Unit 2: Curriculum Design, Development, and Implementation

I. Curriculum design is a term used to describe the purposeful, deliberate, and systematic organization of
curriculum (instructional blocks) within a class or course. In other words, it is a way for teachers to plan
instruction. When teachers design a curriculum, they identify what will be done, who will do it, and what
schedule to follow.

Purpose of Curriculum Design

Teachers design each curriculum with a specific educational purpose in mind. The ultimate goal is to improve student
learning, but there are other reasons to employ curriculum design as well. For example, designing a curriculum for
middle school students with both elementary and high school curricula in mind helps to make sure that learning
goals are aligned and complement each other from one stage to the next. If a middle school curriculum is designed
without taking prior knowledge from elementary school or future learning in high school into account it can create
real problems for the students.

Types of Curriculum Design

There are three basic types of curriculum design:
 Subject-Centered Curriculum Design
Subject-centered curriculum design revolves around a particular subject matter or discipline. For example, a subject-
centered curriculum may focus on math or biology. This type of curriculum design tends to focus on the subject
rather than the individual. It is the most common type of curriculum used in K12 public schools.
Subject-centered curriculum design describes what needs to be studied and how it should be studied. The core
curriculum is an example of a subject-centered design that can be standardized across schools, states, and the
country as a whole. In standardized core curricula, teachers are provided a pre-determined list of things that they
need to teach their students, along with specific examples of how these things should be taught. You can also find
subject-centered designs in large college classes in which teachers focus on a particular subject or discipline.
The primary drawback of subject-centered curriculum design is that it is not student-centered. In particular, this form
of curriculum design is constructed without taking into account the specific learning styles of the students. This can
cause problems with student engagement and motivation and may even cause students to fall behind in class.

 Learner-Centered Curriculum Design

In contrast, learner-centered curriculum design takes each individual's needs, interests, and goals into consideration.
In other words, it acknowledges that students are not uniform and adjust to those students’ needs. Learner-centered
curriculum design is meant to empower learners and allow them to shape their education through choices.
Instructional plans in a learner-centered curriculum are differentiated, allowing students to choose assignments,
learning experiences, or activities. This can motivate students and help them stay engaged in the material that they
are learning.
The drawback to this form of curriculum design is that it is labor-intensive. Developing differentiated instruction puts
pressure on the teacher to create instruction and/or find materials that are conducive to each student's learning
needs. Teachers may not have the time or may lack the experience or skills to create such a plan. Learner-centered
curriculum design also requires that teachers balance student wants and interests with student needs and required
outcomes, which is not an easy balance to obtain.

 Problem-Centered Curriculum Design

Like learner-centered curriculum design, problem-centered curriculum design is also a form of student-centered
design. Problem-centered curricula focus on teaching students how to look at a problem and come up with a solution
to the problem. Students are thus exposed to real-life issues, which helps them develop skills that are transferable to
the real world.
Problem-centered curriculum design increases the relevance of the curriculum and allows students to be creative
and innovative as they are learning. The drawback to this form of curriculum design is that it does not always
consider learning styles.

Factors Influencing Curriculum Design

Several factors affect all curriculum development in meeting the needs of 21 st-century learners in both organized
academic settings and corporate learning centers. Blueprinting curriculum development requires selecting learning
goals, and designing knowledge delivery models while creating assessment methods for individual and group
progress. Factors affecting curriculum development include government norms, which in turn bring other factors into
the process. Valid curriculum development requires awareness of the diversity of the target community socially,
financially, and psychologically.

 Political
Politics affect curriculum development in numerous ways.
How politics influences curriculum design and development
start with funding. Both private and public educational
institutions rely on funding for hiring personnel and
building and maintaining facilities and equipment. All
aspects of the curriculum depending on local, state, and
national political standards. From defining goals, and
interpreting curricular materials to approve examination
systems, politics affect curriculum development.

How politics influences curriculum design and development start with funding.
Both private and public educational institutions rely on funding for hiring personnel and building and maintaining
facilities and equipment.

