Difficulty in Exploring Source Material for New B.Ed Curriculum

Difficulty in Exploring Source Material for New B.Ed Curriculum

Abstract

 Curriculum is  often one of the main  concerns  in the  Educational field. Recent  reforms in teacher  education curriculum had  designed to support  student  construction of  knowledge through  enquiry. Teachers need to learn  new  methods and  content to  enact  reform-based  curriculum.  new  curriculum material designed to address teacher  learning  as well as student learning, this paper  focus about  the  need of  new  curriculum,  the important  role of  source  material  in new curriculum and the difficulties facing by the teacher  educator as well as student  teacher  in exploring the  new  curriculum this  paper also describes the problem of  searching resource material over internet lack of  basic ICT skills among student teacher and teacher educators of B.Ed in new curriculum.

Introduction:

The role of teacher education as a process of nation building is universally recognized. The educational expansion, universalization of elementary education, vocationalisation of secondary education, higher and professional education and overall quality of education are major challenges before the country Evidently, the quality  of  education is a direct result and outcome of the quality of teachers and teacher education system. The  task  of  getting qualitative change in institutional efficacy of the teacher education system in itself is a huge and challenging one. The developments and changes over the last two decades require a fresh look at the teacher education. The need for upgraded levels of educational input for overall progress is well recognised.

During the last two decades, the teacher education curricula have received severe criticism and their weaknesses have been well uncovered. It has to be emphasized that without increasing the duration of teacher education programmes, these targets cannot be achieved. Academic and professional skills are not independent of each other. There is hardly any difference between the performance of trained and untrained teachers because of outdate  teacher education curricula. Teacher Education curricula have to integrate and blend them into a composite whole likes the curricula of medical sciences. The reconstruction of teacher education curricula has, thus  become a pressing need of the hour. It has to be transformed from information based to experience based.

 Over the last half a century and particularly, in the recent decades, teaching learning has been undergoing drastic changes. There has been a shift towards student centred classrooms with teacher’s role more as facilitator of learning rather than an autocratic master. Unlike in the past when the teacher was entrusted with transferring the contents of curriculum to a passive audience of students, today new experiments are being tried out in the classroom that includes project based learning, development of thinking skills, and discovery learning approaches. Many teachers are not properly trained in implementing the concepts behind the new curriculum and many are not equipped to properly implement the curriculum. The important thing is that the teacher education centres and the curriculum followed in the teacher education have very little focus on new trends in education.((Sukhvir Kaur,-2013).

Concept  of  Curriculum:

Curriculum is a dynamic, ever changing series of planned learning experiences. Curriculum is everything learners experience in school  Curriculum involves interaction between teachers and learners, between learners and learners, between  learners and curriculum  content. A general overall plan of the content that the school should offer the student by way of qualifying him for graduation or certification or for entrance into a professional or vocational field  a curriculum also either describes or prescribes the content and goals of formal instruction but lays the means of instruction out of the foreground. Curriculum is a cultural reproduction in a structured way. It is even more: It should also value independent thinking in the context of the widest sense of social responsibility . ( Smith,  & Stanley). Justifications of the basis for making curriculum choices are very important.  The key to understand the question of curriculum choice is to understand the relationship between the curriculum and the aims of education.  Therefore, the curriculum is viewed more as a conceptual structure for decision making rather then details of what is to be done in the classroom.

There are a variety of definitions in relation to the term “curriculum.” The indecisive nature of the term is owing to divided perceptions of stakeholders, e.g. students, educators, researchers, administrators, evaluators with their own agenda of emphasis in educational discourse.

According to Pratt (1994) and Barrow and Milburn (1990), the word “curriculum” is derived from the Latin verb currere, “to run.” “Currere” became a diminutive noun and meant a “racing chariot” or “race track.” An extension was made by Cicero who associated the term with curriculum vitae that means “the course of one’s life.” He also associated it with curricula mentis that metaphorically refers to “the (educational) course of the mind.” It was not until the nineteenth century that the term was commonly used in the educational field.

According to Brady (1995) and   Nunan  (1988), the curriculum development process generally entails four elements: objectives, content, methods, and evaluation.

Acording to  Wood & Davis, (1978) Curriculum can be understood as a process of selecting courses of study or content

What is new curriculum:

The government says  the  new  curriculum does not tell  teachers “how to teach” but it should concentrate on the essential knowledge and skills every child should have(NCERT) Justifications of the basis for making curriculum choices are very important.  The key to understand the question of curriculum choice is to understand the relationship between the curriculum and the aims of education.  Therefore, the curriculum is viewed more as a conceptual structure for decision making rather then details of what is to be done in the classroom.

