Principles and trends in curriculum development Essay

Principles and trends in curriculum development - Essay Example Children naturally express such creativity in their natural communication. Their communications may be expressed in various forms or â€Å"languages†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ in words, drawing, artwork, three-dimensional constructions, music and movement. Young children do not express their ideas in just one form but move naturally and easily between â€Å"languages†. They may vacillate from drawing, speaking, singing and moving (Fawcett & Hay, 2004). A more holistic perspective of learning that likewise entails creativity development is now being supported by many educators, as it threads segregated learning into a more integrated one. Littledyke (2008) has defined integrated curriculum as such: Integrated curriculum thus refers to the use of several different strategies across several different domains and encompassing project and process approaches for holistic learning and development designed to support meaningful learning for children† (pp. 21-22). Curriculum integration hel ps students recognize connections between curriculum areas. These connections are essential to the brain in order to learn effectively. Integration changes the emphasis from the instruction of discrete academic subjects to activities that promote learning through real-life tasks. It blends academic disciplines into integrated topic studies which support creative thinking and problem solving, as opposed to rote memorization and teacher-directed instruction of isolated skills and bits of information (Krogh, 1995). An integrated curriculum consists of a number of strategies that can be applied to deepen meaningfulness and support conceptual development (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1992). The initiative to integrate curriculum began when John Dewey (1938) proposed that curriculum be linked to real-life experiences and organized around activities that interest and engage children actively. Dewey asserted that children’s interests naturally progress into appropriate learning activitie s and extend to various areas of study. As implied by the guidelines for appropriate curriculum, the concept of integration can also be attributed to the integrated nature of development; that is, development in the different domains does not occur in isolation; rather they influence one another (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1992). An integrated curriculum allows the young child to perceive the world around him more clearly. Furthermore, it provides opportunities for in-depth exploration of a topic and learning that has a thorough coverage; more choices and therefore more motivation to learn and greater satisfaction with the results; more active learning; an opportunity for the teacher to learn along with the children and model lifelong learning; and a more efficient use of student and teacher time (Brewer, 2001). For the teacher, an integrated curriculum is a good planning device that offers much flexibility. If the children lean toward another way other than what the teacher had expec ted, the integrated curriculum quickly guides her as to how to integrate it to a related concept so the flow of learning is not disrupted. At one glance, the integrated curriculum shows the coverage of what the children learn in school. It advocates natural learning, as it follows children’s interests and not impose the concepts that they need to learn. It follows that the skills they learn become meaningful to them, as it sprouts from their own interests. It also gets to touch on

Management of resources and operations Assignment

Management of resources and operations - Assignment Example Tactically the major objective of operation management is to make use of the system of operation of the firm and offer the most appropriate solution that matches with the supply and demand condition (Dhillon, 2002; Kaynak, 2003). Thus the management of resources and operation is considered as one of the pivotal tasks of an organization. Operations management takes into account the planning and coordination of work activities. The allocation of resources is another major area of operations management. In this study, a critical analysis of Logoplaste, a Portuguese based plastic manufacturing company will be evaluated. Logoplaste: A Brief Overview Logoplaste is a Portuguese based company involved in the production and marketing of rigid plastic containers. The company is a part of the industrial group and manufactures their products for some of the highly regarded and prestigious companies of the world. Logoplaste was incorporated in the year 1976 and since then the company has continuo usly offered quality products to the customers. The company caters to a wide customer base such as the personal care sector, beverage sector, oil industry, household care and lubricant sector to name a few (Logoplaste, 2013). Logoplaste has pioneered in-house production in Europe and supplied plastic bottles to clients from different parts of the world. In the last 37 years, the company has added several feathers to its cap and has been able to achieve a strong position in the market place. Today, the company manages the operation of 60 factories across the world and also manages a staggering figure of 350 equipments. It has now presence in 16 countries which are Canada, Brazil, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Malaysia, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, USA and the United Kingdom. In terms of management of the operation and resources, the company depends upon the managers. A detailed analysis of the company’s operation and management of i ts process will be done in the second section of this study. In the following section important theories related to operation management of a firm will be highlighted. Managing Operation as a Strategic Function Operation management is a key business function which overlaps with the other business functions such as finance, marketing as well as human resource. Eminent scholars such as James (2011) defined operations management as the management of processes required to deliver the goods and services to the end consumers. Echoing this concept, Hill (2005) emphasized on the fact that operation management is to manage the process of transformation of the organizational inputs to the end products. Hence, the role of an operation manager is to oversee and allocate the resource involved in the entire process of service delivery (Pande and Holpp, 2002). The operation management plays a decisive role in shaping the long term capability of an organization and heavily contributes to the overal l organizational development. For example, Sousa and Voss (2002) states that the management of operation and resources allows a company to satisfy the market requirements as well as make decisions pertaining to the deployment of resource (Prajogo and Sohal, 2006). Moreover, reconciliation of the market requirements is also possible with proper operation managem