Curriculum Transaction is the effective and desired
implementation of the curriculum contents on the basis of aims and objectives
listed in the curriculum.
Children will benefit only if the implementation is
effective. A teacher's effort should be to reach out effectively to each child
in the group.
Lesson plans should be prepared much in advance. If there is a gap between planning and
implementation, changes could be required before implementing the plan.
A teacher should
meaningfully engage children and stimulate their thought processes. Children
listen to some teachers and are receptive, while the same group of children
could respond differently to another teacher.
Some of the requirements of
effective curriculum transaction are:
·
Planning
·
Clarity of thought
·
Organising
·
Knowing how we will transact
·
Review of the work
·
Clarity of communication
·
Addressing different levels of
children
·
Knowing, observing and understanding
children at all times
·
Time management
·
Alertness
·
Material organisation
·
Room set up
·
The way we reach out to the
children
·
Ready alternatives
National Curriculum
Framework (NCF) Guidelines for Curriculum Transaction
The NCF (2005) aims to guide the development and
transaction of curriculum in schools and to address the problems of
transmission of information and rote learning. It includes guidelines for
curriculum transaction to make learning active, social and meaningful. Schools
are supposed to adopt these guidelines and the current five-year plan of the
Indian government reiterates this. The guidelines are as follows:
·
Connecting knowledge to life outside the school
The first guideline aims to contextualize learning and ensure that
the content gets a broader perspective as it is linked to the life of the
learners during the instructional process.
·
Ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods
The second guideline intends that learners are enabled to link new
and old learning so that they develop conceptual clarity and are encouraged to
think critically and apply learning.
·
Enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks
The third guideline aims to address the problem of considering
textbooks as the sole and final source of knowledge. It is in fact an extension
of the first guideline and requires that learners be introduced to various
sources of knowledge. This will introduce learners to various views, sometimes
even contradictory ones and help them to build a perspective that may
accommodate diverse opinions.
·
Making examinations more flexible and integrating them with
classroom life
The fourth guideline seeks to make assessment a formative process so
that teaching and assessment determine each other and the meaningfulness of learning
can be ascertained on a continuous basis.
·
Nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within
the democratic polity of the country.
The fifth guideline underscores the need to raise awareness, nurture
a sense of identity and the ability for critical thinking on socio-political
realities. It also intends that learners are helped in internalizing India’s
constitutional values of equality, justice, liberty and fraternity so that
democracy does not remain only as a form of governance but becomes a way of
life for them. Thus, while making learning an active process to be carried out
through group activities, it seeks to impart training in citizenship for India.
