GEM 6101: Curriculum Development - Mount Kenya University - Humanities Assessment Answer

Subject Code: GEM 6101

Humanities Assessment Answer

Assignment Task: Discuss the various stages of curriculum development Introduction: CurricuThe procedures used in monitoring must be in line with the overall educational or school philosophy, initially determined during curriculum conceptualization. lum Development Process This is the process of choosing and refining the contents of an education system which may, later on, be implemented in schools. It is in nature an improvement or modification or change on the existing, educational programme. Curriculum improvement or curriculum development cannot be made in a neat series of steps; it involves a lot of work. There are several component processes that should be considered in the curriculum development process. Let us consider them one by one: Situational Analysis This is a type of information gathering which reveals both the need and feasibility of the curriculum development intended. The main issues of concern here are; What information? From whom? Who should gather it? From whom should it be gathered? Who should collect it? What information should be used for? Much information related to the curriculum development is gathered from curriculum experts, educators, government, non-organizations employers, industrialists, Agricultural sector etc. The reasons are that much information is revealed concerning needs, problems and interests of learners and society. From information gathered, curriculum workers (eg. in KICD) will come to know whether or not there is a need to improve the existing curriculum. The information gathered will reveal the feasibility of improvement, the information may reveal current social economic and political philosophies of the society. Also vital to know is the employment chances and the aspirations of parents. Formulation of Objectives They are justifications for the need of providing education or various aspects of the school curriculum and indeed slogan support for education. They help to guide the educational process. For example, we cannot decide appropriately what to teach or how to teach it until we know why we are doing it. Objectives attempt to improve the practice of education by first obtaining clarity above educational ends. Objectives are a test to be applied to the educative process. They provide a precise basis for evaluation, determining the extent to which the educational or instructional programmes is useful. Criteria for selection of Curriculum Content Validity: They (Content or experiences) must be authentic or consistent with development in the subject or knowledge area. All the materials must be up to date. Therefore teachers must be given constant in-service courses and self-education in order to keep abreast in their disciplines. Learnability: The learning experience must be adjusted to the abilities of the learners. It must be appropriate for learners. The knowledge of the students is important to ensure that their background, present attainment, mental age and set up makes it possible for learners to behave as implied in the objectives. Significance: Learning experience or learning activities must be meaningful. They should be emphasized that any content, learning activities of learning resources are meaningful only when they contribute to the process or learning.  Significance refers to the essentials of content to be learned. It requires that the content be learned subscribe to the basic ideas, concepts principles and generalizations. Significance is related to the issue of breadth and depth (Scope) of curriculum content. Significance also pertains to how the content or experience contributes to the development of particular learning abilities, skills and attitudes formation. Taba (1962) argued that one should not just select content based on the cognitive aspect of learners but also on the effective dimensions of the learner. The importance of content also concerns the issue of durability. Significant content will last over a period of time before becoming obsolete. Content relevant to current times, but unlikely to be interested in five or 50 years is said to be of limited durability, significance loses the meaning if there is too much emphasis on courage of content because learners are likely to make little sense out of the bulky contents and many learning activities. Criteria for Organizing Content Balance: A balanced curriculum implies structure, its scope and sequence leading to the achievement of educational objectives (ends). There is the balance sought in the curriculum provided by the school i.e. the subjects to be taught or offered as required in the programs of study to be recommended, time allotments for various subjects and activities, the use of books and other educational materials, the respective amounts of general and specialized education to be provided. The dimension of balance is the part of the curriculum actually selected by and/or experienced by each individual child. Ideally, balance is attained in the individual’s own. Curriculum as he or she develops an optimal level for competence in each of the areas where provision is made in the curriculum. Integration: Bloom (1958)  defines as integrative thread as” an idea, problem, method or device by which two or more separate learning experience are related” it is evident that the concept of integration is used by persons engaged in designing curriculum according to the broad field and correlated designs. The concept is closely related to articulation, but the frequency in integrating content; the content areas lose their separate identifies e.g. teaching Geography, History and Civics in Kenya. Those confronted with designing curricula hopefully realize that learning is more effective when content from one field is related meaningfully to content in another field. Integration, sometimes seen as emphasizing horizontal relationships among various curricular areas, attempts to interrelate content themes, ideas, and facts in order to ensure students perceiving a unity of knowledge. Thus what is learned in language study may be related to study with a social studies units on communication in modern times, What is learned in science be further interpreted within the realm of mathematics (Taba, 1962). Continuity - refers to the continuousness with which individuals will experience content at various levels with an educational system. However, community and sequence are considered in Tandem (One behind the other) It can also be considered as a horizontal concept if one thinks of the continuousness of particular topics or experiences at any particular time, For instance during a certain day or days. Curricularists often extend theme vertically throughout an entire curriculum. The spiral curriculum organization exemplifies continuity in that the key concepts are experienced successively by students throughout the curriculum, for example, “persons, basic needs” can be a theme that might extend through 13 years of a school curriculum. Continuity deals with the continued presence of curriculum elements (Content topics or concepts or issues) and relates very closely with the concept of articulation.  Sequence: (Content selected must be arranged in time) Sequence addresses the problem of ordering the curricular offering so as to optimize students’ learning’ and questions posed by sequence. What content and experiences are to follow what content and experience? How can curricula be placing in time? Piaget’s (1960) research has provided a framework for sequencing content and activities and relating expectations to what we know and about how individuals function at various cognitive levels. Frequently, curricularists faced with sequencing content have drawn some fairly well-accepted principles, Smith, Stanelys and Shores (1957) introduced four such principles

