Q1.
Write short note of the following:
a. Syllabus
b. Scheme of work
c. Course of study
d. Lesson note
Most often people tend to equate the word “syllabus” with Curriculum”.
This should not be so. As can be understood from explanations already
given, curriculum is wider in scope than “syllabus”. A syllabus is part
of a curriculum but it is not the Curriculum. Syllabus is the content of
the school subjects offered in the school, and it is a sub-set of the
curriculum. Such subject includes Mathematics, English Language,
Biology and so on. A syllabus normally contains what students will
learn in the various school subjects in a year or for a longer period of
schooling leading to certification. It is a long term plan of work for
students.
It is normally prepared by the classroom teachers but a body such as
West African Examination Council (WAEC) or the National
Examination Council (NECO). At the university level, the National
Universities Commission (NUC) presents syllabi (plural of syllabus) to
all Nigerian universities.(5marks)
Q 1. b. Scheme of work
the curriculum of a school is not the scheme of work. As the
name implies, a scheme of work is a break down of the contents of what
student are expected to learn in a given period. In other words, a
scheme of work is the systematic arrangement of subject matter and
activities within a given time period, such as a term or a semester.
Whatever the learners are expected to learn are broken down into
instructional units (which include activities) and are normally prepared
by the classroom teacher. It is usually a guide in planning what is to be
done per week over a term or semester and for the three terms or two
semesters in an academic year as the case may be.(5marks)
Q1 c. Course of study
A course of study is an educational programme leading to the award of a
certificate at the end of the programme for a particular set of learners.
For example, a Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) is a course of
study. Another example is a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programme
in English, in a Teacher Education programme. Another example still is
the Master of Science Programme (M.Sc.) in Plant Biology offered in a
Faculty of Science in Nigerian Universities. A course of study therefore
refers mainly to a programme of learning that are offered to students –
with various course contents – at the end of which they are awarded a
certificate indicating the type of course of study they had undergone. To
understand this better, a friend might ask another what course he/she
offered at the College or University. The answer could then be any of
the following: a B.A. Ed course in Language Arts; an NCE course at the
College of Education, an M.Sc course in plant Biology etc.(5marks)
Q1. d. Lesson note
A lesson note (or note of lesson; or lesson plan) is a guide for teachers toassist them in
the orderly presentation of a lesson to the learners in order
to facilitate learning. Teachers draw the plan for teaching a particular
lesson from the scheme of work. That is, just as the scheme of work is a
breakdown of the syllabus so the lesson note is a breakdown of the
scheme of work into daily lessons, which are planned by the teacher. In
this plan, the teacher explains the step by step procedure which he/she
would follow in presenting the lesson to the learners. It usually contains
the activities expected of the students as well as the teachers during the
period of the lesson. The lesson note (or note of lesson, or lesson plan)
is therefore not “curriculum”. The classroom is the implementation point
of the programme of learning, which is just one of the three major
components of the curriculum. Thus, the lesson note is an important
aspect of curriculum implementation, especially the programme of
learning component of the curriculum.(5marks).
Q 2. a.Trace the history of curriculum development in Nigeria in the precolonial,
Q2a.An. Though Europeans had been coming to Nigeria before the amalgamation
of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, Nigeria had not
existed as one single country until 1914. During the pre-colonial period,
educational development depended on the needs of the various nationstates
that make up Nigeria today. Thus, while the people of the then
Sokoto caliphate had an educational system which met the needs of the
nomadic life style of the cattle rearers, people of the South had as the
cornerstone of their education, the development of good character and
teaching of 3Rs to produce Sunday school teachers catechists and clerks
in the emerging European economy. During the pre-colonial era,
therefore, appropriate curricula development depended largely on the
needs of the different communities and nation-states that make up what
is now called Nigeria. In other words, there were no uniform educational
objectives, and so no uniform curriculum to meet the varying needs of
each community.
Generally, traditional or indigenous education (i.e. the educational
system in operation before the advent of Europeans) had no written
curriculum. The major approach, for achieving the educational
objectives was social learning in which a child learns informally in the
home, through religious societies/ceremonies, the age-grade system as
well as the apprenticeship system to mention few. Since there were no
written syllabi, the child learned through imitation/modeling, the various
contents of the curriculum that have been informally designed to
produce an integrated citizenry. In the South Western part of Nigeria
(as well as in the other parts) farming was the predominant occupation.
The boy-child learns methods of farming through watching and
imitating adult members of the society, especially the father. The girlchild
on the other hand, learned to prepare meals and take care of the
men, through the mother. The curriculum, as said earlier, was not
written and there were no formal school system. However, one major
lesson to be learned in indigenous education is that it produced wellintegrated
citizenry. The curriculum was appropriate to the needs of the
primarily agricultural communities where life was simple. Moral
training was given both at home (by the parents) as well as other adult
members of the family and community – again through the informal
passing on of knowledge. The informal methods included word of
mouth instruction, story-telling and dramatizations. Songs and music
usually accompany the stories and help to fulfill the affective components of the
educational objectives. Skills were also learnt by
observing and doing.(10marks).
