Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

Incorporation of new ideas into curricular documents or textbooks is likewise
an important step towards transforming classroom learning. However, this must
involve far more than the insertion of a few isolated allusions to worthy goals. If
topics such as ‘human rights’ or ‘parliamentary democracy’ are accorded merely
a passing mention in a Grade 2 syllabus, it is very likely that such language has
been inserted without much attention to any implications for teaching, or for
the comprehension of 8-year-old children. Nominal incorporation of new ideas,
without regard for the implications for pedagogy or classroom management,
tends to reinforce cynicism amongst teachers, convincing them that the
curriculum is unteachable. To avert this, the promotion of a new concept must
involve careful consideration of how its various levels and nuances of meaning
should be introduced to children at different phases of their schooling.
What Expertise is Required for National Curriculum
Design?
Curriculum design is a crucial aspect of educational policy, far more complex
and demanding than is often assumed. This is because it requires a coordinated
interplay of diverse forms of expertise and experience. Broadly speaking,
these take three forms: (a) child psychology and related aspects of sociology;
(b) content matter relating to particular school subjects; and (c) pedagogical
considerations. If the interplay is poorly coordinated or if expertise in one of
these areas is unavailable, curricular quality will suffer. This coordination thus
emerges as a crucial systemic variable for the effective achievement of policy
goals.
a. Psychology and Sociology of Childhood: Children and Their Milieu
The first domain concerns our understanding of childhood itself. This has two
major aspects. One is psychological, concerning the process of intellectual
development from early childhood up to adolescence. Appreciating how children
think at different points in their growth trajectory is crucial to informing
curriculum-related inquiry and design. The psychologist’s contribution lies in
reminding others involved in curriculum development that children construct
reality quite differently from adults (Dewey, 1902; Elkind, 1981). The distinction
between thinking and learning is important because the decision to introduce a
concept or idea at a certain point in the age/grade spectrum should have some
basis in an understanding of child development. How it is to be introduced or
articulated in the syllabus and teaching materials should likewise be informed by
psychological considerations.
In presenting a topic like water or energy, the selection of informational content
and design of related classroom activities needs to be calibrated to the child’s
way of thinking. All too often, schooling is treated as a means simply of displacing
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Introduction