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Aiou Assignment Code 6511 Autumn 2022
Aiou Assignment Code 6511 Autumn 2022
Level: MA/M.Ed.
Assignment No.1
Q.1 Discuss the nature and need of Pakistan Studies and further elaborte the
relation with other subjects.
Even if they know some, it's just the names of some of the famous personalities
and not the details about their achievements, life and causes of success or downfall.
The books on Pakistan Studies of different levels cover the topics which are
repeated in all of them.
There is no need to teach about those selected topics at each level. Instead the need
is to include more topics, which could be informative, as well as beneficial, for the
students.
Besides history, there should be topics of current issues and problems which our
country is currently facing.
Human rights and its importance must be taught to eradicate social evils and
problems which our country is facing.
Moreover, the content presented in the book should not mould students to become
narrow-minded and parochial. Aims should be to open the faculty to accept past
follies and learn to rectify the mistakes.
This would create enlightenment in students and encourage them to get what their
ancestors did not achieve.
It is highly important that textbooks are free from indoctrination and any kind of
bias or stereotyping and should give actual facts and figures.
This does not mean that textbooks should only contain facts and figures, rather
they should be presented in an interesting way so that students enjoy learning and
reading books.
It should create and develop interest towards the subject and help widen their
outlooks and open new vistas of knowledge. There should be a variety of
questions, as well as activities, for learners so that they can learn with fun.
References and sources must be given in the books for further study.
International organizations
As the second largest South Asian country, and one of the major actors in the
politics of the Muslim world, Pakistan is a focus of multidisciplinary
studies. Various universities in the United States and the United Kingdom have
research groups busy in academic and research related activities on Pakistan
Studies. One such example is the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) at
the University of Wisconsin–Madison, established since 1973. An affiliate of
the Association for Asian Studies, the institute regularly holds events such as
seminars, public lectures, and conferences on various topics related to the Pakistan
Studies. It also offers annual international fellowships for the research on materials
relating to the history and culture of Pakistan.
There are also larger multinational and multicultural organizations that provide
pluralist platforms for the discussions and debates on Pakistan Studies within the
wider contexts of Asia. The Asia Foundation, for example, has launched specific
projects for a diverse understanding of the subject through actions on local
governance, civil society, human rights, and healthcare as well as political,
economic, judicial, and foreign relations.[
Curriculum
In Pakistan
In Pakistan, the subject is one of the three compulsory courses (along with
the Urdu and English language courses) at the Secondary School and Higher
Secondary school levels of education. It is also taught as a degree course at most of
the Social Science departments in many universities. There are also university
departments dedicated to the education and research in Pakistan Studies.
Many of these departments provide degree programmes for in-depth studies, as
well as research facilities for MPhil and PhD scholars. Courses broadly range from
the history, politics and linguistics to the country's geography and economics, and
from foreign affairs and religion studies to the social relations and literature. The
focused attention on the subject at higher education levels means a wider scope for
the research, thus making the subject an increasingly interdisciplinary one.
Curriculum issues
The variable political history of Pakistan shows the country being ruled alternately
by the civilian and military leaderships. This lack of political succession has had its
effects on the way the history was depicted in the curricula of Pakistan Studies
until 2006, which increasingly portrayed what Rubina Saigol termed as
'glorification of military'. However, the occasional attempts to alter the historical
texts did not escape criticisms from the academics and scholars in Pakistan and
abroad. Historian Ayesha Jalal in her 1995 article also raised concerns over the
trends of official historiography in Pakistan's history textbooks.
Curriculum reforms
Following the extensive media debate and academic reiteration on the need to
update the curriculum at all levels of education, the Government of
Pakistan carried out measures in 2006 to improve the national curriculum for
Pakistan Studies. These actions were based on the earlier studies and
recommendations by the former University Grants Commission in 2001] and then
later by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) in 2003
The new curriculum, for secondary and higher school certificates, was
implemented from 2007 to include the political history from pre-independence to
the modern times, international relations, evolution of the country's economy and
demographics, diversity of regional cultures and languages, and the status of
religious groups with specific reference to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s views that he
expressed at his speech of 11 August 1947. It also eliminates prejudice against
non-Muslims, efforts have been made to exclude all such material that promotes
prejudice against the non-Muslims of pre-independence India.
Subsequently, the need was also realised to standardise the subject framework
across the university degrees. As a result, in 2007, the Curriculum Division at the
HEC revised the syllabus for the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Master of
Science in Pakistan Studies. The new higher education course outline goes beyond
the literature, politics, history and culture, and addresses the contemporary
challenges of urbanisation, foreign policy and environmentThe recommendations
also imply the needs for training the teachers to improve their communication
skills in accordance with the new structures.
The content of Pakistan studies at secondary level spreads over ten chapters for
class x.
· Ideology of Pakistan
· National characteristics
· Two nation theory, Muslim League as mass movement and the establishment
of Pakistan.
· Location
· Physical features
· Climate of Pakistan
· Agricultural resources
· Mineral resources
· Power resources
· Human resources
· Language of Pakistan
The main features of the content contained in this chapter are the concepts of
welfare state, national goals, need for sustained constructive efforts, and self
sufficiency in food, universal education, egalitarian society, universal
brotherhood and world peace, balanced distribution of resources and role of
individuals towards welfare state.