Q2b.Write short note of the following:
Formative and Summative Evaluation
Q 2b.An.Formative Evaluation:
This is the type which is done at the planning stage of curriculum
development. The outcome of such an evaluation is used as an
input to improve on the programme before its final adoption. In
other words, it is a kind of tryout method to enable the curriculum
developer tell whether or not the programme goals and materials
provided are usable and to make necessary changes where
possible. Thus, the curriculum developer uses formative
evaluation to detect flaws in the programme so that necessary
adjustment to the programme can be made. Four basic questions
such as proposed by Tyler (1971) are still relevant in formative
evaluation of a curriculum that is being developed.(5marks)
Summative Evaluation:
This is a systematic attempt to determine if a fully developed
programme in use is meeting its objectives or not. Thus, this type
of evaluation usually takes place at the end of the process when
the curriculum has been put into use in a given period. It is like
an evaluation of a finished product already placed in the market.
It usually takes the form of quizzes, tests, tern papers, reports,
personal observations of students, class contributions especially
when lessons are taught and end-of-term or end-of course
examinations are given. So, students performance in the
programme can be used as summative evaluation of that
programme as well as determine how well students have learnt
the materials presented.(5marks).
Q3 Briefly summarise how(a) Bureaucracy and(b) Research Influence
Curriculum Development in Nigeria.
Q3a .An. Bureaucracy is the system by which Government operates. There are
strict laid down rules by which Government must function. When
Government takes decision on Education for example, there are various
organs, which will be responsible for its implementation. The highest of
these organs is the Federal Ministry of Education, followed by the State
and Local Government equivalents. There are also Boards and
Parastatals. Each of these had channels of communications and no
channel may be jumped. Sometimes, it takes time before decisions are
implemented because of the administration bottlenecks created, some of
which may even be human factors. A good example is the 6-3-3-4
system of education introduced in 1977 but which did not start
simultaneously in all the States of the Federation. Also, when
commissions were set up to look into the activities of the West African
Examination Council (WAEC), before their decisions were
implemented, another examination body. The National Examination
Council (NECO) had taken off. Sometimes also the bureaucratic system
is often misapplied by some cannot officials, creating unnecessary
delays in implementing Government’s policies for selfish reasons. The
issue of corruption usually manifests in the area of funding and
distribution of materials to schools and colleges. Thus there is a wide
gap, resulting in a breach of trust, between policy makers and policy
implementers. This affects curriculum development in that what ought
to have been done in the schools were not done or delayed so much that
it became outdated by the time it could have been done.(10marks).
Q3b An. From time to time, educationists and scholars conduct research in
education and their findings influence curriculum development to a
great extent. In Nigeria, research is constantly being done and as a
developing nation, the research findings are usually incorporated into
the curriculum in the schools. One of the most notable of such research
work is the Ife Primary Education Project led by Professor Babs
Fafunwa. The study’s major objective was to prove that if a child is
taught in his/her mother tongue, he/she will learn new ideas better than
if he/she is taught in a foreign language. Specifically, the study was
directed to the teaching of science and technology subjects in Yoruba
while English language, Nigeria’s official language, was the only one
taught in English. According to Fafunwa (1989), the project supported
the view that students who were exposed to teaching/learning in the
mother tongue demonstrated greater manipulative ability and manual
dexterity than their counterparts taught in English Language. They even
were reported to have performed better in English Language than their
counterparts who were not exposed to the project.
The project was carried out in Yoruba land and was funded by the Ford
Foundation of the United States of America. The Institute of Education,
University of Ife, housed the project, and it was on record that some
scientific words normally used in English, were translated into Yoruba,
such as “Sayensi” for “Science” and “Komputa” for “Computer”. The
project extended to schools in and around Ile-Ife town where the
University was situated.
The findings from this study is still regarded as controversial, especially
because an earlier study by the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) reported in 1953 showed that
using any language other than the mother tongue as a medium of
instruction damages the development of the child. However, the Ife
Project was successful and instead of damages to the school child’s
intellectual development as the UNESCO (1953) study showed, the
learners demonstrated greater manipulative skill, manual dexterity and
even did better in English Language than those taught in English”.
This type of finding obviously affects curriculum development in that it
changes the existing order in the area of language of instruction. Many
other such research findings usually affect curriculum development.(10marks).
Q 4 with the aid of a diagram explain Tylers model of curriculum planning.
Q4.An.Tyler’s Model
One of the earliest and well-known curriculum experts is Ralph Tyler.
