A study of the Diploma of Education curriculum, University of Guyana in relation to the professional concerns of the 1969-1971 graduates
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1972
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Abstract
This descriptive study sought to find out whether the curriculum delivered to the participants in the 1969-71 Diploma of Education programme at the University of Guyana (UG)--all experienced practising teachers with degrees in liberal arts or sciences--met their professional concerns, and whether the concerns identified by the participants reflected those that related to the formulating and participating role expectancies of curriculum change agents, envisaged by the Ministry of Education in Guyana. Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to the 24 teachers on the programme. Among the findings were that: 1) sufficient help was given on the programme to meet the identified professional concerns of participants for developing understandings in the Foundations of Education, skills in writing learning outcomes for students, improving teaching methods, and building a suitable classroom climate; 2) sufficient help was not given to meet the identified professional concerns of participants for developing skills in diagnosing for learners, assessing and reporting student achievement, planning and implementing learning experiences for students, and organizing for different class-size units; 3) teacher concerns for developing a classroom climate for learning indicated interest in moving away from procedural strategies aimed at controlling students to one in which the climate for learning was a result of planning to meet student needs and interests; 4) the identified concerns for examining the assumptions that underlay existing classroom process as it related to educational practice were suitable organizational centres for planning the curriculum of the Foundations of Education; and 5) a theoretical base for building a school curriculum that would meet the social needs of students, and help them to resolve some of the conflicts of a pluralistic society needed to be emphasized