Education - Questions and Answers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Education - Questions and Answers - Essay Example This definition of curriculum stems from the proposition of formal learning, which considers it as an organized and systematic discourse. As such, curriculum becomes the distinctive feature that differentiates formal learning from informal learning. Learning is a process that demands certain systems and designs in order for it to achieve its set objectives. Due to its logical nature, the learning process entails the organization of knowledge in accordance with the objectives of interests of the students (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, 2011). On this score, the learning process is considered as a needs-based discourse that takes place in controlled environments that are governed by specific procedures and order. In essence, curriculum development must relate to the objectives of learning as a systematic process that proceeds in sequence from a point of relatively lesser knowledge to the projected point of adequate knowledge. Curriculum provides the mechani cs that enables the learning process. It provides the kinetic force that appropriates the learning process in accordance with the needs of the students (Kern et al, 2009). Alternative explanations contend that a curriculum is basically a plan that governs the learning process of the teaching process. This kind of explanation often considers curriculum as a document. In essence, curriculum is considered as a documentation that defines the limits and scope of the learning process in any given field of study. It serves as a guide to the teacher about the methods to be adopted in the learning process. It defines the boundaries of the learning process of a given subject in terms of the aspects to be included and those to be excluded from the learning process (Kern et al, 2009). The pursuit of the details in the curriculum helps the teacher to concentrate his or her focus on the pertinent issues that attach to the field of study (Subang, 2011). These issues are usually developed in line w ith the social, economic, political, and other forms of human discourses that have to be addressed by the study. This implies that curriculums must evolve with the changing nature of realities on which it is based. For example, studies in intelligence have often changed their curriculum in line with the changing nature of global insecurities. In the particular example of the United States, the military educational curriculum has undergone a determined shift from the cold war era to the modern age. During the cold war era the intelligence courses in the United States had their curriculum focussed primarily on the tensions between the United States and the Soviet bloc. The design of the curriculum was designed to be responsive to the needs of the society as they manifested themselves at that period. However, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of global terrorism, the curriculum has been changed in such a manner that there is more emphasis on the phenomena o f global terrorism than on the threat posed by Russia. Legislations One of the most important legislations by the United States Congress was the Native Culture, Language, and Access for Success in Schools Act. This bill was sponsored by Senator Daniel Akaka in 2011. This act was primarily intended to level the field of education by recognizing the challenges faced by non-native American students and teachers in the learning process. Among other things, it directed states to lower the kind of