What is curriculum?
To me, curriculum can have many different meanings. In actuality, curriculum is supposed to be a guide for the teacher on how they can approach the subject matter in the content area that they are teaching. In this setting, when constructed appropriately, it should provide teachers with learning objectives and goals that they have for their students, as well as a variety of ways that these goals can be assessed and measured. In reality, most curriculum is completely useless. My own personal curriculum is an outdated piece of dribble that is essentially a vague list of the different sections outlined in the textbook. This type of curriculum, to which most teachers are exposed to, does nothing to provide practical or even useful learning objectives for the students, nor does it pose any way for the teacher to assess whether the students are understanding the material they are being taught.
Who should design curriculum?
Well, people who shouldn't design curriculum are politicians and or people who don't know and understand the logistics of being in a school setting or a classroom. Sadly, the reality is that much of the curriculum in our public schools is designed or at least greatly influenced by these types of people. Therefore, it would only make sense that the people who design curriculum are the stakeholders involved in the educational process. Who are they? The teachers, administrators, the students, and even the parents. It is important to weigh the opinion of the students in developing curriculum because they are the ones who can truly give an indication as to whether the design is working or not.
Who should control curriculum?
The ones who should possess the control over curriculum are very similar to those who design it as well. Clearly the teachers and administrators should be involved in this process again, and to a certain extent, so should the state. Each party should ensure that the curriculum is measuring student learning and understanding in accordance to not only the state standards but also to the learning goals and objectives that have been established by those who design the curriculum.
1 comment:
I agree with the fact that politicians should have no hand in curriculum development because the majority of them have no hand on experience in the field of education. In order to develop curriculum one needs to know what goes on in an everyday classroom. The best people for this are teachers and administrators because they know what needs to be taught, and if there are changes that need to be made, they would have the best ideas what they should be.
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