• Simple to complex
• Prerequisitelearning’s
• Whole to part
• Chronology

The first simple-to complex indicates that content is optimally organized in a sequence going from simple subordinate components or elements to complex components depicting interrelatedness of components. It draws on the idea that optimal learning can proceed to the more difficult material, often abstract. Scope: This is common for selecting and organizing criteria. The scope of curriculum content is regulated in part by goals and objectives generated during the diagnosis stage curriculum planning. It is the breadth and depth of content. Try out/Piloting The curriculum materials and equipment should be tried out, in sample schools, feedback obtained and used to revise the curriculum materials during equipment. By trying out curriculum it is easy to identify and correct major defects before implementation. The try out must be done using real learners, real teachers in actual schools. At this stage, it is necessary to identify major problems that would arise during the implementation, and work out solutions to them before the new curriculum is implemented or the new materials go into schools. These problems are distribution, storage and general follow up. By so doing a method could be determined as to how they could be solved once a big number of pupils teachers and schools are involved. Another reason for trying out is that some mistakes could have been unnoticed during development and planning which could be easily detected and corrected through a tryout. The try out should not begin until the planning is complete and the whole range of curriculum materials and equipment prepared and produced in trial forms. The fairest try out would be one on which the students use the new curriculum and materials through a complete educational cycle or phase so that the curriculum workers can be able to see the cohort of children using new curriculum systematically through a complete educational cycle. There are six sub-processes of the try-out process that may be identified.

• Section of schools and colleges
• Briefing of education and the general public,
• Prepare of school teachers and heads for try out
• Supply of materials and equipment to the try out schools.
• Conducting try out in schools
• Gathering and analyzing feedback
• Use of feedback for the modification

Improving the new programme in light of data gathered during the try out is the next step. As the piloting goes on, some modification also is made on the programme based on the feedback but at a certain point, piloting stops to allow for major revision and consolidation of the programme in order to address more effectively the needs of the learners and other requirements of the programme. During the stage try-out the suggestions from the piloting personnel are used to modify the programme in order to make it appropriate to; the real school and instructional situation, the number of students with diverse backgrounds; teachers and the general educational environment. Modifications at this stage must address deficiencies discovered during the fieldwork and modified on the basis of field data including reactions from the lay public. No curriculum planner should assume and implement the new curriculum without a careful revision of the curriculum being tried. Several piloting programmes can be done especially when the feedback from the tryout reveals many problems within the programme. It is more profess

• There are nine sub-processes  of implementation stages to be followed: (Oluoch, 1982)
• Persuading a variety of people to accept the new curriculum.
• Keeping the general public informed
• Education the teachers.
• Education the teacher educators
• Provision of necessary facilities
• Supply of materials and equipment.
• The actual presentation of the new curriculum
• Institutionalization of appropriate student assessment procedures.
• Provision of continuous  support for the teachers
• Project evaluation

Project evaluation

• It is vital that curriculum development projects be evaluated as they are planned and as they are executed (formative) and after they are completed (Summative).
• Some steps of evaluation are:
• Specification of what exactly is to be evaluated and why.
• Finding out how the objectives and processes to be evaluated can be observed and measured.
• Selecting or developing the necessary observation and measurement techniques or instruments.
• Collecting, analyzing and using data to make decisions.
• Curriculum development project evaluation may be defined as the process of gathering and preparing needed information for making decisions on the planning, execution, completion and worth of the projects. It is the process of gathering and using the information to detect problems or modify the project.

Purposes of Evaluation are:

• To know the state of the project.
• To take corrective measures if necessary or to continue with the project as it is if there is nothing requiring adjustment.
• To find out how the project has worked if it has already come to an end.
• Evaluating curriculum development is a must if the project is to achieve its objectives. There are some things requiring modifications in a project and it would not be possible to know them unless an evaluation programme is built into the project.
• Formative evaluation is important in the project.
• It is always important to know how the project has been when it is completed so that if nothing else, the knowledge can be used when planning the executing of another project. It is therefore mandatory to carry out a summative evaluation in order to know the situation of the project. Summative evolution is performed at the end of the project implementation.
• The scope of evaluation will be determined by the resources available both human and materials for the purpose.
• Scriven (1967) coined two times accented concepts used to describe curriculum evaluation Namely: formative and summative evaluation in order to avoid confusion which might arise in understanding the process of curriculum evaluation.

Maintenance

• Curriculum maintenance refers to activities and procedures that allow the operation of the programme to continue. It involves several tactics whose prime purpose is to monitor all curriculum elements and the roles of persons supporting this element, as it is people oriented.
• This stage attends to actions and reactions of students, teachers, parents, administrators and others in response to the on-going programmes.
• In Maintaining the programme, the curriculum leaders strive to stabilize it and keep operational the content; experiences and environments. The maintenance requires a steady flow of accurate data or information in order to assess continual programme performance. It means managing the curriculum and support systems.
• The major curriculum elements to monitor include; objectives, content, environments, educational personnel, school organization, students, school community parents and the programmers’ budget in order to ensure that they relate positively all through the curriculum process to ensure positive results. The following principles are basic to the guidance of curriculum maintenance.
• Monitors must understand the total curriculum process that occurred and the place of maintenance in the whole process.
• A firm co-operation network must be established between all the staff concerned with the curriculum.
• The communication network needs to identify data from students’ and teachers’ behaviour and performance to be communicated to those administering and implementing the programme.
• There should be an established communication network to allow for the quick detection of programme deficiencies and rapid relay of such information to the relevant people. The monitoring process itself needs to be re-examined from time to time for relevance and effectiveness and eventually make the necessary re-adjustments.

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