Department of Foundations of Education
Introduction
The Department of Foundations of Education was established as part of the College of Education in 1956. The aim of this department was to produce trained teachers with the knowledge of philosophical foundations of education. Since the implementation of National Education System Plan in 1971, the provision of teacher training was made compulsory for the school teachers. Since then the need for imparting the knowledge of different foundations: philosophical, sociological, historical, psychological, and research were felt essential for school teachers, educators, and planners. Consequently, different courses under foundations of education had been introduced at various education programs at the university level. These courses are made compulsory to all the students with different specialization under the education stream.
The courses offered to provide comprehensive theoretical knowledge and understanding related to philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, curriculum, measurement, and research in education. It helps to comprehend new trends of education, to acquaint them with the innovation, creativity, new pattern of teaching and their application in the related fields. It also assists to face with the current issues developing critical and scientific outlook towards education. The diversified core courses under foundations of education are the bases for all the specialized areas under the faculty of education.
Courses offered
The Department of Foundations of Education offers courses for one-year B.Ed. in Science Education, Early Childhood Education, and for Special Needs Education for those students who are graduated from other faculties. Among the fourteen different academic departments under Central Department of Education, the Department of Foundations of Education instructs the core courses under these sixteen departments. For one-year B.Ed. program total of three courses is offered as core subjects that contribute 50% of the program. Similarly, at M.Ed. level seven courses are offered which constitutes 21 credits (30.4%) out of 69 credit of the whole program. This means that the department of foundations of education is managing almost one-third courses of each of the whole sixteen departments under the faculty of education. The details of the courses offered under the Department of Foundations of Education are presented below.
Faculty Members
|
S.N. |
Name of Faculty |
Designation |
|
1. |
Dhruba Raj Khanal |
Associate Professor (Head) |
|
2. |
Janardan Ghimire PhD |
Professor |
|
3. |
Sushan Acharya, PhD |
Professor |
|
4. |
Matrika Koirala |
Associate Professor |
|
5. |
Rabindra Shiwakoti, PhD |
Associate Professor |
|
6. |
Ram Babu Mandal |
Lecturer |
|
7. |
Toya Nath Adhikari PhD |
Lecturer |
|
8. |
Cholakanta Ghimire |
Lecturer |
|
9. |
Indira Rijal |
Lecturer |
|
10. |
Indra Mani Rai, PhD |
Lecturer |
|
11. |
Monaj Bhandari |
Teaching -Assistant |
|
12. |
Baburam Rai |
Teaching Assistant |
|
13. |
Rita Kumari Basnet |
Non-Teaching Staff |
Core Courses
|
First Semester Ed. 511 Foundations of Education Ed. 513 Advanced Educational Psychology
|
Second Semester Ed. 521 Curriculum in Practice Ed. 522 Educational and Development
|
|
Third Semester Ed. 532 Research Methodology in Education Ed. 533 Measurement and Evaluation in Education |
Fourth Semester Ed. 541 Contemporary Educational Issues
|
Course Description
Course Title: Foundations of Education
The course has been designed for the first semester Master of Education (M. Ed.) program of the Faculty of Education (FoE), Tribhuvan University (TU). The course includes key Eastern and Western philosophical perspectives in order to develop students’ competency for visualizing the educational processes from those perspectives. More specifically, it embraces Eastern ideas from Vedic, Buddhism, Kirat Mundhum and Islam, and other indigenous beliefs in relation to education. Further, it consists of the assumptions and beliefs of progressivism, modernism, post-modernism, and transformative learning theories. Third, the course contains key sociological ideas to enable students to critically explain the educational practices in Nepal through those lenses. In addition, the course intends to impart the ideas of caste, ethnicity and nationalism, gender and feminism, and identity construction. These philosophical and theoretical ideas help to develop the competencies of prospective teaching professionals, educational administrators, educational supervisors, curriculum developers, and educational planners.
Course Title: Advanced Educational Psychology
This course is offered as a core course for Master's in Education level. The course includes four units focusing on theoretical and practical aspects of educational psychology. The course aims to provide students with professional knowledge, skills, and understanding about developmental psychology and learning theories including their educational implications. In regard with developmental perspective, the course gives emphasis to adolescence's growth and development, and problems behavior and disorders arise during this phase. The course explores different schools of learning theories centering on how a child learns in his/her everyday life and their implications in formal education. Finally, the course also introduces knowledge practices related to guidance and counselling in a school setting, and focuses on teachers' role as a guidance worker and counsellor.
Course Title:- Curriculum Practices
This course has been designed to provide fundamental knowledge and understanding of various concepts of curriculum, different curriculum development models, taxonomy of educational objectives, curriculum designs, and theoretical perspectives for analyzing specific curriculum from indigenous and gender lenses. After the completion of this course, the students are expected to have basic knowledge and skills to examine different concepts of curriculum critically, design a curriculum by reflecting the needs and aspirations of particular context, formulate specific instructional objectives based on revised taxonomy, analyze school to university level curriculum from different design dimensions perspectives and examine prepared curriculum from indigenous and gender lenses. Furthermore, this course will be handy to make students familiarize with practices that have been made in references to Nepal to plan, disseminate, implement, and evaluate the curriculum especially from school to university level. This course also provides ample opportunities to the learners to review school level curricula through multiple lenses and then enables them to find out a number of alternatives for further improvement of the reviewed curricula based on the theoretical underpinning that they received under this course.
Course Title: Education and Development
This course intends to develop knowledge about education and different aspects of development thereby enhancing the impetus in education. It also intends to make students familiar with different perspectives of development and education, education for sustainable
development in terms of its evolving perspectives, phases, characteristics, goals, progress, dimensions, and different forms of education. This course also deals with the right-based approach to education and development and the implication of sustainable development in
Nepalese context. This course also focuses on indigenous knowledge and practices of sustainable development and education for peace and development.
Course Title: Research Methodology in Education
This is a basic educational and social research methodology course aimed at helping students broaden their knowledge and skills in doing and writing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research. The course begins with introducing social and educational research based on
philosophies, and then enables students to select appropriate research designs and tools to conduct the research. The students will acquire knowledge and skills required for conducting research in both quantitative and qualitative areas. Taking survey (and other quantitative
research methods), ethnographic, phenomenological, and narrative inquiry methods at disposal learners will chart the journey of scholarship about different research designs. In addition, there will be an opportunity for the students to familiarize themselves with quality and ethical standards needed by researchers. Finally, the course will enable the students to prepare research proposal and write report following the guidelines of American Psychological Association (APA)’s publication manual.
Course Title: Measurement and Evaluation in Education
The course ‘Measurement and Evaluation in Education’ is a core area of study designed for the third semester of master's degree program of faculty of education. This includes the concept and nature of educational measurement and evaluation thereby focusing on reliability and validity of a test. The course emphasizes on construction process of achievement test, standardization process of psychological tests, and critical analysis of evaluation system adopted in school level.
Course Title: Contemporary Educational Issues
This course aims to provide students with opportunities to identify explore and understand issues relevant to the school education in Nepal. The course enables students to review the educational policies, research reports, and theoretical literature. This course also helps students directly link their knowledge with the current practices in the educational sector. It allows students to write and present comprehensive seminar paper based on the analysis of the selected educational issues comparing, relating, and reflecting upon the theoretical perspectives, policy provisions, and research findings.
For any queries:
Associate Professor Dhruba Raj Khanal ( Head)
Foundation of Education.