1.3 Curriculum Process

For every society, its objectives that it stated to guide his members. In order to achieve these objectives, it uses the educational system. The curriculum is the actual translation of the implementation of these objectives.

The curriculum is "the group of the experiences that school gives to the pupils whether inside it or outside it in order to help them to grow comprehensively integrate, psychologically and intellectually in a way that leads them to modify their behaviors which makes them deal effectively with others and to let them able to face their problems and to find solutions to solve them".

By that, it includes all the activities that enable the students to grow in all the sides.

The curriculum, for the teacher :

	It is the subject, the core and the meaning of the educational operation. Teacher should study the
	basis and the criteria on which this subject is organized.
	The curriculum translates the objectives into situations and behavioral experiences with which the
	pupils react.
	The curriculum is necessary to the teacher to realize the origins and the sources that supply it with
	its subject studying. The curriculum is an important part of the professional preparation of the teacher
	that attached, strongly, to the methods of teaching and its objectives.

1.3 Curriculum Process

Also, it is recommended to the learner of the curriculum to realize the following;

   1- The concept of the curriculum
   2- The elements and the basis of the curriculum
   3- Theories of the curriculum
   4- Learning modalities
   5- Teaching theories
   6- Technology as a method of teaching

We are going to talk about every point

1-	The concept of the curriculum
	It is the group of experiences that school gives to its pupils to help them deal, successfully, with
	their community they live in and the environment which surrounds them.
2-	The elements and the basis of the curriculum
	They are all the things which affect all the operations and stages when building a curriculum
	The stages of building a curriculum state the objectives planning - actual building- testing - modifying- executing.

1.3 Curriculum Process

These stages are affected by three main directions known as building the curriculum basis which are;

		First direction (the learner); whom the curriculum is built to his favor so his abilities, trends
		and experiences are the directors of choosing the content and the methods of teaching.
		Second direction (the knowledge) which the curriculum is built to send to the students so, it makes
		knowledge is a goal and the curriculum is for supplying the students with all the knowledge available.
		Third direction (the society) which the curriculum is built according to its demands, needs,
		philosophy and culture.

3-	Theories of curriculum
	We are going to focus on the theories of building the curriculum that concern the learner. We have
	get four theories which are;

	The dual human nature theory
	This theory returns back to the ancient Greek thinkers who said that the human nature is of a body
	and a soul and the theoretical knowledge that gained by the mind from thinking and remarking is
	higher, in value, than the one gained from the interaction between man and the nature. As a result
	of this theory, the attention was mainly, to the mind operations, only, and neglected the body and
	the practical operations.

1.3 Curriculum Process

This theory is criticized for human is an integrated entity not to be separated.

	The mind storing theory
	It sees the man is born with its mind is like the white plain page and the school should write on
	and fill it with knowledge and the experiences available.
	The mind training theory
	It sees man's mind is composed of a group of abilities such as thinking memory, comparing,
	etc... .These abilities should be trained by the suitable subjects. History, for example, is to
	train the memory, arithmetic is to train the thinking and so on. This theory is criticized for
	neglecting the body and its needs.
	The instincts theory
	It sees that man is dominated by a group of instincts that direct him and the curriculum is
	to organize these instincts. This theory is criticized for neglecting the mind

1.3 Curriculum Process

4-	Learning modalities
	They are the teaching and learning methods We have got three main groups of them.

		1- Methods based on the teacher's efforts only
		2- Methods based on the learner's efforts only
		3- Methods based on both of the teacher and the learner

1- Methods based on the teacher's efforts only

They assume that;

				The pupil is capable to understand the knowledge that is presented to him.
				The presented knowledge is of a value in itself. It should be memorized.
				The teacher is more experience than the pupil.
				The school book is the main source of the content.

1.3 Curriculum Process

We have got two methods under this category which are;

The lecture method

			It is verbal method where the teacher uses his voice, mainly sometimes, a black or green board or projector (a method of presentation) are used to help without any contribution from the students who are, just, listening
			It 's criticized that Is keeps the student negative

The deduction method

It starts from the simple issues to the more complex by the following steps.

				The teacher introduces the general base or theory by explaining its symbols and idioms.
				He, then, presents some problems and shows how to use the introduced base or theory to
				solve them.
				He repeats these steps many times till the student be able to use them perfectly.

1.3 Curriculum Process

2- Methods based on the learner's efforts only

We have got three methods;

Self learning

By this method, the learner depends upon himself in learning by using books, kits, video tapes or CDs.

Program learning

It is a method that uses the educational tools and instruments through a program which presents the content in a gradual way. This method helps the student to keep, always, active.

