It is difficult to keep students focused on what is being taught all the time. A concept-based curriculum will keep things interesting, says Dr Neelima Kamrah

To address the challenges in the field of education, concept-based learning is needed in curriculum. The world is changing so that knowledge is and content can change but concept stay the same. Concept-based learning emphasize on big ideas rather than focusing on subject-specific content. Information is useless until and unless we can do something with it.

Concept-based learning brings ‘real world’ meaning to content knowledge and skills by leading students to consider the context in which they will use their understanding. A concept-based education not only improves results but also promotes the learning capacities to enable students to succeed in the future. Its instruction must begin with content skills and knowledge established by local standards and curriculum guides.

It is an educational method that centers on big-picture ideas and learning how to organise and categorise information. Unlike more traditional learning models which concentrate on the ability to recall specific facts (like the dates of an event), conceptual learning focuses on understanding broader principles or ideas (what we call concepts). The traditional method of education is to connect students with information sources only without knowing that weather the student is able to understand the concept and remember it or not.

MakE meaningful schooling

A concept-based education challenges learners to think more widely and deeply than a traditional, topic-based, two-dimensional one. It focuses only on knowledge and skills, whereas the former goes much further and deeper, developing conceptual understanding.

Relevance of education

In order to be relevant, a curriculum must look at all aspects of a young person’s development as a learner. Science specialists still need to develop their creativity; linguists still need to be fit; artists still need to be responsibly active citizens.Happy and successful school-leavers have both a bag of great academic results and a bag of learning capacities that enable them to use these grades to good effect. These are ingredients for success.

Benefits

We believe that a creative, concept-based education engages the intellect and emotions of a student to a higher degree than a more traditional, topic-based curriculum. This helps students to transfer their understandings across learning areas. They are better equipped to make connections to their own experiences and the wider world, both now and when looking to the future.

Their intellect is developed to handle a world of increasing complexity and accelerating change, producing an intellectual depth in thinking and understanding. Students’ motivation for learning is increased, as they are encouraged to analyse facts and consider implications in a personally engaging way.

Increase in interest

Interest is a powerful motivational process that energises learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success.

Interest is both a psychological state of attention and affection toward a particular object or topic and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time.

   It is difficult to keep the student at one place and keep focused on what is being taught. That’s why it is important to make the curriculum interesting so that students are in touch with them. This specialty is in concept-based education. Whether it is an English drama or a chapter of Science, concept-based education makes everything interesting.

The writer is Registrar, KIIT College of Education Gurgaon