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Essay on Curriculum Development Models
Curriculum is a vital part of education. It is constantly evolving and is the total ‘stuff’ students take away from schools. The terms, curriculum and curriculum development, are problematic themselves as they imply two well-defined stages – the stage of development and the stage where the curriculum is completed. In fact, there is no line separating the two.
Curriculum development is not an entity that stops before going into classrooms and curriculum is not a package that stops developing in the classrooms. It is a continuous process of constructing and modifying. Various parties contribute to this process, which include government, publishers, parents, teachers and learners. This list is endless. However, the effect each party exerts is different. Some are more powerful than others, meaning that they can influence the process at a greater extent or even control the behavior of other parties (Peter, 2003). Therefore, to comprehend the process, we should not limit our study to the curriculum structure or curriculum contents, but should be aware of the roles of different contributors.
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Learning outcomes are the basic building blocks of the curriculum structure. The learning outcomes also provide a common language that can guide designing curriculum, setting standards for assessment, and promoting portability of credits.
In order to provide for customized and individualized education, each learning outcome requires specific components that help to facilitate the learning experience, irrespective of the instructional delivery method that is used. By including these components, learning outcome(s) from one course can be combined with learning outcome(s) from another course to enable customization.
The purpose of learning outcomes is to identify the knowledge, skills and/or attitudes that the student will demonstrate upon completion of a course. They are stated in terms of the capability that the learner is expected to possess..............
