Curriculum Development
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Definition of Curriculum:
It is the total effort of the school to bring about desired outcomes in school and out-of-school situations. It is also defined as a sequence of potential experiences set up in school for the purpose of disciplining children and youth in group ways of thinking and acting.
Curriculum can be defined “as a dense and flexible contract between politics / society and teachers”.
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.
Vision of curriculum:
1-It's is a diversity of learning processes to achieve quality education.
2-The curriculum is a political and technical issue that is well embedded in the complex interfaces between politics, society, and education.
Definition of Curriculum Development:
Curriculum development is defined as planned, purposeful, progressive, and systematic process in order to create positive improvements in the educational system. Every time there are changes or developments happening around the world, the school curricula are affected. There is a need to update them in order to address the society’s needs.
It is defined as the process of selecting, organizing, executing, and evaluating learning experiences on the basis of the needs, abilities and interests of the learners and the nature of the society or community.Importance of Curriculum Development:
Curriculum development has a broad scope because it is not only about the school, the learners and the teachers. It is also about the development of a society in general.
In today’s knowledge economy, curriculum development plays a vital role in improving the economy of a country. It also provides answers or solutions to the world’s pressing conditions and problems, such as environment, politics, socio-economics, and other issues on poverty, climate change and sustainable development.
There must be a chain of developmental process to develop a society. First, the school curriculum particularly in higher education must be developed to preserve the country’s national identity and to ensure its economy’s growth and stability.Curriculum Planning:
A Curriculum Planning is the process whereby the arrangement of curriculum plans or learning opportunities are created.It is the process of preparing for the duties of teaching, deciding upon goals and emphases, determining curriculum content, selecting learning resources and classroom procedures, evaluating progress, and looking towards next steps.
Curriculum Laboratory:
Curriculum laboratory is a place or workshop where curriculum materials are gathered or used by teachers or learners of curriculum.
Essentialist School:
Its approach is authoritative and the teacher’s role is to assign lessons and to recite recitations. It is book-centered and the methods recommended are memory work , mastery of facts and skills, and development of abstract intelligence.
Progressive School:
It conceives the curriculum as something flexible based on areas of interest. It is learner-centered, having in mind that no two persons are alike. Its factor of motivation is individual achievement believing that persons are naturally good. The Role of the teacher is to stimulate direct learning process.It uses a life experience approach to fit the student for future social life. Constant revision of aims and experimental techniques of teaching and learning are imperatives in curriculum development in order to create independent thinking, initiative, self-reliance, individuality, self-expression and activity in the learner.
Types of Curriculum:
1-Objective-based curriculum:
-It specifies behavioral objectives to change the behavior of students.
-Objectives may describe what the teacher or student is to do, what subject matter is to be covered, or the expected student learning.
2-Content-based curriculum:
-It focuses on traditional subject disciplines.
- It is directive, detailed and rigid in both structure and time allocation.
-It emphasizes lower level cognitive skills:
(memorization and reproduction of factual information).
3-Outcome-based curriculum:
-It focuses on the results rather than the means to achieve them.
-It supports the development of skills or understandings than cover required content.
4-Competency-based curriculum:
-It avoids a subject-based approach and emphasizes the cross-connections between learning areas.
- It aims to ensure that every learner reaches specific minimum levels of competency at particular stages of schooling.
-It integrate knowledge, attitudes and values in order to competently address real-life situations.
5-Integrated curriculum:
-Skills and knowledge are developed in more than one area of study.
-It acknowledges that learning and knowledge have a social dimension and that learning is not only a “school-based” activity.
6-Standards-based curriculum:
-Assessments are criterion referenced.
-Student's performance is measured against the defined standard, not against the performance of other students.
Curriculum tools:
Aims, goals and Objectives:
Every curriculum must have an education philosophy. Aims must be linked to the country education philosophy. Every curriculum is aimed at developing in the learners certain competencies or abilities. The curriculum process must identify the aims that the curriculum is intended to achieve.
1-Aims are broad statements which cover all of the experiences
provided in the curriculum.
2-Goals are tied to specific subjects or group
of contents within the curriculum.
3-Objectives describe the more specific outcomes that can be attained as a result of lessons or instruction delivered at the classroom.
Selecting Aims:
1-Analysis of our culture : we should take into account our cultural values, norms and expectations when selecting aims.
2-The present status of the learner.
what has the learner already known? What are his/her characteristics? What is he/she ready for.
3-The state of our knowledge of the subject matter or content.
We should examine knowledge to see if they contain things that are of real value to the learner and society.
4-Relevance to school’s philosophy of education.
Each nation has its own philosophy of education which its schools try to implement .
Content & Learning Experiences:
Content is what we teach. Learning experience is an
activity which the learner engages in which results in changes in his behavior. We should select those contents and learning experiences that will achieve goals of the curriculum.
Selecting Content:
1-Validity : means two things, is the content related to the
objectives and is the content true or authentic?
2-Significance : is the content significant or will lead it to the memory mastery or more understanding of the course or subject?
3-Utility : here the question is
whether the content selected is useful and will lead to the
acquisition of skills and knowledge that are considered useful by
society?
4-Interest : is the
content interesting to the learner? Or can the content be made
interesting to learners?
5-Learnability : is the content selected such that learners can learn and understand given their present level?
Selecting Learning Experiences:
Learning experience must be related to the stated goals of the curriculum. Relevance to life : learning experience must be related to the learner’s real life situations in and out of school. learning experiences must cater to the needs of different types of learners by providing different types of experiences. Suitability:learning experiences must be suitable to the learners' present state of learning and characteristics.
Stages of curriculum Development:
Input, Process and Output:
I can say that the idiom Input refers to the syllabus, the item Process refers to the methodology and the item Output refers to the learning outcomes.
Curriculum Development Techniques:
Curriculum
development in language teaching can start from input, process or
output. Each starting point reflects different assumptions about both
the means and ends of teaching and learning. This leads to the
distinction I wish to make between forward design, central design, and
backward design.
1-Forward design means developing a curriculum through moving from input, to process, and to output.
2-Central design means starting with process and deriving input and output from classroom methodology.
Steps of development:
1-Planning:
A Committee is formed. This committee must include teachers, administrators, experts, members of the public and learners. A research is wanted. This research allows a curriculum committee to identify key issues and trends that will support the needs assessment that should be conducted and the philosophy that should be developed.
2-Articulation:
Why is learning? What are our beliefs about teaching and learning?This philosophy must be linked to the aims, goals, and objectives. The course content, learning experiences and activities must be linked to the aims, goals and objectives. Assessment must be linked to the learning experiences.
3-Implementing:
Putting the New Program into Practice through choosing the relevant method of teaching and material.
4-Evaluating:
Determining the Success of the New Program. Using surveys, focused discussions and meetings. A curriculum development committee needs to periodically gather data on perceptions of program strengths, weaknesses, needs, preferences for textbooks and other materials, and topics or objectives that do not seem to be working effectively.