Curriculum Development: An Overview

Introduction to Curriculum Development

• Teachers must understand different curriculum development approaches to optimize classroom teaching and learning.
• Effective teachers can interpret curricula, select appropriate teaching strategies, and consider policies set by the Department of Basic Education.
• The views of Tyler, Stenhouse, and Freire help teachers understand their roles as curriculum interpreters and implementers, influenced by curriculum design theories.

Curriculum: Design, Interpretation, Plan, and Practice

• Educationists like Grundy and Goodson emphasize the significance of understanding different curriculum interpretations.
• Goodman (1998) argues defining curriculum involves social and political priorities, not just intellectual discussion.
• It is necessary to examine the differences between a curriculum and a syllabus, as well as the various aspects of curriculum

Curriculum vs. Syllabus

• Curriculum originates from Latin "currere," meaning "to run", referencing chariot tracks.
• Thijs and Van den Akker (2009) define curriculum as a "plan for learning," as did Hilda Taba in 1962.
• Related terms exist in languages like Dutch (leerplan) and German (lehrplan).
• "Lehrplan" doesn't limit perspective, allowing elaboration for curricular levels and representations.
• Curriculum involves complex interactions among teacher, knowledge, and learner with the document outlining the course's rationale, aim, and purpose and related methodology, teaching methods, and assessment practices.
• Syllabus, derived from Greek, is a succinct list of discourse topics or subject content with series of headings and additional notes that define the subject area to be examined.
• Compilers of a syllabus tend to sequence content following the order of a traditional textbook and a traditional structure in a logically organized way.

Defining Curriculum

• Stenhouse noted two curriculum views in 1975: curriculum as intention/plan versus existing state of affairs in schools.
• Curriculum explanations vary based on the respondent's views, background, and experience;
• Eisner (1985) defines it as planned events with educational impact, while Fraser (1993) views it broadly as encompassing aims, content, evaluation, activities, opportunities, and experiences with a plan and justification.
• Older definitions focus on curriculum plans as documents setting out intentions, or it was a course of study or program, whereas broader definitions include every opportunity for learning and viewed in both historical and sociopolitical viewpoint
• It can be broadly defined as all teaching and learning activities and experiences in schools as defined by the National Education Policy Initiative, RSA, 1993 that includes the aims and objectives, the content selection, teaching methods, and assessment.
• The definition covers intended curriculum, classroom practices, experiences (enacted curriculum), and how the curriculum is interpreted and implemented
• A "curriculum-in-use" or "enacted curriculum", which is affected by resources, experiences, and teacher quality is determined by improving improved implementation of the curriculum and the classroom experience is determined by teachers' knowledge and skills in interpreting it.
• A curriculum may include teachers' subject preferences and teaching strategies, principal punctuality enforcement at 08:00, Mathematics lessons rarely in the last Friday period, teacher impact teaching subjects they never studied, and classes of primarily weak learners.
• These things explain why the same curriculum yields different results across schools
• The actual curriculum involves teaching and learning process and operational curriculum that is based on how the teachers interpret the curriculum.
• The actual curriculum is actual teaching and learning and perceived and interpreted by teachers (enacted, lived, or curriculum in action).
• Curriculum defined: organized framework of content what learners learn delineated through processes, achieving goals to help teachers know what to do to best achieve the goals and to provide context for teaching and learning in the classroom.
• Curriculum has aspects such as: the blueprint for teaching, learning experienced, implicit deliberate teaching at school or non-deliberate teaching by teachers.

Curriculum Aspects

• Official, explicit, intended curriculum: the prescribed curriculum and blueprint and what is implemented
• Enacted curriculum: is the non-official, implicit as implemented and what was actually taught and learned; teacher may be unable to implement plan exactly as intended.
• Covert curriculum: implicit deliberate teaching: such as consideration to others, order and obedience, teamwork and cooperation.
• Hidden curriculum: learning hidden to teachers and learners, a type of implicit not intended and are probably not even aware of.
• Assessed/attained curriculum: knowledge and skills measured to determine learner’s outcome measured.

Curriculum Development

• Curriculum development focuses on education improvement/innovation by means of design, implementation, and evaluation
• The 5 activities are analysis, design development, implementation and evaluation

Curriculum Design: Nature and Extent

• Subject experts and curriculum designers collaborate to serve national goals, qualification aims, and developmental outcomes in a curriculum plan for teaching and learning.
• Aims, outcomes, culture, context, and curriculum purpose influences structure that includes furthering for higher learning and/or preparation for participation in civil society and prepared for being employability.
• Clear specific and well-defined aims are aligned with the purpose and subject methodology with suitable interests for learners.
• Curriculum developers think about how to organize curriculum knowledge and should consider organization linked to knowledge but is congruent with knowledge selection with level, order, space, time, fairness and equability.
• Subject content selection that is guided by knowledge, discipline in accordance of purposes and should consider fair and equitable for all from different socio-economic groups to ensure the appropriate sequencing.
• Consider reasonably allocate the time to show the weighting or the focus on each aspect for easy application of curriculum to be utilized by teachers

