Contents
Curriculum Design and Development
Rationale
Curriculum has many different conceptions. It may include any educational experience. It may also be conceived as a conversation, relationships, and it is this phenomenon of plurality that is inherent in the new paradigm view of curriculum.
In the first published textbook on “Curriculum” in 1918, John Franklin Bobbitt noted that the idea of curriculum has its roots in the Latin word for a race-course, and explained curriculum as the course of deeds and experiences in which children become the adults that they should be, for success in adult society. He explained, further, that curriculum must be understood as encompassing not only those experiences that take place within schools, but the entire scope of formative experience both within and outside of schools. Further, this includes experiences that are not planned or directed, as well as experiences that are intentionally directed (in or out of school) for the purposeful formation of adult members of society. (See image at right.)
Bobbitt saw curriculum as an arena for social engineering. His formulation suffers from at least two serious problems: 1) He assumed that "scientific" experts would be qualified and justified in designing curricula based on expert knowledge of what qualities are desirable in adult members of society, and what experiences would produce those qualities; and (2) in his definition of curriculum as the experiences that someone ought to have in order to become the kind of adult that they ought to become, he was defining curriculum as an ideal, rather than as the reality of whatever course of experience in actuality forms people as they do actually take form.
Contemporary views of curriculum would reject these features of Bobbitt's formulation, but they retain the basic notion of curriculum as the course of experience in which human being takes form. Moreover, the formation of human being through curriculum is studied not only at the level of the individual person, but also at the level of groups, cultures, and societies (as, for example, in the formation of a profession or an academic discipline through the course of its historical experience). The formation of a group is seen as taking place reciprocally with the formation of its individual participants.
Although it appeared formally in Bobbitt's definition, the notion of curriculum as the course of formative experience is also pervasive in the work of John Dewey (who seriously disagreed with Bobbitt on important issues), in Dewey's work on education spanning decades before and after Bobbitt's work. Although this understanding of "curriculum" may be different from some common uses of the word, it continues to be shared as a common understanding among curriculum professionals and researchers who take conflicting positions on a variety of other issues.
- Curriculum Theories
- Curriculum theory and practice
- The International Bureau of Education the UNESCO center specialized in curriculum development
- EuroCv (not for profit service)
- National Education Standards in the United States (book)
- National Education Standards...They're Back! (article)
- Diane Ravitch, National Standards in American Education A Citizen's Guide (book)
- World Council for Curriculum and Instruction
- Participatory Curriculum Development and Learner-Centered Education in Vietnam
Today's Videos
- Connect with us on http://www.youtube.com/finntrack
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Teaching and Learning Resources
Curriculum Design
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- Work-Related Learning
- Personal Development Planning
- Internationalising of The Curriculum
- Research-Informed Teaching
- Creating Environments for Learning using Tightly Integrated Components
- Module Designer
External Links
- Department for Education
- Google Scholar
- HE Academy
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- Higher Education Statistics Agency
- Leadership Foundation
- Oxford Centre for Staff & Learning Development
- Quality Assurance Agency
- Staff and Educational Development Association
Key Concept Map
Learning Objectives and Strategies
Tutorials
Readings
Learning, as the noun, is the body of knowledge and wisdom (that which one learns); as the verb, it is the process of gaining understanding that leads to the modification of attitudes and behaviors through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and values, through study and experience. Learning induces a persistent, measurable, and specified behavioral change in the learner to formulate a new mental construct or revise a prior mental construct. The learning process leads to long-term changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential describes an individual’s possible behavior in a given situation to achieve a goal. But potential is not enough; if individual learning is not periodically reinforced, it becomes shallower and shallower, and eventually will be lost in that individual.
Education can be defined as the conscious attempt to promote learning in others (but see Education for other definitions.) Traditionally, analysis of this attempt has centered around direct teaching on the part of teachers. In what constitutes a paradigm shift, however, people now note that learning can be promoted in ways that go beyond direct instruction by a teacher--education now centers around creating a viable, productive learning environment, regardless of how teacher-centric that environment might be.
When the term education is combined with entertainment, the term edutainment is coined. Edutainment also called "e-learning" are new methods and practices that enabled learning in faster, more efficient and more entertaining ways. The idea is usually to combine games with learning, using software or interactive courses. There are also blogs on edutainment that keep up with the latest news and updates on software, videos, and lessons that use edutainment as a basis for teaching in a more efficient and faster way. E-learning is more specifically related to "electronic learning." This may or may not be edutainment. Many distance education programs use electronic teaching methodologies (courseware) to facilitate the educational process, these programs will often talk about doing "e-learning."
