A curriculum is a set of courses and the content that is offered in the learning institutions. It consists of the experiences and practices that enable students to mature to responsible people in the society. A curriculum is rigid and founded on a general syllabus, which recommends the content to be taught and at what age. Depending on its context, a curriculum has set goals and objectives and entails all the skills, understanding, knowledge and attitudes that the learner must develop. It also has well described methodology of the process of evaluation and assessment of the learners. It is important for Curriculum developers to understand the typical behavior of the children when planning a curriculum. The learning process is also influenced by various issues some of which are the learning environment and developmental delays. This essay will discuss and provide examples of the impacts of these two elements on the learning needs of the children, why it is important for the curriculum developers to understand the typical behavior of the learners when developing the curriculum, and also three specific components in a preschool curriculum that make programs effective. Importance of educators’ understanding of the typical behavior of learners when planning a curriculum and examples to support the claims.
It is very important for educators to understand the typical behavior of learners as they grow from one level to another. This knowledge will guide them in designing a curriculum that is effective for all the learners without disadvantaging others. Educators can acquire this by studying education psychology. Educators are also expected to understand how learners learn and develop. For example, learning institutions contain a diversity of students who are from different backgrounds; hence different understanding levels (Allen & Marotz, 2010). There are gifted students while others have various disabilities and all of them have a right to acquire education. The educators ought to understand these disparities so that they can come up with the appropriate instructional designs, technology, curriculum development, and also proper classroom management. Looking at the cognitive aspect, the gifted children for instance are quicker to understand a concept as compared to those others that are slow to understand. Therefore, with the knowledge of this typical behavior the educator is in a position to plan the curriculum in a way that all this learners are catered for. This can for instance be done by giving a significant content in the textbooks so that those that are slow in understanding can take time on their own to go through the examples given in the books and to also seek assistance from the gifted learners and teachers so as to grasp the concepts not understood during class lesson (George & Kidd, 2011).
Furthermore, teachers must analyze and comprehend characteristics of students during their life stages—childhood to adulthood. This knowledge helps the curriculum developers to apply the theories of human development in planning the curriculum. This is crucial because as the human behavior changes as they develop from one level to the other their mental abilities also change. For the curriculum developers to be in a position to plan a curriculum that is appropriate for all these stages, they have to understand the typical behavior of learners and their learning needs. Strickland (2012) asserts that before 11 years, children have limited abstract thoughts. Therefore curriculum developers with this knowledge develop a curriculum for these children teaching them by use of concrete objects. However, the transition from basic to intelligent thought takes place at different times in various disciplines. For instance, students may think intelligently in mathematics field, but basically in the human relations field. Children also advance from a basic moral comprehension to an advanced one based on intensions. With this understanding the educators plan the curriculum for these children with appropriate content that will not corrupt their young minds and that is also easy for them to comprehend.
With the dynamic technology in the country, the growing economic system, and the changing communication, people see the need to continue acquiring the important skills. Therefore a curriculum for the adults and the old age is important. In adulthood and old age the mental abilities and behavior of these people have advanced and so the curriculum developer needs to understand the typical behavior of these people to be in a position to offer what is appropriate for them at that level. The curriculum for the adults and the old for example must incorporate balance and efficiency without overcrowding the curriculum. The educator is also able to plan a curriculum that balances the interests and the needs of the individuals and the societal and economy requirements. This is possible only when the educator has the knowledge on the learners’ typical behavior. The educator is able to also establish a rapport with the learners.
Three components in the preschool curriculum that make the program effective.
Expanded resources
These resources emanated from the 2003 Joint Position Statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children together with the National Association of Early childhood Specialists in State Department of Education. It entails the statement of recommendations, position, and indicators of effective curriculum. It also overviews the appropriateness of the practices and issues and the guiding principles, values and the rationale of all the recommendations, developmental charts, and the frequently asked questions (Allen & Marotz, 2010). This created a platform where the stakeholders of the young children education can discuss the issues affecting their children in form of a broad-based dialogue. It also informs the stakeholders on how they can access the assessment data, information on the early childhood curriculum development, implementation and adoption.
