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Curriculum Analysis
Other Relevant items:
Definition:
In a world facing unprecedented change and
acceleration, the best things in education may be
the most difficult to measure, highlighting the
importance of curriculum analysis.
So, what is curriculum analysis and what does it
achieve? Interpretations can vary but as with many
types of review, it enables you to identify which
strengths to keep, but also the areas to develop and
improve.
Curriculum analysis can entail a review of
curriculum suitability and relevance, in the context of
macro trends - for example, at a societal or
technological level. It may also involve an assessment
of different curricula worldwide, with a view to
incorporating best practices.
The curriculum analysis is a kind of a map. It is a plan
with regard to the objectives, content, learning materials,
assessment as well as the methods employed as a
guidelines in conducting learning activities in order to
achieve the goal of a certain education as a learning
outcome.
The intended curriculum:
It is the documented, official plan -- or what faculty hope
students will learn. The plan includes the answers of the
following questions:
What is the vision of the curriculum?
What is the mission of the curriculum? What aims do we
want to achieve? What objectives do we lie to realize?
What are te purposes of the curriculum?
The achieved curriculum
It includes knowledge, skills and attitudes that are
truly learned and remembered. They must be based on
implementing critical thinking skills through education policy,
curriculum, AI skills and quality assessment. All of them
must work simultaneously to have a good citizen with the
skills of solving problems, making decisions, practice,
analysis, synthesis, evaluation, creation and innovation.
Significance:
The Curriculum takes content (from external standards and
local goals) and shapes it into a plan for how to conduct
effective teaching and learning. It is thus more than a list
of topics and lists of key facts and skills (the “input”
It is a map of how to achieve the “outputs” of desired
student performance, in which appropriate learning
activities and assessments are suggested to make it
more likely that students achieve the desired results.
The idea :
The job market is tough. New demands of digital literacy,
the rise of artificial intelligence and a complex labour
market mean that while the importance of curriculum
analysis has never been more evident, it is difficult to
decide on and incorporate curriculum changes quickly.
In fact, countries still show a mismatch of skills
demanded and what students can offer. Curriculum
developers are faced with the challenge of both arming
students with relevant skills for their first job and
creating fearless entrepreneurs.
This means cultivating the confidence, social
competence and resilience necessary to say, 'If I can’t
find a job, I can always create one.' If students are
unable to find or create a job for themselves,
education will not have been useful.
It could be said that the importance of a curriculum is
realized by the means or structure it provides, to
achieve pre - established goals in education. Curricula
may be standardized or include a high degree of
autonomy - but all share a purpose to meet set aims
successfully.
The effectiveness of a school curriculum is determined
by a wide range of factors. However, in order to become
useful citizens in society and achieve long-term success,
what knowledge, skills, attitudes or values should be
a priority? This is a key question and one that truly y
stresses the importance of curriculum analysis.
Moreover, are values like a love of learning, well-being
and emotional or social competence more paramount
to achievement? What are the key characteristics of a
successful 21st century curriculum?
These were just a few of the questions driving debate
at the 2018 Education World Forum (EWF). London hosted
the world’s largest gathering of educators and ministers
to explore the future of education policy and curriculum
analysis.
One of the major takeaways was using competency-
based learning to prepare students for a global context
of uncertainty, as part of an overall aim to enable education
equity.
With today’s technology, we are able to know something
in seconds. The power to discover solutions and search
for answers sits at the tips of our fingers on our smart
devices.
This has changed education. Many educators have
begun to embrace frameworks that teach how to learn
and think with competency-based learning, rather than how
to memorize information or knowledge.
A competency-based curriculum’s
importance is its mission to provide
students with:
The confidence to problem-solve in a real-world context
Beyond receiving good grades or finding a job, this
type of learning aims to ignite a sense of local and
global responsibility.
By fuelling students with the desire and skills to build
a more peaceful and sustainable world, they can
become open and active citizens.
As we heard at the 2018 EWF, schools and universities
are pivoting away from their traditional role as gateways
between knowledge and students. By blending offline
teaching styles with online tools, learning is becoming
more social and interactive.
While involvement may vary by country, school type,
seniority and several other factors, one key role of
teachers in curriculum development can be to help
ensure coherence. Before the 2018 EWF, we outlined how
improvement in education isn’t achieved solely through
changes to systems. Instead, refinements in single
aspects, for example in curriculum or teacher support,
can be highly successful.
Students and teachers are increasingly working
together to define projects with peer-to-peer learning,
project-based problem solving, social learning and
entrepreneurial education. This doesn’t mean that
educators should focus only on competency or
ignore knowledge.
However, the importance of curriculum analysis is
demonstrated by many now making space for
vocational skills and values, to give students the
confidence to thrive and shape their world. Countries
globally are planning to future-proof their education
through curriculum and assessment reform.
Cambridge Partnership for Education has partnered with more
than 25 governments to improve education systems
worldwide. It’s part of our commitment to the UN
Sustainable Development Goal 4 - ensuring inclusive and
equitable quality education for all.
