Social Forces Shaping Curriculum Planning Report

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Changing Values in Education and the Associated Issues: The Curriculum

Key Issues: Social Media Conflicts, Privacy, and Multiculturalism

The recent technological breakthrough has affected a range of areas of social interaction, and education is not an exception. The social media conflict issue is an obvious concern on the agenda of modern society. With the rise of the new technology, which allows everyone is online and engage in conversations with a person of any age and culture, a range of vulnerable populations, particularly people under age, are exposed to a number of threats, from bullying to harassment.

The phenomenon colloquially referred to as trolling implies online verbal attacks on users and may harm students greatly. The anonymity that the online environment provides its users gives an impetus for a drastic change in values, creating loopholes for harassment. At the same time, the significance of positive communication increases, thus, dividing users into two camps, i.e., the ones that justify trolling by viewing it as a social outlet and the ones that stand for the enhancement of moral values in the community, eradicating online abuse (Williams & Pearson, 2016).

The privacy issue is another topical concern that needs to be addressed when talking to students. As stressed above, online anonymity can be used for both good and bad. However, online users are not completely safe from being recognized. By tricking people into downloading malware that collects their personal data or downright tricking them into providing their personal information, cybercriminals use their lack of awareness to benefit financially at the expense of others.

Finally, the multiculturalism issue needs to be addressed. With numerous platforms on which people from all walks of life can interact, the possibilities for culture clashes appeared rapidly. Although multiculturalism and diversity can be viewed as educational, they often spark misunderstandings among people without special knowledge of cross-communication techniques.

Curriculum Changes: Addressing the Essential Concerns

The identified issues need to be addressed by the teacher so that the students could feel secure in the contemporary environment.

GradeK1-K4K5-K8K9-K12
Key TopicsRace, diversity, modern mediaMulticulturalism, cross-communication skillsUrbanism, social classes, IT communication tools
MaterialsGames (digital and traditional), holidays celebration, etc.Educational videos, textbooks, posters, etc.Group projects, individual research, etc.
ExpectationsStudents will be able to name crucial principles of online and multicultural communication.Students will be able to define the tools for addressing the associated conflicts.Students will be able to design their own strategies for mitigating and managing the related conflicts.

Challenges and Benefits of the New Curriculum: Getting the Message Across

Convincing people to accept new values is definitely going to be the key challenge since it will be necessary to alter the way in which the entire community thinks. However, the change will open a plethora of opportunities for successful communication and a drop in the number of conflicts occurring due to a culture clash.

A Modern Family, What It Represents, and How It Affects Education; A Curriculum

Key Issues: Community Connections, Health Awareness, and Independence

In the environment of globalization, the significance of a connection between families and the communities that they live in has become quite high. Similarly, the health awareness rates need to be raised on a family level. Because of the effects that prejudices and specific traditions have on people’s health, there is a need to address the health problems by educating the entire family instead of restricting the target audience to children and teenagers. Seeing that the latter two are still under their parents’ and older family members’ control and guidance, there is a necessity to raise awareness on all levels (Allison, Khan, Reese, Dobias, & Struna, 2015).

The independence of families from schools and other educational institutions has its benefits and problems. Although the identified description of the American society provides more options for parents to choose from as far as the methods of upbringing and the promotion of specific values are concerned, it still prevents educators from establishing strong contact with learners and their families. As a result, the chances of inviting parents to participate actively in their children’s academic life are missed. As a result, the teachers are deprived of the opportunity to use a very powerful tool for increasing students’ motivation (Hughes & Valle-Riestra, 2014).

Curriculum Changes: Promoting a Closer Connection Between the School and the Community

Table 2. Curriculum

GradeK1-K4K5-K8K9-K12
Key TopicsFamily and HealthHealth, independence, family supportHealth issues, the role of family support
MaterialsGames, videos, postersNews reports, CDC reports, etc.Family consultations, reports, team research
ExpectationsThe students will be able to define the role of family and community in their academic and social life.The students will be able to discuss the relevant issues with their parents and educators.The students will be able to invite their parents to discuss essential issues.