Curriculum Design: Diverse Contexts

• Curricular design considers the differences in values, traditions, cultures, political regimes, and educational structures that necessitates either an advantage or disadvantage for the proper learning to utilize.
• Considers thinking, applications of concepts, 21st century expectations and way learners engage with concept so that it is applicable later on in life.
• Also considering the situational by way in part from a situational analysis workforce skills, research, and good practice that enable learner to be completely capable:
• Deep meaning of the subject matter
• Interacting with others in a direct deep way to learn, to sense etc.
• Proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions
• Competency across cultures
• Abstract concepts out of data and reasoning via computer
• Access and creation of a variety of media forms and tools
• Understanding and linking the concepts with multiple things in one way
• Mindset to represent and develop tasks via design.
• Filtering of what is of most importance
• Collaboration with group and virtual teams.
• Considering this a context within broader developmental framework is important.

Approaches to Curriculum Studies

• Whether curriculum includes a range of information, different curricula is based on the reasons for developing a curriculum what to include and how it is implemented.
• the approach and framework will vary according to the core intention and results
• More complex society needs clear boldness based from prioritizing goals and focus of the curriculum to be achieved.

Selection and Prioritizing Aims and Content

• Academic and world knowledge for learning and developent
• Social preparation and trends
• Personal growth and learning with educational needs and interest.
• The questions needing a close look at "why the curriculum. rationale and purpose presents both socio-political view and takes on necessity, type of teaching with the teacher to learner relation for their views of the learners

Objectives

• Purpose to help learner to guide to achieve their intentions with discipline statements. what are knowledge and skills: aligning what is to be acquired in the curriculum for the particular reason aligned to goals or subject areas determining what is what to included and what strategies is to be used will content must show that there and they are is pre existing towards future to be clear or specific and appropriate

Organizing Principle

• Called that is the way to in which the content is "arranging or called an organizing principle" simplifies a particular design through classification and value.
• The guiding principle in curriculum development states as a theory of the discipline with subject selection and pacing level
• In additions one can also choose what is most relevant and consistent/coherent in accordance in helps teachers pace themselves in relation and it provides selections for levels for those teachers planning to work properly to manage time and cognitive demands to make sure content is fair and is at the level required.

How Success Is Measured

• Measurements are all methods of all sources from evaluation or evaluation to merely for better evaluation should provide ways and opportunity to access the information needed for improvements to be assessed.
• Guidelines should include certain aspects in the curriculum being clear and explicitly, the number to be present and identify and external

Van Schall

• To assist each teachers guideline document can act as a way for assessment to be viewed as resourcing, weighting guidelines, help in this goal, teaching of assist in examinations. no assignment covers all assessment must cover every learner.

Approaches to Curriculum Development (Teachers & Learners)

• Behaviorist: curriculum development is directed by academic and cooperative direction/structure.
• Academic: focus on knowledge of content, simple or theoretical.

Implications for Teachers/Learners

• Behaviorist: standardized principles and performance evaluation measures, objectives being clear is the impact.

Naturalistic Approach

• Creative problem solving for curriculum that includes teacher's known ideas and values

Humanistic Approach

• Focuses in creativity as it self-sufficiency and for personal and subject, also focusing on what selfs curriculum can do to change, is to be the major focus, and what is planned. and if so is permission

OBE Approach

• Focuses are based to society and progressives philosophies.

3 Types of Category of Curriculum

• Curriculum focus as a product to create learning to be had for its assessment so that it can be assessed.
• As process where a physical resources are not the exclusive set of the process are more important than facts
• As a context which is very relevant also it is also as a process

Tyler's Approach

• Should account for knowledge, societal needs, and learner preferences.
• Should give a systematical focus
• That can be evaluated at that can also meet all conditions and innovative that is to be all
• Should be dynamic
• Must follow a linear order system from aims to the the content planning

Stenhouse and Tyler

• Technical expertise are to be the end focus

Tyler Ideals

• The goal to have is that only schools is to to what is important

Summary of Stenhouse

• Should be rough and guidelines, the more it has and the more is gained is the the teachers part

Summary of Freire

• Must be what is created of and what is used is of a good standard

Limitations of Freire

• Must account all the learners may not feel on knowledge

Transformations in General

• A learner is to now have the intellectual of what they learn

Important and the process

• Learners now come with the idea to go from the design down now is where the teacher can do anything

Various Points of Action

• The teacher will always want to see improvement from all ways and aspects when teaching
• To consider for diversity all must be in line and a part of the curriculum to teach also

Introduction

• The interpreter for all the reasons why they go about something

Influence

• By way we make this of something
• We all try our best of what our ability
• South Africa now with the education

Values and the South Africans

• Give us new and a better aspect is the direction that is wanted to be had

Impact on Context

• As a view on all the ways it now looks all all and from there all will

Socio-Constructivists

• If we think deeper things we know and we might now think the way we will

Influence of Change

• More or not the South Africa is

Deconstructions

• What to account that all is well

Influences of South Africa

• To what history and how what we want and

Economic Forces That Drive In SA

• Strength comes from skills

Africanization

Is what it will of time what it and to do and or has meant to us to make our our time what it is from the is good to it

Is what has changed the what happens