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Vision of curriculum:
Curriculum Development is the step-by-step process of
designing and improving the course offered at schools,
colleges and universities. Even though each institution
will have its own process, the broad stages of the
framework consist of analysis, design, implementation,
and evaluation.
Curriculum refers to specific lessons and academic
content taught in schools and educational institutes
for a particular course or program. On the other hand,
curriculum development is a process that aims to
improve the curriculum by using various approaches.
Few of the commonly used techniques include need
and task analysis, objective design, choosing
appropriate teaching and learning methods, choosing
assessment methods, and forming the curriculum
committee and curriculum review committee.
Hence the entire process is divided into segments to
ensure the development of an effective curriculum
that would help to facilitate an enriching educational
Program.
The learner-centered design focuses on the
understanding that each learner has different
characteristics. The teachers or instructors are to
give opportunities to the learners to take ownership
of a project or assignment.
They require to create chances for independent
learning with well-regulated liberty. This indicates
that students take a more active role in the classroom,
but it is to be done under the instructor's guidance.
There are four distinct attributes of learner-centered
design, which includes:
Context:
This refers to the assignments and tasks
given in the classroom that should have real-world
application. Consequently, the relevant context in
student learning will help learners to connect with
what they are learning.
Construction:
Learners should relate their own
experiences and prior learning with new learning.
Collaboration:
Creating an environment and providing
opportunities that encourage collaboration between
classmates. Activities like group discussions and
team assignments allows the learners to only form
individuality but also expose to others’ opinions.
Conversation:
Exercises to improve learners'
communication skills are mandatory, and hence
instructors should employ them accordingly.
Subject-centered design is a traditional approach to
curriculum that focuses on a particular
Subject matter or discipline rather than on the individual.
Additionally, during the curriculum development process,
this approach includes four subtypes of curriculum
designs: subject-area design, discipline design, broad-
field design, and correlation design.
Problem-centered design is an approach that focuses
on developing problem-solving skills, thinking and
communication skills. This is a student-centric strategy
wherein the learners are given problematic situations
and encouraged to solve them after careful observation.
The curriculum development process consists
of the following six stages.
Stage 1:
Assessing the educational needs
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.
1-Validity :
It means two things, is the content related to
the objectives and is the content true or authentic?
2-Significance :
It 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 :
iT is the content interesting to the learner?
Or can the content be made interesting to learners?
5-Learnability :
It is the content selected such that learners can learn and understand given their present level?
Principles of curriculum
development :
It is imperative to realize that curriculum does not merely
indicate academic subjects traditionally taught in schools
and colleges. It also includes the totality of experiences
a student gains through several curricular, extra-
curricular and co-curricular activities.
Instead of sticking to the predetermined curriculum,
instructors must consider the child’s concerns, motives,
and needs while developing the curriculum. In addition,
while planning any curricular activities, educators must
consider ways to enrich learners’ interests.
While developing a curriculum, it is mandatory to
include subjects and experiences that would help
conserve cultural heritage. Furthermore, one of the
most essential principles of curriculum development
is that the curriculum cannot be static.
On the contrary, it should be subject to modification as
per the requirement aligned with the changing global
educational trends and students’ needs.
The curriculum should be planned in such a way that
varied subjects could be added at different stages of
education. Similarly, the existing subjects should be
able to integrate with other subjects apart from
enabling the students to correlate with the content.
One of the ideal qualities that a curriculum should
have is flexibility and dynamism, as this will be
instrumental in serving the needs and concerns of
individuals and society. Also, timely changes and
appropriate modifications to the curriculum allows
educators and learners alike to stay updated with
academic goals.
Curriculum construction should follow the principle of
utility, according to which educators must include
content that is useful to the individual and society.
In addition, the curriculum must consist of rich and
valuable content that would be useful later in life.
The goal of the curriculum is not just educating learners
through bookish knowledge. It should also encourage
the development of character and personality in
students. Therefore, the curriculum must aid in
students’ character training throughout the academic
years.
A significant task of the curriculum is to foster learners'
various mental faculties or powers through cognitive
training and practice.
Education aims to provide the overall development
of the students through comprehensive teaching
styles and content. Moreover, the curriculum should
also consider adding the element of social life so that
learners could gain insight into becoming responsible
citizens.
Stages of curriculum Development:
1-Forward design:
It means developing a curriculum through moving
from input, to process, and to output.
2-Central design
It means starting with process and deriving input
and output from classroom methodology.
The need for curriculum development usually emerges
from a concern about a major issue or problem of one
or more target audience.
This section explores some of the questions that need
to be addressed to define the issue and to develop a
statement that will guide the selection of the members
of a curriculum development team.
The issue statement also serves to broadly identify,
the scope (what will be included) of the curriculum
content.
Once the nature and scope of the issue has been broadly
defined, the members of the curriculum development team
can be selected. Topics covered in this section include:
(1) the roles and functions of team members,
(2) a process for selecting members of the curriculum
development team, and
(3) principles of collaboration and teamwork.
The goal is to obtain expertise for the areas included
in the scope of the curriculum content among the team
members and develop an effective team.
There are two phases in the needs assessment
process. The first is procedures for conducting a
needs assessment. A number of techniques are
aimed toward learning what is needed and by whom
relative to the identified issue. Techniques covered in
this section include:
KAP - Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Survey;
focus groups; and environmental scanning.
Analysis, the second part of this needs assessment
step, describes techniques on how to use the data
and the results of the information gathered. Included
are: ways to identify gaps between knowledge and
practice; trends emerging from the data; a process
to prioritize needs; and identification of the
characteristics of the target audience.
Once the issue is defined, the curriculum team is
formed, the needs assessed, analyzed and prioritized,
the next step is to refine and restate the issue, if
needed, and develop the intended outcomes or
educational objectives. An intended outcome states
what the learner will be able to do as a result of
participating in the curriculum activities.
This section includes:
(1) a definition of intended outcomes,
(2) the components of intended outcomes (condition,
performance, and standards),
(3) examples of intended outcomes, and
(4) an overview of learning behaviors.
A more complete explanation of the types and levels
of learning behaviors is included in the Addendum
as well as intended outcome examples from FAO
population education materials.
The next challenge in the curriculum development
process is selecting content that will make a real
difference in the lives of the learner and ultimately
society as a whole. At this point, the primary questions
are:
"If the intended outcome is to be attained, what
will the learner need to know? What knowledge,
skills, attitudes, and behaviours will need to be
acquired and practiced?"
The scope (breadth of knowledge, skills, attitudes,
and behaviours) and the sequence (order) of the
content are also discussed. Intended outcomes of
population education with content topics is
provided in the Addendum section as an example
and application of how intended outcomes are
linked with content.
After the content is selected, the next step is to design
activities (learning experiences) to help the learner
achieve appropriate intended outcomes. An experiential
learning model and it's components (i.e., experience,
share, process, generalize, and apply) are discussed
in this section.
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