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teaching and learning strategies that support that standard.
- Learning - Neuroscience
- Basic learning processes
- Learning methods
- Headline text
- Learning which alternative methods exist
- Theories on Learning
- Other dimensions of learning
Study Guides and Strategies over 120 topics including learning, studying, classroom participation, learning with others, project management, reading, writing, test preparation and taking, research, maths, science, and webtruth in thirty languages* Explorations in Learning & Instruction: The Theory Into Practice Database
- Natural Learning, Articles by leading writers
- General study tips, Tips on how to better learn and prepare for exams
- Life Learning International magazine about self-directed learning, unschooling and informal learning
- Nurturing Children's Natural Love of Learning - Article by Jan Hunt
- Learning Inquiry: an academic journal centered on learning
- Articles about Natural Learning from Natural Life magazine
- Learning Through World Travel & Cultures.
- How To Learn - a spiritual perspective
- Learning With Laptop Computers - Articles on educators using technology in the classroom
- Interview with James Zull, Ph.D.
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, often called Bloom's Taxonomy, is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for students. The taxonomy was proposed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist at the University of Chicago. Bloom's Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains:" Affective, Psychomotor, and Cognitive. Within each domain are different levels of learning, with higher levels considered more complex and closer to complete mastery of the subject matter. A goal of Bloom's Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.
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Problem-based Learning (PBL) is a pedagogical strategy of "active learning" often used in higher education, but it can be adapted for use in K-12 education. It was pioneered and used extensively at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
The defining characteristics of PBL are:
- Learning is driven by challenging, open-ended problems.
- Students work in small collaborative groups.
- Teachers take on the role as "facilitators" of learning.
Accordingly, students are encouraged to take responsibility for their group and organize and direct the learning process with support from a tutor or instructor. Advocates of PBL claim it can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skill.
Assessment
Tutorials
- The Fundamentals of Effective Assessment
- Core Principles of Effective Assessment
- Assessing Group Work
- Responding to the Assessment Challenges of Large Classes
- A New Era in Assessment in Higher Education
- Online Assessment
Readings
Assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. This article covers educational assessment including the work of institutional researchers, but the term applies to other fields as well including health and finance.
1. Course evaluation is a series of questions given students to evaluate the instruction of a given course.
2. Evaluation is the process of looking at what is being assessed to make sure the right areas are being considered.
3. Grading is the process of assigning a (possibly mutually exclusive) ranking to learners.
4. Educational measurement is a process of assessment or an evaluation in which the objective is to quantify level of attainment or competence within a specified domain. See the Rasch model for measurement for elaboration on the conceptual requirements of such processes, including those pertaining to grading and use of raw scores from assessments.
5. Educational evaluation deals specifically with evaluation as it applies to an educational setting. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a government program that requires educational evaluation.
7. Electronic portfolio is a personal digital record containing information such as a collection of artifacts or evidence demonstrating what one knows and can do.
8. Health Impact Assessment looks at the potential health impacts of policies, programs and projects.
9. Program evaluation is essentially a set of philosophies and techniques to determine if a program 'works'.
10. Social Impact Assessment looks at the possible social impacts of proposed new infrastructure projects, natural resource projects, or development activities.
11. Standardized testing is any test that is used across a variety of schools or other situations.
12. Science, Technology, Society and Environment Education
1. Assessment in Higher Education web site.
2. Edutopia: Assessment Overview, A collection of media and articles on the topic of assessment from The George Lucas Educational Foundation
3. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
4. Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation
5. Testing and Assessment Glossary of Terms
This section has eight topics which you can access from the list below or from the menu system.
- Introduction to assessment
- Self and peer assessment
- Assessing students' work in groups
- Computer aided assessment
- Assessment as an aid to learning
- Teaching Materials Using Case Studies
- Developing
assessment in Business Studies
Gurnam Singh: To be or not to be competent, that is the question: putting the horse before the cart - developing assessment driven by learning rather than regulation. This paper was written for the 3rd Annual Practice Teaching Conference (23rd November 2001) 'The Hidden Components of Assessment' organised by Nottingham County Council Social Services Department Practice Learning Service.
See also
Recommended Texts
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Analyzing
the Curriculum Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop
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Developing
the Curriculum
Peter Oliva Feb
2008 , Hardback , 624 pages Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
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Preparing
to Use Technology Blanche
O'Bannon , Kathleen Puckett
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Resources
