MES-104: PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

a) How can management of curriculum lead to an improvement in learning environment

in an institution of higher learning? (500 words)
ANS

A higher education institution is only as good as the academic students who carry out its
core function of teaching. The rest of the workforce is ultimately there to facilitate this
function – to do all the things required to cultivate a successful centre of learning.

The three definitions of curriculum discussed above have in common the idea that
curriculum is something which is planned prior to the teaching - learning situations. The
fourth category of definitions differs from the above as it refers to curriculum as
experiences of the learners which is an outcome of the planned situations. The
proponents of this group firmly believe that what happens is not always in accordance
with what was planned. Hence the above definitions, in their opinion, constitute only the
cuniculum plans, whereas the actual curriculum is the learning that occurs in the
students after going through different experiences. In their opinion the outcomes of the
planned situations of the course contents are more important than the course content
itself. In other words, learning experiences must be well planned. A curriculum should
include as analysis of the student's learning experiences. To illustrate this definition,
imagine that a teacher conducts a monthly project activity, with the goal of fostering
team spirit and cooperation among the members. However, every month the teacher
assigns poor grades to the shy and quiet members and high grades to the bold,
talkative, and dominating members. As a result the former group would gradually get i
demotivated and resist any such activity. They will also learn that it is the high grades
that matter and will not be able to include the intended qualities of team spirit and
cooperation. Hence the course of events, which emerges, is different from what was to
intended
b) List any five human resource challenges which, you consider, are being faced by
institutions of higher learning. Discuss the possible solutions for any two. (Hint:
Challenges like adoption of technology, diversity and inclusion, etc.) (500 words)
ANS

The  diverse  and  heterogeneous  society  of  the  new  millennium  is  characterised  by  a  series  of 
internal  crises  in  the  welfare  state:  the  social  crisis,  the  environmental  crisis  and  unsustainable 
practices,  the  crisis  of  states,  the  threat  posed  by  globalisation,  and  finally,  the  crisis  of 
democracy.  The  consequences  of  these  crises  include  the  exacerbation  of social and economic 
inequality;  the  emergence  of  a  global  form  of  planetary  management  with  new  decision-making 
centres  that  have  undermined  the  decision-making  power  of individuals and states; and citizens’ 
loss  of  confidence  in  the  democratic  system  due  to  the  perception  that  political  decisions  are 
distant and difficult to influence. 
  
When  new  forms  of  knowledge  and symbolisation qualitatively impregnate all basic aspects of a 
society,  or  when  a  society’s  structures  and  processes for reproducing itself are so penetrated by 
knowledge-dependent  operations  that  information  creation  operations,  symbolic  analysis  and 
expert  systems  are  more  important than other factors of production, then we’re talking about the 
knowledge  society  (Innerarity,  2010).  The  major  challenge  facing  a  knowledge  society  is  the 
generation  of  collective  intelligence:  society’s intelligence as a whole is more important than just 
having a society composed of multiple individual intelligences. 
  
Bertman  (1998)  described  life  in  today’s  society  as  a  “nowist  culture”  and  a  “hurried  culture”, 
because  we  place  more  importance  on  brand-new,  high-impact  things  than  on  those  which 
require  exploration.  According  to  Bauman  (2007),  we  have  gone  from  linear  time  to  pointillist 
time: what matters is the moment, and our identities are continually being built and modified. 
  