According to him (Tyler,1971), in a planning curriculum, four basic
questions must be answered. The answers to these questions represent a
design or a model for curriculum planning. That is, anyone who must
design a plan a curriculum must consider his model based on answers to
the four questions, which are:
1. What educational purpose(s) must the school seek to attain? (i.e what
are the ends being sought or objectives for educating the learners in
the society?
2. What educational experiences must be provided to attain these
purposes or objectives (i.e. the school subjects, activities or general
content of the learning experiences)
3. How can the educational experiences be effectively organized to
achieve the objects? (This includes personnel (teachers, etc.) to be
involved, and the instructional materials to be used and the methods
etc).
4. How can we determine whether or not the expected objectives are
attained or being attained? (This deals with the use tests,
examinations and other methods of evaluation).
Presentation of Tyler’s Model
Explanation of Tylers’ Model of Curriculum Planning
As can be seen from Figure 1,Tylers’ Model is linear. The first
component in the series is the Selection or Determination of Aims and
Objectives. In other words, why should the learners be exposed to the
learning experiences? What is the outcome expected as a result of the
exposure to the learning experiences? This outcome may be in terms of
general society’s expectation for schools as well as specific outcomes of
acquiring new skills, new knowledge or information by the learner.
At the second level, Tyler suggests that certain learning experiences
must be selected to achieve the objectives specified. Again there are
important questions to be raised here, such as what are the criteria for
selecting certain learning experiences and not selecting another? This
will be a subject of discussing in a subsequent unit. Suffice it to say for
now that this second level is important in that the school subjects and
the co-curricula activities that will be crucial to the attainment of the
objectives are selected at this point.
Thirdly, Tyler’s model suggests that what has been selected should be
organized and coordinated if the objectives must be achieved. This is a
very important point because if various school subjects are outlined who
would put them to use and with what materials will be content be
imparted unto the learners. Obviously, the content, the curricular
content and activities cannot put themselves to use. Teachers, after
personnel and materials must be properly organized to get the contents
taught.
The final stage is the evaluation. Here, Tyler suggests that the
curriculum planner must be interested in whether the curriculum
objectives are being achieved or not. So, he said that all the three
components before evaluation experiences must be evaluated to see
whether they have achieved their purposes or not.(20marks).
Q5 List and explain in brief the three educational programmes of the school .
Q5. An.(1) Programme of Studies(2) Programmes of Activities(3) Programme
of Guidance
Programme of Studies
Programme of studies refers, once again, to school subjects, such as
Mathematics, English Language, Social Studies, Secretarial Studies,
Biology, Physics, Chemistry etc. These are bodies of knowledge or
specific disciplines. Because knowledge is not static, it does not consist
of past human knowledge alone but current ones being brought to light
through research. Take for instance knowledge of crop production e.g.,
maize, or cassava. Through research, maize or cassava can now be
grown in varieties, and produced within a shorter time than it used to be
produce by the forefathers. In the National Policy on Education, various
subjects were included for teaching in order to achieve the Educational
goals specified in the policy document.
Programmes of Activities the programme of
activities is also a learning experience. Emeruwa (1985) defined it as “a
programme which embraces all the activities capable of enhancing the
academic experiences of students”. This programme is designed as a
concomitant to the intellectual knowledge acquired in the classroom. It
is designed to enable learners see the practical applicability of what is
learnt in the classroom situation. In short, it is a method of enabling
learners to relate learning to everyday life experiences so that they may
be able to face life’s experiences in reality. It is therefore not an “extra”
curricular activity but an important component (part) of the curriculum
without which “curriculum” is not complete. It is therefore an
“educational” programme because students learn through participation
in those activities. Thus, tours, visits, excursions, participation in school
club activities e.g. Agricultural Club, Drama Club, Girl Guides, Boy
Scouts, The Choir, etc. are all educational programmes. They provide
what psychologists call “social learning” opportunities for learners, so
they are educational programmes.
Programme of Guidance This last component of the curriculum is very important and
very crucial
to the achievement of school and society’s objectives. It is important,
however, to clarify the term “guidance” and “counselling” before
continuing with this segment so that you can have a fuller
understanding.
Guidance is an activity that had existed long in society’s history as a
social service. It is however brought into the school setting to serve a
need; to help the school fulfill the objectives of schooling. It is
concerned with the individual leaner. It is self-understanding and selfdirection
necessary for adjustment to home, school and the larger
society. It is a self-enhancement programme to learners see themselves
clearly and to know what exactly they want or need form life and how to
get it within the ambits of societal norms. The ultimate goal of guidance
is to help students live a happier and more fulfilling life as they are
encouraged to find meaning in living and cooperate with societal rules
to achieving their personal objectives.(20marks)
