Curriculum is the path on which the teacher will guide their students over the course. So it is very important to have a sound curriculum. This article will instruct on how to prepare a curriculum and discuss the three different types of curriculum design.
It is also very important to keep regularly updating the curriculum prepared to incorporate the latest developments in the topics taught and also to include the latest methods of teaching like active learning etc. Thus it’s important to have a dynamic curriculum.
What is Curriculum Development?
Curriculum consists of the different subjects taught at school. Even though over the years the definition of the curriculum has changed, the core principle of it lies the same.
What are the models of Curriculum Development?
There are two types of current curriculum models both of them are equally important when designing curriculums :
- Product Model – Here acquiring a better grade is of the prime objective
- Process Model – Here the process of imparting the knowledge is considered important.
What is Curriculum Planning?
This involves the overall framework on which the course is planned. The student can plan the course by incorporating the various teaching methods like daily course plan, assignments, tests etc. The end result of student achieving a grade and also imparting knowledge is also taken into consideration.
Institutional requirement and frameworks are the starting points for designing the curriculum. Also, updating the curriculum as per the latest trends and developments is of foremost importance.
The six components of effective teaching to be incorporated in the design are:
- To demonstrate knowledge of the content
- To demonstrate the knowledge of students
- Select suitable instructional strategy goals
- To demonstrate knowledge of resources
- To design coherent instruction
- Assess student learning
What is Curriculum Design?
Curriculum design consists of inclusion and exclusion of topics in the document to decide what subjects the students will be learning in the course.
Types of Curriculum Design
- Subject-centered Curriculum Design
- Learner-centered Curriculum Design
- Problem-centered Curriculum Design
Subject-centered Curriculum Design
Used for courses like Maths, Biology, etc. The curriculum is designed as per the subject being taught. Each topic in the subject is taught as per the examples. This design model doesn’t take into the picture the capabilities of the students taking up the course and hence may not be suitable for all.
Learner-centred Curriculum Design
This design aims to customize the curriculum as per the needs of the student. Its core philosophy is that each student is unique and there is no standard curriculum which can fit all of them. Differentiated instruction plans can be prepared to suit each student as per their requirement. But since there is a constraint of time and also to figure out what each student needs uniquely this method also has its disadvantages.
Problem-centred Curriculum Design
This method aims at exposing the students to practical situations and problems so that they can apply their knowledge to solve them. This method helps the students to remember what they learned and the knowledge sticks with them for a long time. The disadvantage is that this method doesn’t suit all the student.
Conclusion
Thus we have learnt that an instructor must follow the proper guidelines and frameworks to design a curriculum because the curriculum is very important to guide the student on his journey on acquiring knowledge about a subject and also speaks on the teaching capability of an instructor.
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