The Need for a New Education 
  
In  the  beginning,  education  and  the  ideals  it  embodied  aspired  to  create  a  “perfect”  citizenry. 
Later, the objective shifted to ensuring that citizens were well-trained, and more recently it shifted 
once  again  to  the  awakening  of  the  critical  spirit.  Today,  the  ideal  is  creativity:  the  capacity  to 
learn  and  a  lifelong  willingness  to  face  new  things and modify learned expectations accordingly; 
there  can  be  no  learning  without  re-learning,  without  the  revision  that  must  be  undertaken when 
we  realise  the  weakness  of  what  we  thought  we  knew.  In  a  knowledge  society,  education  is  the 
capacity  to  be  creative  in  an  environment  of  particular  uncertainty,  the  capacity  to  properly 
manage  the  cognitive  dissonance  that  gives  rise  to  our  failure  to  comprehend  reality (Innerarity, 
2010).  Therefore,  in  the  world  of  liquid  modernity,  we  must  move away from sporadic education 
and  towards  lifelong  learning.  This  entails  overcoming  security-driven  resistance:  the  pillars  to 
which  we  cling  because  they  lend  us  a  sense  of  security:  a  mistake  in  a  world  filled  with 
insecurities and ephemeral validities. 
  
Conventionally,  education  has  been  understood  as  preparation  for  life,  as  personal  realisation, 
and  as  an  essential  element  in  progress  and  social  change,  in  accordance  with  changing needs 
(Chitty,  2002).  Orr  (2004)  declares  that  if  certain precautions are not taken, education may equip 
people  to  become  “more  effective  vandals  of  the  earth”.  He  describes  education  of  the  sort  we 
have seen thus far as a possible problem, and argues for a new type of education: 
  
“More  of  the  same kind of education will only compound our problems. This is not an argument for 
ignorance  but  rather  a  statement  that  the  worth  of  education  must  now  be  measured  against  the 
standards  of  decency  and  human  survival.  It  is  not  education,  but  education of a certain kind, that 
will save us.” 
(Orr, 2004: 8) 
  
“Education,  in  other  words,  can  be  a  dangerous  thing  (...).  It  is  time,  I  believe,  for  an  educational 
‘perestroika’,  by  which I mean a general rethinking of the process and substance of education at all 
levels,  beginning  with  the admission that much of what has gone wrong with the world is the result 
of  education  that  alienates  us  from  life  in  the  name  of  human  domination,  fragments  instead  of 
unifies,  overemphasizes  success  and  careers,  separates  feeling  from  intellect  and  the  practical 
from the theoretical, and unleashes on the world minds ignorant of their own ignorance.” 
(Orr, 2004: 17) 
  
Education  for  Sustainable  Development  (ESD)  has  emerged  as  a  paradigm  for  revising  and 
reorienting  today’s  education.  ESD  consists  of  new  forms  of  knowing  and  learning  how  to  be 
human  in  a  different  way.  This  education  aims  to  contribute  to  the  sustainability  of  personal 
integrity,  or  in  the  words of Sterling (2001), to the integrity of the spirit, heart, head and hands. As 
argued  by  Dewey  and  the  educational  reconstructionists,  it  is  often  not  enough  to  do  things 
according  to  custom  or  habit,  that  is,  to  reproduce  the  existing  social  system.  Instead,  new 
answers  must  be  sought.  If  we  are  to  imagine  new  ways  of  living  and  acting,  then  we  must  be 
capable  of  assessing  and  bringing  about  social  change,  because  successfully  achieving 
sustainable  development  requires  the  following  principles:  being  aware  of  the  challenge,  taking 
action  voluntarily,  assuming  collective  responsibility  and forming a constructive partnership, and 
believing  in  the dignity of all human beings without exception. These principles for lasting human 
development,  formulated  at  the  2002  World  Summit  on  Sustainable  Development  in 
Johannesburg,  imply  lessons  that  largely coincide with the four pillars of education set out in the 
Delors  Report​:  learning  to  know,  learning  to  do,  learning  to live together and learning to be. In the 
context  of  ESD,  UNESCO  (2008)  suggested  the  inclusion  of  a  fifth  pillar:  learning  to  transform 
oneself and society. 
  
