Suggestions on rationalising curriculum

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Inviting suggestions on rationalising curriculum/ syllabus/ subject contents for class I to class XII with the objective of all round development of students

"It has been envisioned that in order to develop a fairer and more egalitarian society comprising of well-balanced human beings, in addition to cognitive and analytical skills,adequate attention on activities like life skills, experiential learning,health and physical education, sports, visual and performing arts,literary & creative skills, and work based education are indispensable. Though the existing curriculum does incorporate these skills, however, the load of curriculum in cognitive and analytical area seems to be so heavy that students practically do not get much time to develop skills in other areas.

In order to balance the curriculum for cognitive and analytical areas with curriculum in other life skills including creativity and sports, specific suggestions are invited from teachers, academics, students, parents and other stakeholders associated with school education. The objective is to make the content more balanced in various subjects offered from class I to class XII as prescribed by NCERT/CBSE."

http://mhrd.gov.in/suggestions/

 

The present education system does NOT incorporate cognitive (connected with mental processes of understanding) and analytical area. So, it's a false reason that because of the load of the curriculum in the cognitive and analytical area seems to be so heavy that students practically do not get much time to develop skills in other areas.

Evidence:

https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/urls/cbse-probing.hashbase.io/Chemistry%202017.ipynb

But what if we make the curriculum more cognitive and analytical?

Yes, it will create the same condition: "Students practically do not get much time to develop skills in other areas" IF the content is loaded with so much of concepts. Think of giving an upper high school student a pedagogically right master-level book. Even though the student can learn the book, but it will be very time consuming to master all concepts.

So, the curriculum should be clear about what to include and what to exclude.

e.g. It's possible to teach all chapters of Chemistry (Nivaldo J Tro) in two years which has pages of about 1315.

It's possible because the content quality is too good, so it saves time and achieves the purpose of true learning.
The questions don't ask to reproduce the texts and are cue based.
https://iambrainstorming.wordpress.com/2018/02/17/question-designing-should-be-brain-friendly-cue-based/
So you spend more time on analysis, than on memorizing the abstract formulas, equations, reactions, and structures. 

https://bioinsilico.blogspot.com/2017/06/why-are-our-books-filled-with.html

 
But remember, it takes two years, not one year, which our student usually study, because there is no pressure on the first year, as there are no exams. As all concepts are interlinked,  a second-year student will face substantial trouble and pressure to grasp the concepts in one year.

Now, add 1000 pages of organic chemistry (L. G.Wade Jr) and 1000 pages of  Inorganic chemistry (Armstrong). It is also impractical to teach in two years. It will usually take 5-6 years if you have other subjects to master.

Creativity should be linked to the curriculum so that its fun and enjoyable with learning.  Regarding arts and sports, it improves the brain functioning, and helps you to take more content, not less, it's about managing the time, with spaced learning. 

Spaced Repetition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition  

Distributed learning: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399982/

Breadth of learning is about the full span of knowledge of a subject. Depth of learning is about the extent to which specific topics of a subject are focused, elaborated, and explored.

Don't be afraid to bring more depth and breadth  in the curriculum. Teach them the complexities, technicalities and subtleness of big ideas in a brain friendly manner even if it takes time. Students will become more productive and can take more content when the material is brain friendly or pedagogically sound.

What makes a great book?: https://bioinsilico.blogspot.com/2017/01/all-books-that-don-meet-learning.html  

Bring the diversity in the curriculum, so that different students gain different skillset, instead of producing all clones. There are opportunity cost, let different students explore different topics at different breadth. 

For example, if you are teaching about earthquake chapter in geography, give few students that task of exploring and analyzing the data of seismometer, while give other students the task of exploring earthquake resistance urban planning or infrastructure.

https://bioinsilico.blogspot.com/2017/09/if-all-content-subject-matter-are-alike.html

Make a ritual of formative assessment that includes no stake tests and retrieval practice, with well-designed questions and students will always find time to play, no pressure, and best results in final tests. It's no more about rote memorizing, or scoring marks by hook or crook.


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