The Lebanese
Curriculum is definitely in need of a big radical change. Our current
curriculum with all its aspects concerning goals of education, strategies and
content in all of its practices needs an urgent shift. We need to develop a new
curriculum that should be viewed according to the new contemporary educational
philosophies that have emerged which concentrates on the learner as a whole and
to keep up with the continuous arising educational development across the world
which has had a great impact on our society as a whole and the individual in
specific.
If
I had been given the chance to participate in developing a new curriculum for
Lebanon, I would consider choosing the contemporary philosophies as a base for
the framework of the new curriculum. I would go more into progressivism and
reflect some aspects of reconstructionism that can be applicable in our society
and without neglecting some ideas that can be adopted from traditional
philosophies which are highly reflected in the current Lebanese curriculum such
as drilling and recalling strategies that are important in some levels of
learning especially in kindergarten. I would also add my own beliefs that
education should be available for all and public schools should dominate over
private ones. There should be equal learning opportunities for all. Learning
should be fun and our message as teachers should be to teach,inspire and
motivate. The question that may arise here is why we should shift to
contemporary philosophies to guide us in building a new curriculum. We as
curriculum workers should view things from various perspectives and should do
our job in a coherent way while choosing the best foundation for our
curriculum. It is very important to point out the fact that we should stress on
the learner as a whole. We should be aware that the interests and beliefs of
students are of great importance.
Our
Lebanese curriculum is overcrowded. It concentrates on the cognition of the learners
rather than their interests. It depends highly on the traditional ways of
delivering knowledge. The learner passively recalls the information since there
is not enough time or space provided for students’ creativity and critical
thinking. Ideas are great but students should test these ideas through
experimentation. The goals of the new curriculum should be more student
centered than teacher centered. Educators should be facilitators and guides
where they guarantee that students are thinking and are playing an efficient
role in the learning process. There should be space for practical methods and
active experiences that reflect real life of the students to make them better
change makers in the future. We should inspire our students which will help the
community become a better place for all. The curriculum should include new
strategies like problem solving and project learning methods and all that can
promote their critical thinking which can make them successful citizens in the
future. Through our curriculum students should be taught not just to know but
how to apply what they learned. For all of this we need to shift and reshape a
new curriculum based on contemporary views which serves for the best of our
students and education as well.
I have the same way of thinking about Lebanese curriculum as well. It is indeed overcrowded and it has to be updated to meet the real life needs of kids in this century.
ReplyDeletewell said, the Lebanese curriculum need to be updated in order to meet the needs of the new students.
ReplyDelete