EDA 503
Curriculum Development
Adije Okpo
In Chapter 5, it stated that curriculums are supposed to be design scientifically by looking at daily activities; however, I think a major problem with curriculum is they can only plan for a generic future, when each classroom has its own personalities and talents – it can be a disadvantage to create a curriculum when opportunities for generic learning can’t be planned for ahead of time.
Through observations I noticed that some leaders don’t want to trust their teachers to maximize opportunities. So we close ourselves off to positive randomness by planning for every second. In the beginning of this course, I wasn’t sure if I had an established definition at all of what is actually curriculum. It seemed to me that many different people used many different definitions for the term “curriculum”.
After a few definitions I came up with the conclusion that curriculum is the experience of student involvement with knowledge and skills that engage and challenge learners of varying ability, providing an outlet for the discovery of individual interests and the development of talents, while igniting the imagination. According to the chapter 5 reading, a modeled curriculum should maintain the interest of the students through current events, personal experience, case studies, and real word scenarios. How do you know if you’re doing the most for your students? Well adopting standards and being able to measure the standards. I had to first understand (SBE) Standard Based Education. Standards describe the goals of schooling, the destinations at which students should arrive at the end of the unit or term. This can all be created by doing backwards planning using the standards. Implementing and using instructional practices, separate academic from life skill factors, track progress toward learning goals, and feedback.
Standards don’t prescribe how to get the students to this destination that is determined by the curriculum. Standards do not prescribe any particular curriculum: National standards don't mean that local ability to choose teaching materials and methods are compromised. Standards indicate what students should know and should be able to do across grades. The teacher can choose whatever curriculum he or she finds appropriate to help the students