1. NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
AN OVERVIEW - LEVEL II

2. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
Welcome to the course on National Curriculum Framework! This course is broadly divided into 5 sections:
Section 1: FEEL - Current feel and perception of curriculum
Through this section, we will explore your idea of curriculum.
Section 2: IMAGINE - Imagine how curriculum in a classroom should ideally be
In this section, we will look at
What a curriculum should look like?
What is the purpose of a good curriculum and why should we learn about NCF?

3. Section 3: Do - What is National Curriculum Framework?
In this section, we will explore in detail, about what are the
Principles of National Curriculum Framework
Component parts of NCF
Implementation of NCF in classroom
Section 4: Share - Impact of NCF on policy making
In this section, we will examine the impact of NCF on policy making
Section 5: Evaluation - Graded Evaluation
This course ends with a graded evaluation that will check your understanding of the material.

4. FEEL - WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF A CURRICULUM?
Lesson plans and syllabus

5. Now let’s watch this interesting video to understand if you were right about what is meant by curriculum!
Do the ideas in the video match with what you had imagined about curriculum?Is there a correlation with what you felt, imagined and watched in the above video?

7. IMAGINE - WHAT IS AN IDEAL CURRICULUM?
Let’s watch Ariel Diaz as he talks about how an effective curriculum should be.
Reflect on the points noted by you in the previous question. Do your ideas match with Mr Ariel?

8. WHY DO WE NEED AN EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM?
Let’s now watch how TFI fellow Avantika encourages her kids to reflect on their dreams to make them feel valued and ensure that their voices are heard.

9. Let’s also watch how one of our TFI school kids from a community in Delhi feels secure and valued in his classroom.

11. Here is an example of how Teach for India uses a rubric called Student Vision Scale (SVS).
The rubric is being used in TFI schools to understand where our students stand in knowledge, skills, academics, exposure and also the main component aligned towards a joyful classroom, the values and mindsets.

12. In the videos we could see that the kids felt valued and secure in the class. We could also see that the kids have their own voice and could express their opinion. This is mainly due to flipping of a teacher student model to more of a student centred model.
National Curriculum Framework(NCF) was devised in 2005 to promote the child centred approach of learning. The NCF committee asserts that the learning at school cannot become a joyful experience unless we change our perception of the child as a receiver of knowledge and move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis for examination.
“Learning should be an enjoyable act where children should feel that they are valued and their voices are heard. The curriculum structure and school should be designed to make school a satisfactory place for students to feel secure and valued” quotes the report of NCF Learning without burden.

13. DO - WHAT IS NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK?
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) is one of the four National Curriculum Frameworks published in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in India.
The NCF provides the framework for making syllabi, textbooks and teaching practices within the school education programmes in India.
The NCF draws its idea and basis from earlier government reports on education such as ‘Learning Without Burden’ and ‘National Policy of Education ( )’

14. FEATURES OF NCF
Features of NCF were mainly classified into five focus areas:
Perspective of NCF
Learning and knowledge
Curricular area, School stages and assessment
School and Classroom Environment
Systemic Reforms

15. PERSPECTIVE OF NCF - GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Connecting knowledge to life outside the school
-- Check the interesting course “Integration to excellent education” to understand more about how to apply this principle in your classroom
Enriching the curriculum to provide for overall development of children rather than remain textbook centric
-- We can look at how to integrate different elements into your lesson in later stages in the course, you can also check the course on “Integrating art into your classroom”and ”Joy in the classroom”

16. Ensuring that learning is shifted away from rote methods
-- To move away from rote methods and ensure overall development in children without the fear of examinations, here’s what you can do in your classroom!
Provide daily life examples while teaching concepts and show working models for theories
Take them out on field trips to suggest the connection with the subjects they learn and using the knowledge outside school
Organize seminars in school by experts from certain fields who can talk about the usage of subjects in their fields
Conduct activities in classroom using tools like theatre, dance, quizzes, team building activities to teach certain concepts to prevent them from having to memorize them and be more confident during exams

17. Making examinations more flexible, non-threatening and integrated into classroom life
-- Check the comprehensive course “Performance Task” to understand how to apply this principle in your classroom
Nurturing an over-riding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country
-- This principle mainly focuses on creating a conducive and inclusive environment where every child’s voice is heard irrespective of their social, religious or economic backgrounds.
For more implications of guiding principles of National Curriculum Framework, you can find the original document here.

18. LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE
The NCF committee decided that, in order to bring about the overall development of the students,
the curriculum should focus on holistic development of the students to enhance physical and mental development in individuals and as well as with the peer interactions.
learning should be made enjoyable and should relate to real life experiences and that learning should involve concepts and deeper understanding.
To understand how to focus on holistic development of your children check the course on “Integration of excellent education”and to focus on making your classroom more enjoyable, check the courses on “Setting up classroom culture”and “Joy in the classroom”.

19. the curriculum should prepare the students and provide support for social and emotional support that will inculcate positive behavior and provide skills essential to cope with situations that they encounter in their lives, peers pressure and gender stereotype.
situations and opportunities have to be created for students to provide students with challenges, encourage creativity and active participation for students.
the foundation should be laid strong and firm: primary, upper primary and middle school should provide the space for children to explore and develop rational thinking. The curriculum should imbibe in them and have sufficient knowledge on concepts, language, knowledge, investigation and validation procedures.
Check the course What, Why and How of Values to translate these principles into your classroom.

