LEARN · PRACTISE · DISCOVER
Learner, Knowledge, Curriculum and Schooling
Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching: how a teacher understands children, knowledge and learning, and how this shapes classroom practice. The APTET syllabus begins pedagogy with “conceptions and perspectives”: how we see the learner, knowledge and learning, what children already know before school, the concept and components of curriculum, and the links between schooling and the child’s wider world. These ideas underlie every other pedagogy question.
Conceptions of the learner, knowledge and learning
| Idea | Traditional view | Modern (constructivist) view |
|---|---|---|
| Learner | a passive receiver, an “empty vessel” or “blank slate” | an active, curious constructor of knowledge with rich experiences |
| Knowledge | fixed facts in textbooks, passed from teacher to child | built by learners through experience, interaction and reflection; linked to life |
| Learning | memorising and reproducing information | making meaning, connecting new ideas with old, applying them |
| Teacher | the main source of knowledge | facilitator, guide and co-learner |
NCF 2005 strongly supports the modern view: it asks schools to treat children as active learners, to connect knowledge to life outside school, and to move away from rote learning.
Learning has many types (motor, verbal, concept, problem-solving and attitude learning, covered in the previous course). Its nature is active, continuous, social and purposeful.
What children bring to school
Children do not arrive at school empty-handed. By age five or six, most children:
- speak at least one language fluently, often two or three in Andhra Pradesh homes (Telugu, Urdu, a tribal language, some English words);
- have informal ideas of number, size, sharing, money and time from play and shopping;
- know a great deal about plants, animals, food, festivals and work in their community;
- have social skills: taking turns, helping, negotiating with siblings and friends;
- have curiosity and their own explanations for natural events (“rain falls because clouds cry”).
Implications for the teacher
- Find out what children already know before teaching (talk, observe, ask).
- Use the home language as a bridge to the school language.
- Build on informal knowledge: shop games for money, local plants for science.
- Respect children’s ideas, even wrong ones, and help them test and revise them.
- Never treat a first-generation learner as “knowing nothing”.
Curriculum, its components and schooling
Curriculum is the total set of planned learning experiences that a school provides to achieve its educational aims. It is broader than the syllabus (the list of topics in a subject) and the textbook (one resource for teaching the syllabus).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Curriculum | the whole plan: aims, content, learning experiences, methods and evaluation, inside and outside the classroom |
| Syllabus | the topics and content of one subject for one class |
| Textbook | a learning resource based on the syllabus |
| Hidden curriculum | unplanned lessons children learn from the school’s culture, such as attitudes about gender or obedience |
Components of curriculum
Ralph Tyler (1949) organised curriculum planning around four questions, which give its four main components:
| Component | Tyler’s question |
|---|---|
| Objectives | What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? |
| Content and learning experiences | What experiences are likely to attain these purposes? |
| Organisation (methods) | How can these experiences be effectively organised? |
| Evaluation | How can we determine whether the purposes are being attained? |
Schooling and its inter-linkages
Schooling is not separate from life. It is linked with:
- Home and family: parents’ support, home language, expectations.
- Community: local knowledge, festivals, occupations, School Management Committees.
- Society and economy: what society values, livelihoods, social equity.
- The state and policy: curriculum frameworks, Acts such as RTE, examinations.
A good school connects classroom learning with all of these, for example by inviting a local potter to show how pots are made in an EVS lesson.
Example
Before teaching “Our Food” in Class 3, Mrs Swapna asks children to list what they ate yesterday and who grows it. The children name crops, vegetables and dishes from their homes. She builds the lesson on this list, linking home knowledge with school knowledge.
Exam focus
- Curriculum is broader than syllabus; syllabus is broader than a textbook.
- Tyler’s four components: objectives, learning experiences, organisation, evaluation.
- The modern learner is an active constructor, not an empty vessel; NCF 2005 asks schools to connect knowledge to life outside school.
Key takeaways
- Pedagogy rests on how we view the learner, knowledge and learning.
- Modern views see children as active constructors of knowledge.
- Children bring language, informal knowledge and curiosity to school; teachers must build on them.
- Curriculum includes objectives, experiences, organisation and evaluation.
- The hidden curriculum also teaches attitudes and values.
- Schooling is linked with home, community, society and policy.
Practice
- The total set of planned learning experiences provided by a school is called:
- (A) syllabus
- (B) curriculum
- (C) textbook
- (D) timetable
- The view that a child is an “empty vessel” to be filled with knowledge belongs to:
- (A) the traditional approach
- (B) constructivism
- (C) NCF 2005
- (D) social learning theory
- Ralph Tyler’s four components of curriculum include all EXCEPT:
- (A) objectives
- (B) learning experiences
- (C) evaluation
- (D) school uniform
- Attitudes about gender learnt from the way a school assigns tasks to boys and girls form part of the:
- (A) syllabus
- (B) timetable
- (C) textbook
- (D) hidden curriculum
- A teacher begins a lesson by asking what children already know about the topic. This mainly helps to:
- (A) waste time
- (B) test memory only
- (C) build new learning on prior knowledge
- (D) identify the brightest child
- A first-generation learner joins Class 1 speaking only Lambadi. The most suitable approach is to:
- (A) use the home language as a bridge to the school language
- (B) forbid the home language in class
- (C) seat the child at the back
- (D) wait until the child learns Telugu alone
- According to the constructivist view, knowledge is:
- (A) fixed facts in the textbook
- (B) only what the teacher says
- (C) not related to experience
- (D) constructed by learners through experience and interaction
- Which statement is correct?
- (A) The syllabus is broader than the curriculum
- (B) The curriculum is broader than the syllabus
- (C) The textbook is the curriculum
- (D) The curriculum has no evaluation component
Answers and explanations (tap to show)
- (B) Curriculum is the total set of planned learning experiences; the syllabus lists subject topics.
- (A) The “empty vessel” view is the traditional, teacher-centred view of the learner.
- (D) Tyler’s components are objectives, learning experiences, organisation and evaluation.
- (D) Unplanned lessons learnt from the school’s culture form the hidden curriculum.
- (C) Finding prior knowledge lets the teacher connect new ideas with what children know.
- (A) Using the home language as a bridge supports understanding and confidence.
- (D) Constructivism holds that learners build knowledge through experience and interaction.
- (B) Curriculum is the whole plan; the syllabus is one part of it.