This article addresses the subject of the student-centered curriculum, to start with it would be best to define the concept "curriculum". In its first meaning, the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (1989), defines it as «Plan of studies».
He then refers to this concept also as a "set of studies and practices intended for the student to fully develop his / her possibilities".
A student-centered curriculum involves a collaborative effort between teachers and students; both are involved in decision-making regarding objectives, content and methodology.
It is a negotiated curriculum model that is largely developed through consultation and informal planning during the delivery of the course program itself. In addition to this principle of consultation and negotiation between teacher and students, the student must be aware that the established objectives can hardly be achieved with the sole effort made in class.
Consequently, many of the activities carried out in class must be aimed at promoting the development of learning techniques and strategies outside of it. Thus, for example, they should be provided with means to negotiate their curriculum, to identify their preferred learning systems, to set their own goals, to develop self-assessment skills, etc. The adoption of a student-centered teaching and learning system implies the development of differentiated curricula for the diversity of students.
In order to face the challenges that the educational situation and globalization implies, it will be necessary to redefine, in the first place, the new profile of the teacher, also depending on the current curricular trends that would be projected well into the 21st century and that are characterized by decentralization and the autonomy of the school units, diversified, flexible and open curricula, guided by the concept of basic individual and social needs, pertinent to the cultural environment, adapted to modern communication technologies, scientific and technological development and knowledge and universal culture; a curricular mesh permeabilized by transversal objectives, tending to develop values of identity, solidarity, justice, democracy, tolerance based on human rights issues,environment, health, work and others.
According to this curriculum and those who make educational proposals for the 21st century, the role of the "new teacher" is at the epicenter of educational transformation.
Development
The concept of a student-centered class involves much more than a negotiated curriculum that addresses the content needs, objectives and learning purposes of students. Its true meaning lies in the understanding and respect of the student in her individuality, which is especially manifested in the particularity of the needs related to her "learning process".
The student-centered curriculum privileges the subject of teaching and includes two developments: the first is of an evolutionary nature for the initial and basic level that proposes to organize teaching based on interests, maturation and cognitive characteristics, the second is refers to the level of university projects, aimed at promoting the autonomy of thought and action, decision making and problem solving through flexible resumes with tutorial system.
From the moment that the curriculum is conceived as a task that demands an orderly judgment, it is necessary to examine the order of adoption of the decisions and the way in which they are made. Taba establishes the consideration of the following aspects: diagnosis of needs, formulation of objectives, selection of content and activities, organization of content, determination of what is going to be evaluated and means to do it.
If Classic Humanism manifested a great interest in content and Reconstructionism in its objectives, Progressivism manifested it in methodology and the search for principles that guide the teaching and learning process. For Progressivism, learning is no longer understood as a process of transmitting truths and content, but rather as a way to enable students to learn how to learn.
Teachers are no longer instructors, but guides responsible for creating the environment necessary for their students to learn and learn how to learn. It is a philosophy, therefore, that bets on an educational approach centered on the student, which tries to promote the development of students as individuals and respond to their intellectual, emotional and social needs. Because every curriculum project must have personal and material resources that are didactically functional.
While Taba's proposal led to educational engineering, but at least he begins to discuss the question of content and its triple determination: society, student, specialist. See in the contents both information acquired as a method of research or of acquiring knowledge. However, Taba's proposal does not take into account that the programs are part of something broader, the study plans.
Every school program is part of a curriculum, and teachers must have elements to interpret their curriculum and how a certain program is part of it in that it aims at certain curricular goals that are the curriculum. It should then be studied in a study plan, a referential framework to visualize how the different contents are supported and integrated according to certain objectives, and avoid repetition in them.
The current that perceives the curriculum as experience is opposed to the traditional conception of the curriculum as a defined body of subjects, and has given rise to a variety of progressive theories; Among others, the student-centered curriculum theory, the theory of the curriculum as directed experience, and the theory of the curriculum as life experience stand out.