Challenges and Benefits of the New Curriculum: A School–Community Dialogue

Similar to the previous changes, the ones mentioned above will require that a dialogue between the school, the community members, in general, and family members, in particular, should start. It will be crucial to receive feedback from parents, as well as guide them through the admittedly complicated process of assisting their children in learning the crucial information.

Nonetheless, the implementation of the curriculum is bound to have a positive effect. First, the academic progress of learners is bound to occur at a faster pace. Furthermore, the motivation rates among the learners will increase once they receive support from their families. Finally, the teachers will be able to control the academic process by providing parents with the necessary guidance (Kang & Cho, 2015).

Crime and Violence in the 1st Century and What Students Should Know About It: The Curriculum

Key Issues: Cybercrime, Substance Abuse, and Organized Crime

As stressed above, technological innovations can be used for different purposes, not all of them being good. Although crime rates have recently been reduced slightly, new types of offenses emerged because of the transfer of a range of activities into the digital realm. Cybercrime is currently on the legal agenda worldwide.

Similarly, the problems related to substance abuse have resurged recently. With the opportunities that the Deep Web offers to its users, the instances of drug peddling have become numerous (Carrapico & Lavogna, 2014). Therefore, there is a strong need to introduce the information about the associated threats into the curriculum so that the students could avoid the situations in which they are exposed to the related threats.

Finally, the fact that the organized crime remains a problem needs to be brought up. Unfortunately, the IT innovations that made communication easier also offer a plethora of opportunities for criminals to cooperate: “There is no clear solution to deal with criminal activity that takes place only in part on domestic soil” (Driscoll, 2014, p. 84). As a result, organized crimes and gangs have become a problem.

Curriculum Changes: Focus on Detecting Threats and Avoiding Them

Seeing how badly the problems listed above can affect learners, a teacher must make sure that awareness rates should be raised and the relevant information should be included in the curriculum.

Table 3. Curriculum

GradeK1-K4K5-K8K9-K12
Key TopicsBullying, drug abuse, and conflict managementDrug abuse and fraudIntellectual property theft, mortgage fraud, etc.
MaterialsPosters, videosVideos, textsOnline police reports, statistics, etc.
ExpectationsThe students will be able to prevent and address conflicts associated with bullying.The students will be able to recognize the threats related to drug abuse and fraud.The students will be able to secure themselves against intellectual property theft, mortgage fraud, etc.

Challenges and Benefits of the New Curriculum: When Prejudices Block the Way to Learning

When creating a new curriculum, an educator must keep in mind that there is not much time to convince the learners about the threats of drug use, becoming a member of a gang, etc. The prejudices that make people underrate the dangers of the issues listed above have exclusive power over most people. Therefore, changing the students’ perception of the issue within a short amount of time is the key challenge. The opportunities for creating healthier attitudes in the community and reducing juvenile crime, in their turn, are the crucial benefits of the new curriculum.

References

Allison, J., Khan, T., Reese, E., Dobias, R. S., & Struna, J. (2015). Lessons from the labor organizing community and health project: Meeting the challenges of student engagement in community based participatory research. Journal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education, 5(1), 5-30.

Carrapico, H., & Lavogna, A. (2014). Space oddity? Exploring organised crime ventures in cyber space. The European Review of Organised Crime, 1(1), 1-5.

Driscoll, J. (2014). Improving U.S. strategy on transnational organized crime. International Affairs Review, 23(1), 84-103.

Hughes, M. T., & Valle-Riestra, D. M. (2014). Examining the perceptions of families, teachers, and administrators of preschool programs meeting the needs of young children with disabilities. Journal of Education and Human Development, 3(4), 21-32.

Kang, Y., & Cho, J. (2015). Effective communication between parents and teachers using smartphone app. International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications, 8(1), 181-192.

Williams, M., & Pearson, O. (2016). . Web.

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