New curriculum  is  a set  for  the  present need of the society  the student must  learn  something  new  and  advanced  if  we compare  to other courses like  Engineering, Nursing, Management  etc that  course  are becoming  much  more  advanced  in the society such  course prepares  their students for present demand of the society, in the  same  way in teacher education  the  changes in the curriculum has brought lot of changes  in the educational field the changing needs of the society. The new curriculum has digital diversity in learning, new curriculum is based on constructivist theory.

Need of new curriculum in teacher education:

The NCTE  over the past few decades have addressed the review of teacher education curriculum in the light of changing educational scenario and brought out a series of frameworks. These frameworks provide guidelines on development of teacher education programmes incorporating current concerns as well as national and global developments. Students, they believe must interact with the world around them and interpret it Rather than “mastering” knowledge, students establish meaning for their lives through understanding and interpretation. To meet  the needs  of 21^st  century teachers  education need to adopt  a 21^st  century  skills curriculum  and  development  methods  of instruction  that  integrate  innovative, research, proven teaching  strategies, modern learning  technologies and real world  resources and  contexts. Upgrading teacher education calls for participatory curriculum planning involving all stakeholders, modular organization of curriculum in terms of critically engaging with theory and bringing practice within its perspective, greater curriculum time for skill learning and practice, a professional approach to training strategies and development of materials, and application of relevant alternatives, technological, curricular and organizational, in teacher education processes. one-year  Bachelor’s (B.Ed.) degree programme is structurally transformed to a two-year one, with deeper and more protracted engagement with school-based experience and reflective and critical engagement with theory. In the transitory  Phase, however, the existing two year programmes can work towards better utilization of the time available, greater emphasis on a school-based internship and emphasis on reflective practice based on perspectives on child. contemporary society, basic concepts of education and curricular and pedagogic alternatives.(NCTE) 

Role of  resource  materials in  new curriculum

The   curriculum materials could play important role in teacher learning and the need to integrate  such materials  into professional  development  programs  so as to increase teachers’ engagement with and learning from the materials .The present day classroom practices are, in almost all schools of the country, totally dominated by the textbooks.  As a result it has acquired an aura and a standard format.  What is needed is not a single textbook but a package of teaching learning material that could be used to engage the child in active learning.  The textbook thus becomes a part of this package and not the only teaching learning material .  Therefore, a large number of packages should be developed at state and district levels with adequate provision for cluster and school level modifications and supplementary materials.  The availability of a number of alternative TLM packages of all approved quality to the certainly increased choice of the teachers. Ball and Cohen suggest curriculum materials can be educative for teachers by offering support for teachers in thinking about:

 1) Content beyond the level suggested for students

 2) Underlying pedagogy

3) Developing content and community across time

 4) Students and

 5) The broader community, For reform in science to be successful teachers will need to learn new classroom practices. A framework of knowledge areas necessary for exemplary practices has been proposed.

curriculum materials that were not teacher proof (Apple & Jungck, 1990), but would guide teachers in experiences that would enable them to construct knowledge about teaching and that would enable them to implement reform-based instructional practices. Also, we encouraged teachers to modify curriculum to meet the needs of their students and circumstances. Educative curriculum material appears to be a promising approach to facilitate teacher learning that is necessary for improved practice. use and influence on practice suggests that pedagogical content knowledge may be a useful construct for designing educative curriculum materials. Teaching is a complex activity that requires teachers to understand content and pedagogy as they come together to support student thinking and learning in the context of their classroom ( Shulman, 1987) Materials that are more comprehensive in nature may provide more opportunities for teachers to learn not only what to teach, but how to teach the material.  Materials that provide for some flexibility in how they are implemented may also provide more opportunities for teachers to actually interact with the curriculum and make decisions about how best to use the materials to support student learning.

Difficulty  in  Exploring New Curriculum Source Material.

 The new curriculum has been changed the perception of teacher education the  new curriculum  is  new  and innovative the  student teacher   improve  their skill and knowledge. As the same manner when the new  curriculum has been arise there is a problem of B.Ed students  to deal with it. The  source material  of  new curriculum  problematic  reason for the  students  they  are finding  difficulties  in finding  proper  content more over  the books are not available in the library which students can refer most of all students are depend upon the  e-resources. Those e resources can give more information but students can not find related content there is a big problem for the languages also e-resources can get only in the English language the kannada medium students could not  get  the  resources as they depend on e-resource they have to translate the whole content from English to kannada the students get much confused about the proper resource material. There is also a problem for teacher educators to guide properly selecting of books and searching of content over internet.