Critical review
On the whole the course is theoretical in nature, not supported by various activities
to be carried out by students so that the subject could be making interesting and
consolidate the understanding of concepts around the topic. Activity is the natural
urge of the child, while this need of the child is not incorporated to bring the
student close to the real life situation.
No objectives are given in the beginning of each chapter. Contents are not devised
properly due to lack of objectives.
New social problems & issues will emerge with the passage of time but in this
book there is no flexibility to absorb and accommodate such changes and
development without disturbing its fundamentals and equilibrium.
Important project work is not given at the end of each unit as to ensure the
participation of social children in various community based activities outside the
school.
There is no provision of skill development for school children e.g. Map making, or
making models of different form of landscapes.
Q4: What are the factors which affect content selection? What is the rationale
for adopting the principles of selection of content for Pakistan Studies.
The micro curriculum employs the seven criteria for the selection of subject matter
below. For the macro curriculum, the subjects needed for the curricular program or
course comprise the content.
1. SELF-SUFFICIENCY
To help learners attain maximum self-sufficiency most economically is the central
guiding principle of subject matter or content selection (Scheffler, 1970) as cited
by Bilbao et al. (2008). Although the economy of learning implies less teaching
effort and less use of educational resources, students gain more results. They can
cope up with the learning outcomes effectively.
This criterion means students should be given a chance to experiment, observe, and
do field study. This system allows them to learn independently.
With this principle in mind, I suggest that there should be a one-day independent
learning activity each week for a high school curriculum or preparatory year.
However, this should be carefully planned by the teacher. When the students
return, they should present outputs from the activity.
2. SIGNIFICANCE
The subject matter or content is significant if it is selected and organized to
develop learning activities, skills, processes, and attitudes. It also develops the
three domains of learning, namely the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills,
and considers the learners’ cultural aspects. Particularly, if your students come
from different cultural backgrounds and races, the subject matter must be culture-
sensitive.
In short, select content or subject matter that can achieve the overall aim of the
curriculum.
3. VALIDITY
Validity refers to the authenticity of the subject matter or content you selected.
Make sure that the topics are not obsolete.
For example, do not include typewriting as a skill to be learned by college
students. It should be about the computer or Information Technology (IT).
Thus, there is a need to regularly check the curriculum’s subject matter or contents
and replace it if necessary. Do not wait for another five years to change it.
Modern curriculum experts are after current trends, relevance, and authenticity of
the curriculum; otherwise, the school or the country become obsolete.
4. INTEREST
Some teachers are bookish.
This criterion is valid to the learner-centered curriculum. Students learn best if the
subject matter is interesting, thus makes it meaningful to them.
5. UTILITY
Another criterion is the usefulness of the content or subject matter. Students think
that a subject matter or some subjects are not necessary to them. They view it as
useless. As a result, they do not study.
6. LEARNABILITY
The subject matter or content must be within the schema of the learners. It should
be within their experiences. Teachers should apply theories in the psychology of
learning to know how subjects are presented, sequenced, and organized to
maximize students’ learning capacity.
7. FEASIBILITY
Feasibility means the full implementation of the subject matter. It should consider
the school’s real situation, the government, and society. Students must learn within
the allowable time and the use of resources available. Do not give them a topic that
is impossible to finish.
For example, you have only one week left to finish the unit, but the activities may
take a month for the students to complete. Thus, this requirement is not workable.
Do not offer a computer subject if there is no electricity in the area, or there are no
computers.
Further, feasibility means that there should be teachers who are experts in that area.
For example, do not offer English for Business Communication if there is no
teacher to handle it.
Also, there is a need to consider the nature of the learners. The organization and
design of the subject matter or content must be appropriate for the nature of
students.
Q.5 Compare Activity method and Project method. In your view which is the
most appropriate for teaching Pakistan Studies.
Authenticity. The project features real-world context, tasks and tools, quality
standards or impact. Or it speaks to students’ personal concerns, interests and
issues in their lives.
Student Voice & Choice. Students make some decisions about the project,
including how they work and what they create.
Critique & Revision. Students give, receive and use feedback to improve their
process and products.
Public Product. Students make their project work public by explaining, displaying
and/or presenting it to people beyond the classroom.
We think that is a good and useful set of design principles. Most of it applies not
only to project-based learning but also to a group of related instructional strategies.
We see seven key dimensions (design variables) for projects and related learning
activities:
Each of these dimensions offers a series of tradeoffs. The continua presented below
aren’t a range of bad to good, they are a series of instructional strategies that
should be consciously selected for a set of intended outcomes.
Projects typically have a set of desired outcomes and defined deliverables; often
knowledge, skills as well as dispositions. Desired outcomes are often incorporated
into a rubric assessment and clearly communicated up front.
Learning experiences with less well-defined content outcomes (although they may
be quite specific to a particular skill set) include:
Applied learning emphasizes hands on experiences. Like Project Lead The Way
courses, they may be a series of teacher-led activities or more open-ended projects.
Maker education is only bounded by the materials, tools, and creativity of teachers
and learners. It’s a design and tinkering experience based on a particular challenge
and/or set of resources.
Creative play, such as the Global Cardboard Challenge, lets children explore their
interests and passions through open-ended activity but can be relatively specific
about desired outcomes including creativity, critical thinking, resourcefulness,
perseverance and teamwork.
Project topics and deliverables can be defined by a teacher as they are at most New
Tech Network schools.