Curriculum Development and Change

The word curriculum can mean something different to different people, even to different teachers who use the term almost daily (Manning & Butcher, 2012). However, it boils down to curriculum being what a student learns, both in terms of core subject content, as well as though social activity and elective/activity courses. However, there has often been a disconnect between different states and districts over what exactly should be in the curriculum for various grades and what is needed to prepare students for life beyond school, as well as providing little basis for comparing the US to other countries. That’s where Common Core State Standards (CCSS) come in. According to Teaching in the Middle School (2012), the Common Core standards were created in an attempt to provide curriculum standards that are “rigorous, internationally benchmarked, and aligned with college and work expectations”. Since its implementation in 2009, 42 US states and the District of Columbia have integrated the standards into their curriculums. (Core Standards, 2015)

For this program outcome I chose my curriculum analysis paper from CUR 512, Curriculum Analysis and Planning. In this course we defined curriculum, the aspects that are considered when writing curriculum, the theoretical perspectives found within curriculum, and the goals of the curriculum. By writing this paper, I was able to focus in on a unit that I teach in third grade social studies to get a full picture of the curriculum. I was also able to see the complex issues surrounding the curriculum that I never previously noticed.

For Curriculum it does not matter the religion or the nationality, children are educated into particular modes which can make sense of their experiences and the environment around them, and also into a set of behavioral expectations, skills and knowledge, which the society requires for its future.

Brady and Kennedy (2010) define the term curriculum as ‘the means by which young people and adults gain the essential knowledge, skills and attributes they need to be productive and informed citizens in a democratic society.’ However the term has many varied definitions, it can be described as being the subject matter, the overall plan for teaching or the outcome of what is taught (Wiles, 2005). Marsh and Willis (cited in Marsh, 2009, p. 3) break curriculum down into three individual areas of ‘planned curriculum’, the objectives and aims, ‘enacted curriculum’, how the objectives are

1. What is the definition of the term curriculum? “The outline of what should be taught within an allotted amount of time.”

In formal education, a curriculum (; plural: curricula,) is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults.

A course curriculum incorporates learning the experience of a wide range of student learning. Curriculum proves why schools surpass other schools, they outshine in particular areas to demonstrate confidence, hands-on skills, visual and audio material and technology. If a school has a good curriculum they will become a stimulating and energetic environment for development so students can make exceptional advancement and succeed with high standards. Every curriculum should focus on learning outcomes and objectives. A good curriculum should contain diversity, meet all learning styles and innovative technology.

A curriculum is any planned educational experience. Ideally, the learning objectives should incorporate the acronym “SMART”: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Targeted to the learner. Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development (SCID) is a successful model for curriculum development customized to complement the needs of career and technical educators as well as business and industry trainers. It has five phases: design, development, implementation, evaluation. Since curriculum reflects the models of instructional delivery chosen and used, some might indicate that curriculum could be categorized according to the common psychological classifications of the four families of learning theories “Social, Information Processing, Personalist, and Behavioral” as defined by Cortes (1981). Cortes

Throughout this rationale, the key elements and processes of meeting planning requirements will be discussed with specific reference to a series of three progressive examples (see appendix). The

From the Rusken College speech in 1976, a whole new approach to education was to be invented and from this came the introduction of the craft based qualifications, his idea of the government putting money into education and seeing very little return, made him concentrate on making people fit for work, in turn helping the economy and paying the government back on their investment. This is the main model used in my specialised curriculum. One of the attractions of this approach to curriculum theory is that it involves detailed attention to what people need to know in order for it to work. Lesson plans are produced with the main theme of ‘by the end of the session the learner will

Planning focuses on objectives and when the objectives are well defined, tasks can be delegated, and resource requirements met, so that individuals within the organisation may be able to achieve their goals.

Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a

David Jenkins and Marten D Shipman say that the curriculum is an education practice that needs to be taught and absorbed within a school or educational place; these schools or institutions accept responsibility at three different levels. The first is rationale, then actual

The meaning of the term’ curriculum’ is difficult to define. For school, Pratt (in Brady and Kennedy, 2014, p. 3) argues that curriculum can be ‘an organized set of formal educational and training intentions’. For students, Marsh and Wills (in Brady and Kennedy, 2014, p. 3) maintain that curriculum is ‘an interrelated set of plans and experiences that a student undertakes under the guidance of the school’, while for teachers, the challenge is to develop curricula that will cater for the needs of all students (Ah Sam & Ackland, 2005). There are various meanings attached to the term’ curriculum’. My personal definition for school curriculum is that schools develop programs of different study areas basing on the content of the national curriculum document; teachers plan their teaching basing on the programs; eventually, students experience the curriculum by engaging in diverse teaching activities. In this essay, I will be discussing The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) in relation to the strategic plan and teaching philosophy of Hampton Park East Kindergarten.

According to Blaise and Nuttall (2011), to understand curriculum, we must first understand what is meant by the term curriculum. Within curriculum there are five key concepts, they are the intended curriculum The Intended curriculum is the curriculum that the teachers want the children to experience in order to develop particular knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (Blaise & Nuttall, 2011, p. 82). The enacted curriculum is what teachers want students to experience. important reason why the intended curriculum is enacted differently from teacher to teacher, from classroom to classroom, is that a key part of a teachers work is to interpret the official curriculum, taking into account a wide range of variables that are specific to their classroom and school setting.