The Shift in Children's Curriculum Regarding Literacy

This report recommends modifying the curriculum to raise children's information literacy. Many persons concerned in education have noticed that students' reading levels have been dropping in recent years. Literacy has more to do than just being able to read and write, contrary to how it has traditionally been understood. It comprises the ability to read, comprehend, and critically value a variety of communication mediums, such as printed text, broadcast media, spoken language, and digital media. Unfortunately, the majority of students in the lower grades do not meet the criteria for becoming literate as stated above. The blame can be attributed to the curriculum and the education system in the country since the potential of the pupils does not get fully utilized. This therefore calls for a change in curriculum for the lower classes to ensure the pupil’s potential is fully utilized. In response to national and district calls to improve literary, Neah-Kah-Nie School District embarked on a literacy program that sought to improve instructional practices of teachers and students’ literary skills. The report explores the implementation of this program in the district with the aim of understanding change management in school context.

The change situation

In order to under the change situation, it is critical to explore the factors and situation that led to implementation of the literary program. The aim of the program was to improve students’ reading abilities and writing abilities through a stronger core instruction and specific or targeted interventions. At the end of the program, the schools aimed at ensuring 90% of all students achieve district reading assessments benchmarks (Heather, 2013). The decision to implement the program came after the publication of the report “A Nation at Risk,” which highlighted the enormous weaknesses in public schools, including the increasing levels of illiteracy and poorly trained educators. The Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which called all public schools to ensure high levels of learning via increased accountability, vibrant academic standards and increased emphasis on reading.

The implementation processes followed Lewin’s change management theory of change management. Lewin proposes a 3-step process of change management that involves “unfreezing,” “changing,” and “freezing.” It consisted of the “unpacking” phase, during which the content and interventions were taught to educators. According to Kotter, the success of a change process is determined by the sense of urgency that is created (Bucciarelli, 2015). A sense of urgency was created by the glaring findings of national surveys that indicated low literary levels. The second phase entailed teaching educators on the evidence-based techniques to improve the performance of students and overseeing the implementation of new teaching and instruction techniques.

Staffing education was led and supported by a literacy leadership team. In order to ensure the team executed its mandate effectively, it was comprised of team of educators with high level of literary learning and exemplary instructional leadership. The leading team was played a significant role in leading the conversation about literary learning, developing procedures for identifying a student’s entry level literacy, leading the professional learning teams, and facilitating research. Additionally, the leadership team developed action plans for enhancing teaching and coaching individual teachers to implement effective teaching interventions. The third phase entailed evaluating the success of the program and implementing continuous improvement plans to ensure the new practices are inculcated in the school culture.

The Change in Curriculum Literacy for Children

The change mostly affected the curriculum that was being used in the past. The government together with other stakeholders revised the curriculum to the standard that would be most beneficial to the pupils. The new curriculum includes seven subjects which includes; two languages, mathematic, physical education, environmental studies, art and religious studies up from four in old curriculum which lacked art, environmental studies and physical education (Harvey & Thomas, 2001). New topics have also been added in the new curriculum subject which helps the children understand both the spoken and written language. Unlike the old curriculum the children are now introduced to oral exams which tests their listening and understanding skills. All these improvement were made in the aim of improving literacy among the children which had started to become worrying. The textbooks were also revised to make it easier for the students to master literacy and numeracy skills to the best of their ability. This could not be done by the previous curriculum.

A research conducted by an international body released information that most students have not been developing literacy skill in the country (Petriglieri, 2015). The reading culture has also been very low mainly because the students are not able to read by themselves. The government has therefore been determined to change this situation and make sure that every student can be able to read, communicate orally, in writing and in digital media and also be able to understand and use mathematics in their day to day life. The government has funded more digital media in the recent past which has helped improve learning and teaching aid among the teachers. Teachers are also required to go back to school and be trained about early childhood development which is very important knowledge when dealing with children. They are therefore supposed to go to training institutions during the holidays and attain that certificate as required by the new curriculum. With the government support together with other non-governmental organizations the curriculum has been changed for the better which has undoubtedly helped the children improves their literacy skills (Petriglieri, 2015).

