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Modern trends in curriculum construction

Submitted to : Mrs. Saija .S.R

Submitted by: Saranya.S.R

Submitted on: 13/9/2014
















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Index

Sl No:

CONTENT PAGE NO:

1

INTRODUCTION

3

2
CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT

4-6

3

CONCLUSION

7

4

REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION

SAPA-(Science-A Process Approach)

SAPA is an example of Alphabet soup Elementary science programs
.SAPA, SCIS and ESS are landmark elementary science programs, still
available today. As in the figure below, they differ essentially on two factors;
the amount of structure or flexibility each contains in its design for classroom
use and the emphasis each gives to science content, attitudes or thinking
processes.

SAPA SCIS ESS
Structured Moderately Unstructured
Step By Step Structured

Emphasizes Emphasizes Emphasizes
Science process Content &process Science attitudes
Around content topics

Around content







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Content Development
SAPAs Prime Assumptions
Children learn how to do science, and this means acquiring the skills
essential to learning and understanding science information. These knowledge
acquiring skills are called cognitive (thinking) skills or process skills and are
similar to the procedures used by scientists to acquire new knowledge.
The American Association for the advancement of sciences on
science education assumed that a sequential program was necessary for
developing a childs intellect. In 1963, a team of scientists, psychologists,
elementary teachers and curriculum specialists developed plans and materials
for trial version of what became Science-A Process Approach. The program is
based on two assumptions: first, that prepared materials must consider the
intellectual development of the child and second, that a total program must
use a sequential approach for the long range development of the childs
intellectual skills. The first assumption worked well. Materials that were
developed on the childs ability level were appropriate. Incremental advances
in the complexity of the materials seemed to help children develop
intellectually. However, the long term sequential approach proved to rigid to
use without difficulty in schools where children attend school irregularly or
transfer in mid year.

Description of SAPA

SAPA is the most structured of the three programs. Its
structure arises from behavioral psychology. The underlying psychological
assumptions were that any skill can be broken down into smaller steps and
that children need to learn lower-level skills before they can learn more
advanced skills. The original version of SAPA developed into a set of skills to


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be mastered through a complex, highly structured hierarchy and step by step
teaching.
Skill development takes precedence over science subject
matter in SAPA. Even after revision and the development of SAPA 2, the
content of science is important only as it serves as a vehicle for developing
thinking processes. The complex task of inquiry is broken into a series of
smaller, easier- to- acquire skills .All skills development is expected to arise
from a childs direct experiences performing prescribed learning tasks,
usually with concrete manipulable objects.
SAPA science process skills are divided into two types
1. Basic skills
2. Itegrated skills
In the primary grades (K-3) children develop these basic process skills:
usingspace/timerelationships,classifying,usingnumbers,measuring,communica
ting.In the intermediate grades (4-6) children use the basic process skills as a
foundation for developing more complex skills; controlling variables,
interpreting data ,formulating hypothesis ,defining operationally and
experimenting.
SAPA is a complete K-6 program .The learning activities in
the revised proximately SAPA 2 are packaged in a series of 105 upgraded
learning modules, with approximately 15 modules per traditional grade level.
Students have no books, yet copy masters are available: modular teacher
guides are used in place of teachers textbook guide.
Each learning module has the same features and structures
.The cover of each module presents the specific process skills that are
emphasized within. The sequence chart inside the cover shows the relationship
and fit of the modules objectives with those of related modules. Evaluation is
emphasized strongly in SAPA. An appraisal section describes class
performance for evaluation, and the competency measures section fully
describes evaluation tasks that can be used with individual children .Specific


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questions and suggested answers are given .Competency measure tasks are
keyed to the specific module objectives.























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CONCLUSION
The average student score from the traditional science
program class is at the 15% on a test designed to measure knowledge of
science facts. Then by comparison, the average student in the SAPA class
achieves at the 57% on the same test. The SAPA students knew more facts.
SAPA has several other factors going for it even more
important than the performance of the average children from our example.
On tests of process skills, SAPA students scored 36% points higher than
children from traditional programs. In such other areas as related to study
skills (reading& mathematics) creativity and Piagetian tasks, SAPA children
scored higher by 4,7 and 12 percentile points, respectively. Many of the
assumptions that under grid SAPA appear to produce differences, just as its
developers envisioned.














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REFERENCES

Wikipedia-Free Encyclopedia
Curriculum Landscapes and Trends- Akker , Kuiper , Hameyar
Curriculum Trends: A Reference Handbook
Curriculum: Construction and Critique-Laura Tryssenaar