Jill Maschio, PhD
July 24, 2023
Curriculum development is the process of creating a plan for teaching and learning that outlines objectives, assessment methods, materials needed, and activities. It is an important process that needs consideration when designing.
Curriculum development involves a good goal and strategy to reach your goal. It includes the following tasks (1) analyzing student needs (2) designing instructional strategies to meet those needs (3) selecting appropriate resources and tools to support instruction, (4) and evaluating the impact of curricular decisions on student success.
1. Analyzing Student Needs
To analyze
- What information is important to the general topic?
- What information might be most valuable for a career in that field?
- How might the information you present develop independent thought, critical-thinking skills, or problem-solving abilities?
- And, what is students’ current knowledge about the topic?
2. Instructional Strategies
Once you have assessed student needs, identify strategies to help you achieve your goal. What activities will you use to teach the material? Consider technology, group projects, lectures, labs, debates, videos—the possibilities are endless.
Consider the different delivery methods, such as lectures, discussion groups, or multimedia presentations. Additionally, think about the materials that might be needed such as textbooks, online resources, video clips or simulations.
Whatever you decide to use, make sure that it keeps student interest and is effective in meeting your student learning goals. For example, when it comes to selecting an activity, make sure it is appropriate for the students’ abilities and level of understanding. How will the activity lead to increased learning?
3. Appropriate Tools
Selecting resources and tools is also an important part of curriculum development. This includes selecting textbooks or other printed material. Consider digital tools or other media that can help aid in instruction. But, also consider whether your students tend to know how to use the technology you want to use. If most of the class is not familiar with the tool, then it may be less useful because you would have to teach the technology to the class. If teaching the technology is time consuming, then consider if the time spent is justified. If not, then consider a different technology. There are many different technologies available, so upon researching, you might find one that is a better fit for your students.
Curriculum development is an important and ongoing process. As new technology, trends, and resources become available, consider how they can be used to create a curriculum that meets the needs of students now and in the future. Make sure your curriculum is effective by regularly evaluating it to see if your strategies are helping you achieve your overall goal.
4. Evaluating Your Strategy
Lastly, evaluate the impact of your decisions and make sure to document student progress along the way. Analyze data from assessments, focus groups and surveys in order to identify key areas where students are doing well and areas where students seem to struggle with the most. The areas where students are struggling, that’s a red flag. Use that to make a change. Re-evaluate students’ knowledge and abilities. Then, reconsider the learning strategies and tools you are using.
In the end, educators must continually revise their curriculum so that it is keeping up with student development. This also includes determining newer methods of helping students achieve your learning goals.
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