In  a  sense,  education  must  lead  to  empowerment:  through education, individuals should acquire 
the  capacity  to  make  decisions  and  act  effectively  in  accordance  with  those  decisions,  and  this 
in  turn  entails  the  ability  to  influence  the  rules  of play through any of the available options. Thus, 
education  consists  in developing not only personal but also social qualities; it is the development 
of  social  conscience:  awareness  of  how  society  works,  knowledge  of  how  it  is structured, and a 
sense  of  the  personal  agency  which  allow  action.  This  agency,  however,  at  the  same  time 
restricts  our  interventions  and  makes  it  is  necessary  to  decide  our  personal  degree  of  action. 
(Goldberg,  2009).  Essentially,  it  opens  a  dialogue  between  the  personal  and  the  collective, 
between common and individual interests, between rights and obligations. 
  
Reformulation of Higher Education 
  
Einstein  once  said  that  no  problem  can  be  solved  from  the  same  level  of  consciousness  that 
created  it.  Current  needs  suggest  that  we  must  learn  to  view  the  world  and therefore education, 
in  a  new  way.  Higher  education  has  in  the  past  demonstrated  its  crucial  role  in  introducing 
change  and  progress  in  society  and  is  today  considered  a  key  agent  in  educating  new 
generations  to  build  the  future,  but  this  does  not  exempt  it  from  becoming  the  object  of  an 
internal reformulation. 
  
According  to  the  ​World  Declaration  on  Higher  Education  for  the  21st  Century  (1998),  higher 
education  is  facing  a  number  of  important  challenges  at  the  international,  national  and 
institutional levels. 
  
At  the  international  level,  there  are  two  main  challenges.  The  first  is  the  role  of  supranational 
organisations  such  as  UNESCO  in  advancing  the  prospection  of  trends  and  improvements,  as 
well  as  in  promoting  networking  and  twinning  programmes  among  institutions.  The  European 
Union  (EC-JRC, 2010), for example, has stressed that higher education must change and adapt to 
economic  and  social  needs,  that  institutional  change  is  essential  to  educational  innovation,  and 
that  information  and  communication  technologies  must  form  part  of  the  teaching  and  learning 
process.  The  second  international  challenge  is  to  encourage  international  cooperation  between 
institutions  in  order  to  share  knowledge  across  borders  and  facilitate  collaboration,  which, 
furthermore,  represents  an  essential  element  for  the  construction  of  a  planetary  (Morin,  2009) 
and  post-cosmopolitan  citizenship  (Dobson  and  Bell,  2006): the assumption of interdependence, 
“deterritorialisation”,  participation,  co-responsibility,  and  solidarity  among  all  inhabitants  of  the 
planet. 
  
States must provide the necessary financing so that universities can carry out their public-service 
function.  States  may  also  enact  laws  to  ensure  equality  of  access  and  strengthen  the  role  of 
women in higher education and in society. 
  
The following are the challenges faced by universities and other institutions of higher education: 

● Changes  in  universities  as  institutions  and  at  the  level  of  internal  organisation.  These 
changes  should  aim  to  improve  the  management  of  resources  (human,  economic,  etc.) 
and  be  restructured  to  improve  internal  democracy.  Universities  must  continue  their 
mission  to  educate,  train  and  carry  out  research  through  an  approach  characterised  by 
ethics, autonomy, responsibility and anticipation. 
● Changes  in  knowledge  creation.  Interdisciplinary  and  transdisciplinary  approaches 
should be taken and non-scientific forms of knowledge should be explored. 
● Changes  in  the  educational  model.  New  teaching/learning  approaches  that  enable  the 
development  of  critical  and  creative  thinking  should  be  integrated.  The  competencies 
common  to  all  higher-education  graduates  should  be  determined  and  the corresponding 
expectations  should  be  defined.  In  a  knowledge  society,  higher  education  should 
transform  us  from  disoriented  projectiles  into  guided  missiles:  rockets  capable  of 
changing  direction  in  flight,  adapting  to  variable  circumstances,  and  constantly 
course-correcting.  The  idea  is  to  teach  people  to  learn  quickly  as  they  go along, with the 
capacity  to  change  their  mind  and  even  renounce  previous  decisions  if  necessary, 
without  over-thinking  or  having  regrets.  Teaching  and  learning  must  be  more  active, 
connected to real life, and designed with students and their unique qualities in mind. 
 ● Changes  aimed  at  tapping  the  potential  of  information and communication technologies 
in  the  creation  and  dissemination  of  knowledge.  The  goal  of  such  changes  is  to  create 
what Prensky (2009) calls d ​ igital wisdom​. 
● Changes  for  social  responsibility  and  knowledge  transfer.  The  work  of  higher-education 
institutions  must  be  relevant.  What  they  do,  and  what  is expected of them, must be seen 
as  a  service  to  society;  their  research  must  anticipate  social  needs;  and  the  products  of 
their  research  must  be  shared  effectively  with  society  through  appropriate 
knowledge-transfer mechanisms. 

