What to consider in designing and implementing a child-friendly social science curriculum

Curriculum designers and implementers have to keep in mind various aspects when designing and implementing a child-friendly social science curriculum, but what are they? This article briefly discusses what should be considered in designing and implementing a child-friendly social science curriculum.

Introduction

The purpose of social science education is to equip students or children with adequate knowledge to enhance their skills and develop attitudes and establish them as responsible members of society. Another objective of social science education is to make students reflect on various positive aspects of society. Students need to go through an appropriate social science teaching-learning process to develop them as competent and responsible members or workers of society and to reflect in them all the good aspects of society. Whenever learning and teaching are discussed, there is a great need for an overall guideline, which helps in imparting appropriate knowledge to the students. The curriculum requires holistic guidance for conducting learning activities.

What is the curriculum?

The English term ‘curriculum’ comes from the Latin word ‘currere’, meaning ‘course of study’. Others think it comes from the Latin word ‘currer’. Latin ‘currer’ means ‘horse-racing ground’. Whatever the literal meaning, the curriculum in the lexical sense refers to a course conducted to achieve a specific goal.

The curriculum is the educational plan; All teaching-learning activities planned and conducted by the school for the implementation of which are carried out in groups or individuals inside or outside the school.

A curriculum is a circular dynamic process of learning objectives, selection of learning experiences, content identification, content organization, assessment, etc (Wheeler, 1967).

Read more about the curriculum

What is a social science curriculum?

The social science curriculum is the curriculum that is designed to teach the students the necessary parts of all the subjects related to social sciences such as Sociology, Anthropology, History, Civics, Geography, Environment, and Economics.

Who are the children?

Because of the age differences, we call some children, some young, some old. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as any human child under the age of 18. According to the existing Children Act, 2013 in Bangladesh, all persons below the age of 18 years are considered children. In India and the United States of America, people under 18 years of age are recognized as children. People of this age group i.e. children study in different schools up to the secondary level.

In Bangladesh, India, and the United States of America, people under 18 years of age are recognized as children.

What is the child-friendly curriculum?

The curriculum under which the foundation is laid to develop children as qualified human resources in the most appropriate way according to the demand through learning-learning activities is a child-friendly curriculum.

Child-friendly Social Science Curriculum

The curriculum that is formulated to teach children all the subjects of social science according to their needs is called a child-friendly social science curriculum.

Points to be considered in designing and implementing a child-friendly social science curriculum

The characteristic of the social science course is that the students under this course get a clear understanding of the evolution of human society, history, tradition, lifestyle, culture, values, nationalism, economy, politics, etc. Proper care should be taken while designing, and developing this curriculum to make it as clear as possible so that students are able to achieve the goals and objectives of the social science curriculum and gain a clear understanding of the essential branches of social science.

In Bangladesh, India, and the United States of America, people under 18 years of age are recognized as children.

Mentioned below are the points that should be kept in mind in formulating, and implementing a child-friendly curriculum—

1. The social science curriculum designed for children needs to be specific and clear.
2. Curriculum developers should be careful to ensure that children get a proper understanding of the evolution of human society.
3. History and tradition are very important aspects of social science, proper care should be taken that children are not deprived of the knowledge of these.
4. Along with the evolution of human society, the evolution of culture and its components is also one of the topics discussed in the social sciences; Developers, and implementers of social science curricula should be careful so that they can ensure a basic understanding of the evolution of culture for the children.
5. Social science curriculum designers and implementers should pay attention to ensure that children are guided with social and religious values ​​in their hearts.
6. While designing and implementing a social science curriculum for children, it should be kept in mind that the children have to be capable of motivating, knowing, and loving the environment and the world properly so that they can take part to develop and preserve the environment.
7. All essentials related to weather and climate should be prominently featured in children’s social science curriculum; Social science curriculum designers and implementers should focus on enabling children to become competent in dealing with climate and climate change issues in particular.
8. One of the major objectives of the social science curriculum is to develop skills in living a normal life by overcoming various social adversities, so curriculum developers should be aware of it.
9. Social science curricula should be developed in such a way that provides children with a clear understanding of fundamental rights and related issues.
10. Curriculum makers and implementers should aim to enable children to acquire a mindset of harmony and peaceful co-existence with all, irrespective of individual, gender, caste, religion, and caste.
11. Gender is a hot topic these days; Children’s education should focus on making children positive about gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, etc.
12. The makers and implementers of the social science curriculum for children should pay special attention so that through this curriculum children are able to get a proper understanding of their own country, country’s history, country’s heritage, and traditions and inculcate in them a sense of patriotism and respect for the country.
13. The judicious use and conservation of personal, family, social, and state resources is of utmost importance; Social science curriculum designers and implementers should aim to ensure that children become sufficiently knowledgeable and competent.
14. Along with patriotism, social science curriculum makers and implementers should aim to inculcate in children a sense of global brotherhood.
15. The social science curriculum also aims to introduce and connect students with relevant topics in art, literature, technology, and society. In this case, it should be observed during the formulation of the curriculum, whether the curriculum can meet the needs of the students or not, and during the implementation, it should be observed whether there is any harmful effect on what the students are learning or whether there are any other problems. In addition, what will be the solution to the possible problems should be taken care of.

Conclusion

The social science curriculum seeks to enable children (students) by imparting proper education to them so that they can become responsible members of society. As in all other fields of education, social science curriculum design and implementation should be carefully monitored to ensure that sufficient knowledge is imparted to students to enhance their skills and develop their perspectives. It is also important to consider ways in which children can make connections with literature, technology, and other subjects.