 Economic
Curriculum developed for in-house training in
corporations focuses on educating employees for
promotions that bring better returns in profits.
Nation-financing education expects an economic
return from educated students contributing to the
country's economy with global competition abilities
in technical fields. Curriculum content influences
learner goals, and standards for academic
achievement with an underlying influence on the
nation's economy.
  Technological
Technology-driven curriculum development is the norm of the
21st century.
The computer technology of the 21st century influences
curriculum development at every level of learning. Learning
centers and classrooms increasingly provide computers as
requisite interaction for studies among students. Technological
multimedia use influences educational goals and learning
experiences among students. Undergraduate and graduate
degrees in computer technology have increased in popularity.
The computer technology of the 21st century influences curriculum development at every level of learning.

 Diversity
Curriculum development effect by diversity opens learning
opportunities.
Social diversity including religion, culture, and social groupings
affects curriculum development because these characteristics
influence the types of topics and methods for teaching
information. Developing a relevant curriculum takes into
account society's expectations, accommodating group
traditions and promoting equality.

 Learning Theories
The psychology of learning theories affects curriculum development.
Both child and adult learning theories within the psychology field
influence curriculum development. Understanding the psychology behind
learning theories implemented in curriculum development maximizes
learning with content, delivery, interactive activities, and experiences
initiated at the most opportune teaching moment.

 Environment
Environmental issues affect curriculum development.
World awareness and action toward reversing and ending
pollution continue to affect curriculum development. Typical
elementary classrooms teach recycling and healthy
environmental practices. Higher education in the sciences
offers environmentally-focused degrees.
 II. Curriculum Development
- Curriculum development is the multi-step process of creating and improving a course taught at a school or
university. While the exact process will vary from institution to institution, the broad framework includes stages
of analysis, building, implementation, and evaluation.

A. The Curriculum Development Process

PHASE I: PLANNING
"Nobody plans to fail but failure results from a failure to plan."
The planning phase lays the foundation for all of the curriculum development steps. The steps in this phase include:

 Identify Issue/Problem/Need
The need for curriculum development usually emerges from a concern about a major issue or problem of one or
more target audiences. This section explores some of the questions that need to be addressed to define the issue
and to develop a statement that will guide the selection of the members of a curriculum development team. The
issue statement also serves to broadly identify, the scope (what will be included) of the curriculum content.

 Form Curriculum Development Team

Once the nature and scope of the issue have been broadly defined, the members of the curriculum development
team can be selected. Topics covered in this section include: (1) the roles and functions of team members, (2) a
process for selecting members of the curriculum development team, and (3) principles of collaboration and
teamwork. The goal is to obtain expertise for the areas included in the scope of the curriculum content among the
team members and develop an effective team.

 Conduct Needs Assessment and Analysis

There are two phases in the needs assessment process. The first is the procedures for conducting a needs
assessment. Several techniques are aimed at learning what is needed and by whom relative to the identified issue.
Techniques covered in this section include KAP - Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Survey; focus groups; and
environmental scanning.

Analysis, the second part of this needs assessment step, describes techniques on how to use the data and the results
of the information gathered. Included are: ways to identify gaps between knowledge and practice; trends emerging
from the data; a process to prioritize needs; and identification of the characteristics of the target audience.

PHASE II: CONTENT AND METHODS

Phase II determines the intended outcomes (what learners will be able to do after participation in curriculum
activities), the content (what will be taught), and the methods (how it will be taught). Steps include:

 State Intended Outcomes

Once the issue is defined, the curriculum team is formed, and the needs assessed, analyzed, and prioritized, the next
step is to refine and restate the issue, if needed, and develop the intended outcomes or educational objectives. An
intended outcome states what the learner will be able to do as a result of participating in the curriculum activities.
This section includes: (1) a definition of intended outcomes, (2) the components of intended outcomes (condition,
performance, and standards), (3) examples of intended outcomes, and (4) an overview of learning behaviors. A more
complete explanation of the types and levels of learning behavior is included in the Addendum as well as intended
outcome examples from FAO population education materials.

 Select Content
The next challenge in the curriculum development process is selecting content that will make a real difference in the
lives of the learner and ultimately society as a whole. At this point, the primary questions are: "If the intended
outcome is to be attained, what will the learner need to know? What knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors will
need to be acquired and practiced?"