The syllabus is heavy so student spend the time in searching of related content ,no proper books are available if   their also such books cannot buy because those books are written by  international authors and those are available in e-library and expensive too. The difficulty students are facing with flexibility of the resource material. there is limited procurement and supply of these  resources  at colleges. Instructional materials and important equipment share all in short supply or may not be  available at all, no books  or resource material inadequate or  out-dated  library where even the learners are  made  to share  whatever  little  stock of  material  is available  in  such  situations, teacher  effectiveness in  hampered  and it  becomes  almost  impossible  for  the  teacher  to  render individual student teacher  attention this  kind  of situation in institution will make it  Very difficult for  implementing  new  curriculum to carry out the roles effectively.

Internet emerges as the  strong  Educational tool  by being a good resource of  getting  the  right information and solution to problem thus technology helps in  plentiful situations, though it has some  draw back as difficult  to search  and find relevant information for the student and teacher. Many students are not provided  with  the  basic ICT skills. Some  of  them  don’t  even learn  the  computers. Lack of computer literacy  is a  major  issue  among  students on  the  internet is how to effectively and efficiently  access the vast  amount  of  information available with the simple click of the mouse . student often uncritically accept information they  see on  computer  screen they  won’t  realise  weather the matter is  appropriate  or  not they just download and refer it. Students should be encouraged to carefully evaluate source found  on the  internet. The  students may not get  proper Books  which they search over Internet, if books are available also then they may can’t purchase they are much expensive and some books can only read at that time those books cannot be downloaded.

Plenty of educational websites are available for the e-resource like digital library, online journals, articles, etc  they cannot be just downloaded  need to search lot some websites  have advanced research the information must be given for the students of  particular  websites or  online  e-resources. The references information  which are given in the syllabus copies also bring confused about students for example: in the second semester in psychology paper just given the publisher place neither book  name nor content name is available(singular publishing groups, San Diego, C.A) in another place in reference only given the name of the author instead of all content information (King , C.A). The content which  is not  related to subject those also given in the psychology (Instruction, Allyn and Bacon. London)many of books which are available in online they are out of stock hence over all the finding of proper resource material is difficult either offline or online to get proper support for advanced  preparing of  students

Conclusion

The  role of  source material  in the  curriculum  is  very  essential  in B.Ed Education .the  resource  material should be valuable  and flexible for both  teacher educators  and  student  teacher if they are not  it may be problem for teaching  and  learning .the  resource  material must  give  appropriate  knowledge  and   information regarding  subjects, there  is  a much  difficulty in  searching  of  new  curriculum  syllabus  content because of  no proper  material   for  the  students .if  we  consider for  the  e-resources  they  may also not give  in  depth  information regarding  particular  subjects teacher  need  strong  stuff materials  of  new  curriculum  like  books ,research journals, educational  magazines  which  are totally not  available  even  students  also  don’t  have  much  knowledge about  using those  materials  or  importance  of  those  materials. hence  their  is  need of  complete  syllabus  books, journals, encyclopaedia and  advanced  resource  material  for  better  teaching  and  learning.

Reference

Apple, M. W., & Jungck, S. (1990). "You Don't Have to Be a Teacher to Teach Thais Unit": Teaching, Technology, and Gender in the Classroom. American  Educational Research Journal, 27(2), 227-51.

 Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1996). Reform by the book: What is--or might be--the role of curriculum materials in teacher learning and instructional reform? Educational Researcher, 25(9), 6-8,14

Barrow,  R., & Milburn   G. (1990). A  critical  dictionary of educational concepts. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Brady, L. (1995). Curriculum  development. Sydney: Prentice Hall.

NCERT (2000), National  Curriculum Framework for School Education, New Delhi.

NCTE.,(2009) NATIONAL CURICULUM FRAM WORK OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Nunan,D.(1988).The learner-centred curriculum, Cambridge university.

Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching:  foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review.   

Smith.,& Shores.,(1950). Fundamentals of curriculum Development .new  world education series.

Sukhvir Kaur., (2013). Present Scenario of Teacher Education in  India, International Journal    of Science and Research (IJSR) Volume 2 Issue 12.

Wood, L.,  & Davis, B. G.  (1978). Designing and  evaluating higher education curricula. AAHE-ERIC/Higher Education Research Report No. 8. Washington, D. C.: The American Association for Higher Education.