Understanding pedagogic practices is at the heart of the educational endeavour. Engagement with science pedagogy requires understanding of the nature of the discipline, conceptual structure, curriculum, the knowledge and beliefs of the teacher and pedagogic practices. Pedagogy cannot be reduced to imparting skills of teaching alone. It is with this broader understanding, that the course on science curriculum and pedagogy has been developed. Envisioning and developing a meaningful curriculum is a contested process. Science curriculum development is particularly influenced by multiple sub-disciplinary lenses as well as perspectives from the foundational disciplines of Educational Studies. The nature and methods of the discipline lend itself to particular kinds of curricular boundaries or classification. On the other hand, pedagogic practices have a bearing on the structure and organisation of the curriculum as well as particularities of curricular implementation,
besides having a bearing on the overarching goal of meaningful engagement with science.
This course will be the second one offered as part of the Curriculum and Pedagogy electives within disciplinary areas which also form school subjects. Students of the M.A. Education programme are expected to engage with multiple considerations which come into play in the development of the discipline, its construction as a school subject as well as teaching- learning processes. This will enable them to be meaningfully associated in the future, with curriculum development, pedagogic practices and teacher education in the discipline. In the first curriculum and pedagogy course in science, students will engage with the nature and methods of the discipline. The second course will draw upon these perspectives to develop an understanding of curricular structure and pedagogic practices of science up to the elementary level. This course will further seek to highlight various disciplinary frameworks which bear upon science curriculum development, and pedagogic practices in science at the elementary level. It will draw from developments across countries and its influences in the Indian context. Pedagogic approaches and practices with disciplinary leanings in philosophy, psychology and sociology will be discussed. Along with particular approaches with implications for pedagogy, the role of teacher beliefs and practices will also be a focus. In this context, the development of meaningful learning environments: formal and informal, and the role of the teacher in this process will be studied.