The scope (breadth of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors) and the sequence (order) of the content are also
discussed. Intended outcomes of population education with content topics are provided in the Addendum section as
an example and application of how intended outcomes are linked with content.

 Design Experiential Methods

After the content is selected, the next step is to design activities (learning experiences) to help the learner achieve
appropriate intended outcomes. An experiential learning model and its components (i.e., experience, share, process,
generalize, and apply) are discussed in this section.

Additional topics include:

learning styles and activities appropriate for each style;

a list of types of activities (with descriptions);
an activity design worksheet for facilitators; and
brief discussions on learning environments and delivery modes.
Ten population education sample activity sheets along with tips for facilitators working with youth and dealing with
sensitive topics are included in the Addendum.

PHASE III: IMPLEMENTATION

 Produce Curriculum Product

Once the content and experiential methods have been agreed upon, the actual production of curriculum materials
begins. This section includes 1) suggestions for finding and evaluating existing materials; 2) evaluation criteria; and 3)
suggestions for producing curriculum materials.

 Test and Revise Curriculum

This step includes suggestions to select test sites and conduct a formative evaluation of curriculum materials during
the production phase. A sample evaluation form is provided.

 Recruit and Train Facilitators

It is a waste of resources to develop curriculum materials if adequate training is not provided for facilitators to
implement it. Suggestions for recruiting appropriate facilitators are provided with a sample three-day training
program.

 Implement Curriculum
Effective implementation of newly developed curriculum products is unlikely to occur without planning. Strategies to
promote and use the curriculum are discussed in this step.
PHASE IV: EVALUATION AND REPORTING

 Design Evaluation Strategies

Evaluation is a phase in the curriculum development model as well as a specific step. Two types of evaluation,
formative and summative, are used during curriculum development. Formative evaluations are used during the
needs assessment, product development, and testing steps. Summative evaluations are undertaken to measure and
report on the outcomes of the curriculum. This step reviews evaluation strategies and suggests simple procedures to
produce valid and reliable information. A series of questions are posed to guide the summative evaluation process
and a sample evaluation format is suggested.

 Reporting and Securing Resources

The final element in an evaluation strategy is "delivering the payoff (i.e., getting the results into the hands of people
who can use them). In this step, suggestions for what and how to report to key shareholders, especially funding and
policy decision-makers, are provided and a brief discussion on how to secure resources for additional programming.

B. Rubrics for Evaluating the Designed Curriculum

The criteria for evaluating the curriculum generally include alignment with the standards, consistency with objectives,
and comprehensiveness of the curriculum. Relevance and continuity are also factors. Many assessments do not cover
the entire range of objectives due to difficulty in assessing some of the objectives effectively and objectively (e.g. the
affective domain where value traits such as integrity and honesty are tested through written exams). The
psychomotor domain, which helps our brain coordinate physical task such as catching a ball, have objectives that are
often inadequately tested due to difficulties in logistics. Even with the cognitive domain, the knowledge involving the
development of intellectual skills, only a small portion is usually tested. However, a lot of effort is made to try and
ensure quality examinations at least at the summative evaluation level through a vigorous process of developing
exams, which go through several stages including group analysis, etc.

Consistency with objectives, i.e., curriculum evaluation, should assess and measure the attainment of the curriculum
objectives. The various levels of learning objectives need to be kept in mind as per Bloom’s taxonomy, i.e.,
knowledge; comprehension; application; analysis; synthesis; and evaluation).

The various domains need to be kept in mind (i.e. cognitive, affective, and psychomotor). For example, from a civic
education curriculum, one affective domain objective could be, “Learners display appropriate attitudes towards
national patriotism.”

The process of evaluation looks for evidence that such attitudes have been developed (e.g. education concepts for
good citizenship are often evaluated in terms of knowledge of the government structure or knowledge of civics).

Also, practical skills, or psychomotor skills in home economics, agriculture, biology, etc. are often evaluated through
checking for knowledge of facts on the topics, and not the actual practice (demonstrating, applying, or performing
the actual skills). This again is inadequate.

Comprehensiveness
All the objectives of the curriculum are evaluated. Often only the cognitive domain is tested through the recall of
facts. To test for comprehensiveness, one could evaluate the broad administrative and general aspects of the
education system to find out how good the education system is and how relevant the program is.

