International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VI, June 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Role of Instructional Media and Technology in the Zimbabwean Primary School Curriculum

Mukandi Cosmas, Pisirai Cuthbert, Winnet Chindedza
Great Zimbabwe University, School of Education and Culture, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Abstract: Curriculum is at the epicentre of any education system (Handbook on curriculum Review 2015-2022). The optimism is premised on the fact that education has the power to transform societies more than any other agent acting singly. Zimbabwe is now using an updated curriculum from early childhood development right across to advanced level. Zimbabwe is a unique country by virtue of having a multiplicity of cultures. Lawton (1973) posits that curriculum is essentially a selection from the culture of a society. In a multi-cultural society like Zimbabwe, it becomes very difficult to deliver instruction and it is further complicated by a centralised curriculum which does not take into account the peculiarities of each setting. The Zimbabwean context, particularly the primary school sector calls for the teacher to be proactive in the delivery of instruction by adapting and adopting the curriculum content to suit the different cultures. The teacher has to look for relevant instructional media and technology (IMT) that suits the level of the learners. The teacher can bring the world into the classroom in her/his quest to concretise taught concepts and simultaneously prepare pupils into the world of work through encooperating relevant IMT. The importance of IMT in the updated curriculum cannot be underestimated. It is the task of this paper to elucidate the role of IMT in the updated primary school curriculum in Zimbabwe, looking at implementation variables currently playing out. Currently, the updated curriculum is in its first seven year cycle ending year 2022.

Key words: instructional media and technology; curriculum; Zimbabwe; media; technology integration; learning; deskill

I. UNPACKING INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA

Learning can happen as an outcome of afresh attained skills, principles, perception, knowledge, facts, and new information at hand (Adeyanju, 1997). Shabiralyani, Shahzad, Hamad, and Iqbal, (2015) affirm that, learning can be reinforced with different teaching/learning resources because they stimulate, motivate as well as focus learners’ attention for a while during the instructional process. However, Hackbarth (1996) cautions that, dependence on the chalk-talk method only could create problems known in communication as noise. Teaching can only be effective if it causes productive learning.
The foundation of all learning consists in representing clearly the senses and sensible objects, so they can be appreciated easily (Comenius cited in Singh, 2005).