c) What is effective classroom management in the context of higher learning? Based on

your experience/opinion discuss the strategies that can help teachers manage classrooms
effectively
ANS

.
Classroom management and management of student conduct are skills that teachers acquire and
hone over time. These skills almost never "jell" until after a minimum of few years of teaching
experience. To be sure, effective teaching requires considerable skill in managing the myriad of tasks
and situations that occur in the classroom each day. Skills such as effective classroom management
are central to teaching and require "common sense," consistency, an often undervalued teacher
behavior, a sense of fairness, and courage. These skills also require that teachers understand in more
than one way the psychological and developmental levels of their students. The skills associated with
effective classroom management are only acquired with practice, feedback, and a willingness to learn
from mistakes. Sadly, this is often easier said than done. Certainly, a part of this problem is that there
is no practical way for education students to "practice" their nascent skills outside of actually going
into a classroom setting. The learning curve is steep, indeed.
As previously mentioned, personal experience and research indicate that many beginning teachers
have difficulty effectively managing their classrooms. While there is no one best solution for every
problem or classroom setting, the following principles, drawn from a number of sources, might help.
Classroom teachers with many years of experience have contributed to an understanding of what
works and what doesn't work in managing classrooms and the behavior of students. The following
information represents some of the things that good classroom teachers do to maintain an
atmosphere that enhances learning. It is written in straightforward, non-preachy language, and will not
drive you to distraction with its length.

An Effective Classroom Management Context

(these four things are fundamental)

1. Know what you want and what you don't want.

2. Show and tell your students what you want.
3. When you get what you want, acknowledge (not praise) it.
4. When you get something else, act quickly and appropriately.
 CLASSROOM ARRANGEMENT

While good classroom arrangement is not a guarantee of good behavior, poor planning in
this area can create conditions that lead to problems.

The teacher must be able to observe all students at all times and to monitor work and behavior.
The teacher should also be able to see the door from his or her desk.

Frequently used areas of the room and traffic lanes should be unobstructed and easily
accessible.

Students should be able to see the teacher and presentation area without undue turning or
movement.

Commonly used classroom materials, e.g., books, attendance pads, absence permits, and
student reference materials should be readily available.

Some degree of decoration will help add to the attractiveness of the room.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS FOR BEHAVIOR

*Teachers should identify expectations for student behavior and communicate those
expectations to students ​periodically.
* Rules and procedures are the most common explicit expectations. A small number of general
rules that emphasize appropriate behavior may be helpful. Rules should be posted in the
classroom. Compliance with the rules should be monitored constantly.
* ​Do not​ develop classroom rules you are unwilling to enforce.
* School-Wide Regulations...particularly safety procedures...should be explained carefully.
* Because desirable student behavior may vary depending on the activity, explicit expectations
for the following procedures are helpful in creating a smoothly functioning classroom:
- Beginning and ending the period, including attendance procedures and what students may or
may not do during these times.
- Use of materials and equipment such as the pencil sharpener, storage areas, supplies, and
special equipment.
- Teacher-Led Instruction
- Seatwork
- How students are to answer questions - for example, no student answer will be recognized
unless he raises his hand and is called upon to answer by the teacher.
- Independent group work such as laboratory activities or smaller group projects.
Remember, good discipline is much more likely to occur if the classroom setting and activities
are structured or arranged to enhance cooperative behavior.