TSL 3143

INTERACTION 3

What are the factors that need to be considered in designing a curriculum?

According to Commonwealth of Learning (2000:8) "The central pattern of curriculum design is further influenced by the number of subjects in the national curriculum." In support of the above, normally, a school cannot include on its list a subject that is not on the national curriculum, so the school curriculum is limited to what the national list has to offer.

In addition to national goals, the school curriculum is influenced greatly by the mental, physical and emotional requirements of the child. The school curriculum developers look at the child's level of development and maturity. The juniors should be given what they can handle in terms of depth and quantity. For example, in science at the primary level, there is more concern with the systems and processes that affect the learner's life without giving the principles and theories behind them. At higher levels, the physical, chemical the principles and theories that explain them. The level of complexity increases as the mental capacity of the learner develops.

Learning experiences increase in intensity and complexity with increased manipulative skills. Thus the physical condition of the learners also influences the selection of subjects and experiences. One cannot teach art appreciation to children in a school for the blind and under normal conditions; one would not teach music to the deaf (Ministry of Education, 1996).

Another factor that influences curriculum development is resource availability. By resources, we are referring to learning facilities, materials and personal factors such as qualification and experience. A school should not select a subject merely because other schools are offering it. A secondary school should not offer computer science if it has no electricity, or opts for rugby if there are no grounds and trainers qualified to coach the sport. The developers must look at the resources that are available before selecting a subject for the school. commerce, economics, science and accounting make a lot of sense because they will help the learners to acquire skills needed to produce goods and services. To humanists, it makes sense to include literature, history, science and geography. The content and learning experiences provided by a school should have cultural relevance for its learners.

Planners should consider what the environment could offer to the learner and how the environment can be exploited to facilitate the teaching and learning process. For example, if the school is located in a desert area, you might think of offering a course on crop science and farming in arid environments.

In addition, to the mentioned factors above, (Child, 1977) notes that, "evaluation system also influence curriculum development." In other words, you should also note that the designer of a school curriculum should consider the system

and strategy for the evaluation of the curriculum. Practical assessments for certain subjects such as chemistry require special equipment and apparatus that the school might not be able to afford.

Learners might be frustrated if they followed a course of study for which they were not assessed, because where there is no assessment, there is no certification. In addition, the instructors teaching these subjects may not take them seriously. Without commitment from both the teacher and the learners, teaching these subjects wastes time and money. It also would not make much sense to offer a subject in a trade that required industrial testing equipment if the school could not expose the learners to the same environment and conditions found in industry. These examples stress the need to consider evaluation seriously.

The computer technology of the 21st century influences curriculum development at every level of learning. Learning centers and classrooms increasingly provide computers as requisite interaction for studies among students. Technological multimedia use influences educational goals and learning experiences among students. Undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer technology increases in popularity.

Curriculum development affect from diversity opens learning opportunities. Social diversity including religion, culture and social groupings affects curriculum development because these characteristics influence the types of topics and methods for teaching information. Developing relevant curriculum takes into account society's expectations, accommodating group traditions and promoting equality.

Discuss three of the factors with elaborated examples.

Development of a Balanced Curriculum

The existing curriculum is academically-oriented with more emphasis on 智 ﹛ cognitive development and less consideration on pupils’ individual needs, abilities, interests, potentials and developmental history. Apart from this, personal and social development, self-understanding and various levels of life skills training have never been explicitly included in the﹛curriculum as a unique subject. Therefore, when planning the curriculum for maladjusted children, their special needs should be taken into consideration. Besides the basic academic and cultural subjects, there should be appropriate weighting of learning areas in personal and social development. On top of this, a balanced weighting of subjects should be worked out according to the available resources to meet the interest and ability of individual pupils, and gives them chances to gain success and pleasure in their school life.

Development of Multiple Intelligences

It has been the practice in the field of education to differentiate children into ability groups through intelligence tests. However, these tests are biased towards assessing abilities in languages and mathematical or logical thinking. Pupils who are slow in developing these two aspects may risk having other potentials left untapped.

Howard Gardner (1983), a psychologist of Harvard University, has suggested that human beings possess multiple intelligences. At least the following seven have been detected: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, inter-personal and ﹛intra-personal.

Gardner’s theory has great implications to education since the developmental milestones of each intelligence vary with individuals and every child has his or her unique intellectual profile. Curriculum integration is a good way to nurture children’s multiple intelligences through integrated and daily life learning activities. In addition, children can also figure out their own ways to develop different intelligences. (please see Appendix 2 for details).

Incorporation of Communicationand Interpersonal Skills Training

Maladjusted children can establish effective relationship with their immediate environment be it their families, schools or communities only if their communication and interpersonal skills improve significantly. Therefore these skills should be included in the curriculum as a subject, and widely incorporated into other subjects and their school life whenever appropriate. In selection of teaching content and learning activities, teachers should provide children with opportunities to practise the skills of conveying ideas and expressing feelings, so as to promote interpersonal skills and co-operation. Apart from it, teachers can also observe and assess children’s progress.

TSL 3143

INTERACTION 4

What are the basic steps involved in implementing any significant curriculum change?

Essential Considerations for Curriculum Development:

issue/problem/need is identified (issue ® what),

characteristics and needs of learners (target audience ® who),

changes intended for learners (intended outcomes/objectives ® what the learners will be able to do),

the important and relevant content ®(what),

methods to accomplish intended outcomes ®(how),

evaluation strategies for methods, content, and intended outcomes ®(What works?).

Essential Curriculum Development Steps Needing Emphasis

Needs assessment: if not conducted, wonderful curriculum could be developed, but the appropriate needs of the target audience may not be met.

Involving youth: the target audience and volunteers (or staff) who will be the implementors of the curriculum must be involved (i.e., they participate as full members of the curriculum development team).

Recruiting and training volunteer facilitators: competent and skilled curriculum implementors are critical (the printed word cannot teach experiential group process, it doesn't provide feedback).

Evaluating and reporting on the impact of the curriculum: is critical for securing human and financial support from key policy decision makers and for assessing whether the curriculum has achieved the intended outcome.