Reaction Of Teachers And Learners To The Constructivism Based Curriculum

Abstract

The researchers were intrigued about the learner centered curriculum which is now familiarly referred to as “The new curriculum” which the Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda introduced in 2020. Much publicity was made about it and there were some reactions about this curriculum from the society, while authorities from the Ministry of Education and Sports were threatening to take punitive action against those teachers and other people who would interfere with the smooth application of this curriculum. The researchers wanted to find out the reaction of teachers and learners to this learner centered curriculum. The research was underpinned by Tyler’s curriculum planning model and by the constructivism theory of teaching and learning. This research was carried out in some secondary schools in Wakiso district and in Lubaga and Makindye divisions of Kampala, Uganda. The researchers used a descriptive survey design because it suited very well what the authors wanted to find out. Surprisingly, the researchers found out that teachers and learners reacted positively to this learner centered curriculum. Except the teachers pointed out three challenges namely, large number of learners in classrooms, clumsy furniture which is not ideal for group work in those classrooms and a great shortage of learners’ text books. It was concluded that since the teachers and learners reacted positively to this new curriculum, it has a good chance to succeed. The researchers recommended that the Ministry of Education and Sports should endeavor to produce enough text books for learners. The schools should divide up learners of one year into manageable numbers. Also progressively, administrators of the schools should provide furniture in classrooms which is ideal for group work and the Ministry of Education and Sports should appoint enough teachers to those secondary schools which have got very many learners.