The free discovery method

It uses the curiosity power inside the pupil to make him find the solutions to the problems.

1.3 Curriculum Process

3- Methods based on both of the teacher and the learner

We have got four methods under this category;

Conversation (dialogue) method in where the teacher follows these steps

				He states the lesson which will be discussed and it is elements.
				He, then, asks some questions, in a gradual way which their answers lead to desired
				results or some useful information about every element.
				In the end of class, the teacher connects between the answers, the elements and the lesson.

Inductive method

It goes in a direction opposite to deduction method. It starts from the parts to reach the whole topic. The teacher does the following;

				Presents some situations that are common in one thing
				He helps the students to discover this common thing
				He helps them discovering the whole picture of the topic

Problem solving method

1.3 Curriculum Process

It is a question or a complex situation and the teacher shows them how to react or respond to solve the problems. The teacher may follow these steps;

				He presents the problem or the situations and states them clearly as well as the data
				connected to it to the student.
				He helps the students to connect between the problem and the given data.
				Finally, he helps the students to find the best solutions

Discovering method

It enables the student to the independent thinking and acquiring the knowledge by himself as well as deep understanding and remembering the information to use it in alike problems and situations.

4-Teaching theories

They are the theories whose educational applications were used as basis of methods and fields of teaching. The most important ones are;

1.3 Curriculum Process

A) Jerom Bruner's theory

It is based upon information processing as one of the cadres of the cognitive psychology in which the learner is the maker and the processor of the information not only a receiver. This theory called "Discovery learning" it depends on the following operations;

				Acquisition of new information
				Transformation the forms of information into different forms
				Evaluation the changes on the information

This theory is valuable in learning the concepts and it is good at;

				giving the learner a chief and active role in producing the information
				giving a strong role to the used strategies
				stating the teacher's role more actively

but it is not suitable for the great numbers of students and does not take in its account the individual differences

1.3 Curriculum Process

B) Ausubel's theory

It is based upon two basis which are

				Cognitive structure; the concepts which the individual has acquired along his life
				Meaningful learning; it depends on the nature of the learned subject which forms the
				content of learning. In this theory, building relations and connections between the
				information inside the individual's cognitive structure and the new one which is meaningful.

It achieves learning by two ways;

				Meaningful reception learning
				Meaningful discovering learning

1.3 Curriculum Process

This theory needs some principles to start learning which are;

				Aptitude; to start simple tasks for training
				Advanced organizing red where the subject and its content should by stated clearly.
				Practice the memorized concepts and using them.
				Cognitive drive that is knowing some thing is necessary for the learner.

It has got some advantages which are;

				Assuring the vocal progress
				Focusing on learning by receiving rather than discovering
				The importance of self driving and motivations in learning

It is criticized for refusing rewarding totally and decreased its effect as well as it did not mention learning the values and trends.

Assuring the vocal progress

1.3 Curriculum Process

C) Gange theory

It is based upon that the learned behavior is acquired gradually which is achieved by learning and practicing. From time to time a feedback is revised to modify and evaluate the behavior acquired in order to use it correctly and to encourage the student to more learning Gange mentioned that education prepares the individual to be an upright citizen and it is more comprehensive than training. By that, learning becomes a side of the education sides. Gange has classified the types of learning that the learner gains in a shape like a pyramid "Learning hierarchies" and the concepts are formed in a pyramid shape. When we descend to the base, the ability to learn is decreasing. These types of learning from the base to the summit are; 1- Signal learning 2- Stimulus - response learning 3- Chaining learning 4- Verbal learning 5- Multiple discrimination learning 6- Concept learning 7- Principals or rules learning 8- Problems solving learning

1.3 Curriculum Process

This type gives the learner some skills mentally, verbally, cognitively and motor as well as attitudes. The learner learns; facts, concepts and abstract concepts learning is achieved in this theory by two methods; 1) Deductive method. 2) Inductive method.

The advantages of this theory are;

				It makes learning go step by step.
				It makes learning a continuous operation all life long.
				It enables the transferring of learning effect.
				It specify the learning level where the learner stopped so he can continue from this level.
				It presents a complete picture to specify the objectives, type of learning and conditions.
				It cares about problems solving.

1.3 Curriculum Process

The disadvantages of this theory;

				There is no place that enables the interaction between the teacher and the learner
				It does not state the methods of stimulating the motivations

All these mentioned theories are aimed at achieving the most perfect learning

5-Technology as a method of teaching

The invention of radio, T. V., recorders, video, computer and the internet has created new types of learning such as distance learning, E. learning virtual university and many other types that will be discussed in more details in next chapters.