They include:
A) Teacher’s Advisory Centres (TACs) These support teachers by providing inservice courses on
i. New teaching/introduced changes on curriculum content
ii. new teaching strategies and
iii. other changes have been introduced in the education system.
iv. Newly employed teachers may quite often use the Teachers Advisory Centre for obtaining information on how to handle their teaching assignments.
v. Particularly the untrained teachers in Kenyan education of system have benefited from the services of Teachers Advisory Centres Old teachers;
vi. also use the centres to update themselves.
vii. Another role of Teacher’s Advisory Centres is the dissemination of teaching materials already developed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
viii. Teachers may meet at the centre to discuss how the materials supplied by K.I.C.D could be beneficially utilized by schools. Sometimes, material supplied by the Kenya Institute of Education’s curriculum development panels may appear irrelevant to the local needs of the learners in particular areas.
ix. Teachers use the centres to discuss and make some recommendations to the curriculum panels on how improvement could be made. This role may be viewed as a feedback to curriculum developers at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. The feedback information from the teachers centres may become a basis for modifying the newly introduced curriculum in schools.
x. In well established Teachers Advisory Centres, teachers have organized local curriculum development panels. Teachers of English, Mathematics, Geography or Science may form local subject panels. Local subject panels may be to organize teachers to work as a team to develop materials to support what teachers use in classrooms. The materials developed are kept in the centre for other teachers who may want to use them. A lot of materials developed in the Teachers Advisory Centres have been very useful to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development curriculum panels in developing primary school education curriculum.
B) Supportive Personnel and Services Our further concept we need to consider in the implementation of a curriculum is that of educational supervision. This is a very important element in the implementation process. This part of the process is provided by Quality Assurance and Standard Officers (QASOs) and Education officers (EOs). Once one looks at the task the supervisor can perform in relation to curriculum implementation and the improvement of quality at local level one realizes how limited the direct influence on teachers. These supervisors can arrange for workshops for teachers to help them discuss issues emerging from the project and also provide suggestions for production of localized materials for teachers’ use in teaching. However, their indirect influence on teachers as co-ordinators of support system for teacher in the field can be very great indeed. Some of the roles supervisors would address themselves to are:
i. Identification of problem areas in the materials;
ii. Suggestions as to the necessary modification;
iii. Advice on the program me of work to be done in the schools;
iv. Preparation for the workshops, seminars and courses;
v. Assistance with displays at the Teachers Advisory Centres where these exist and
vi. encouragement of display in schools;
vii. Encouragement of regular visits to the centres by teachers and guidance and help to teachers with regard to source of information and other materials.
C) Voluntary Agencies as Curriculum Implementers
Voluntary Agencies such as:
• the Church,
• Women’s Organizations,
• Women’s Associations,
• Boy Scouts,
• Girl Guides and
• Entertainment Groups of every description have a legitimate role to play in implementing some aspects of the curriculum, particularly in the affective domain.
Cultural activities which are initiated by the school may be extended and refined in the community around the school. The integrated primary school staff should be afforded every opportunity to each voluntary agency to contribute positively to the advancement of their local community socially, economically, culturally, and intellectually.
D) Parents as Curriculum Implementors
• Parents have a crucial role is in the continuing process of value-orientation and attitude formation. Being the natural and immediate “reference group” for their children, the parents’ influence in cultural value is often unchallenged. It is in the home that the children learn effectively such important social and cultural values as personal relationships, hospitality, generosity, comparison, personal hygiene, etiquette, love, thriftiness etc.
• One of the final products of each curriculum project is the production of several types of instructional materials. If the teacher develops his own curriculum, materials he is likely to utilize products easily available in his environment for the preparation of the learning materials.
• If the curriculum is developed by the central institute like Kenya Institute of Curriculum development Education (K.I.C.D) to serve a large population, items of various types will be assembled in a package or kit for easy dissemination. What does curriculum kit contain? The most simple form of instruction materials produced by the curriculum team is a teachers’ guide, composed of suggestions and instructions for the teacher on what to do in the classroom. This is a very important item because it is necessary to inform the teacher of the programmes goals so that they can make use of the programme adequately. Generally, the programme kit will also contain individual study materials in the form of textbooks, worksheets and supplementary materials, such as demonstration charts, slides, and equipment; which are also included. Finally a programme may also have components which are deposited in regional centres to be borrowed by schools for classroom use.
E) The Community
• Curriculum implementation is most effectively implemented when the community understands and supports it when facilities are available for desirable school organization and learning activities. There is also need for appropriate materials and supportive personnel to assist teachers. Two key factors are necessary to the implementation of the curriculum.
i. Financial support and other physical facilities
ii. Community’s theoretical support for change.
• The financial aspect of curriculum implementation is dealt with as a priority of the community. The community’s support creates a healthy climate of understanding and encouragement prevailing in the community. Most important here are the attitudes held by parents because such attitudes towards the programme are easily transmitted to the child for whom the changes are intended.
• School community communication needs to go beyond mere information which includes the maintenance of a continuous dialogue that enables the community to understand the rationale behind such a change; to understand the educational problems and procedures involved, and in many instances to provide direct assistance for curriculum implementation in the form of resource persons, school volunteers, and any other personal forms of contributions to the effort of the school.
• Preparation of parents and the community is therefore seen as an important element even at the planning stage. Also during the needs assessment stage, parents and the community or what may be referred to as the lay person will have been involved extensively in assessing their needs as far as the school curriculum is concerned. Whatever needs are identified and written in the form of objectives for the new curriculum, should be discussed with lay people if for nothing else to keep them in touch with what is happening. This exercise is what KICD refers to as familiarization.
Wilfykil answered the question on March 2, 2019 at 07:23