3.3.3 CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT NEEDS THEORY

Needs Theory:

Rath (1972) identified the eight persisting emotional needs. The Identified needs are as under:

• Need for love and affection.
• Need for achievement.
• Need for belonging.
• Need for self-respect.
• Need to be free from deep feelings of guilt.
• Need to be free from deep feelings for fear.
• Need for economic security.
• Need for understanding of self.

If the needs given above are not satisfied, the children may be frustrated. Teachers can play an important role through curricular activities. Teachers should not overlook the unmet needs of students, rather they should identify and pursue for their satisfaction. If school increases attention, they learn effectively. If emotional needs are satisfied, other basic human needs can also be met successfully.

Fully Functional Personality

Kelly (1962) suggested that school should play its part in helping each young boy and girl to achieve the potential of his or her "Fully Functional Self". It is possible only if school curriculum is prepared around the basic needs of young boys and girls so that students progress toward becoming fully functional personality.

Kelly defines the following characteristics of fully functional

• It thinks well of himself.
• It thinks well of others.
• It sees his stake in others.
• The fully functioning personality, therefore, see himself aspart of world in movement - in process of becoming.
• The fully functioning personality, having accepted the ongoing nature of life and the dynamic of change, sees the value of mistakes.
• It, seeing the importance of people, develops and holds human values.
• It knows no other way to live except in keeping with his values.
• Fully functioning personality is cast in a creative role.

Educators should consider the characteristics of fully functional personality as guidelines for curriculum planning so that objectives of the curriculum can be effectively achieved.

Self-Actualization

Maslow pointed out five basic needs in the following hierarchical onder. Psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, need for esteem and need for Self-Actualization. So Self-Actualization needs can be filled after going through the first four needs.

Even if all needs are satisfied, we may still often expect that a is doing what he is fitted for. A musician must make music and a poet ew discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual at write, if he is to be ultimately happy what a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization-child should be helped to alize his potential through those activities, which will fulfill his basic needs.

The Curriculum Planners should pay special attention towards the concept of Self-Actualization. He should also recognize the importance of school and community goals. Thus there is a need that the curriculum should reflect a balance between personal needs and institutional needs for the proper growth of the children.

Thus it may be concluded that psychological foundations of Curriculum are concerned with basic human needs. The Curriculum should meet these needs of every stage of development of children. The Curriculum Planner should take into account the nature and level of the children, for presenting the material before children in the form of curriculum so it may be more effective in meeting basic needs of children.

Curricula assume different types of learning that call for different types of teaching, and so no single teaching method can be the method of choice for all occasions. An optimal program features a mixture of instructional methods and learning activities. What constitutes an optimal mixture of instructional methods and learning activities evolves as instructional units' progress.

Students should learn at high levels of mastery and progress through the curriculum steadily. This implies that, at any time, curriculum content and learning activities need to be difficult enough to challenge students and extend their learning, but not so difficult as to leave many students confused or frustrated.

Instruction should focus on the zone of proximal development. which is the range of knowledge and skills that students are not yet ready to acquire on their own but can acquire with help from their teachers.