About Primary grades curriculum and methodology
Before we understand how a curriculum is designed, let us understand what is a curriculum.
A curriculum is a set of varied activities with defined pedagogy and approach that are designed keeping in mind the students needs, abilities, levels and most importantly the understanding that children need to learn at their own pace. Curriculum also provides clarity on “What to teach”, “How to teach” and “When to teach” and “How to assess what has been taught”.
While we understand the needs, abilities and levels of students, we should be aware that any curriculum must have a foundation of “Principles” before it is designed. Alongside, we must also be aware of the inquiry in students and that they have to foster this inquiry to make their learning more meaningful. Children have a need to foster their curiosity and creative side as well. Hence, the thinking behind developing or designing activities has to be completely based on the chosen Principles and also keeping in mind the curiosity, creativity and inquiry process in children.
Peek into the Principles behind designing the Primary Grades curriculum.
A curriculum ideally should address all the aspects about children, their growth, development, and learning. To enable effective facilitating and learning, we need a curriculum that follows a set of principles which form the basis of curriculum design.
Let us learn more about these principles in detail in the next topic.