Activity/Experience base curriculum

By Dr. sultan Muhammad Khan

Keywords: Activity base curriculum, Experience base curriculum, what are the Characteristics of Activity Curriculum?    Children’s Interest Determines the Activity base curriculum, Activities are Planned by Students with the Teacher help, Problem solving is the Method of Activity Curriculum,   Requirements of Activity Curriculum

There are many types of curriculum, but here we will discuss only Activity/Experience base curriculum. Types or curriculum are;   Subject curriculum, Teacher Centered curriculum, Learner centered curriculum, Activity/Experience curriculum, Integrated curriculum, Core curriculum, Board field curriculum, Hidden curriculum

Activity Based Curriculum:

The Activity Based Curriculum is also called project curriculum or an experience curriculum but the name activity is a fundamental conception.  Activity Curriculum has a long history. The title “Activity Curriculum”, however, did not come into general use before 1920, although Dewey used the expression “Activity Programme” as early as 1897 in a talk to the parents and teachers at his laboratory school in Chicago (U.S.A). Activity is the natural urge of the child. He wants to do things by himself. When curricular material is translated in terms of activity, it is known as activity curriculum. Learning of the prescribed material takes place through activities. Activity is used as a media or means for imparting knowledge and skills.

Activity is the greatest motivation for child. He enjoys the freedom of expressing his potentialities during activities.

These activities should not merely be considered as physical activity but also intellectual activity. The educator (teacher) should engage pupils in activities in such a way that while manual skills are gained there should be mental satisfaction found in the work. The students should not be passive listener they should be active participants in the process of learning.

True learning is experiencing, while activity is the process then experience becomes the product of activity. Activity results in experience, in fact activity and experience cannot be separated from each other. A purposeful activity must end in gainful experience. The school must, therefore, plan its activities in such a way that students gain mastery on various experiences. Such type of projects should be completed under a problematic situation in a natural setting.

Characteristics of Activity Curriculum:

1.   Children’s Interest Determines the Educational Programme:

The primary principle of the activity curriculum is that the interests and purposes of children determine the educational programme. The basic principle of the activity programme refers to the felt needs of children and not of adults.  The educational programs are aimed at doing something in the best interest of the children and not for adults only. It is the task of the teacher to discover these interests and to build educational activities upon them.

 Whims (urges) must not be considered as basis of an educational programme. The interest of the students must be carefully analyzed   and then accepted, these intended courses of actions are accepted after their consequences are reviewed. The subject matter is a mean of fulfilling the purposes of an individual or a group and as a result of manipulating subject matter children learn within the boundaries of group interests. The teacher’s responsibility is to find out the interest of individual students and of the groups. He helps children to select the most interesting activity for study;   Building a cage for an animal, making preparation for a field trip, gathering information on a current political affair, running a school store, planning family budget

 The Activity Curriculum is not planned in Advance:

The teacher discover the interests of students in group or individually. He guides the students in the selections of activity and their interest among activities. He helps them to plan and carry out these activities according to their interests. He also guides the individual or group in assessing what they have accomplished in the process. This is the responsibility of the teacher to make plans for himself how to guide the students and their activities in the classrooms. Although teacher does not come into the classroom with a preplanned subject matter. He does come with ideas and a background of experience of the students and their interests. These are his working tools.

Activities are Planned Co-operatively by Students and the Teacher:

The teacher and the students plan the activities cooperatively what needs to be done? And how, first of all objectives are formulated with the help of the teacher, and then the class students considers means of teaching the objectives e.g. a group has determined to improve the beauty of its own classroom. The class may be divided into small groups so that students can talk with their seat mates.

A student from each of these groups report to the total class. There should be ample opportunity to organize for investigating, seeking information, selecting materials, interviewing people and carrying on the activities needed to solve the problem, in each of these steps the students take part in making decisions and they assume full responsibility for it. Here the teacher is guide in the process of learning, he guide the students how to select group leaders and how to make intelligent decisions. Most important is the quality of thinking that goes in the group. There is a given and take of ideas in the group. The opinions of different students in the group are evaluated by the students to select the best idea of all. It is really a laboratory for learning group processes.

Problem solving is the Dominant Method of Activity Curriculum:

In the activity curriculum, the teaching learning process consists largely of problem solving. In the pursuit of interests in the groups to complete an activity various difficulties will arise. The teacher and his students are to find ways of overcoming these obstacles. As the interests of children lead to problems requiring a great diversity of content so the subject matter from almost every field of

Knowledge is used in the activity curriculum. But the subject matter is studied as a means of solving problems and not as subject.

The Teacher Assists the Group as a Resource Person:

Here the teacher works as a guide and resource person. He serves to small groups, to individual students. He sometimes leads the discussion to help the students to analyses the problem. He works with them in improving their skills. He is a part of the total learning situation rather than task master.

Practice and Individual Assistance are provided as needed:

In activity curriculum the need for practice grows out of the learning situation. As the students show the need for working on spellings of certain words, or grammar, the teacher gives them the opportunity to learn and practice these skills. If the students ask the teacher to help them in writing a letter to invite a speaker, the teacher will not write the letter for them, but he will guide them. He will work with them on the use of words and thus he will encourage them to write a letter inviting the guest speaker.

a.       Requirements for Optimum Operation of Activity Curriculum:

1.   Training of Teachers:

Teachers should have a broad general education with specialized training in child and adolescent development, guidance and methods of teaching.

1.   Physical Features of the School:

Activity base curriculum needs spacious Building, grounds and classrooms to permit as many activities as possible. Will light rooms and have ample facilities; for displaying and decorations devised by children. The ample use of school grounds in addition to outdoor class work and for other countless outdoor activities in which children may engage as they follow their interests.

To complete these possibilities the school will require several times more space than they have now.

Tentatively ten acres of land (one acre= 4940 sq. yards) would likely be the minimum to meet the needs of an activity curriculum. To those critics who criticize the activity curriculum as the most expensive pattern of curriculum organization, the advocates of an activity programme will give a reply that there is no such thing as “a good cheap education:.

Read more about types of different curriculum

Activity/Experience base curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/activityexperience-base-curriculum.html

Learner-Centered curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/learner-centered-curriculum.html

Teacher Centered curriculum

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2020/01/teacher-centered-curriculum.html

TYPES OF CURRICULUM

https://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2014/08/types-of-curriculum.html