Impact of the change on various stakeholders

The change has affected many people starting from the children to the teachers and other stake holders. The children are the ones who have been mostly affected by the change. There have been both positive and negative impacts among all the groups. In the children there have been noted a tremendous improvement in the literacy levels amongst the children. They can read, write and understand spoken and written media which is a great improvement. Most students have also started showing interest in mathematics and other written materials unlike the previous years (Ignatowski, 2014). A study conducted from a random school has supported these observations. The revised textbooks have made it simpler for children to study and understand. The children are also able to understand the environment and comprehend things they see from television. The change was sudden so it affected some of them and it was hard for them to change the status quo. This is the reason why some students are still ragging behind but with time they will still catch up.

The change has also affected the teachers and the government as a whole for changing the curriculum. The teachers especially the old ones had to change their teaching methods and notes they have been using to the new ones (Kotter, 1996). They also had to refresh their education so as to cope with the new curriculum and new textbooks. The government was also affected since the change required some huge monetary investment. Although it all went to a better course the amount was huge and the government had to stress some of its investment. All in all most of the impacts brought about by the change were positive hence the change should be encouraged (Chalaris, Chalaris, Gritzalis & Belsis, 2015).

Many people were involved to bring into effect this change and they all contributed to strategizing and implementing it in one way or another. Although there have been conflicts here and there in the process of implementation the stakeholders have conducted themselves well to ensure the children benefit fully from these changes. The stakeholders involved include the members of strategizing committee, the government, parent and teachers association as well as non-governmental organization (Harvey & Thomas, 2001). The government through the school administrations had a very big role in implementing this change of course with help from other stakeholders. It has helped in funding research firms that was investigating on how to improve the literacy levels in children. The government has also conducted many researches in the recent past which was all part of bringing into effect the desired change in the curriculum. The parents on the other hand also had a very big role in implementing this change. They best understand their children since they have spent most of their childhood with them. This therefore put them at the perfect position to negotiate and suggest what best for them. All the stakeholders were very important in one way or another since they were involved to plan and implement the change.

Conflict and resistance to change

Conflict has been noted severally as the change was being planned and also during its implementation. Some of the stakeholders wanted the status quo to remain hence were very vocal to disrupt the change being implemented. The curriculum change also affected the children and this brought about the conflict between the children and their teachers (Kotter, 1996). Before the children could catch up and get used to the new curriculum it was difficult for the teachers to teach as they were used to. Some children understood and liked the new curriculum easily while others took more time. There was also conflict between the government and the opposition as they didn’t want the curriculum to be changed just yet. The new change also gave children more free time hence they would spend more time with their parents. This brought about the conflict between the parents and the government since the parents are mostly never home to look after their children. Even with all those conflicts the change still became successful and the curriculum change was implemented successfully (Ignatowski, 2014).

The change objective was to improve the literacy levels among the children and this according to researchers and educationists has been achieved so far. The parents as well as the teachers have noted tremendous improvement in the literacy levels among children. All the stakeholders are very happy with the change although there are still some people complaining. With time the government has promised to iron out the challenges facing this new curriculum to make sure children receives maximum benefits from this curriculum. It has set up a team of specialist to monitor the new curriculum and find out ways of improving it more and more. The children have to benefit most so that we can build a strong foundation for the future labor market. Improving the literacy skills in children is the same as increasing productivity of workers in the labor market. This will definitely be beneficial to the country as a whole. The government is therefore happy with the current trend and is doing anything it can to ensure literacy levels continues to rise.

