Curriculum Development

Curriculum Development The term curriculum originates from the Latin meaning “race course”. The term has been expanded and today is more widely used in education to mean "a plan for a sustained process of teaching and learning" (Pratt, 1997, p. 5). There are numerous formats for curriculum models. They can be deductive, meaning “they proceed from the general (examining the needs of society, for example) to the specific (specifying instructional objectives, for example)”, or inductive, “starting with the development of actual curriculum materials moving toward generalizations”.(Oliva, 2009, p 126) Models can also be prescriptive, proposing what ought to be done, or descriptive, which is what the curriculum actually covers. Many models are linear, meaning they are a “proposed order of sequence of models whose steps proceed in a more or less sequential, straight line from beginning to end.” (Oliva, 2009, p 126) As it can be seen, a curriculum may be simple or complex, but in my opinion, should include Tyler’s four important questions: “What education purposes should the institution seek to attain? What education experiences are likely to attain the purposes? How can these education experiences be organized effectively? How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? (Prideaux, 2003) I have incorporated all four questions into my curriculum template. The Tyler Model is probably one of the most well known and used formats. It is a classical deductive model based on general objectives derived from the needs of the students, society, and subject matter. I however, chose to base my curriculum template on the Taba model, which is inductive, using a backward design starting with goals and objectives and moving toward the general goals of the district.

References: Lawrence Township Public Schools. (2011). Honors biology curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.ltps.org/files/filesystem/Biology Honors.pdf Millburn Township Public Schools Mueller, J. (2011). What is authentic assessment?. Retrieved from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm New Jersey Department of Education, Office of Academic Standards, Oliva, E. F. (2009). Developing the curriculum. Allyn & Bacon. Pratt, A. (1997). Terrific teaching, 100 great teachers share their best ideas. Pembroke Pub Ltd. Prideaux, D. (2003). Abc of learning and teaching in medicine. Curriculum design, 326(7383), 268–270 Sprinkel Grace, K. (2003). the nonprofit board 's role in setting and advancing the mission