The document discusses modern trends in curriculum including electronic education, technical literacy, environmental education, health education and physical fitness, interest-driven curriculum, and skills-oriented curriculum. It notes that curriculum must consider student needs and interests. New trends incorporate more technology, environmental issues, health and wellness, and focus on developing practical skills like collaboration, problem solving, and communication that are useful in students' lives and careers. The emerging curriculum aims to be more interdisciplinary and holistic rather than compartmentalized into separate subjects.

1. ASSIGNMENT - MODERN TRENDS IN CURRICULUM Aswathy M.S New B.E.D College Nellimoodu Social science Candidate code: 169/13376008

2. MODERN TRENDS INCURRICULUM
CURRICULUM
A curriculum is more than putting together a set of academically required subjects. It must consider all aspects of the student life, the learning needs of students, the time available for the sessions and the teachers’ idea, capability and workload.
Whenever we embark on any new plan or procedure, we need to make sure that we have all the plans drawn up. What is on offer, what are the resources that we have, what are the steps, which we need to take and what are the goals that we need to achieve are some elements that need to be looked upon. A similar set of constraints when applied to education in schools and colleges gives birth to curriculum. A curriculum is a set of courses, including their content, offered at a school or university. The curriculum often contains a detailed list of subjects and the elements of teaching them.
SOCIAL SCIENCE & CURRICULUM
Curriculum is the crux of the whole educational process. Without curriculum, we cannot conceive any educational endeavor. School curriculum of a country, like its constitution reflects the ethos of that country.
Social sciences are the sources and storehouses of scientific social knowledge. One of the major curricular goals it aims at is equipping children with learning experience in the context of social relationships. As such familiarity with cultural norms, geographical settings civic and political institutions with special reference to

3. developmental changes in the cognitive domain has to be a major objective. Same is the case of developmental changes in the cognitive domain in terms of personal qualities, interests, attitudes and values. The fostering social competence is the sole responsibility of social science. The social science curriculum is the most appropriate medium required for the purpose. As such, every social science teacher has to get a clear and through knowledge of the importance, meaning, scope and nature of good social science curriculum together with the principles for its development and transaction
Education is a developmental process, geared towards a coveted goal, curriculum is the input as well as the medium that provides goal oriented direction to that process.
Content
Objectives ooobjectives
Activities
Evaluation
Curriculum

4. Significance of Curriculum
 In Elementary Schools
In elementary schools, the curriculum is primarily drawn by the educational boards or some central society. They study the needs of the kids and all other feasibilities before selecting courses and drafting a curriculum. Here, the students have least choice in their subjects and study based on a universal curriculum, which works on all sections of the students’ psyche and aid in the total development of the student. No area is left untouched. Hence, the curriculum aids in the proper development, while the child comes to terms with his or her own inclination. Therefore, at primary school levels, the curriculum aims at providing a structured platform, which gives every child an equal opportunity to excel.
 In High Schools
At high school levels, teenagers can take their own liberty in choosing their path. Though complete autonomy does not rest with a student, a level of choice is very evident. This helps in the development of the teenager, with added importance of being given the field of his own choice. At this stage, the development is more focused and rampant, enhanced through a proper curriculum. Without an effective curriculum, a student would not be able to understand or meet the challenges of the society.
 At College & Higher Education
At a higher stage of education, an unprecedented autonomy is provided to the students. The students can opt for a more focused curriculum, based on their choice of subjects. A student will graduate, post-graduate or attain a doctorate based on the choice of his subjects and the mode of his study, both or either one determined by

5. him. The curriculum here is reduced to just a framework that is very flexible yet very important. The curriculum chosen by the student will go on to determine the shape of his career. A curriculum prepares an individual with the knowledge to be successful, confident and responsible citizens.
New trends
1. Electronic Education
The advent of video technology has made available another valuable tool for instruction. Videotapes, cassettes, and disks can be used for instruction in classrooms, libraries, resource centers, and the student's home. Since the video can be played at any convenient time, the students never have to miss a lesson.

6. 2. Technical Literacy
Because of the revolution in technology, the schools must now educate citizens to become familiar with computers, electronics, lasers, and robots. Computer literacy stands very high in the development of fundamental skill.
In a high-tech economy, workers will need to be better educated and have better cognitive, communication, and cooperative team skills. People at home and on the job will have calculators, computers, fax machines, and other technical tools to do their symbol crunching for them; however, they will have to decide what buttons to push and what the symbols mean education will help them to do all such things. In cooperation with industry and government, schools must identify the emerging technologies and services and provide a curriculum that prepares students for viable careers.

