Curriculum Planning & Design

Curriculum Planning

• It's challenging to create a curriculum without understanding the process.
• The goal is to guide students in identifying the structure of teaching work.
• It is important to know who is the curriculum for, why is it made, and bases and theories.
• Curriculum is defined as a methodology with organized steps to shape the curriculum or a rationalization scheme used in the process

Curriculum Design

• It is a development process (Arredondo, 1981)
• It addresses educational, economic, political, and social issues (Díaz Barriga, 1997)
• It provides answers to 4 questions (Tyler, 1986): school goals, experiences for achieving goals, efficient organization and methods for assessing goal achievement.

Elements to Understand Before Planning

• Key elements are required before you start planning, like characteristics and legal base.
• Díaz Barriga defines it as organizing elements to solve previously found problems.
• Designers should reflect orientation to logical and reasoned change, close ties between phases, collaboration from all involved to create an integral design that promotes learning and builds knowledge.
• Teachers are responsible for implementing, evaluating, and adjusting actions.

Curriculum Characteristics

• Curriculum design is dynamic, continuous, and participative.
• Curricular design encompasses the methodology, actions, and results.

Essential Components of a Curricular

• An analysis sector
• Learning results
• Content selection
• Curricular structure
• Curriculum evaluation.
• Dimensions and phases can show social, epistemological, psycho-educational, and technical sides.

Dimensions of Curricular Design

• Social: ties to the educational environment; policies, economics, and the government.
• Epistemological: a scientific process considering the nature and construction- Psicoeducativa: focuses on learning theories, instruction, and human motivation
• Technical: the best applicable processes when designing a curriculum.

Phases of Curricular Design

• Study of the social and educational reality
• Diagnostic and forecast focused on social needs
• Creation of a curriculum idea
• Internal and external evaluation of the solution.

Larraín’s Five-Phase Methodology:

• Starting
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Evaluation

Conceptualization of Curriculum

• It is the result of context analysis, student characteristics, and resources
• Definition of implicit and explicit educational goals and objectives.
• Specification of means and procedures for resource allocation to achieve goals.
• Achieved through systematic organization of available data.
• Curriculum defined as educational objectives, evaluation, and resources.
• It is associated with content and study programs.
• Polysemantic term: study plans, programs, and didactic implementation.
• Theory is defined as a disciplinary field or didactics area

Curriculum Can Be Viewed As

• Teaching contents: a list of subjects or topics in institutions.
• School activity plan or guide: it stresses having an ideal for school activities.
• Understood as experience: the focus is how students learn in schools.
• A system: the education has constituent elements and relationships.
• Discipline: a dynamic and active reflection.

Definitions of Curriculum:

• Fraga R. and Herrera C (1996) "The educational project that regulates, leads, and allows to evaluate"
• Stenhouse (1984) "an attempt to communicate the principles and essential features."
• Johnson (1967) "a structured series of learning objectives to be achieved"
• Wheeler (1967) "planned experiences offered to the student under the tutelage of the school"
• Hilda Taba (1974) "a plan for learning."
• Foshay (1969) "experiences an apprentice has under the guidance of a school”
• Beauchamp (1981) "It is a written document.”
• Zabalza (1987) - "the set of assumptions of departure.”
• Coll (1987) - "the project that presides over the educational activities of schools."

Elements Common to Definitions of Curriculum

• Purposes
• Openness towards change
• Developed in practice
• Openness to criticism

Modifications Due to Pandemic Challenges:

• The closure schools
• Increased student vulnerabilities
• Gender discrimination in domestic tasks
• Sexual and gender-based violence
• Forced marriages and early pregnancies.

1.3.2 Characteristics of the Curriculum

• The curriculum plan refers to the set of courses, educational materials and learning experiences provided by educational institutions to achieve the goals and educational objectives of students
• Relevant, coherent, flexible, and aligned with learning results, instruction, and assessment.

Characteristics of Effective Study Plans

• Relevance: designed to be relevant for life and meet societal and individual needs.
• Coherence: logically organized knowledge and skills.
• Flexibility: allows for personalization and adaptation to different needs.
• Alignment: guarantees harmony between instruction and goals.

Authenticity in Curriculum

• It links learning with real world
• Tasks reflect challenges and complexities outside of the classroom
• Students develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and deeper understanding.

Curriculum

• It should be systematically evaluated, and improved, as well as evolve over time based on feedback and any data analysis.
• Includes opportunities for development and new learning.
• It must specify the state's commitment in intensions and available resources.
• Conditions for effective implementation include methods, materials, and resources to answer four basic questions: What, When, How to, and How to Evaluate?

Curriculum Component Questions

• What to teach? Is determined by policies, contextualization, and educational content.
• When to teach? Order the curriculum.
• How to teach? It must accommodate student’s needs.
• How and when to assess? Value of obtained measurements.

Guidelines for Sequencing Content

• Consider internal structure and natural arrangement.
• Link to prior knowledge for significant learning.
• Design by the designer’s thinking-
• Use factual, conceptual, inquiry-based, learning, and utilization relationships.
• Curricular knowledge and creativity.

Essential Teaching Qualities

• Creativity
• Culture
• Curiosity
• Sensitivity
• Perception
• Openness to criticism.

