Issues in Scottish Curriculum Design Essay

The itinerary that any curricula is broken up into is two main musical modes one beingnessness the political platform in action, where the aims, content and experiences of the course of study on newspaper publisher be implemented in practice. The other is the computer programme on paper which is the political orientation of what should be implemented in education across the board. The ideology in curriculum can be split up into four main categories. Most papers on this topic, curb to an extent what the four ideologies constitute of, but Schiros (2008) ideologies be the most commonly known. The Scholar pedantic, the kindly strength, the Learner Centred and the Social Reconstruction ideologies are the four main categories explained in the course Theory that entrust be discussed in this paper in relation to The program for Excellence, the current curriculum in Scotland. The oldest of the four ideologies is the Scholar Academic ideology which foc utilizations on the ac cumulation of experience and sense.The aim of this ideology is to pass on the acquaintance of certain(a) disciplines (subject areas), to allow on that point to be rising scholars in that special(a) area and therefore, further move up understanding. The academic disciplines are the result of the cultures compiled intimacy and understanding of each area, and with this in mind, the purpose of education is to assist pupils to learn this knowledge. The next ideology is Social Efficiency. This is evenhandedly dominant in our curriculum today and means to prepare the assimilator for becoming an efficient and add member in fiat. The learners objective is to learn certain skills that give in publish achieve certain objectives that get ahead companionship (Lorrie A. 2000). The watch overive(prenominal) will learn a mixture of knowledge and skills that can be endow together, therefore making the skills more efficient and more beneficial to society. The learner centred ideo logy focuses more on the needs and interests of the individual rather than the content they are to learn.The idea freighter this theory is that learning will take place due to the interactions between the individual and their environment, therefore being more down to the experiences rather than the content. The newest of these ideologies is Social Reconstruction. This is where the social reconstructionists are aware of the problems in society and identify the job of the educator to correct these problems in the classroom, hoping that it will reconstruct their society as it is (Groenke, S. 2009). The focus of the curriculum would not be based on knowledge but more of values and opinions that would good the society and discombobulate it attain the greatest satisfaction of its members. In mental synthesis the program 3 A example for learning and commandment it has examples of all four of the classifications of the curriculum ideology provided by Schiro (2008).It has examples o f Academic ideology as it discusses the importance of knowledge and the ability and opportunity to increase the depth of knowledge already acquired as it states throughout a young persons learning there will be increasing specialness and greater depth, which will lead to subjects increasingly being the principal means of structuring learning and delivering outcomes. (page 20, Building the Curriculum 3). From this quote we can relate the academic ideology through the concentration on developing knowledge further to specialisation in certain subjects, therefore being fitted to pass on the knowledge and allow it to grow from there.There are many examples of The Social Efficiency Ideology in the paper as it focuses on health and wellbeing experiences and outcomes where the individuals get the opportunity to gain skills that benefit the individual in life and work, but also the community around them. This is to help them become efficient contributors in society support all children an d young pot in developing skills which they will use throughout their life and in their work, including the development of pre-vocational, enterprise and employability skills, personal skills, high levels of cognitive skills and the opportunity to put learning into a practical context. (page 15, Building the Curriculum 3)This example shows that the curriculum is aiming to encourage the learning of certain skills that will amend chances of employability and life skills that will help the young people settle into society and be able to play their part within it. The Curriculum for Excellence sees itself as being centred on the learner, and their individual needs. There are plenty examples throughout the paper of this ideology where the child is involved in what they are learning and setting themselves goals to achieve and having choice in what they learn within the curriculum, All children and young people should experience personalisation and choice within their curriculum, includi ng identifying and planning for opportunities for personal achievement in a range of incompatible contexts (page 17, Building the Curriculum 3). This quote shows that the idea of the curriculum is to pass water young people freedom to mystify their own declinationisions in what they are learning and at their own level.There are four capacities that brand name up the purpose of the curriculum that are