Curriculum defn, purpose, elements

CURRICULUM
DEVELOPMENT
Lecturer Barsha Tamrakar
ACAS, Lalitpur, Nepal

At the end of this session, students will be able
to:
 introduce curriculum
 define curriculum
 state the purpose of curriculum
 explain curriculum development
 recognize the purposes of curriculum
development
 identify sources of curriculum
 compute the elements of curriculum

Introduction:
 Curriculum is the crux of the whole
educational process, without which one
cannot conceive any educational
endeavour.
 The term “curriculum” is a Latin word
‘currere’ which means ‘ the race course or
runway’.
 Thus, curriculum is a runway for attaining
the goals of education.

 The curriculum in a literal sense, a
pathway towards a goal.
 It is considered as blueprint of educational
program.
 It is base of education on which teaching
learning process is planned and
implemented.
 It is total structure of ideas and activities.

Definitions:
 “ A systematic arrangement of the sum total of
selected experiences planned by a school or a
defined group of students to attain the aims of
particular educational program.”
Florence Nightingale International
Foundation; Basic nursing education
 “ All the experience of pupil which has
undertaken in the guidance of the school.”
Bland’s
Encyclopedia

 “ All the learning activities which are planned and
guided by the school, whether they are carried out
in groups and individually, inside or outside the
school or college.” Kerr (1968)
 “ The planned and guided learning experiences
and intended learning outcomes, formulated
through systematic reconstruction of knowledge
and experiences, under the auspices of the
school, for the learner’s continuous and willful
growth in personal-social competence.”
Turner and Turner.

 “ The formal and informal content and process
by which learners gain knowledge and
understanding, develop skills and alter
attitudes, appreciations and values under the
auspices of that school.”
Ronald. C.Doll, 1996

Purposes:
 To equip the learners through bringing the
desirable behavioral changes.
 To cope with and handle life situations
realistically, rationally without sacrificing the
human principles.
 Help in developing and preparing educated
personnel who can perform in their respective
job positions.
 To create a community of scholars where
research, curiosity, free enquiry and
advancement of knowledge takes place.

Curriculum development:
 Planned, purposeful, progressive and
systematic process to create positive
improvements in the educational system.
 The process of selecting, organizing,
executing and evaluating learning
experiences on the basis of the needs,
abilities and interests of the learners and
the nature of the society or community.

 Curriculum development is not only about
the school, learners and teachers. It is
also about development of society in
general.
 Curriculum development is a deliberate
process, not a event, that takes
concentrated time, effort and faculty
commitment.

Purposes of curriculum
development
 It forms the basis for a contract among the
student, instructor, and institution.
 Identifying the expectations which will serve as
the basis of the student’s grade and giving the
fundamental required components of the course
which the student is guaranteed to receive from
the instructor and institution.

 It assists faculty in presenting their courses in a
format which accurately reflects the quality
instruction they are providing.
 To equip the learners through bringing the
desirable behavioral changes in them.

 To meet the needs of students with a wide range
of ability, aptitude and interests.
 To guide teacher and learner
 To maintain the standard of service, education
and research.

Sources of curriculum:
 2 most important issues: as to why to
formulate curriculum and for whom to
formulate the curriculum, must be
considered in developing the curriculum.
 The most systematic analysis developed
by Ralph W. Tyler addresses these issues.

 Tyler identifies the following three sources
from curriculum development:
Learner
Society
Subject matter specialist

Learner:
 Education seeks to bring behavioral (thinking,
feeling and action) changes in the learner.
 Educational institutions are responsible for
bringing the changes in learner.
 Understanding the needs and the interest of
the learners should be the vantage point in
instructional planning.
 So, study of the needs of the learner in terms
of changes in behavioral pattern of learner is
crucial.

 The learner is viewed as dynamic organism,
an energy system normally in equilibrium
between the internal forces and external
conditions. Any imbalance in these forces
creates the needs. The need is the deficit that
exists between what learners have and what is
desire of them.
 In interpreting the data of need analysis, it
should well distinguish between the needs that
are to be appropriately met by the educational
institution and needs that are met by other
social agencies

 Learning is an active process in the sense
that it involves learner actively in learning
process.
 Learners put their active efforts in learning
only those things that arouses their
interest.

