Towards a Differentiated and Vocational Oriented Secondary Schoool Curriculum in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Curriculum should ideally be differentiated to suit the needs, capabilities and intelligences of the learners. However, learners are often exposed to an academic oriented curriculum even if this results in failure and production of unemployable school graduates. Underpinned by the multiple intelligences theory, in this paper the researchers explore an alternative to the current largely academic curriculum in the Zimbabwean education system. The concepts differentiated and vocational curricula are discussed and challenges of an academic curriculum examined. The advantages of a vocational curriculum are further discussed by drawing examples from successful case studies. A differentiated curriculum model is suggested, explained and implications for implementation are assessed.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p443