The relevant stakeholders like government, teachers and parents have helped in achieving the set objectives. The government sets the standards that all the schools ought to reach in order to standardize the education system countrywide. It is also the duty of the government to ensure that those standards are met so that the objectives are met. The teachers also have a duty to teach the children according to the curriculum and also according to the best of their knowledge in order to achieve those objectives. In short all the objectives have to be achieved with full collaboration of the stakeholders. The parents should also talk to their children during the time they spend together and teach them life skills that will help them in life to become better people. There also have to be effort by the children. They all have to show interest and passion in their studies so as to be able to understand the new curriculum. Discipline must be key such that when the teacher is teaching, the children are attentive and when he or she gives out homework it is done accordingly. With all these stakeholders working together there is no doubt that the new curriculum will continue to be successful and the children will reap maximum benefits (Bull & Brown, 2012).

The new change in curriculum was successful obviously due to good collaboration among the stakeholders and also good preparation by the government. A research done on why it was successful shows that the two reasons are the major reasons why the change was successful (Ignatowski, 2014). There are also other reasons that may have contributed to the success of this change. Among them is good response from the children and also children being cooperative. Enough funding on the change implementation is also another reason that made this change to be a success. Although the change is successful there are still other ways to make it better and more successful. With more funding and support from the government the change can be improved and changes can be made where there are challenges. It is up to the government to continue doing more research and on the new curriculum and also the education system as a whole so as to improve areas that have problems. The teachers should also be taken to seminars to educate them on how to improve the learning environment since it is also an important thing in children education. With those improvements the education system will be far much better than what it is right now (Kotter, 1996).

In order implement the changes effectively one has to understand the children, how they behave to certain changes and what they like. The study also had a special interest in understanding children and their behavior. From home to school most children behave in a certain similar way and if one takes keen interest in understanding them, changes like these can be easily implemented. The parents gave a report on behavior of their children at home while the teachers also gave their own report. It was noted that in order to implement a change successfully on the children you have to understand them first. This therefore requires studying them closely (Ignatowski, 2014).

Due to those people that disagree with the change in curriculum and are still opposing the new curriculum for literacy the government should adopt some change management principles to ensure it becomes successful (Ignatowski, 2014). The government should start a campaign in schools and through mass media to communicate the rationale behind the need for change. By this the opposing team will be communicated to and some will be able to see the sense why it is important for the curriculum to be changed. Others will educate each other and as the number of people supporting the change increases the change in curriculum will be implemented smoothly and successfully.

The government should also implement the change by stages since some people may not be able to take the change as a whole. Bearing in mind that most people like the status quo to remain it is advisable to implement this change bit by bit and allow the children together with other stakeholders to get used to the new curriculum slowly by slowly. Children should not be given a new thing all at once since they may fail to understand it and the change will not be successful. The teachers should also be given time to understand the new curriculum slowly by slowly. The new curriculum should also be carefully monitored and evaluated from time to time to report on its progress. With this it can be noted whether the new curriculum is failing and what can be done to improve it if that the case (Kotter, 1996). It also give a good response so that the government can know if it is still on track. Those implementation recommendation can be very useful and if followed well the new changes will definitely be successful

The case study teaches many lessons that can be used to improve education sector as a whole and also be used by other nations to improve literacy in their lower classes. First is that with the changing time things are also changing and therefore the government should keep reviewing most of its sectors to keep improving them. After researches had been done on children literacy it was noted that it needed some improvement therefore more research should continue being conducted even on other sector so as to improve on then. Change I not always welcomed by everyone since some people want the status quo to remain (Kotter, 1996). As noted by the implementation of the new curriculum there were some people who were against it even when it was evident the new curriculum was better. The government should therefore be listening to specialists and sometimes the voice of the majority whenever they want to change something that has been there for a long time (Bull & Brown, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, children have been face with many changes in their life which have affected them either positively or negatively. Some changes are good in their lives while other are bad and should be avoided. Whenever these changes occur to the children the society should always be there to guide them through and help them adapt to those changes where need be. It is therefore up to the parents, teachers and all the concerned stakeholders to pay keen attention to the children and guide them accordingly.

References

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