Curriculum elements:
The education curriculum analysis includes the
following elements for the whole content of the set-
book that should be taught and applied all the year
round.
1- General Aims:
By the end of the course, the following aims will have
been achieved:
1-Achieving policy making. Learning languages and
culture creates understanding, friendship and
cooperation among peoples and countries all over
the world.
2-Developing language Listening and speaking skills to
be used as a means of communication with others.
3-Developing the skills of reading and writing.
4-Practising Knowledge, attitudes, culture, social
values, competences, fun and performance.
5-Achieving relevance and learners' needs and abilities.
6-Acquiring skills and experiences to solve real
problems.
2-The objectives:
1. They describe the aims of a course in terms of units of
learning.
2. They provide the basis for the organization of teaching
activities.
3. They describe learning in terms of observable
performance.
4-The teacher mentions the cognitive aims, the behavioral
aims and the emotional aims of teaching each unit.
5-The objectives are often seen to depend upon a
systematic analysis of the learners’ communicative needs.
Needs analysis is part of the process by which aims and
objectives are determined.
3- The course Content (Input stage):
In language teaching, Input refers to the linguistic content
of a course. It seems logical to assume that before we can
teach a language, we need to decide what linguistic
content to teach.
Once content has been selected, it then, needs to be
organized into teachable and learnable units as well as
arranged in a rational sequence. The result is a syllabus.
The activity-based learning method includes project-based
teaching, teaching through solving problems, feed-back,
mind-mapping, brainstorming, playing the roles, acting,
miming, elicitation, inductive method. deductive method,
singing, playing games, using gestures, practical
education,guessing, thinking, innovating,
creation, imagination,interviewing, dialoguing, pair work,
group work,collaborative work, using realia, real
situations, and doing exercises.
The teacher can use audio and visual aids that
include pictures, cards, flash cards, flip charts,
school magazines, wall charts, drawings, letter
building cards, designs, paintings, sentence
building cards and grids. The teacher himself
is an audio-visual learning aid through his gestures
and facial expressions.
Technology
The role of technology is very important in active learning.
The teacher mentions the type of technology he sees
suitable and he is going to use like:
the cassette, video, the computer, the internet, the data
show, the overhead projector, the power point computer
program, computer logo program, computer excel
program, the adding machine, TV programs, The SAT
Education Channels programs, Slides, CDs, Tapes,
and school broadcast.
Technology offers us electronic teaching. I mean that the
teacher must have an electronic lesson plan which must
be previously prepared on a CD before.
The teacher can enable the learners to use electronic
program like MS picture management, Movie-maker,
Lingoes program, Jing program, Free-mind program,...
Resources / materials:
1-The Set-Book.
2-The Work Book.
3-The teacher's guide.
4-My experiences.
5-Maps, magazines and authentic situations.
6-Authentic material.
7-Electronic programs and IQ Board.
8-The Environment.
9-Video films.
10-The internet .
5-The Activities:
1-Co-Curriculum activities.
They are the classroom activities which include
learners' share in discussion, pair work, group work,
learning projects, interviewing, playing the roles,
singing, drawing, painting, designing, songs, games,
written work, oral discussion, workbook exercises,
group work projects and all forms of participation and
interaction. They are graded.
2-Extra-Curriculum activities.
A-There are outside classroom activities which include
sharing in school parties , school congregations, doing
researches, school broadcast, bulletin board, English
club and school magazines.
They are not graded.
B-There are outside school activities which include
school trips, visiting life sites to face real situations.
6-Assessment:
It is based on listening, speaking, knowledge,
attitudes and performance.
It includes:
1-Self assessment.
2-Peer assessment.
3-Tutor assessment.
Interaction, participation, practice and communication.
Assessment Tools:
1-Discussion and interviews.
2-learners' portfolio.
3-Check lists.(Formative and summative)
4-Homework.
5-Embedded Assessments.
6-Standards register.
7-Formative feedback.
9- Electronic Portfolios can be used to directly
assess student work.
7- Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes refer to the achievement of the
desired purposes or results. The evidence means the
extent of progress or the indicators or the learning
outcomes that can be seen and illustrated
through observing the learners' performance.
The performance includes pair work, group work,
researches, sharing, interaction, participation,
dialoguing, evaluating, exploration, visiting the
libraries and using technology in learning. learners'
written exercises, grades, projects and portfolio are
evidences for the learner's progress too.
Curriculum Map / Matrix
/ Curriculum full evaluation:
1-The aims or the desired purposes have been
achieved.
2-Learners are prepared for future reading and
writing skills.
3-As for the basic principles of my curriculum,
coherence,permanent change, innovation and
competences are considered and different approaches
are integrated in my curriculum design.
4-The cultures have been learnt and practiced.
5-The 4 language skills have been acquired efficiently.
English Teaching Forum 2014,
Volume 52, Number 4
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