(a)

Refer to the NCF(Primary) and explain how any one of the

following
(environmental,ideological
and
pedagogical)
has
influenced the formulation of the National Curriculum. (20 marks)

PRIMARY CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK

The Primary Curriculum Framework addresses the main drawbacks of the
current system by putting in place a new approach in the structuring of the six
years of primary schooling and attempts to:
1) Ensure a smooth transition between pre-primary and primary and between
the different stages and standards at the primary level
2) Lay emphasis on proficient language acquisition by the end of standard III
3) Allow the acquisition of fundamental life skills through an integration of
Health and nutrition, Moral and Civic values, Physical education, Creative
Education, Environmental Education
4) Shift the emphasis from a mainly content-based to a process-based and
competency-based learning.
5) Ensure a closer monitoring of the desired learning outcomes at the end of
each stage and timely remediation
It is proposed that the primary level be divided into three stages of two-year span
each.
STAGES

STANDARDS

APPROXIMATE YEARS

Stage I

Standards I and II

56

Stage II

Standards III and IV

78

Standards V and VI

9 11/12

Stage III -

During this stage, in Standards I and II, the emphasis will be on preparing the
young child to successfully adjust to the school environment. In Standard I,
the Bridging the Gap project will strive to create a smooth transition from the

Pre-Primary to the Primary. Std I will contain components of the Pre-Primary

curriculum to ensure that every child starts on an equal footing.
Moreover, there is the obligatory need to plan and implement every teaching
activity that shall ensure a smooth and soft instructional and educative transition
from pre-primary to lower primary.
Both at the level of standards I and II, every teacher should necessarily, through
comprehensive profiling, undertake the task of early detection of special and
remedial needs of classroom pupils in any subject area.

Environmental factors are not under the direct control of the teacher or even of
the school. The environmental factors can be further grouped under:
1. The Economic Factors
2. The Social Factors
3. The Political Factors

Children from different family backgrounds and economic situations join

schooling at the age of five as education is compulsory till the age of fifteen in
Mauritius. In this context, the Ministry of Education has come up with bridging the
gap. By so doing, kids from different environments are put on a similar platform
so as to give every child the opportunity to do well in his/her study. In addition to
this, it has given children with different pace the opportunity to adapt to a new
environment which is the school without undergoing much stress about
accustoming to a new environment.
When we speak about social factors, we take into considerations the economic
factors also. A child from a well off family is more socially stable whereas one
from a broken family is both socially and economically deprived. Kids from the
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ghettos are more likely prone to be unaccustomed to basic norms and face
difficulties in adapting to new environments. Bridging the gap pays more attention
to the first of the five remedies given in the Primary curriculum framework.
Kids from socioeconomically deprived homes or families; kids with any type of
physically anomalies may not cope with the language barrier. In other words, kids
from such families might understand a question if spoken in Creole but might not
understand the same question if asked in French or English language. The
second of the remedial action which to lay emphasis proficient language
acquisition by standard III tries to find a solution to the above situation. Well this
might be an irony in itself someone might be very bad in French language but
excel in other fields of studies. Needless to say that in order to excel in the other
field, he/she has to be proficient in English language at least as it is the national
language.

(b)
Devise a lesson plan in any subject of your choice
and explain:
(i)The type of curriculum you have chosen.
(ii)the model of curriculum design you have favoured in
planning the lesson.

Lesson Plan
Learning area

: Science

Topic

: Water

Subtopic

: Importance of water to plants

Class

: STD V

Ability of pupils : mixed ability

Duration

: 50 min

Number of pupils: 35
Aim: To teach the importance of water to plants through an activity
(Note: this activity should be done early in the morning)
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, each student should be able to:
1. List down different uses of water.
2. Recognize the importance of water to plants.
3. Draw their own conclusion from this activity.
Teaching strategies: (i) Questioning
(ii)Demonstration
(iii)Group work/cooperative learning
(iv) Discovery learning
Teaching Aids: 2 uprooted similar plants (preferably weeds), two plastic
containers and water.
Students prior knowledge:
Students are well versed in:1. What is water?
2. Sources of water.
3. Uses of water.
Class Setting:
Group students into 7 groups of 5 students of mixed abilities.
Procedure:
1. (8 min) - Diagnostic Evaluation:Quick oral revision on previous topic:-

The states of water

Questions:
1. How many states of water do we have?
2. What are the states of water?
3. Give an example for each state of water.
4. Give the characteristics of each state of water.
2. (2 min) Tell the students that this lesson will be a guided group work and
every member of each group must participate in the practical work. At the same
time, arouse their curiosity and interest by placing the materials to be used on
their tables.
3. (15 min) Guided discovery
Each group follows carefully the experiment the teacher is going to demonstrate
in front of the class.