described in this paper. Successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and efficacious contributors, are the capacities that the curriculum aims to enable young people to become. Responsible citizens is a good example of The Social Reconstructive ideology as it explains how they will learn respect and about different cultures and how to behave responsibly within the community in all aspects (political, cultural or otherwise). As Building the curriculum states able to develop knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotlands place in it, understand different beliefs and cultures make informed choices and decisions evaluate environmental, scientific and technological issues develop informed, ethical views of complex. (page 22, Building the Curriculum 3)Here in this example, it shows that the curriculum wants to provide young people with varied knowledge so that the decisions they make in the future will help to create a better society. The idea is to teach them about values and respect so that they may make better informed decisions as to what is best for the society around them. Building the Curriculum 3 contains examples of all four of the ideology categories, but there are two that are most prevalent, Learner Centred and Social Efficiency. Upon examining the evidence in more depth it seems that the Social Efficiency ideology is the most dominant within this paper. Its main focus is on preparing and equipping individuals for future endeavours. For instance, the skills require for future work prospects upon which Kridels (ed.2010) sum mary, of David Sneddons idea of social efficiency, explains the curriculum as a way to make individuals efficient for work.As discussed by Arnoldy (online), social efficiency in education is more for the benefit of the social economy than for the individual, but contradicting that theory in this paper, are the examples of learner centred ideology that is dotted throughout. Though, combine these two theories, Valades (online) talks about the idea that to help out society, educating young people to learn and improve their skills and capabilities to help the community in the future, is the way forward. From Building the Curriculum 3 and having summarised that the main ideology tardily it is focusing on preparing the individuals to become more efficient and productive for contributing to our society, we can see that there will be some implication for teachers. Teachers who have been teaching for years under the same curriculum will struggle to accept the new curriculum, if it is as co mpletely different way to how they have been teaching before.Although the main focus of the curriculum in Scotland has been focused on preparing individuals for the future, it has not been focused on the more individual level. This may cause implication for teachers as they only have particularised allocated times to be with classes and it will be hard to offer each individual, the time and attention they need to develop specific skills to the point of being efficient. The teacher will have to focus more on the experiences and outcomes the learners are objected to, to develop the skills needed for the real world. This causes some problems as it depends highly on what the schooling can afford to give in ways of experiences, as most of these will probably be met outside of school.So, teachers need to go out a way of achieving the outcome of making the individual a more effective contributor to society by combining what they learn in and outside of the classroom. This would be a task for teachers, as the environment each individual they teach will be different and this therefore means that the teacher will have to find a way to combine these different environments or find a law of similarity and focus on that. Building the Curriculum 3 has some implication for teachers, but the focus being on social efficiency means that in some ways there are not so many changes from the past as at least for the last hundred years the school curriculum has been focused on making learners that will have skills that will help them achieve objectives that will make the society a more efficient place.A Comparative Overview of the Curriculum Ideologies Chapter 6 http//www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47671_ch_6.pdf (visited twenty-ninth dec 2012) Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era Small Openings pp 3 Springer Netherlands, 2009 volume 6 Susan L. Groenke http//www.geocities.ws/rf_valades/index2.htm Social Efficiency Theory SAVE SOMETHING TODAY Rodrigo Valades vis ited 29th dec 2012 The Role ofAssessment in a Learning Culture Lorrie A. Shepard Vol. 29, No. 7 (Oct., 2000), pp. 4 American Educational Research Association http//www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47671_ch_6.pdf Chapter 6 A Comparative Overview of the Curriculum Ideologies visited 29th dec 2012 encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies edited by Craig Kridel SAGE Publications Inc 2010 Pg 4-7 Curriculum Theory Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns, Schiro, M. (2008a) SAGE Publications, Inc Pg 199-245 Curriculum Theory Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns Second Edition, Schiro, M. (2012b) SAGE Publications, Inc Building the Curriculum 3 A modelling for learning and teaching, The Scottish Government, 2008