CURRICULUM

1. CURRICULUM Simply put: “What is taught to students.”

2. CURRICULUM Webster's concisely defines curriculum as, "A course of study offered by a school" (Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, 1984 p176). Curriculum is also often referred to as learning content, activities, and structures as experienced by students. Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, 1984 p176

3. CURRICULUM What is meant by the term curriculum? According to Doll (1996), curriculum is"the formal and informal content and process by which learners gain knowledge and understanding, develop skills, and alter attitudes, appreciates, and values" (p. 15). Doll, R. (1996). Curriculum Improvement: Decision making and Process. Allyn and Bacon: New York.

4. The Relationship Between Curriculum and Instruction The case of multiage classrooms illustrates this close tie that exists between curriculum and instruction. Currently the most common classroom structure in American elementary schools is the single-grade classroom. This structure is meant to make instruction more efficient, allowing students of the same age to move through curriculum content at the same pace. Because of the dominance of this structure nation-wide, commercially available curriculum and state learning standards are designed to be implemented in this type of learning environment. Some educators in their efforts to improve education have switched from a single-grade classroom structure to a multiage one. The multiage structure purposefully places students of different ages together in the same classroom while supporting an individualized continuous progress instructional model. Allowing for flexible groupings, academic diversity, and individual pacing are needs that are central to multiage practices" (Yates, Curriculum in Multiage Learning Environments, 2000). Yates, Russell (2000). Curriculum in Multiage Learning Environments(online). Retrieved July 18, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.multiage-education.com/multiagen-b/curriculum.html

5. CURRICULUM and INSTRUCTION What is the relationship between curriculum & instruction? Instruction is only one piece of the overall curriculum in the school, and can be the method of introduction of the curriculum. Once the curriculum has been developed and approved for use, educators can analyze what is to learned and plan the best delivery method of instruction. Instruction based on curriculum is becoming so important, and varies from the traditional method of instruction based on textbook information. Doll, R. (1996). Curriculum Improvement: Decision making and Process. Allyn and Bacon: New York.

6. The Bases for Curriculum Planning When planning for curriculum improvement, two categories of bases should be understood, those that are institutional in nature and those that affect people directly. The institutional bases for curriculum planning include planning domains, the context or characteristics of the school situation, the impact of current trends and issues, and the use of strategic planning. Those bases of curriculum planning that affect people directly include student and teacher needs, local curriculum problems to be addressed, competencies of the planners, and pressures from inside and outside the school (Doll, 1996 p362-378). All of these bases affect the curriculum planning process in various ways and to differing degrees. They can also vary with each situation over time. Doll, R. (1996). Curriculum Improvement: Decision making and Process. Allyn and Bacon: New York.

7. CURRICULUM PLANNING What are the bases for curriculum planning? To create a high achieving learning environment, Means and Knapp (1991) suggest reshaping of the curriculum based on the following principles: 1.The curriculum should focus on complex, meaningful problems that make sense to students. 2. The curriculum should include basic skills that are embedded in the context of broader, more complex, and more meaningful tasks. 3. The curriculum should make connections to students' experiences outside of school, from their own culture. Such connections will encourage students to bring their own real life problems to school and will help them recognize how instruction can support their own hopes and values (p.1). Means, B., & Knapp, M. S. (1991). Cognitive approaches to teaching advanced skills to educationally disadvantaged students, Phi Delta Kappan, 73(4), 282-289. Retrieved January 16, 2002 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le4shape.htm.

8. What criteria can be used to plan, develop, and implement curricula? During development of the curriculum, the committee must determine what state and/or national standards must be included in the curriculum while adding local curriculum goals. While developing and writing the curriculum, the team should have translated the national and state content standards into academic performance indicators, developmentally articulated from kindergarten to grade 12 (March, J. K. &  Peters, K. H., 2002). Students' age, grade, and achievement/ability level must also be considered as curriculum is being developed.When it is time to implement the adopted curriculum, education leaders must determine what resources and staff development are needed so teachers can successfully integrate the curriculum. Teachers and leaders must work together to determine what types of data, such as grades, assessments, test scores, and formal observations to collect to determine the success of the curriculum. March, J. K., Peters, K. H. (2002). Curriculum Development and Instructional Design in the Effective Schools Process.

9. Criteria to Plan, Develop, and Implement Curricula • Curriculum decisions should be made: • for valid educational reasons. • on the basis of the best available evidence. • in a context of broadly conceived aims of education • within a context of previously made decisions and of needs for additional decision making so that balance and other important curriculum considerations may be safeguarded. • by achieving a resolution of forces originating in the nature and development of learners, the nature of learning processes, demands of the society at large, requirements of the local community, and the nature and structure of subject matter to be learned. • cooperatively by persons who are legitimately involved in the effects of the decisions. • taking into account new facts of human life such as the proliferation of knowledge and a need for a new sense of unity within our diversity. • taking into account the many differences among learners. • with a realistic view of certain organizational or engineering matters that can affect the quality of the decisions themselves. • with some forethought about ways in which they may be communicated and shared. • only with reference to subject matter and pupil experiences that cannot be offered as satisfactorily outside the school (Doll, 1996 p293-296).

10. How do values influence curriculum planning? • Values on many levels certainly affect the curriculum planning in schools. First, national issues, such as economic and political issues (standards movement, funding) can affect what decisions schools make in regards to curriculum. Current social and cultural influences have an impact on school curriculum as well. There is an increase in drug and alcohol use among parents and students, therefore, more education must be provided to guide students to not use drugs. In the past, this was typically the parents' responsibility. Because the family unit tends to be deteriorating, schools are taking on more of the values education in general. According to Doll (1996), there tends to be a crisis in values among young people and adults. Other current trends that are affecting today's schools and their curriculum are: • Technology and communication advances • Ethnic diversity, and increased mobility in schools • Identification of special needs students with varying degrees of classification Choices now for home schooling, private schools, schools of choice, vouchers. • Doll, R. (1996). Curriculum Improvement: Decision making and Process. Allyn and Bacon: New York.

11. How Values Can Influence Curriculum Planning Social forces that can influence curriculum planning come from far and wide. The ideas and values of various groups of people may include their social goals, ideas about cultural uniformity and diversity, social pressures, ideas about social change, their plans for the future, and their concepts of culture. Coutts, J. Douglas (1999). Basis and Criteria for the Curriculum (online). Retrieved July 19, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ipfw.edu/NF1/COUTTS/WEB/503/CURR1.html.

12. References Coutts, J. Douglas (1999). Basis and Criteria for the Curriculum (online). Retrieved July 19, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ipfw.edu/NF1/COUTTS/WEB/503/CURR1.html. Doll, R. (1996). Curriculum Improvement: Decision making and Process. Allyn and Bacon: New York. March, J. K., Peters, K. H. (2002). Curriculum Development and Instructional Design in the Effective Schools Process. Means, B., & Knapp, M. S. (1991). Cognitive approaches to teaching advanced skills to educationally disadvantaged students, Phi Delta Kappan, 73(4), 282-289. Retrieved January 16, 2002 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le4shape.htm. Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, 1984 p176 Yates, Russell (2000). Curriculum in Multiage Learning Environments(online). Retrieved July 18, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.multiage-education.com/multiagen-b/curriculum.html.