Important Questions Teachers Ask Themselves:

• What do I have to teach
• How do I apply the resource
• The learner’s previous knowledge
• The material’s significance
• The student’s nature, abilities, learning styles and interest

Student and Content Relationship

• It involves a state of tension with appreciation for the content's inherent worth
• There should be considerations for its importance, and adequacy.

Choice of Curriculum

• Designed to promote changes through its learning activities.
• Activities should allow decision-making, promote engagement, intellectual process, and stimulate commitment.

Ideal Activities Should

• Encourage interaction, different ability levels, new contexts, challenging ideas, and critical reflection.
• Should lead to success, and reconsideration.

The Role of the Teacher Includes Applying:

• Rules with significance.
• Providing students possibility to plan and discuss.
• Making activities relevant to students' interests

Consider Before Selecting Content:

• It has to be the teacher’s intent to help students

Evaluating Curriculum

• Determine, to evaluate is to value.
• Measures (exams or time taken from a march) allow to alter the performance.
• Modifications are decided after seeing student semester end examination results.
• Ralph Tyler is the father of evaluation.

Model Assessment Objectives

• Centered, so the evaluation to be centered in the students achievement
• Must measure objectives in student conduct and understanding.
• Should evaluate for a purpose-
• Should be various varying on why it is being evaluated.
• Should show the students achievement is regards to objectives, content and activities. - It allows for improving for teachers process to make a chance in students result.

Evaluations can be implemented

• In groups
• As a plenary
• As an idea brainstorm to analyze the way a group involves.
• Evaluations include promoting to self-evaluate, in an individual manner.

Evaluation should be Done through

• Rubrics
• Institutional Norms
• It should deliver results quick
• Feedback based results

Phases of Evaluation Based on Moments of the Education

• Initial Diagnostic
• Formative/ Continuous
• Summative assessment

1.4 Curriculum Foundations and Meaning:

• Contemporary thoughts on curriculum come from older times.
• Those thoughts may help explain what will be created on future educators

Early Curriculum

• In the past curricula trained soldiers who were loyal to their nation
• During the Renaissance, citizens needed to read and write
• In the USA they developed multiple curriculum for specialized fields
• Scientific curriculums were introduced to promote scientific movement.

Curricular Influences:

• The curriculum is a result of various factors that take place at the same time in the educating and learning processes
• These respond to specific objectives and don’t ignore content, society, or culture

Curriculum Is Affected By:

• Internal and external factors
• Culture
• Ideology
• Politics
• The economic system.

1.4.1 Theoretical Philosophical Foundations include seeking to know:

• The purpose of a person's life
• Capacity
• The focus of efforts depends on philosophical views.

Philosophical Views for Curriculum

• Supernatural views of Plato and Aristotle emphasizes liberal education and vocation
• Realism prioritizes harmony for man and nature, while Pragmatism sees constant change.
• Existentionalism focused on finding personal truth to help overcome crisis.

1.4.1.1 Psychological Underpinnings

• The human mind should be considered when designing the curriculum.
• Learning in schools are known via constant experiences.
• Behavior changes through learning
• Cognitivism focuses on culture, socio-cultural influences and personhood. Learnings functionality comes as knowledge of significant data to alter activities.

1.4.1.2 Pedagogical Foundation

• Curriculum must include what the teacher must do, and action process and what model will be implemented.

Curriculum Development Incorporates:

• Learning and theory to have a better connection so that learning can come to the classroom.
• Should have appropriate methods, models, and a virtual pedagogy

1.4.1.3 Sociological Underpinnings:

• Society and culture have a big impact when planning curriculums
• Must have social, structural knowledge of the school
• Curriculum explains the needs that the education system wants, and restructure curriculum

What Affects Action in the Curriculum?

• Changes in social and cultural norms
• Communication developments
• Political and social issues
• Population shifts.

Telen Emphasis on Curricular Success

• Curriculum planners must look at all culture
• Schools should improve high sense through questioning.

1.4.1.4 Epistemological Basis

• Explains how one makes their knowledge of the scientifically validated information.

1.4.2 Curriculum Dimensions

• Multifaceted concept that encompasses dimensions affecting planning and design.
• Dimensions ensure complete understanding of complexity in learning.

Key Curriculum Dimensions

• Philosophic: Values and beliefs
• Sociocultural: How values influence education
• Political: Regulations of curriculum
• Psychological: How to shape learnings around students need.
• Technological: Integration of tech and digital means for the system.
• Interdiscplinary: to give a more complete and connected comprehension of the system
• Global: Includes awareness- global issues, cultural diversity, and citizenship
• Inclusive: Accommodates abilities and needs of the students
• Ethical and Values: Responsible morals and civic duty.

1.5 The Point of How to Make a Schedule

• There needs to be an establishment of how to deliver education and to ground it.
• Ferrada determined technical approaches: practical and critical
• Those points need to become integrated one another.

Curriculum Approaches

• They represent the theoretical focus adopted in the curriculum.

Key Characteristics of Curriculum

• Orientation of planning
• Specification of designed action
• Internal characteristics

Types of Curriculum Approaches:

• Sycologistic: Individual Analysis that allows growth
• Academic/Intellectual: Systemize data emphasis of structure of transmission process
• Technological: Orientation to outcome of what is to be achieved.
• Socio - Construcivist: Transforms learnings based on socialization to understand one self
• Dialectic: Seeks to transform social and cultural aspects.