Science study notes on The role of Curriculum in Science Teaching

The process of choosing curriculum elements from the community, the subject and the student’s prior experience, then making the curriculum element selected accordingly so that they could form the curriculum structure and type relevantly is called Curriculum organization. It is the process to facilitate students’ learning experiences and create learning experiences sequential, integral, and successive. It is a systematic arrangement of subject matter and learning experiences. It focuses on the overall structure and form of the curriculum.

Various types of approaches can be used to teach. Some of them are:

Topical Approach:

• In this approach, the curriculum maker takes a particular topic as a central theme in various instructions and concepts.
• A specific topic is started in a particular class and finished in the same class.
• A topic is a comprehensive collection of materials on a specific topic of the particular subject. It is also known as a topic approach.
• This although gives mastery over the topic.
• This approach is organised around themes, topics and units of the content.
• For example, if we include the topic ‘water’ in the curriculum of the science of class 5th, then we must consist of all what is to be taught on this topic to the students of 5th standard.

Advantages of Topical approach:

• It enables the teacher to conduct the content as they want and adapt it to the different needs of the children as per their needs.
• It provides a plan to deal with the material in a logical and rational way.
• It helps the students to understand the facts of their developmental setting.
• It gives a sense of purpose to the students.

Limitations of Topical approach:

• It is difficult to understand all the portions of the topic.
• It gives a large amount of information which makes students confused.
• It’s quite difficult to study a topic for a lengthy period of time.
• Students don’t get a sound knowledge of the content as its conducted in a general way.

The Concentric Approach

• In this approach, the starting point is something the students know well. From this something the syllabus radiates outwards and can be related at any point to the daily life of the corporate existence of the people concerned. It is also known as the spiral approach.
• It is a way of organizing a complicated subject matter for learning and instruction. Knowledge is widened slowly and steadily.
• The foremost exponents of this approach are Bruner.
• For example the first-year one can get knowledge about a topic say, flowers. Next time we will gain an understanding of different types of flowers, and later on, we come to know more profound and broader knowledge about the flowers.

Advantages of Concentric approach:

• It is a child-centred approach.
• It solves the complexity of content.
• It gives a deeper understanding of the concept.
• It provides linkages between the lesson.
• It provides an opportunity for revision of the content already studied in a previous class and carrying out new content.

Integrated Approach

• In this approach, many subjects are taught about one another.
• It encourages students to see the interconnected and interrelationships among the subjects.
• It allows students to investigate, explore, and collect information on a topic from any field.
• It enables students to develop a unified view of the curriculum to broaden the context of their learning beyond a single subject.
• It gives a holistic way which reflects the real world and the way students learn at home and in school.
• It makes a meaningful connection among subject areas which helps students build on their different prior knowledge and experiences.
• It assesses a student’s skills and understanding in a variety of learning contexts.

Advantages of Integrated approach:

• It is flexible, so it helps students to teach according to their differences.
• It supports the holistic view of the topic and meaningful connections among the different areas.
• It gives more opportunities to learn and understand an issue.

Disadvantages of an Integrated approach:

• It needs highly qualified teachers and experts.
• It requires repetition of subjects which consumes time and energy. It’s time-consuming.
• It requires good equipped and trained teachers which could be able to integrate the content appropriately.
• If not organised properly it may be confusing for children.

Thematic Approach

• In this approach, there is a running general theme throughout the work. This theme might be fairly abstract ‘war and peace,’ ‘power’, ‘capital’ etc.
• It might have a story with factual content. Here, the idea is a series of linked topics and students will study each of the topics in turn so that their actual presentation takes the form of a significant lead lesson and follow-up work united to the needs of the pupils and the nature of the material.
• Each unit of work lasts for a certain number of weeks, after which a new unit, based on the next topic is introduced.

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