Curriculum Planning

Average school-going children in India spend about 7 hours a day, 160 days in a year inside classrooms - through 13 years of their lives.
They also spend additional time at home, studying or doing homework.
This means that more than a third of the children's growing years are spent in formal education or in the company of school books.
Creating a good curriculum is therefore the first step towards helping children develop a comprehensive education. This includes knowledge of Science or Math concepts, World Affairs, History, Geography and Language.
This learning begins at preschool years.
So what comprises a good preschool curriculum?

• It should keep in mind the fact that preschool children are curious and anxious to know new things. At the same time, they are easily distracted.

The curriculum should therefore introduce topics in a variety of ways that become interesting for children. It should use examples that children identify with or can find in their real lives. This will help generate interest for a topic in children.

• It should include activities or hands-on exercises related to topics – which children can observe or participate in themselves (in a safe setup).

Children this age group find great interest in taking part in activities that make them feel 'grown-up' or 'independent'.

• Children look for means of creative expression – so the curriculum should include occasions for these.
  
  
• The curriculum should ensure that children are provided opportunities for development in multiple domains – which is a requirement at this stage in their lives, but often ignored by traditional methods of learning.
  
  
• Finally- the curriculum should be flexible enough for facilitators who are transacting it to adapt it in their own ways; perhaps add innovations, to suit the learning styles of the children they're guiding.

Classroom Settings

If you are asked to close your eyes and imagine a classroom – what do you see?

For most of us, it conjures a vision that consists of rows of desks and chairs seating students who are either bent over their books or listening to a teacher standing in front of the blackboard.

Think however if the learners as well as the way they learn are undergoing rapid and significant changes, can classrooms remain unchanged?

No.

A singular change needed in classrooms is the way they are set up.
The current setting of desks in rows is suited to the industrial model of education where teachers teach what they think is important and students are expected to learn.

Yet if we are looking at an increasingly democratic approach to education where students are informed about educational choices and are encouraged to voice their opinions, our class room settings should reflect this as well.

Having an imposing desk at the top of the class represents power and control. Most of us can recall the dread of being summoned up to the teacher’s desk to have our various sins of carelessness, indiscipline or general laziness highlighted.

Can there be an alternative way of organising classrooms where the teacher’s desk does not intimidate? Should the teacher’s desk have apermanent position as the Sun in the Solar System?

If we believe that education for the future is about helping children examine, evaluate and extend current knowledge, then we need to create classrooms where children can think creatively and divergently. This will involve providing opportunities for children to discuss, debate and critique - in other words learn not just from the teacher but from each other.

Co-operative learning encourages children to gain knowledge in a non-threatening environment which is essential for nurturing creativity. Try thinking out-of-the-box when you have been asked to stand up and have everyone’s eyes trained on you!

Classrooms need to be flexible to allow permutations and combinations of settings – which in turn support collaborative learning.

Learning Environments

Schools along with libraries and museums are considered to be the primary learning environments. Much of present day learning takes place in these physical locations.

In future, as the world becomes more and more inter-connected and technology-enabled, our definition of a learning environment will have to be extended to include the virtual and online world as well. As educators we need to realise that a learning environment need not necessarily be a physical setting.

On the other hand, if we wish to provide education that enables and supports social, cognitive, spiritual and creative development in young individuals, we need to ensure that our schools and classrooms also support positive human relationships.

The requisite for educators, designers, and architects therefore is to design physical spaces in schools such that they optimise children’s learning in all the domains of development.

Schools of future will have to try to merge technology with physical space and at the same time provide rich and diverse opportunities where children can interact with peers and adults and develop a sense of community.

An implication of this dynamic interactive approach to learning is that spaces in schools should have built-in flexibility. It should be possible to create multiple layouts using the same furniture, equipment and storage options in a variety of configurations.

Finally - given the ecological damage that the Earth is experiencing, it is important that our children grow up into environmentally responsibleindividuals.

Educators, architects and designers need to collaborate to create spaces where children can experience, explore and work with the natural environment to develop sensitivity and responsibility towards it.