Course-5 Understanding Disciplines and School Subjects pmd

The Spiral Approach
The spiral approach is nothing but devising a strategy that fosters continuous un
broken learning of the subject matter of social science through the various stages of
education. According to this approach, children in primary classes develop simple
generalization about man carrying of his everyday activities. They work with more and
more complex items of information and as a result deepen and reshape the dimension of
the related generalization already developed earlier. For example, it is very important that
children should know our freedom struggle in the primary classes the information about
this unit will be imparted through the life of some of the great leaders such as Mahatma
Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Balagangadhara Tilak and B.R. Ambedkar. In the middle stage
the information will be imparted through event the formation of the Indian National
Congress, partition of Bengal, Civil Disobedience, Quit India movement etc. In the
secondary stage, the pupils still learn to compare and contrast the freedom movement in
our country with other countries of the world and analyse them scientifically by establishing
cause effective relations.
Application of this approach will make social science a subject of immediate and
real interest for the average pupil. It will be the basis of correlating phenomena and
happening with the immediate life of humanity and for those who are more intellectual it
will be the basis of which academic insights and specialization in the discipline concerned
can be attempted.
If proper care is not taken by the curriculum framers in gradually expending the
material without mere repetition and if teachers do not carefully increase the scope of study
in psychologically sound and natural way, this approach may cause monotony and lack of
interest because of the repetition of information. At the initial stage it will be difficult to
give a clear picture of problem by presenting all the relevant details and by considering it in
its totality.