Recent Curriculum Reforms at the Basic Education Level in Nigeria Aimed at Catching Them Young to Create Change

Igbokwe, Charity O.

doi:10.12691/education-3-1-7

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Recently in Nigeria, there has been a review of the Universal Basic Education Curriculum (Federal Ministry of Education, ) by the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (Igbokwe, ), however, despite that there is a curriculum in place, there is not a readily accessible detailed roadmap for teachers. Additionally, “understanding” of inquiry is not included in what students are expected to know or learn in Elementary classrooms.…”

Section: Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Lederman

Bartels

et al. 2019

J Res Sci Teach

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Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large‐scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.

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Section: Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Lederman

Bartels

et al. 2019

J Res Sci Teach

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“…The 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum emphasizes among others, value re-orientation, poverty eradication and employment generation capabilities in learners. In this curriculum reform initiatives, science, technology, mathematics, and vocational education and training are specifically designed to provide the contents, learning experiences and skills for the socio-economic transformation of the Nigerian nation (Ibokwe, 2015). It was developed in response to Nigeria's need for relevant, dynamic and globally competitive education that would ensure that learners at the Basic Education level are capable to compete favourably anywhere in the world in terms of knowledge, skills, techniques, values and aptitude.…”

Section: Basic Education Curriculum (Bec)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Restructuring and Re-alignment of Extant Primary and Junior Secondary Schools Curricula: Challenges to Basic Science and Value Education

Cyril¹,

Muhammad²,

Ekele³

2019

World Journal of Innovative Research

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Before now, the existing curricula used in Nigeria primary and secondary schools have been described as being overloaded, as such could not induce in learners the needed entrepreneurial skills for self reliance and the ability to response to challenges posed by globalization. In an attempt to bridge these observable limitations, the National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) restructured and realigned all extant primary and junior Secondary Schools Curricula, which gave rise to the new 9-year Basic Education Curriculum. This trend has left much to be desired. Hence, this paper is an attempt to identify and give answers to some basic challenges posed by the approaches adopted to reduce the overload identified in the curricula with respect to subject listings and composites subjects presented under sub-themes. Particular references were made to religion and national values as well as basic science and technology. It highlighted the basic features of the basic education curriculum, composite subjects and their corresponding sub-themes. Finally the paper suggested among others, that subject matters which are centered on values and skills acquisition should be presented to the learner in their own right and practices not under sub-themes. Secondly, ambiguous subject listing under a sub-theme would only compound content delivery and assessment requirements.

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“…The introduction of thinking skills is yet to be considered a teachable subject in the secondary schools. [9] & [10] remarked that it is not enough to produce curriculum, it is even more important to include innovative thinking skills subjects during classroom practices, which is lacking in Nigerian schools.…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Inclusion of Thinking Skills: A Panacea for Improving Instructional Practices in Nigerian Secondary School Education

Chinaka¹,

Chukwudi²,

Afan³

et al. 2018

EDUCATION

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Having critically studied the current New Secondary School Curriculum (NSSC), it is glaring that there was neither the inclusion nor any consideration given to Thinking Skills. Rather, much emphasis was made on IT and Entrepreneurial skills. Thus, the question is: how can we teach these subjects without emphasising thinking skills, and teaching students to be great critical thinkers using thinking skills?" It is on this ground that this paper is conceptualised to call for a review of the NSSC to include Thinking Skills, so as to create an equilibrium in the teaching and learning process. This will make the students problem solvers and it will reposition them to be invaluable assets to the Nigerian society and beyond. This paper examines such issues as the thinking skills initiative, adoption of thinking points and maps in the classroom, a theoretical review of teaching thinking skills in schools, inclusion of thinking skills in the UK and the new secondary school curriculum in Nigeria. Lastly, recommendations are made on the benefits of thinking skills inclusion in the teaching curriculum.

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Recent Curriculum Reforms at the Basic Education Level in Nigeria Aimed at Catching Them Young to Create Change

Cited by 33 publications

References 0 publications

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Restructuring and Re-alignment of Extant Primary and Junior Secondary Schools Curricula: Challenges to Basic Science and Value Education

The Inclusion of Thinking Skills: A Panacea for Improving Instructional Practices in Nigerian Secondary School Education

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