Fundamentals of CurriculumModule Details

Background and Rationale

The course will include a mix of theory and practice, with an emphasis on improving teaching and learning at the level of the school and the individual teacher. It will therefore focus on theories and research about effective teaching. It will address the new definition of curriculum resulting from emerging technologies and compare traditional approaches to curriculum planning and development with alternative approaches in terms of their origins, underlying assumptions, utility in various settings, and effects. The course will provide students with the opportunity to identify and characterize their own approaches to curriculum planning. It will take a critical focus on ethical, epistemological and social-cultural issues and how they shape local and more global forms of curriculum.

Learning Outcomes

After completion of the course students are expected to be able to

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with knowledge objectives and process objectives for curriculum development
• Learn the top-down models of curriculum development and school-based curriculum development
• Learn vital methods of action research to improve the curriculum, and ways to apply these to the students’ own classroom or school
• The role of senior managers in implementing and managing change in relation to curriculum policy and innovative curriculum planning
•  Review and reflect on effective teaching factors and the dimensions of the factors
• Relate effective teaching strategies to:

1. different sets of outcomes
2. develop a curriculum on National and international academic criteria and standards
3. different stages of the learning process
4. different student backgrounds