Curriculum Development Process Problems
Curriculum Development Process Problems
Curriculum Development Process Problems
Introduction
The curriculum is never a value-free document. The foundations of
the curriculum are guided by some philosophical, sociological, and
psychological understanding of the what, why, and how of a
curriculum. To contextualize the curriculum development process,
Teachers and all stakeholders should be exposed to the curriculum
development process.
Curriculum development
Curriculum development as a problem-solving process involves the
critical consideration of resources, needs, and problems for
improvement purposes. A critical component of students' cognitive
understanding is the negotiation among the many concepts and ideas
they are continually processing (Ayersman, 1995).
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problems that can be solved by asking questions that can be
answered easily. Problems typically can be solved by asking, how can
something be solved. If it can be answered then the problem is solved.
If the problem cannot be answered easily and people are divided over
the problem then it becomes an issue.
Curriculum development:
The Problems of planning an effective and integrated curriculum are
not simple. A good curriculum involves hard dedicated and intelligent
work conducted on continuous basis. Curriculum development is
continuous work. It must have a philosophical psychological, social,
and economic basis. The curriculum planners have to investigate
carefully and thoroughly the nature and qualification of those for
which the curriculum is to be planned. The fundamental principle of
curriculum planning is “a student must either be selected to fit the
planned curriculum or curriculum must be planned to fit the level of
the students enrolled” (Kelly,1971p.115).
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Issues in Curriculum Development
The process of curriculum development is not a static process, but it
is a dynamic exercise that must undergo changes according to our
society’s new demands. There are many reasons for the ffailure to
develop a roper curriculum. Issues to Consider include:
Tanner and Tanner say that teachers, who are involved in bringing
out educational change, accept and adopt the new ideas more quickly
than those teachers who are not involved in carrying out change.
Useful evidence suggests that in countries where well-educated
teachers were not involved in the curriculum development process,
they did not accept new changes in school textbooks.
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to them. Peace and prosperity are not impossible in Zambia if our
local and national leaders pay respect to their national interest.
1. Lack of Sequence:
There is little coordination among the committees working on
curriculum development at various stages. When a student
completes his studies at a particular stage and enters the next
stage, he finds himself helpless. The concepts being taught at this
stage are quite strange. Needed that learning experiences selected
and organized for every stage should follow the previous one and
should be sequential in form.
2. Economic Problems:
Change in curriculum needs financial support.• New teaching
materials are required.• Teachers need to be provided with in-
service training and equipped with new teaching materials
textbooks are to be revised to fulfill the changing needs of society.•
Supportive personnel are required to assist the teachers in the
effective implementation of new curriculum designs.
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3. Political Interference:
It would be tempting, to argue that education should be taken out
of politics. An educational will expect political parties to clarify
their general educational aims and policies, which concern broad
social issues.• Every person coming into power brings with him
his vested interests and few educational plans for the nation, in
such an atmosphere educationists are likely to suffer from
frustration
4. Inadequate Evaluation:
If the evaluation is to be of any educational worth, it cannot be
regarded, as it is in most schools worldwide, an evaluation must
become an integral part of the total learning process and not an
appendage to it.
5. Disapproval of society:
The school curriculum according to Lawton is essentially a
selection from the culture of society. Certain aspects of our ways
of life, certain kinds of “knowledge”, certain values and attitudes
are regarded as so important that their transmission to the next
generation is very necessary.
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7. Lack of Teaching Material:
Many of the educational programmers are fain due to a lack of
teaching materials. This master system was introduced in the
institution of higher education. It faced many problems due to a
lack of textbooks and other teaching materials. However, teacher
too, takes a little interest but the major factor for its failure is a
shortage of instructional materials.
3. Hidden Curriculum
Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often
unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in
school. While the “formal” curriculum consists of the courses,
lessons, and learning activities students participate in, as well as the
knowledge and skills educators intentionally teach to students, the
hidden curriculum consists of the unspoken or implicit academic,
social, and cultural messages that are communicated to students
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while they are in school. It is an unintended curriculum that is not
planned but may modify behavior or influence learning outcomes
that transpire in school.
4. Null Curriculum
That which we do not teach, thus giving students the message that
these elements are not important in their educational experiences or
our society. Eisner offers some major points as he concludes his
discussion of the null curriculum. The major point I have been trying
to make thus far is that schools have consequences not only by virtue
of what they teach, but also by virtue of what they neglect to teach.
What students cannot consider, what they don’t process they are
unable to use, have consequences for the kinds of lives they lead.
From Eisner’s perspective, the null curriculum is simply that which
is not taught in schools. Somehow, somewhere, some people are
empowered to make conscious decisions as to what is to be included
and what is to be excluded from the overt (written) curriculum. Since
it is physically impossible to teach everything in schools, many topics
and subject areas must be intentionally excluded from the written
curriculum.
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career planning education, local culture and history education
courses are still empty in some schools.
5. Phantom curriculum
Media and its uses have become important issues in schools.
Exposure to different types of media often provides illustrative
contexts for class discussions, relevant examples, and common icons
and metaphors that make learning and content more meaningful to
the real lives and interests of today's students. In the Information Age
media has become a very strong type of curriculum over which
teachers and parents have little or no control. Type of learning has a
name and definition. It is called the phantom curriculum. It can be
defined as - "The messages prevalent in and through exposure to any
type of media. These components and messages play a major part in
enculturation and socializing students into the predominant meta-
culture, or in acculturating students into narrower or generational
subcultures."
6. Concomitant Curriculum
What is taught, or emphasized at home, or those experiences that are
part of a family’s experiences, or related experiences sanctioned by
the family. (This type of curriculum may be received at church, in the
context of religious expression, lessons on values, ethics or morals,
molded behaviors, or social experiences based on the family’s
preferences.)
7. Rhetorical curriculum
It comes from those professionals involved in concept formation and
content changes; from those educational initiatives resulting from
decisions based on national and state reports, public speeches, from
texts critiquing outdated educational practices. The rhetorical
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curriculum may also come from the publicized works offering
updates in pedagogical knowledge.
8. Curriculum in Use
The formal curriculum (written or overt) comprises those things in
textbooks, and content and concepts in the district curriculum
guides. However, those “formal” elements are frequently not taught.
The curriculum-in-use is the actual curriculum that is delivered and
presented by each teacher.
9. Received curriculum
Those things that students actually take out of classrooms; are those
concepts and content that are truly learned and remembered.
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Conclusion
Regardless of the model used, curriculum design /development will
include a rationale (or argument for the value of the curriculum),
goals, objectives or purposes, the audience for whom it is intended,
a timeline, chosen subject matter, ideas or plans for teaching,
suggestions for instructional materials to be used, assessments, and
suggested resources. Some curriculum design models are highly
prescriptive and insist that the curriculum begins with a statement
of outcomes that become the driving force for choosing objectives,
specific subject content, strategies, and the like.
Other curriculum design models are more emergent. That is, they
assume the curriculum designer will have a general purpose in mind,
but will leave room for objectives, subject content, strategies, and
assessments to emerge in the process of teacher-student planning.
References
Beane I. A., Toefer C. F., & Alessi S. J. (1986). Curriculum planning
and development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Oliva, P.F. (2001). Developing the Curriculum. 5th ed. N.Y.: Longman.
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Ornstein, A.C. & Hunkins, F.P. (1998). Curriculum: Foundations,
Principles, and Issues Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Curriculum development
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkKSgSChJA
Introduction to curriculum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8oeQoz9NQ&feature=related
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