WEEK 8 REFLECTION

On today’s lecture, we are told to do a presentation on our assignment two which is we need to design a curriculum. Miss Soinim asked all of us to prepared and called out the name list and my group is the first group to present our work. I have started to present by introducing the content of the assignment briefly to the whole class.  Next, I did my presentation of my part which is to elaborate on why the course is needed in terms of content, and friends continued the presentation. We did choose English Language and state the main focus, the content clearly with example of our curriculum and Miss Soinim was impressed with the work done by my group. Miss Soinim told us that we need to add on the elaboration of the curriculum evaluation and provide more examples. Overall of the presentation is satisfying and thanks to all of my group members of their excellent cooperation in order to complete this group works.

WEEK 7 REFLECTION

On this week lecture which is on 19 July, our lecturer did explain and elaborate more because we seems confused with the requirement of the assignment.

Miss Soinim asked us to gather with our group member to discuss the task and list down whatever that we think we are not sure of and ask to her personally. Our respective lecturer did explain the question clearly so we are now able to do the curriculum plan by ourselves. Moreover, Miss Soinim reminds us that we need to present our work on week 8 which is next week to see our progress on our group assignment. On this assignment, I am doing the first part (part A), question 1, which I need to state the purpose and need the subject chosen on our curriculum, the chosen approach and also the curriculum design. I did complete my part and now we are working together to complete the second part of the assignment. Before we left, my group and I went to meet our lecturer to get clearer about the task given.

WEEK 6 REFLECTION

The lecture started after we were having Eid Mubarak break which is on the fifth week of the lecture. Our lecturer continuing to deliver the proposed topic of the week, but before we jump in the topic, Miss Soinim stressed on this topic which is related to our group assignment that need to be submitted on week 8.

This week topic was discussed by our respective lecturer is “curriculum theory and practice”. What did I understand with the explanation from our lecturer is, there have four ways to approach curriculum theory and practice namely, curriculum as a syllabus to be transmitted, curriculum as a product, curriculum as a process, and the last one is curriculum as praxis. Our lecturer showed some of the notes to strengthen our understanding of this topic because we seem like have no idea of what actually it means. By the four approaches discussed, I can summarize that curriculum as a product is a way to recognized that any statement that need to be change if it is not appropriate with the school or environmental settings. Furthermore, there is a 7 step stated in getting the product that have been elaborated by the lecturer. Our lecturer explained that there is a pro and cons while taking curriculum as a product. For instance, it is good for having a specific and significant aims to achieve but literally learners can’t do what they love and have no freedom to do and it just limited on what they need to learn and what they told to do. Meanwhile, curriculum as a process stressed on the involvement of the learner itself where they have an interaction with their teacher, peers, and the knowledge. Our lecturer asked on what approaches are appropriate to use whether curriculum as a product or curriculum as a process, and we answer curriculum as a process is more reliable because learners are able to demonstrate and do it themselves. It is not important on how it looks but the experience is the keys. By repetition and continuous guidance, they will get it perfectly.

Before we dismissed, Miss Soinim summarized the whole topic to see if we get the knowledge deliver and asked us to submit the group assignment on time. Overall, I got my knowledge broaden with this week lecture and it helps a lot in designing our own curriculum and appropriate ways to approach curriculum theory and practice.

WEEK 4 REFLECTION

On this week lecture, we continued on topic 2, the field of curriculum. What we learned on that day is the three major approach of learning which is behaviourist, humanistic, and academic. The other two theories are managerial and system. By this week lecture, I was able to differentiate the approaches and I will explain the approaches one by one based on my understanding. First, for the behavioural point of view, it is rely on technical and scientific principle which is it have a specific goals and objectives. Moreover, the content and activities are held based on these goals and objective to make sure the learning outcome are came out exactly as being planned in the objective and goals previously. Next, the humanistic. According to this, the approach is child centred which is good for the child. The curriculum activities concerned with life experiences, group games, group projects, learning and interest centres, creative problem solving, and active learning. Another one is, academic. An academic approach is tending to look like as a traditional ways of delivering knowledge and is concerned about schooling. Next, managerial. Curriculum planned in terms of programs, schedules, and space. It is relies on a plan, rational principles, logical steps but it is not necessarily behavioural approaches. It is focuses on supervisory and administrative aspects of curriculum. Last but not least, the system. The system is influenced by theories, which is broadly used in government and business which brings together components such as planning and programming.

Before we dismissed our class, Miss Soinim asked us to form a group for our group assignment.

WEEK 3 REFLECTION

On the second lecture which is on week 3, and before we started our classes, our respective lecturer started to talk about our group assignment which is we all need to plan a curriculum. Miss Soinim also remind us to keep on posting our reflection on the blogs to see the progress and the understanding about the topic discussed in the lecture room previously.

What we have been discussed on the third lecture is the role of curriculum workers which is topic 2 on this subject. By the lecture session going, our lecturer explain about what is mean with the curriculum workers, who is the curriculum evaluator, what is the group involved in the curriculum advocates, who is curriculum developers, and how make teacher as a curriculum developers.  What I got from the lecture is, the curriculum workers is the people who work on curriculum that need to be focused on student behaviour, stressed on student learning experiences  and set the objective goals when learning takes places.  Moreover, to get this curriculum done, there need to be an evaluator and the curriculum evaluator roles are to collect, examine, and assess data to make sure the effectiveness and the efficiency. By them evaluating and examining the data, their reports are used as a decision making which is concern in student performance, materials used and teacher effectiveness in teaching. Besides, there will be a public that trying to influence what is been taught and how it is being taught in schools who is consist of curriculum advocates, that might be parents itself and educator or any members of general public. Other than that, curriculum developers are the one who create the curriculum and planned all the strategies, such as the one who planned KSPK or PERMATA curriculum that had been broadly used in our Kindergarten and nursery nowadays. Moreover, from what I understand, teacher can be curriculum developers if they have professional knowledge, commitment to change and improve themselves, and most importantly a team work.

As a conclusion, curriculum worker have their own roles to make sure the curriculum planned is appropriate to all parties related and give out the best outcome and fulfilled the needs of the learners.

WEEK 2 REFLECTION

On the first lecture which is started on week 2, our respective lecturer for Curriculum and Pedagogy, Miss Soinim Musa briefly explained to all of us about topic 1. What have been discussed in the lecture is about the introduction of curriculum and pedagogy, include of the concept for both curriculum and pedagogy, definition, the differences, and the historical philosophy of education that related with the topic discussed. 

From the first lecture, I can summarize that the curriculum is a process of obtaining and answering a question as what, who, how we can taught to the student and the community. The curriculum are important to set the goals of education, approach to maximized the level of involvement between both teachers and students, and ways to measure learning experiences, and gain knowledge and competence. Meanwhile, pedagogy is closely related to the curriculum itself, which is, it is an approaches to teaching the learners based on the planned curriculum made previously. In the other hand, it is also can be define as the exploration of effective method of delivering knowledge to the learners and how the knowledge deliver are useful for them. What we need to bear in mind is, a good teacher can teach at all and flow naturally because of their level of mastery in such subject. In addition, with an excellent pedagogical knowledge, the delivery of the knowledge to all learners would be even better and leads to effective teaching and learning process. 

To conclude, teacher need to choose appropriate pedagogical method to make sure the teaching skills, relationship between knowledge delivered are related with one another, so that teacher/ instructor can reflect themselves and improve on their teaching process.