The theory of the curriculum as directed experience; It takes into account the sum total of educational experiences in the academic environment, while the theory of the curriculum as an experience of life goes one step further, the concept of the curriculum in the broad sense and considers formal and informal and experiential experiences as part Comprehensive curriculum and includes credit for work experience and individual study.
Then we find an analytical program which the institution presents to teachers and students, while the Guide Program is the responsibility of the teacher, and in it he combines the institutional proposal with his own experiences.
The program guides part of the analytical program and bridges the curriculum and the didactics (disciplinary field and a theory of teaching and learning), since it adapts the contents to a specific situation. It includes a methodological proposal that indicates how to build the content.
The method can be approached at three levels: from the epistemological in relation to the content, from its relation to the theories of learning, and from the stages to build a particular learning product.
Regarding accreditation, we must distinguish it from evaluation. The evaluation refers to the learning 'process', including those not foreseen by the curriculum and which occurred in the group process. Accreditation is the verification of certain 'products' or learning outcomes planned for the curriculum.
Accreditation guidelines should take into account the idea of molar, non-molecular behavior, and also consider the three areas of Pichon, mind, body and external world, and recognize learning as modifying behavior patterns.
conclusion
The student-centered curriculum has to do with the responsibility of learning; where they are responsible for and actively participate in their own learning. What matters is the interaction between students and teachers, this is how the teacher discovers what the student's level of understanding is and involves him in teaching and activities that test his understanding and allow him to develop it.
In student-centered education teachers take advantage of the knowledge and understanding that students have when they come to class and try to awaken in them a fascination for learning and knowledge. That is why with a methodology focused on students, the programs make them adopt an active learning attitude.
We have to be cautious when talking about “a student-centered education”, because these words can create expectations that it is the students who decide their own curriculum, something that was briefly in vogue with the “progressive education” of the 1970s. “Does not mean that anything goes. It doesn't mean that you just let students go around to discover things, "" A student-centered education is not the same as a student-led one.
What it is trying to say is that the teacher analyzes the needs of the student and looks for a way to make learning relevant and meaningful for him; It is not the student who decides the curriculum, although they can make their contribution to it ”.
In either case, students are encouraged to explore the topics that interest them. Students prepare for several months on a topic of their choice, and it is hoped that this is a topic that they are passionate about.
This philosophy categorically rules out a teaching style that sees students as empty containers to be filled with the teacher's knowledge. Teachers take advantage of the knowledge and understanding that students bring with them. This theory of learning is known as constructivism, because students build their own understanding and meaning. Comprehension-oriented teaching is encouraged; This is something that many traditional teachers do not practice, and that is why their students cannot apply what they have learned. ”
To be good facilitators, teachers will train people who throughout their lives will conform to the “profile of the learning community, that is, they will be probing, informed and educated, thinkers, good communicators, upright, open-minded, caring, bold, balanced and thoughtful.
If we agree to approach the class from this perspective, we are forced to reflect on the applied didactics and ask ourselves if the methodology used, the selected and developed activities contribute and adapt to that process, to the particular learning conditions of the class and of each student in their individuality, or if they only respond to our personal and professional convictions or beliefs.
Because, the elaboration of a curriculum seems not only to follow a rational scheme for the exposition of its different aspects but also it seems to demand of a particular methodology for its development and to relate the components to each other.
Bibliography
- Álvarez, JM: Didactics, curriculum and Evaluation: Essays on didactic issues. Alamex, SA, Barcelona, 1988. Angle, F. and N. Blanco, (Coordinators): Theory and Development of the curriculum. Ediciones Aljibe, Málaga, 1994.Coll, C., J. Gimeno and others: The curriculum framework in a renovated school. Ed. Popular, Madrid, 1988.Díaz Barriga, A. (1997) Didactics and curriculum. (1st. Reprint 1999). Mexico. Paidós Educator. (pp. 17-83).Doll, R.: Improving the curriculum. Decision making and process. The Athenaeum. B. Aires, 1968.