Activity:

Step 1: Place half fill container A with water

Step 2: Place one plant in container A and the other in empty container
B as shown above .
Step 3: Discussion
(i) What does container A has which container B
(ii) Ask each group of the children to discuss among themselves about what will
happen to the plant in: a) Container A
b) Container B

Step 4: (after some minutes)

Ask questions:
a. Explain what may happen to plant A.
b. Explain what may happen to plant B.
c. Why?
Step 5: To confirm their answers, show the pupils pictures where there are
plants dying because they have not been watered for days.
Show them other pictures where plants are growing well
because they get water.
Step 6:
Ask questions:
(i) What are the differences you can see in those pictures?
(ii) So, what can you conclude from this experiment?
Step 7: To conclude, plants need water to live. (The answer must come
from the pupils)
Step 8: To prove the deduction right, in the afternoon make the pupils
observe and compare the plants.
Step 9 : Ask the children to try the experiment at home.

4. (15 min) Evaluation

1. Mention 3 ways in which water is important.
2. Why do plants need water?
3. Look at the diagrams below, and answer the following questions.

Record your results in the following table by placing a tick ( ) in the correct box.
Plant
Has withered
Has not withered
A
B
(i) Explain what has happened to plant A.
(ii) Explain what has happened to plant B.
(iii) What can you conclude from this activity?
Remedial work: Through question we will know whether learning has taken
place, if not there will be remedial work, Re-demonstration with a new strategy.

(i)The type of curriculum you have chosen.

There are different types of school curriculum:

1. Subject-centred or knowledge-centred curriculum
2. Child-centred or activity-centred curriculum
3. Society-centred curriculum
4. Integrated or unified curriculum
5. Core curriculum
The type of curriculum I have chosen is a subject-centered curriculum
The subject-centred curriculum assumes that

Knowledge can be neatly divided into disciplines or subjects. In this sense

its approach is highly academic.
The subjects of today will still be useful to learners when they become
adults and, therefore, possible to select in advance the subjects children
should learn.
The mastery of content is most important
Minimum levels of attainment in each subject can be fixed

The subject-centered curriculum:

can be used to teach a large number of children

can be used to teach a large amount of content at low cost
is the easy to use
has proved itself to develop student's abilities.
has a long tradition
leaves no gaps in student's learning
provides children with exactly what they need to know

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(ii) The model of curriculum design you have favored in

planning the lesson.
Curriculum development is the process of designing and preparing all the
courses offered in a particular subject. In another word its a process that
comprises curriculum planning, design and application involving deliberations
and decision-making about the foundations and structure of the proposed
curriculum.

Ralph Tyler's Model/Rationale:

Tyler's model curriculum development proceeds in a linear fashion. This model
represents technical, objectives driven approach whereby educators specify the
desired product of an educational programme and use this as a point of
departure for curriculum development. It also states the involvement of three
curriculum components in curriculum development, namely goals, content and
evaluation, as well as curriculum design. Linear curriculum development models
are normative.

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1. A daily lesson plan is developed by the teacher to guide the instruction.

Planning the instruction is much more difficult than delivering the instruction. All
details have been written down to assist the smooth delivery of the content. This
lesson plan helps to organize content, materials, and teaching methods.
2. The lesson plan that I have designed contain the typical components and
explanations as well as directions for the activity. Developing your own lesson
plans also helps you "own" the subject matter content you are teaching and that
is central to everything good teachers do.
3. All lesson plans begin, or should begin with an objective. Towards the end, I
have developed a self-instructional, interactive program that helps the pupils
understand the context of lesson.
4. In the lesson that I have designed, I have incorporated different teaching
strategies in order to meet the learning needs of the pupils of the pupils. I have
used learner-centered approaches where the teacher acts a facilitator and the
learners construct their own understanding. The teaching strategies that I have
used are questioning, discussion, demonstration, cooperative learning and
discovery learning.
Cooperative Learning promotes active participation, individual accountability,
students' ability to work cooperatively and improvement of social skills. According
to Daniel Goleman, A variety of kinds of intelligence are cultivated, going far
beyond the three Rs Children develop a full range of the abilities that they will
actually draw on to succeed.
Discovery Learning is an inquiry-based learning method in which learners use
prior knowledge and experience to discover new information that they use to
construct learning. I tried to engage the students in the process of logical thinking
when I ask them to deduce to conclusion of the activity. I have thereby tried to
develop their reasoning skills to enable them to act as independent learners.
Discussion is designed to encourage thinking skills.
5. Its important for the teacher to reach each and every student in a class. It is
important for teachers to be aware of the problems resulting from mixed abilities
in their classes and to decide on techniques and strategies that could be used to
solve such problems. Therefore, I thought grouping the students into 7 groups of
5 students of mixed abilities would help the slow learners to understand.
Moreover, when Ill evaluate the children Ill test the effective learning abilities
and capacities of the learners in order to obtain necessary feedback to reinforce,
change or adapt the curriculum and educational efforts that are being used.

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Evaluation gathers information about what learners know and can demonstrate
as a result of their learning processes.
Section 2:
Use the Test Blue Print to prepare a test paper, with at least 5 different test
items, in any one subject of your own choice. You will have to explain the
considerations you have taken to prepare the test items.
(40 mks)

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