Importance of Planning
Curriculum change is one of the most important tasks in planning and optimizing the educational process in educational institutions. The effectiveness of teachers’ work, the assimilation of educational material by students, and the rational use of material resources depend on how well the schedule is compiled. All approaches to the issue of scheduling are based on heuristic methods that come to a person with work experience. It is problematic to formalize these methods since they are associated with the decision-making of the schedule-maker, who is guided by experience and intuition (Gordon et al., 2019). These requirements are different for each educational institution, but they are the curriculum change plan process is extremely important everywhere. This is due to the fact that it is a fundamental factor in the organization of the work of an educational institution.
The Bible points to the need for planning, including in the process of curriculum development, as it emphasizes the importance of the unambiguity of the taught material. The Apostle Paul admonished Timothy: “Strive diligently to prove yourself in the eyes of God as a tried man, a worker who has nothing to be ashamed of, who, in expounding the word of truth, keeps to the straight path” (KJV Holy Bible, 2022, 2 Timothy 2:15). The Greek word translated as “try hard” means to make efforts or direct attention. The student’s attention should be directed to a clearly formulated thought, which curriculum planning helps to structure.
In my opinion, planning is important for the curriculum change process, as it allows to determine the result and effectiveness of the educational work system. Planning performs the most important functions, without which the learning process becomes impossible. First of all, it is a predictive function that reflects the intent and presents the results through concrete actions. Moreover, planning has an organizational function, which reflects the means by which the activity is organized, indicates who is its object and subject, and the order of activity. In addition, planning has a control function: using the plan of educational work, the teacher can control the implementation of the tasks set and easily carry out activities according to the plan.
To develop the curriculum change plan, I take into account many criteria and limitations. Among them is the complexity of the discipline and the number of hours required for its study, and the classroom fund of the institution. I also consider the availability of equipment necessary for conducting classes, a certain load on students and an even distribution of the load for teachers, and other parameters. There are a lot of criteria for scheduling, and each of them has its own significance, so I try to take into account the maximum number of them.
Curriculum Influences
My elementary school teacher Mrs. Atkins, thanks to a high-quality schedule, has achieved a high level of students, as well as their trust. The structure of the lesson necessarily contained such a stage as updating knowledge and motivation. The lesson schedule corresponded to the curriculum in terms of the number of weekly lessons. A properly organized regime of students at school created the most favorable conditions for improving the quality of educational work, strengthening conscious discipline and strengthening the health of schoolchildren (Alfrey & Scott, 2021). The principle that I learned from her example is to place the most challenging topics in the middle of the day and school week in order to prevent the appearance of mental fatigue.
My middle school language teacher Mrs. Black also competently distributed the curriculum plan. The alternation of lessons of different content and different types has a serious impact on the level of fatigue of students during the school day (Velthuis et al., 2018). Despite the fact that my class had two language lessons in a row on one of the days, Mrs. Black alternated activities in the lesson to prevent the loss of interest of students. Thus, I took as an example that the lessons of two close subjects will cause fatigue faster if the activity on them is monotonous.
However, I regard the personal experience I received from Mrs. D.’s language classes in high school as negative. The fact is that the organization of educational activities was irrational from the point of view of school hygiene and age physiology. It negatively affected the functional state of my body and my health. In addition, I was unable to maintain an optimal level of performance during the school day and school week. From the curriculum compiled by Mrs. D., I have learned that a powerful resource in the direction of the effectiveness of education is an optimally compiled lesson schedule with a gradation of classes of different complexity and different types.
It was the curriculum schedule at the university level that allowed me to master the curriculum effectively. Teacher Mrs. Blum has qualitatively adapted universal scheduling algorithms to the needs of a particular educational institution, taking into account the new working conditions of universities. The key areas of modernization of new opportunities for the implementation of educational programs are e-learning. Mrs. Blum was able to adapt the curriculum in the difficult conditions of distance education. Her experience showed me how to correctly create a curriculum taking into account the active use of distance learning technologies.
References
Alfrey, L., & O’Connor, J. (2021). Transforming physical education: An analysis of context and resources that support curriculum transformation and enactment. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 6(1), 16-18.
Gordon, W. R., Taylor, R. T., & Oliva, P. F. (2019). Developing the curriculum: Improved outcomes through systems approaches. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.
KJV Holy Bible (2022). New York, NY: Christian Art Publishers.
Velthuis, F., Varpio, L., Helmich, E., Dekker, H., Hanke, J., & Jaarsma, A. D. (2018). Navigating the complexities of undergraduate medical curriculum change: Change leaders’ perspectives. Academic Medicine, 93(10), 1503-1510.