7. 3. Environmental Education
Mounting concern over such problems as pollution, toxic waste, over- population, and depletion of food and natural resources has created demands for more knowledge and new programs in ecology and environmental education. Much of the relevant content has long been included in traditional earth sciences, biology, geography courses, and in conservation programs. The new demand calls for a more meaningful and better coordinated program that raises the theme of crisis
Rather than terrifying students about ecological disaster, however, schools should prepare students for tomorrow's world by helping them understand how scientific, social, and political issues interact. Because mere possession of knowledge does not ensure proper action, the curriculum must also deal with the attitudes, values, and moral thinking that lead to responsible environmental behavior. Ecological literacy re-quires a comprehensive view of the modern world, how scientific, social, and political issues combine and lead to problems and/or solutions. It requires that schools in the future take a more active role in requiring students to study the environment-and not expect government agencies and activist groups to manage or protect people from other people

8. 4. Health Education and Physical Fitness
Many educators’ believe in health education and physical fitness. Certainly AIDS education is going to be incorporated into the curriculum, as early as the elementary grade levels. Dietary habits and exercise comprise another health concern. Many young students appear to be eating their way toward heart disease and other maladies later in life. In addition, school children have been increasingly unable to pass basic physical fitness tests; they do poorly on measures of body development, strength, and flexibility. Television and video viewing habits among children and youth have contributed to this lack of fitness, what we might call the "fat and flabby" generation. Educators frequently assert that we will need to rebuild these programs in the curriculum of the future. Some schools are already recognizing the need to provide better guidance for diet and exercise. Sports, too, should be reoriented to increase the emphasis on aerobic and rhythmic activities (running, jumping, jogging, and bicycling). The primary goal for physical and health programs is to have fun and socialize in sporting activities, not to compete and win-to adopt life-long exercise behavior.

9. 5. Interest-driven
Curriculum must be interest driven the idea of learner-centered education might not be new research from the 1990s shows that students’ interests is directly correlated to their achievement. But a growing movement is being propelled by the explosive growth in individualized learning technology that could feed it and we’re starting to see the outlines of how it could seep into the world of formal education. “The better way is to motivate each student to learn through his or her passion. Passion drives people to learn (and perform) far beyond their, and our expectations. And whatever is learned through the motivation of passion is rarely if ever forgotten”

10. 6. Skills oriented
Things like collaboration, innovation, critical thinking, and communication are thought to be just as important and because there practical skills that can be used in the world outside the confines of school. Rethinking is another important factor.
Entire schools are dedicated to teaching skills like learning how to create video games, whether it’s to boost brain power and multitasking skills, or to learn applied physics as they do at the New York school Quest to Learn. The idea is that the process of learning that skill can be put to use in the real world.
Opinions differ on the direction education will take, and library shelves are filled with volumes describing current and anticipated changes in society and education. Despite disagreements, however, it is likely that certain trends in particular will increasingly affect curriculum planning. The emerging curriculum responds to the urge to break away from traditional disciplines, to develop more interdisciplinary approaches. In the curriculum of the future, subject matter most likely will be less compartmentalized and more integrated and holistic. Although traditional subject boundaries will remain, there will be increased cross-subject material. Knowledge will no longer be considered fragmented or linear, but

11. multidisciplinary and multidimensional; it will also be integrated with more visual and auditory resources and rely less on verbal and reading materials.
7. Digital delivery
No longer shackled to books as their only source of content, educators and students are going online to find reliable, valuable, and up-to-the-minute information Google’s Education apps and sources that teachers can use as teaching tools, such as the Sketch Up design software and Google Earth are just a few of the free, easily accessible sources available online The open-source movement has further pushed online content to include learners and educators in the actual content-creating process. Wikipedia was one of the first open-source sites, and though many still question the accuracy of Wikipedia entries (note the 2005 study showed that the popular website is as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica), there’s a movement afoot to make it a more trusted source.

12. REFERENCE
 DR.Sivarajan k DR.Thulasidharan T.V, DR.Vijayan N.K (2008)”social science education methodology of teaching and pedagogical analysis” Calicut university central co-operative society, Calicut
 www.ibe.unesco.org/curriculum/China/Pdf/IIindia.pdf