Role of teacher in curriculum development

While curriculum specialists, administrators and outside educational companies spend countless hours developing

curriculum, it is the teachers who know best what the curriculum should look like. After all, they work directly with

the students meant to benefit from the curriculum. In order to create a strong curriculum, teachers must play an

integral role in every step of the process.

Planning

Teachers know their students' needs better than others involved in the curriculum process. While state or federal

standards often dictate the skills covered by the curriculum, a teacher can provide insight into the types of materials,

activities and specific skills that need to be included. Teachers from multiple grade-levels may collaborate to

identify skills students need at each level and ensure that the curriculum adequately prepares students to advance to

the next grade-level and to meet the standards.

Creation

Because teachers must use the curriculum, they should have input in its creation. A teacher can gauge whether an

activity will fit into a specified time frame and whether it will engage students. If multiple teachers will use the

curriculum, allow as many of them as possible to provide input during the creation stage. As teachers provide input,

they will gain ownership in the final product and feel more confident that the curriculum was created with their

concerns and the needs of their particular students in mind.

Implementation

Teachers must implement the curriculum in their own classrooms, sticking to the plan that has taken so much time,

careful planning and effort to create. When a teacher fails to properly implement a strong curriculum, she risks not

covering standards or failing to implement effective practices in the classroom. That does not mean a teacher cannot

make minor changes. In fact, a strong curriculum is designed to allow a teacher to be flexible and to insert a few

personalized components or choose from among a selection of activities.

Reflection

Reflecting on a curriculum allows teachers and others involved in the process to find any weaknesses in the

curriculum and attempt to make it better. Teachers reflect on curriculum in multiple ways, such as keeping a journal

as they implement the curriculum, giving students surveys and reviewing the results or analyzing assessment data

and individual student performance. Not only can reflection serve to improve a specific curriculum, it may guide the

creation of new curriculum.

Course Implementation

Respondents teaching the standards reported a range of motivations, both intrinsic and extrinsic, for adopting them during 2011. Of the 51 who reported their motivation, 90% wanted to provide better opportunities for students. Most had a personal interest in the topics. Some believed that adopting the new standards was good for the country or

simply the right thing to do. Some felt it would give credibility to computing as a subject, and 8% were motivated by school management’s requirements.

Teacher confidence

The confidence of teachers and their sense of identity relative to the subject area is an important consideration. The responses show relatively low confidence among teachers in their ability to teach the new topics.

Adapter

As an adapter the role of teacher is just same as implementer that is what some conceptual term which indicates that the teacher become ready to accept the curriculum in order to implement it.

Developer

As a developer the teacher role is to take part in curriculum process. In Pakistan some respective teachers are being invited to attend various meetings held by higher authorities in order to make contributions in curriculum development process.

Researchers

Curriculum is dynamic process, keeping in view the characteristics; there is a need to conduct the research in order to bring desirable changes in curriculum. Teachers in most of countries are taking part in various types of researchers in curriculum development process. These are:

1: To Review the Curriculum

2: To Evaluate the Curriculum

1. Function

The teacher is qualified to judge if a curriculum provides appropriate instruction at three levels of differentiation:

remedial, instructional and advanced. A curriculum should include techniques and strategies for teachers to help

students at their current academic level. For example, a kindergarten teacher may need to employ a variety of

methods when demonstrating concepts of print. The Mississippi Department of Education's Language Arts

curriculum framework includes suggested instructional methods and activities geared toward this objective. One

suggestion is to read poems to the class and have students track the words to learn left-to-right progression. The

teacher should be able to provide an informed opinion about the usefulness of such activities by mid-academic year.

Significance

Teachers should be consulted about curriculum evaluation because they are ultimately responsible for translating its

objectives into specific lessons. According to the Alberta Teachers' Association, teachers are ethically and legally

bound to routinely assess students and report their progress. A curriculum should help teachers do this by providing

a realistic set of goals and suggested techniques to assist students at all ability levels. When decisions are made

about changes in content, teachers can provide feedback based on their direct interaction with students.

Features

Teachers routinely use assessment data to design and adapt instruction. They can also use this data to evaluate the

effectiveness of a curriculum. Informal assessments, as well as standardized tests given at the end of the academic

year, yield valuable information about students' understanding of the concepts they have been taught. It is important

to look at each student's progress in comparison to the entire class. If a majority of pupils achieves a proficient score,

this usually indicates an appropriate alignment of curriculum standards and assessment.