The society:
 The society is both a source and an influence
whereby the school develops its objectives and
curriculum.
 Social structure, culture and expectations have
always influenced education.
 The changing societal priorities and expectations
have brought marked shifts in the direction of
education.
 The education system can set out to change the

 If the education has to play of transmitting
culture, socializing individuals, or
reconstructing society effectively, we have to
study and analyze the society in order to
determine what goals should education strive
to achieve and where the emphasis of
education should be.
 The study of contemporary life in the society--
social structure, social problems and needs, its
aspirations and expectations-will help in
preparing curriculum.

The main data used to find the health needs
are as follows:
 National health care policy
 Health statistics
 Major health problems
 Health facilities
 Health personnel available
 Other demographic data related to health

3. Subject-matter specialist:
The subject-matter specialists being expert in
their field can provide up to date scientific
information along with the rational that helps to
determine as to what knowledge is important
to include in the curriculum for this particular
group of learner and why?

Elements:
1. Philosophy
2. Conceptual model
3. Instructional objectives
4. Course of study
5. Evaluation plan
6. Calendar of operation

1. Philosophy:
 Philosophy is the expression of the beliefs that
explains the reason for which the programmer
came into being.
 The philosophy of nursing concerns itself with
the beliefs about health and role of nursing in
health care delivery system; the beliefs about
the individual as human beings and the values
that are attached to the society and its culture
as well as beliefs about learning and the
philosophy of educational institution.

2. Conceptual framework:
 It is the visual representation of the
relationship among the key concepts related to
the program.
 It provides framework or thread for thinking
and explaining the organizational structure for
developing the curriculum.
 Conceptual framework finds its basis in the
philosophy of the program and certain theory.

3. Instructional objectives:
 It is the reflection of the expectation of
educational institution/teacher as what
capabilities in terms of knowledge, skill
and attitudes; they want to see in the
learner after the completion of program.
 They are expressed as the institutional
level (goal/aim), program level (general)
and course level (specific) objectives.

4. Course of study:
 They contain the sum total of learning
experiences or opportunities that need to
be provided to the learners in the
classroom and practical setting in order to
help them develop the expected
capabilities.

---- cont….
Types:
A. Depending on the nature of the knowledge;
the courses are named as follows:
 Core v/s specialty courses:
The core curriculum deals directly with the social
and human problems. Core curriculum provides the
basis on which other specific knowledge is
organized. Specialty course, on the other hand,
concerned itself with the advancement of knowledge
in a particular field.
 Basic course vs advanced course
 General course vs professional course
 Theory course vs practical course

B. Course arrangement :
1. Course description:
 It includes a brief introduction of what the course
is about; the total hours allocated for the course;
and placement in the calendar of operation.
2. Organization of course:
 It includes the course content and the learning
experiences selected on the basis of the
expected learning outcomes of the learner and
organized in terms of unit specifying the hours,
the learning resources and methods of
evaluation.

5. Evaluation plan:
 It describes how students’ achievements
will be assessed for each theory and
practical courses by specifying the
following:
When the formative and summative type
of evaluation should be used in
assessing students achievements?
Time allocated for carrying out the
evaluation.

Evaluation plan contd….
The evaluation techniques: for example,
written test, practical, oral etc.
Mark distribution for each type of
evaluation.
Development of assessment tools for
internal evaluation

6. Calendar of operation:
It is the calendar based chart for the overall
academic activities to be carried out in specific
time for implementing the program designed. It
generally includes the date for the following
events:
 Admission procedure of the programme:
 Advertisement, placement examination and its
results; registration; and orientation.
 Theory block: It is done in weeks and /or in
particular days of week.

Calendar of operation
contd…..
 Clinical posting: especially in the health field, it
is done on a rotation basis to ensure that each
student gets equal exposure to all different
types of clinical experiences that was planned
for the students.
 Evaluation /assessment: Both the internal
assessment and external examination are
preset, and students and teachers are informed
about it.

Curriculum defn, purpose, elements

Curriculum defn, purpose, elements

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