QUESTION 1

“… Schooling consists of the totality of student learnings associated with the school. Curriculum
may be seen as all those planned learnings that students were deliberately exposed to schools.
Nevertheless, students acquired numerous learnings that were not planned… “

(Print, 1993, p 9-10)

(a) Write a clear and concise essay on what the author means from the above statement.

Education can be defined as nourishing a learner with facts, knowledge, beliefs, skills and
values to raise the status of the learner, as John Dewey (1916) said it is a social process – ‘a
process of living and not a preparation for future living’. For a good schooling process the
presence of a curriculum is crucial. Basically there are two types of curriculum: formal
curriculum and informal curriculum. The formal curriculum can be divided into official and
taught curriculum and the informal curriculum is also known as hidden curriculum.

The official curriculum is the program of objectives, content, learning experiences, resources
and assessment planned by authorities. However a teacher cannot always abide by the
official curriculum due to the various needs of the learners. Therefore the teacher has to adapt
to his environment and modify the official curriculum and teach a new curriculum to the
students known as taught curriculum. Taught curriculum can be said to be classes of different
aptitudes, different ways of working, different skills and different level of learning to which
the teacher needs to adapt to in order to do his lessons. For example teaching of numbers in
Mathematics is part of the official curriculum.

On the other hand the hidden curriculum is that part of the curriculum which cannot be seen.
For example politeness, certain behaviors, discipline, neatness. These are not present in the
curriculum but the students learn these from the teacher every day. It is what the students
learn unconsciously learn through their school experience. Unlike the official curriculum the
hidden curriculum is not taught but it is inculcated into the student without them actually
knowing about it. For example, punctuality is one of them. Being a role model the teacher
should always be punctual in his class so that the students follow his steps. Therefore it is

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 something which has not been officially taught by the teacher but something out of the
curriculum that the students learn.

(b) What implications does this have for your own teaching practice?

The official, taught and hidden curriculum plays a great role in my teaching practice. The
main importance of the curriculum is to help me out as a teacher during my classes and my
teaching process. According to me both the formal and informal curriculum will help me to
become a better teacher every day.

The official curriculum gives an overview of the syllabus. The official curriculum gives
detailed information about what is required to be done in class concerning different subjects
and topics. It will help me to teach the students in the prescribed way. It shall prevent me
from going out of his subject.

As for the taught curriculum we can see that different child has different needs. Therefore as
a teacher I will have to adapt to the needs of the students in order to carry out my class so
that their needs are met. It will help me to give better explanations as being teacher I will be
able to add my personal contribution in teaching the official curriculum. This can assure that
almost all the needs of the students have been met as I will interact with the students I shall
know how he should teach to meet the expectations of the students.

As said to educate a person means to prepare him for his future life and not only
academically. Thus hidden curriculum plays a great role in the achievement of this process.
It shall help me as a teacher to form the personality and character of the students. Hidden
curriculum is what the students will never forget after school life as he will apply all these
practices in his daily life. Thus as a teacher I should be able to inculcate those values in the
students. However certain parts of the hidden curriculum should be revealed to them to avoid
confusion and so that they have a clear meaning of what is being taught.

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 QUESTION 2

(a) Devise an interactive lesson plan for primary school learners that align with the key
principles and goals of the NCF Primary 2015. Clearly state and outline the major
components of your interactive lesson plan.

Class: Standard Five Subject: Science

AIM: Students should broaden their knowledge about healthy and unhealthy food and know the
differences between them.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson the pupil should be able to

Name and list different food item from a displayed video. Cognitive knowledge

Identify healthy and unhealthy food from the list. Cognitive knowledge

Classify the food into healthy and unhealthy food in a table. Psychomotor knowledge

Explain the differences between healthy and unhealthy food Cognitive knowledge

Create a poster using image cuttings of food and Bristol paper about Psychomotor knowledge
healthy and unhealthy food.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: The students have already come across healthy and unhealthy foods in
standard four.

TEACHING STRATEGIES: Inquiry-Based learning, Brainstorming, Collaborative Learning.

TEACHING AIDS: Flashcards, ICT, and Video.

TEACHING MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Laptop, Interactive board (Sankore), Bristol paper,

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TIME PROCEDURES KEY LEARNING POINTS
ALLOCATION
2-5 MINS Students watch a short video based on This arouses prior knowledge
healthy and unhealthy foods. of the pupils as they have had
already come across healthy
and unhealthy food in standard
four
2-5 MINS Inquiry based learning is carried out to This develops the speaking
enquire about what the students know skills of the students as they
about the topic based on the video are asked to name the food
displayed before. The students are then items aloud in the class.
asked orally to name different food items
they encountered in the video.
5-7 MINS The teacher sticks two flashcards on the This develops the cognitive
whiteboard named healthy and unhealthy and psychomotor skills of the
food. Then the students are provided with students as they have to
image cuttings of foods such as burger, identify which food is it in the
pastry, vegetable, fruit, milk, etc… which image and then stick it under
were mentioned in the video they watched. its appropriate heading.
They are then asked to classify them under
their proper headings of healthy and
unhealthy foods.