Evaluation of course improvement is determined through assessment of instructional methods and instructional
materials to establish those that are satisfactory and those which are not.
Evaluation related to individual learners will identify their needs and help to devise a better plan for the learning
process.
Feedback to the teachers can shed light on how well they are performing.
Validity, Reliability, and Continuity

Validity
This criterion answers the question, “Do the evaluation instruments used (e.g. examinations and tests) measure the
function they are intended to measure?”

Reliability
Reliability provides a measure of consistency concerning time (i.e. reliable instruments give the same results when
administered at different times).

Continuity
Evaluation is a continuous process; an integral part of the curriculum development process and classroom
instruction. Hence, to provide continuous feedback on weaknesses and strengths for remedial action to be taken.

Another set of widely shared evaluation criteria that are applicable in any field are relevance, efficiency,
effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.

Relevance
Relevance indicates the value of the intervention or program with others. Stakeholder needs, state and national
priorities, and international partners’ policies, including development goals.

Efficiency
Efficiency answers the question, “Does the program use the resources in the most effective way to achieve its goals?”

Effectiveness
Effectiveness pertains to the question, “Is the activity achieving satisfactory results about stated objectives?”

Impact
Impact focuses on the results of the intervention (intended and unintended; positive and negative) including social,
economic, and environmental effects on individuals, institutions, and communities.

Sustainability
Education provides the way each generation passes on its culture, discoveries, successes, and failures to the next
generations. If there is not adequate inter-generational education, knowledge, and accomplishments cannot be
sustained. Education is the foundation for formulating, challenging, and disseminating ideas, knowledge, skills, and
values within communities, nations, and also globally.

The term sustainability is often only applied to environmental and community issues. Yet to redefine education, the
term can also be applied to creating an atmosphere in the classroom that promotes independent skills and attitudes
that can sustain the need for lifelong learning. It is a given that teachers are under pressure to cover mandated
curriculum standards so that students meet learning expectations. However, students are concerned about having
relevant experiences that bridge the classroom and the real world. One way to promote these connections is to
create a sustainable classroom community through the teaching of self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. (Gerretson,
Ilisko and Fortino, 2010).

III. Curriculum Implementation

 This term refers to the act of working out the plans and suggestions that have been made by curriculum
specialists and subject experts in a classroom or school setting. Teachers are the main curriculum
implementers, while at the same time students, parents, and school administrators can be directly or
indirectly involved in the implementation process

A. Designing a Curriculum Following the sequence curriculum content

A question to consider when designing a curriculum is in what order should I present the information.
- This question is answered by thinking about the sequence of the curriculum. The sequence is the
order in which the information is presented to the student. How to sequence the curriculum
depends on the development of the students cognitively. There are four common sequencing
approaches in curriculum design, simple-to-complex, prerequisite learning, whole-to-part learning,
and chronological learning.

 Simple-to-complex learning is self-explanatory. The curriculum is designed in such a way that simpler
concepts are presented before more complex ones. Many math curriculums use this sequencing approach.
 Prerequisite learning is a form of sequencing in which certain knowledge must come before more advanced
knowledge. It is similar to simple-to-complex learning. But the sequencing of the prerequisite knowledge
does not matter as long as all of it is addressed before the more complex knowledge. Many college majors
have prerequisites that must be taken before other classes. Many times, the order in which these classes are
taken does not matter as long as all of them are taken before a more advanced class.

 learning Whole-to-part provides students with an overview of the subject before going into specific details.
This is a deductive approach in contrast to the inductive approach of simple-to-complex learning. Sometimes
foreign languages are taught whole-to-part in that instead of starting with grammar, a teacher will dive right
into sentences to get the students to use the language naturally.

 chronological learning is when the curriculum is sequenced by the order the concepts happened historically.
Naturally, history is a subject that often uses a chronological sequence.

The type of sequencing to use depends on the goals and purpose of the curriculum. Most subjects can be taught
using any of these forms of sequencing. It is the needs of the students that determine what may be the most
appropriate option.

B. Analysis of the Implementation Process of the Project Program Identified

Project Program Identified is a planned, thoughtful, and deliberate course of action that ultimately enhances the
quality and impact of the learning experience for students.