: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”.
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.
Curriculum Planning:
1-Curriculum Laboratory:
Curriculum laboratory is a place or workshop where curriculum materials
are gathered or used by teachers or learners of curriculum.
2-Essential 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.
3-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.
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 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:
The curriculum development process
systematically organizes
what will be taught, who will be taught, and how it
will be taught.
Each component affects and interacts with other components.
For
example, what will be taught is affected by who is being
taught (e.g:their
stage of development in age, maturity, and education). Methods of how content
is taught are affected
by who is being taught, their characteristics, and the
setting.
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.
Stages of curriculum Development:
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.
3-Backward design as the name implies, starts from output and then deals with issues relating to process and input.
Curriculum Development Techniques:
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.
3-Backward design as the name implies, starts from output and then deals with issues relating to process and input.