Formative assessment: The pupils are asked to explain using their prior knowledge why according
to them the food they classified are healthy and unhealthy.

10-15 MINS Brainstorming and questioning is carried Students first of all develop
out to make the pupils identify the their thinking as well as their
differences between healthy and unhealthy observation in relation to what

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 foods. Questions such as which food they eat in their daily life. Also
contain how much sugar and fats are they have a better
healthy or unhealthy? understanding on the
Then the teacher gives proper explanation differences between healthy
on healthy food items are fruits, vegetable and unhealthy food. The
and milk. However unhealthy food items teacher also caters for their
are those which contain much sugar, fats affective part by stressing
(oil, butter) and mostly factory processed about good eating habits.
food. The teacher also stresses on good
eating habits in everyday life and the
effects of eating too much unhealthy foods.

Formative assessment: The teacher asks the students “ Can you identify other healthy and
unhealthy foods from the given list”.

7-10 MINS Activity based learning is carried out. The cognitive and
An activity is set to pupils on the psychomotor skills of the
interactive board (sankore). They are students are catered for as they
provided with a list of food on the have to identify a food item
board and asked to drag and drop the through its name and not
food names into the healthy and through a picture. Then the

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 unhealthy columns. pupil has to put it into the
appropriate column.
10-15 MINS Collaborative learning is then used as Through this activity it helps
the class is divided into 5 groups of 6 the pupil to work as a team and
and the students are provided with a to develop social skills.
Bristol paper and cuttings of healthy It also promotes
and unhealthy food items. Among peers communication skills as the
they have to make a poster and display students interact among
it in front of the class. themselves.
3-5 MINS Summative assessment is carried out to It helps to evaluate the
assess what the students have understanding of the students
understood and to assess their writing of the presented topic and also
skills. enhance their writing skills.
They are asked to write sentences on
healthy and unhealthy foods. The
classwork is to be completed as
homework.

(b) Describe and justify the model of curriculum development on which your lesson plan was
based.
My lesson plan is based on the Wheeler’s Model of Curriculum Development. It consist
mainly of five steps namely aims, objectives and goals, selection of learning experiences,
selection of content, organization and integration of learning experiences and contents

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 and lastly evaluation. As mentioned in the lesson plan the aim is to broaden the
knowledge of students about healthy and unhealthy food and know the differences
between them and the main objective is to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy
food and to make a poster at the end of the lesson. Inquiry based learning is integrated in
the lesson plan as the students need to refer to a played video to list food items, then
brainstorming and questioning is used to move forward with the explanation and also
collaborative learning is encouraged as the students are required to make a poster in
groups. Broadly the lesson plan is about food but the specific content about the lesson
plan is to select images of food items and to classify them as healthy and unhealthy food.
Through the use of flashcards and activities on the interactive board (sankore) the
learning experiences and contents are integrated together. The lesson plan also caters for
the hidden curriculum as the teacher stresses on good eating habits which is not in his
main explanation contents. Lastly the students are required to make a poster for
evaluation of their understanding about the topic.

(c) Identify any two external factors that you considered during your lesson planning.
Explain in your own words/views, how these factors influenced your preparation.

The first external factor which I considered is the use of the interactive board (sankore).
This equipment is not available in all classes therefore I asked for the permission to use

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 this specialized classroom from the head of school and then from the teacher to whom
this room is primarily allocated beforehand. As my lesson plan includes an activity based
on the use of the Sankore I had to see if it were available before preparing my lesson plan
as my class would have been incomplete without its use.
The second external factor which I considered is that I took into consideration that the
students already have prior knowledge about healthy and unhealthy food as they have
already come across it in standard four. I just made a brief review about their prior
knowledge by using a video talking about healthy and unhealthy food. These were not
new terms for them therefore the students did not need an intensive introduction to the
topic.

QUESTION 3

(a) Identify the two types of curriculum designs, and compare and contrast the two teaching
senarios.

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 Case study one: Mrs Chetty Case study 2: Mr Pinto

