27 APPROACH

TO CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT (Kern's

Six Step Approach to Curriculum Development)

Step 1: Problem Identi ication and General Need Assessment

This step involves identifying and critically analyzing healthcare needs or problems. The
problem can be related to a speci ic disease prevalence, the quality of physicians produced,
health care problems of society, or a combination of more than one problem.
Problem identi ication involves a complete analysis of the current approach of patients,
doctors, administrators, educators, and society toward a problem and an analysis of the
effect of the problem on all the stakeholders.
The identi ication of the Ideal approach follows this, how the patients should address the
problem, physicians, and the rest of the members of the society involved. The difference
between the current and ideal approaches is General Needs Assessment.
Step 2: Targeted Need Assessment
This step involves assessing the needs of the targeted learners and their environment.
Curriculum And Evaluation

Target group of learners and environment is important as different institutions have

different entry criteria, educational environments, varying faculty numbers, diverse syllabi,
and regulations. Keeping in view all these factors, curriculum planning and development
are done. Identi ication of targeted learners and their environment also prevents
duplication of resources.
The information regarding the targeted learners and their environment can be collected by
one of the following methods:

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 APPROACH TO CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Ÿ Informal discussions,
Ÿ Formal interviews,
Ÿ Focus group discussions,
Ÿ Questionnaire,
Ÿ Direct observation etc.
Step 3: Goals and Outcomes/Objectives
After identifying the needs of target learners, the next step is to write the curriculum's
goals and outcomes/objectives to address these needs.
David Kern has de ined “Goals” as Broad Educational Objectives and the “Objectives” as
Speci ic Measurable Objectives in his book on Curriculum Development.
Step 4: Educational strategies
In Step 4, the curriculum development team will develop the educational strategies to
achieve the objectives identi ied in Step 3. The educational strategies will consist of content
and methods of teaching.
Content is the material in the curriculum to meet the outcomes/objectives, and how
content is presented to the learner will de ine the Methods.
Curriculum developers must ensure congruence between objectives and educational
methods, and multiple teaching methods must be used. The educational methods must be
feasible considering the institution's resources.
Step 5: Implementation
This step involves the implementation of educational intervention. Before the
implementation following checklist must be ensured by the curriculum implementation
team; this includes
Identify Resources.
Obtain support (Internal and External)
Develop administrative mechanisms to support the curriculum
a. Administrative structure
b. Communication
c. Operation
d. Scholarship
Anticipate and address barriers
Plan to introduce curriculum
Step 6: Evaluation and Feedback (See Chapter 26)
The evaluation and feedback are carried out in steps as given below:
Curriculum And Evaluation

The identi ication of potential users of the Evaluation

The identi ication of potential uses of Evaluation
Identi ication of Evaluation Questions
Identi ication of Evaluation Methods
Collection of data
Analysis of data
Reporting of results

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