Presentation of a theoretical model of entrepreneurship-oriented curriculum for Farsi courses at elementary school

This research was written with the aim of presenting a theoretical model of entrepreneurship-oriented curriculum for Farsi courses at elementary school. The importance of Farsi language as the messenger of glory and the greatness of Iranian culture and the preservation of national identity and unity should not be overlooked. The Persian textbook, as the main source of reading and developing comprehension skills, plays various roles and activities in the realization of students’ life goals and skills. Elementary education has an important role in preparing students for an elevated life and in developing and strengthening entrepreneurial attitudes in primary school students. This research was an applied research which adopted review and analysis method. In this paper, the review of studies on entrepreneurship, curriculum design (in particular the curriculum of the Farsi language) and various theories of experts in this field led to the creation of a theoretical perspective on Farsi curriculum which drew on components of entrepreneurship. This article presents this model to curriculum designers and educational authorities. The proposed model was presented to 49 curriculum design experts and entrepreneurs of Yazd province in order to assess the appropriateness of the proposed model. In this regard, a questionnaire containing 75 items was developed and presented to the group. The average of responses showed that according to the experts, the suggested model is very suitable in terms of the knowledge, attitude and entrepreneurial skills components. Extended Abstract:
Children in every society are the decisive future forces of society. The forces that can advance society towards perfection or vice versa will lead to backwardness and decline. In order to achieve the individual's and society's progress, one of the most important skills that every child should have is the entrepreneurial skill. There is a lot of evidence that entrepreneurship education is effective in increasing entrepreneurial attitudes and thus increasing the likelihood of entrepreneurship. The elementary period is the most important course in all world education systems (Estiri, 2010: 3). And in terms of the number of teachers and students and the impact of this period on life and education, has a special place (Jafari Moghadam and Fakharzadeh, 2011: 48). For this reason, the curriculum should be targeted at awareness raising and strengthening the attitude towards entrepreneurship (Arasti et al., 2015: 593). The integration of entrepreneurship education in the school curriculum enriches learners’ learning experiences and increases the relationship between school and industry and agriculture, as well as providing an opportunity to test the entrepreneurship content and methods of teaching due to the novelty of the subject (Yaghubi Najafabadi, 2010: 31). According to Kourilsky (1990), in order to encourage entrepreneurship education in primary schools, the emphasis should be on creating divergent thinking skills. She said that learning experience should focus more on explanation and inquisitiveness. In this way, students would be more involved in entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour, and the learning should focus on providing them with some entrepreneurship foundation (Abd Hamid, 2013 :9).
On the other hand, attention to textbooks in developing entrepreneurship in elementary schools is very important (Altbach, 1991: 97). Because the textbook is the most important educational medium (Nourian, 2007: 358), in addition to providing many of the necessary information services, forms the attitudes and sensitivities of individuals and contributes to the consolidation and formation of a particular value system within human beings (Amiri, 2006, quoted by Bayat et al., 2013: 53). Textbooks should also be reinforced by creating opportunities and activities for individual and group learning of mental and intellectual skills in the individual (Sajjadi and Sahraee, 2014: 75).
The Persian textbook as the main source of learning for learners in the field of "reading" and "developing comprehension skills" " (Debbaie et al., 2010: 30) plays various roles and activities for realizing life's goals and skills in order to prepare students for the transcendental life, and thus can play an effective role in strengthening the entrepreneurial attitudes of primary school students) Jafari Moghadam and Fakharzadeh 2011: 48).
Considering the importance of the above mentioned materials and given the background of the research; to design an effective strategy for entrepreneurship education for children and students in Iran, it is necessary to design patterns and curricula. The programs should observe the process of its preparation; the principles governing the value system and the philosophy of education, the education system, the scientific and cultural developments and the needs of society. In this regard, different perspectives on the elements of the curriculum have been raised and each of them has elements for designing a curriculum. In this study, for the design of curriculum, the view of Zais (1997) is considered. According to Zais, curriculum elements include: goal, content, learning activities and evaluation. Therefore, by studying the relevant texts and relying on various theories on the subject of research, and with the aim of empowering elementary students in entrepreneurship, efforts have been made to design and formulate an entrepreneur-centered curriculum in the Farsi language in accordance with its objectives and principles.
Research Since the researcher in this study is trying to design a curriculum model based on entrepreneurship components in Farsi lesson, the analytical and field method is used for doing it.
In this regard, the researcher first, with regard to theoretical foundations and the research history of the research, as well as the objectives of the Farsi language, identified the issues and sought the views of the supervisors and counselors on the preparation of the Farsi lesson curriculum based on the entrepreneurship components. In this research, the goals, content, learning activities and evaluation method of entrepreneurship curriculum based on the three components of knowledge, attitude and entrepreneurship skills are set first and after reviewing and summarizing different studies and theories in this regard, and attention to the Farsi curriculum of elementary school and the characteristics of learners, the proposed syllabus elements are presented in the framework of Table 1.
Table 1: Theoretical model of curriculum based on entrepreneurial components in Farsi lesson