1 Mrs Chetty uses a learner centered design Mr Pinto uses very much a teacher centered
during her teaching practice. This is design. This is because he plays the major
because she promotes autonomous learning role in his class. Most of the attention is
for the students as they learn mostly be diverted towards him.
gaining real life experiences themselves.
2 Mrs Chetty uses the surrounding environment Mr Pinto, however uses a way more different way
for her teaching. Her aim is to connect of teaching. he uses the old method of notes and
concepts she teaches to real life situations so explanations. He just displays his notes and tasks
that the students have better understanding of on board and provides his explanation.
the content, the implications of materials used
and how each subject is interrelated
3 Mrs Chetty takes an advanced step as she does Mr Pinto does not integrate the use of ICT in his
not base herself to explanations only but teaching as he does not depend on the ICT teacher
integrates the use if ICT in her teaching. to do his work.
4 Mrs Chetty assigns outdoor activities to the Mr Pinto bases himself solely on in class
students for them to see co-curricular activities. He carries all demonstrations himself
connections between certain concepts. To unlike Mrs Chetty who let the student control their
receive feedback from the students, she asks activities. For interactions and feedback, he asks
them to make posters with the help of the ICT questions and the students respond. He also asks
teacher. students o display their answers on board.
5 Mrs Chetty promotes group work. She asks the However Mr Pinto asks the students to work alone
students to work in group in order to make a and not in groups. Thus he does not promote
poster at the end of their activities. group work. His class is mostly silent and
disciplined. The classroom has few posters but
which displays strict rules. He often punishes
students for misconduct.

(b) Discuss the role of the teacher and that of the learner in each of the above cases.

In the first case study Mrs Chetty acts like a guide to the students. She gives them the
opportunity to learn by themselves just by guiding them. She selects a particular content
and allows the students to learn about it through experiences. She does not base her

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 classes solely on discussions but takes a complex step further by assigning outdoor
activities to the students for learning process to go on. She allows the students to do
almost all the works the experiments. She uses the Wheeler model of curriculum
development as she responds to the changes brought to the curriculum. First she links
every activity she gives to the students, for example she asks them to make posters in
relation to their outdoor activities. She also views the curriculum as interrelated and
illustrates this to the students by relating her classes to real life.

We can also observe that the learners are autonomous ones. They are left to learn by
themselves with little help of the teacher. They are assigned outdoor activities which they
have to carry out to understand certain concepts. They relate theoretical concepts to real
life situations for their learning process to go on. At the end of their activities they have
to provide a feedback to the teacher. They do so by making a poster in group with the
help of the ICT teacher. We can highlight that they need to work in groups which
promotes team spirit in them.

In the second case study, Mr Pinto does almost all of the work himself. Most of the
attention is toward him. His role in the class is to provide notes and give explanation on
the given notes or topic he is teaching. He uses mostly the Tyler model of curriculum
development. First of all he determines the objective of his class and related to this he
provides the needed explanation. Then he develops learning experiences which will help
the student to understand the explanations as he provides demonstration in his Science
class to help the students. After that he assigns a particular task related to his explanation
to the students and at the end of the topic he asses the work of the students.
As for the students their role is to follow the explanation of the teacher and to take the
notes he gives. After that they need to interact with the teacher by responding to his given
questions for example by displaying their answers on the board. They also have to
complete specific tasks given by the teacher for evaluation of what they have understood
during the explanation. Lastly they have to complete their evaluation by themselves and
not in groups. They also need to maintain discipline in the class as the teacher strongly
insists on discipline in class.

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 (c) What aspects of the NCF Primary 2015 does each teaching approach connect with, or not
connect with?

(d)ASPECT OF THE NCF CASESTUDY 1 CASESTUDY 2

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 teacher must provide them students to learn by the teacher mostly. He gives
with learning opportunities themselves. She also allows all required explanations and
and experiences. them to connect concepts to notes. The contribution of the
real life which helps the student is only to provide
students to gain experiences. little feedback by answering
to questions and to learn the
notes.
2 -Integrate knowledge, -Connects: By assigning Do not connect: The teacher
understanding and skills in outdoor activities, the teacher bases his teaching only
learning areas so that enables the students to see through in class activity and
learners can see co-curricular connections through explanations.
interconnections between between scientific and Therefore the students cannot
ideas and concepts. environmental concepts. see the interconnection
between ideas and concepts.
3 -The primary curriculum -Connects: The teacher Do not connect: This is
encourages effective use of integrates the use of ICT in because the teacher does not
new technologies as tools for her teaching as she asks the integrate the use of ICT as he
teaching and learning. students to make posters of works independently with the
what they have learnt with ICT teacher.
the use of ICT.
4 The primary curriculum -Connects: The students are -Connects: After the
provides for the use of required to make a poster of explanation and
different assessment and their learning experience as a demonstration the students
evaluation models across feedback. Thus this becomes are required to complete a
primary schooling to gauge and assessment and specific task. Then the
the strengths and weaknesses evaluation of the students to teacher evaluates their
of learners, and diagnose determine where they learning through that task.
learning disabilities to better actually stand. Also they are required to
support learning display their answers on
board which is a type of
evaluation.

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 REFERENCES

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1) What is education? A definition and discussion [online]. Available at:
http://infed.org/mobi/what-is-education-a-definition-and-discussion/ Accessed on: 23
October 2016.
2) CURRICULUM [online]. Available at: http://edglossary.org/curriculum/ Accessed on: 23
October 2016
3) Model of curriculum development [online]. Available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/mamoonashahzad54/education-ppttemplate030 Accessed on: 11
November 2016

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