. Mesthene defined technology as “the organization of knowledge for the achievement of practical purposes” (1970 ). When creativity is applied to a problem, the result is new technology, product, or system so; creativity involves the development of a better solution. The technology of creativity involves the use of proven tools, like brainstorming, within the context of a creative problem-solving model to develop effective solutions to practical problems. When creativity is present in a technology classroom, an important element of technology is represented, and an element of reality and excitement is added to the development and education of students (1987). There are specific processes and tools that are likely to improve the creativity of a solution. Awareness of these tools and how to use them appropriately is essential to an individual’s creative performance (1987). Brainstorming is perhaps the most well-known process (1957 ), but many people have developed other effective tools to enhance creativity (1974 ;1970).

            Creativity can be encouraged and developed through the use of the steps in the creative problem-solving process (1987). When people “apply these processes deliberately, they speed up their creative processes and experience greater creative productivity” (1996). reviewed several studies related to the development of creativity. “The general conclusions are the same: creative abilities can be developed by deliberate programs and methods” (1987).

It is important that the educational environment beyond the technology education classroom is supportive of creativity. Other teachers and the school administration need to encourage, recognize, and reward the creative efforts of technology education teachers and students. Parents and the community can provide role models. “The accumulated body of research on climate and organizations undoubtedly indicates that climate makes a difference in creativity” (1999). The challenge is to apply this research to individual technology education classrooms. Technology education teachers who are interested in maximizing the potential of their environment to support creativity can use the questionnaire as an assessment tool. The questionnaire identifies key elements that will encourage creative behavior. It is intended to be used by teachers to identify strong and weak areas to help assess and improve the climate for creativity in the technology education classroom.

Conclusion

Nowadays, many people have negative ideas and preconceptions about creativity, their own abilities and about the value of the process with an understanding of a thorough problem solving process and why creativity is vital to the process for the determination of intelligence by looking at certain creativity and problem solving habits and that in order to encourage creativity,  a person may open the door to a wide range of business benefits and give employees the chance to make business look great. Taking into consideration the skills to address the tasks required for problem solving and development and be able to produce their solutions in an environment that does not restrict creativity and intelligence respectively. In reflection, when people identify individuals, as gifted in such domain they often concentrate on what they know about the domain and their ability to learn about that domain thoroughly than other individuals. But gifted adults are identified as such by the creative roles they take in their fields, not by how quickly they learned about their fields. Instead, one attains fame by leading the field with one’s ideas. If one thinks of some of the most eminent people in the field of gifted education, one knows they got to their positions not by demonstrating high scores on tests of knowledge but by being leaders with their ideas about how to educate the gifted. Therefore, creativity is thought of as it pertains to the arts but it does occur in almost any kind of activity and within various groups of people such as originality and imagination, its identification can sometimes be easy since, creativity has to involve divergent thinking the ability to come up with unusual answers.

Education and Computers can go very well. They can assist each other in solving problems and make a better living for people. The literature above shows how beneficial computers and technology is to education. Without it different problems may occur and things cannot be done accordingly and efficiently. To be able to work hand in hand with changing world education should be modernized and IT should be used towards it for a better future. The example above showed what will happen if there technology is not used towards education.

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