20. To ensure that the education provided in your classroom is applicable to students in the democratic and social context of our country, you should
Do a careful study of children and an understanding of what they are capable of learning at different ages.
Explore new areas of knowledge and experience, inclusivity in selecting learning tasks and pedagogic practices that are alert to promoting participation.
Build self-confidence and critical awareness and an openness to engaging with the community.
To explore more about understanding your children, their community and their socio-economic backgrounds, check the course on “Understanding school community”

21. LEARNING BEYOND CLASSROOM
Integrate real-life elements in your classroom along with lessons to ensure that your students are able to link what you teach in class with what they see outside of school in everyday life.
Let’s watch our TFI fellow Nirali as she integrates Reading Comprehension in classroom along with reading a famous children’s novel series.

22. Did you see how Nirali brought in elements from real life like children’s novel series into the classroom to teach reading in her classroom? This could be an example of how you can introduce reading to your children while also implementing the NCF principle of “Learning beyond Classroom”.

23. CURRICULAR AREA, SCHOOL STAGES AND ASSESSMENT
With intense study on the importance of each of the curricular areas, NCF concluded many strategies. We will be exploring a few of them in our course and examples to use them in your classrooms.
Languages
Mathematics
Science and Computers
Social sciences
Art Education and Study of peace
Work related education
Physical Education

24. Apart from the regular subjects
Apart from the regular subjects. NCF particularly stresses on art education, computer education, work related skill based development and physical education as important pillars of personal, social, economic and aesthetic development of students.
Let’s now watch how our TFI fellow, Sweta Sarkar, implemented an effective method to bring light to an important event in history by roleplay in class, making it a fun experience for all students!

25. Did you see how each of these component mention in NCF principles reflected in her classroom?
She introduced a historical event in the form of a role play in her classroom. This satisfies the NCF principle of “Learning and Knowledge”, made subject “enjoyable” as well as ensured that students “voices are heard. ”
Reflecting on the video, think of some ideas to implement different ways to integrate fun elements in your classroom to make your lessons more enjoyable.
Make sure that you include rich values and mindsets for holistic development of your students.
You can also check the course on “Integration into excellent education” for more ideas on holistic development of children.

27. SCHOOL AND CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
Classroom environment should be favorable to students in terms of infrastructure, adequate light and ventilation, student teacher ratio, hygiene and safe environment.
Schools should also treat students with equality, justice respect, dignity and right of the students.
Give equal opportunities for all students to participate in all activities without any bias.
Policy of inclusion has to be part of the school where differently abled and children from marginalized section get equal opportunities.
The schools should also be well equipped with libraries, laboratories and educational technology laboratories

28. Let’s watch Ms Shailaja Mulay voice her thoughts on a conducive school environment that is important for a student learning.

30. You can also do a spectrum activity in your class to find out how your kids feel.
On a scale of 1-10, ask your students to rate how they feel in your classroom (1 - discriminated and not well respected to 10 - extremely safe and respected).
If most of your students are on the spectrum where they feel respected and equal. You are doing a great job!
You can also look at the courses “Joy in Classroom”, “Setting up classroom culture” and “Building relationships with students” to understand building a safe, joyous and inclusive space for your children.

31. SYSTEMIC REFORMS
The NCF has aimed at bringing about reforms in the education system
To bring about a curriculum that is learner centric, has a flexible process and provides learner autonomy.
To support and encourage learning, involve active participation of learners and teacher as facilitator
To develop multidisciplinary curriculum, focus on education, bring about multiple and divergent exposure, multifarious, continuous appraisal in educational system.
Reduce burden of students and provide flexibility in exams, assessments, work related education with skills and vocational based training.

32. Now let’s watch Mr Luis, a Teach for America Fellow, talk about how he transformed his classroom from a teacher centred to a student centred approach.
You can find his entire guiding video on Student centred learning here.

34. SHARE - IMPACT OF NCF IN POLICY MAKING
To understand the impact of NCF in policies better, we will have to explore the effect in different cities and contexts in India.

35. There have been several acclaimed reports on NCF, nonetheless, there are many open ended questions with respect to its impact and implementation.
Some potential analysis ideas that you could start with your peer teachers could be
Tracking Pratham scores over time and linking it to implementation of NCF-friendly curriculum. You can explore implementation outcomes of NCF curriculum in different phases.
For example, if Karnataka adopted a NCF-inspired curriculum in 2005 and Punjab in 2007, the difference in outcomes over the 2 year period can be partially attributed to NCF.
Mapping each element of a state’s curriculum to NCF and providing a score - how closely are elements of state’s curriculum following the ideas of NCF?
Subsequently, you can also link this to student learning outcomes and see how they’re affected.

36. Several factors that are yet be researched in the implementation would be
Are teachers adopting child-friendly practises as a result of a NCF inspired curriculum
Are teachers moving away from rote learning as a preferred method of teaching as a result of NCF-inspired curriculum?
Are students less “behind” as a result of NCF-inspired annual learning standards?
Are students getting personalized support in classes as a result of NCF ideas?
Are students reporting less stress as a result of adoption of NCF prescribed practises?
These questions can be conversation starters with your peer teachers and would be worth exploring with your school leaders to see how it could create a change in policy making.

37. EVALUATION

38. Learning and knowledge

42. APPENDIX Integrating NCF principles in subjects:
English:
Mathematics:
Science:
Student centred vs Traditional approach:
NCF critic paper

43. CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE COURSE!
CHECK THE COURSE CATALOG FOR MORE SUCH INTERESTING COURSES.