Effects

A teacher's role in curriculum evaluation affects the school's choice of textbooks, as well as the adoption of special

programs to augment educational standards. Classroom instructors examine the curriculum's objectives to determine

the relevance of the materials. If a great disparity exists, school officials must reassess their programs or consider

editing or remapping the curriculum to best meet the students' needs. Utah State University's education department

advises teachers to assess their curriculum if students do not achieve 80- to 90-percent mastery on specific skills. In

such a case, the curriculum may lack instructional guidance necessary for teaching prerequisite skills. Conversely, if

students continually meet or exceed these percentages, teachers can propose advanced instruction.

Expert Insight

Over time, teachers gain insight to the effectiveness of a curriculum on their students' long-term academic

development. Thus, they should recognize an effective curriculum as one composed of student-centered methods

that emphasizes the teacher as a facilitator. This type of instruction begins as early as kindergarten. Certainly, there

will be a greater degree of hands-on teaching at this level, but even students ages 4 and 5 are capable of applying

strategies like questioning and monitoring as the teacher reads a story to them. After they learn to read, these

techniques continue to guide their instruction.

The Alberta Teachers' Association advocates teachers as curriculum evaluators, citing that experienced instructors—

no matter what grade level they teach—know that mastery can be measured through informal observation as well as

tests. An effective curriculum will take this into consideration when presenting assessment strategies. Teachers are

uniquely qualified to determine if student outcomes and curriculum objectives are properly aligned and

implemented.

An Effective Plan of Evaluation

Evaluation

Evaluation describes how to assess the nature, impact and value of an activity through the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of information with a view to making an informed decision.

Evaluation involves three activities:

1: Outlining Clear Purpose

2: Gathering Evidence

3: Judgment

Evaluation is part of judgment rather than apart from it

An evaluation plan is an integral part of a grant proposal that provides information to improve a project during

development and implementation.

For small projects, the Office of the Vice President for Research can help you develop a simple evaluation plan. If

you are writing a proposal for larger center grant, using a professional external evaluator is recommended.

Do all grant proposals require an evaluation plan?

Not all grant proposals require an evaluation plan. If one is required, it will generally be listed in the program

announcement. Most often, larger, more involved grant proposal will require an evaluation plan, while a smaller,

single-investigator proposals will not. If you are unsure whether your proposal requires an evaluation plan, please

contact us.

What elements should be included in an evaluation plan?

There are two types of evaluation plans. The components of your evaluation plan may depend on the type you use.

We can help you prepare and review both types of evaluation plans outlined below.

A formative evaluation does the following:

Assesses initial and ongoing project activities

Begins during project development and continues through implementation

Provides new and sometimes unanticipated insights into improving the outcomes of the project

Involves review by the principal investigator, the steering or governance committee, and either an internal or

external evaluator (depending on grant requirements)

A summative evaluation does the following:

Assesses the quality and success of a project in reaching stated goals

Presents the information collected for project activities and outcomes

Takes place after the completion of the project

Involves review by the principal investigator, the steering or governance committee, either an internal or

external evaluator, and the program director of the funding agency

All evaluation plans should identify both participants (those directly involved in the project) and stakeholders (those

otherwise invested by credibility, control or other capital), and should include the relevant items developed in the

evaluation process.

What does the evaluation process entail?

The evaluation process can be broken down into a series of steps, from preparation to implementation and

interpretation.

1. Develop a conceptual model of the project and identify key evaluation points. This ensures that all participants

and stakeholders understand the project's structure and expected outcomes, and helps focus on the project’s

most important elements.

2. Create evaluation questions and define measurable outcomes. Outcomes may be divided into short-term and

long-term, or defined by the more immediate number of people affected by the project versus the overall

changes that might not occur until after the project’s completion.

3. Develop an appropriate evaluation design. A successful evaluation both highlights the most useful information

about the project’s objectives and addresses its shortcomings. In developing an evaluation design, you should

first determine who will be studied and when, and then select a methodological approach and data collection

instruments. The NSF-sponsored Online Evaluation Resource Library provides step-by-step instructions for

developing an evaluation plan.

4. Collect data.

5. Analyze data and present to interested audiences.