The position on the cord of conduct
This is a position that was adopted in the month of November 2003 by the National Association based on the education of the young children. Childhood specialists took the position that the early child profession, the policy makers, and all the stakeholders of the young children education have the responsibility of constructing systems of curriculum systems of evaluation and assessment. The systems are comprehensively guided by appropriate early learning programs and standards, set core principles and values, belief in democracy and committed in behaving in accordance to the set ethics for the sake of the child. It also held the position that the stakeholders should use the set goals and objectives as the guide their actions. It also holds that every child should be treated as an individual member of the family and the society at large. It developed a curriculum which is carefully planned, engaging and challenging linguistically and culturally responses and that is aimed at promoting positive outcomes for all the young children. This position therefore is one of the components of the preschool curriculum that makes it effective.
Flexibility
The flexible nature of the preschool curriculum is also an element that has also made it very effective. For example over the past ten years, the systems that were serving the young children have significantly changed. The whole-day, full-year and head-start child care have expanded a great deal. The head start child care did not exist in the 1990s and the prekindergarten were offered in very few states as compared to today’s state. The kindergarten program is now common in many states. The educators are now expected to come up with more challenging and effective curriculum in literacy, mathematics and language and to also compose comprehensive assessments to monitor the children’s progress. The preschool curriculum is easy and flexible to change so as to accommodate the changes in all aspects of life.
The Impacts of developmental delays on the learning needs of children
The learning needs of a child are affected by various issues some of them being developmental delays and the environment in which the child thrives. A child may fail to develop in either or a number of the following developmental skills. One of them is language skills. This is when a child starts using the gestures and body language to communicate. The other one is gross motor, here the child uses large mass of muscles to sit, run or even balance itself. Fine motor is another development milestone where the child uses its hands to do several activities. The cognitive aspect of the child may also delay to develop and finally the child may fail to develop socially, when it fails to interact with its friends and members of the family. A delay in either of the above development milestones affects the child’s learning needs in one way or the other. Some of these impacts are; poor performance in the learning process (Shannon & Tappan, 2011).
For instance, children who have cognitive developmental delays are slow in understanding concepts and thus end up performing poorly in the school work. Another challenge that these children who have developmental delays face is one of ridicule from other children in their learning institutions. These ridicules lower a children’s self-esteem and make them feel like outcasts of the community. This will automatically hinder them from achieving their learning needs. Another example of negative impact that delays in development has on these children is that most delay in being enrolled in schools thus attending school when they are already too old. Learning with children who are much younger than them in the same level also intimidates them thus affecting their performance. Some of these children and especially those from the poor backgrounds end up not attending schools at all. This is because some of these conditions may require a child to be given extra care by the teacher but at an added fee which these families may not afford (Shannon & Tappan, 2011).
The child’s environment also has its impacts on the learning needs of a child. These impacts could be positive or negative. The negative ones lead to poor performance of the child while the positive promotes a positive performance of the child. If a child is surrounded by people who value education and who encourage the child to work hard then that child is prone to achieve its learning needs. On the other hand a child who thrives in the midst of people who do not value education then the child fails to acquire its learning needs. A poor environment also affects the child’s learning needs negatively. This is because the child might not be even in a position to access the basic requirement of the learning process.
Conclusion
Just as a home becomes a family when those who live in it make it one so is a curriculum. A curriculum is void until the educators and all its other stakeholders who work within it show ownership and their commitment to it. The curriculum implementers should also emulate some of the components of the preschool curriculum when implementing those of the higher levels of learning to make them more effective. The society however has to be selective and choose the important content that should be taught to its learners for the better of the society at large. Children with delayed development and the disabled should be given special attention to ensure that they acquire knowledge like all the other children. The society should also be keen on what they expose to their children because some of it could affect the child’s learning needs negatively.
Works Cited
Allen, K. and Marotz, L. (2010). Developmental profiles: Pre-birth through twelve (6th ed.) Belmont: Cengage.
George, C. and Kidd, G. (2011). Effectiveness of a parent training programme adapted for children with a learning disability. Learning Disability Practice, 14 (8): 18-24.
Shannon, P. & Tappan, C. (2011). Identification and Assessment of Children with Developmental Disabilities in Child Welfare. Social Work, 56 (4): 297-305.
Strickland, D. (2012). Planning Curriculum to Meet the Common Core State Standards. Reading
Today, 29 (4): 25-26.
