Developing a Curriculum Framework

The first step of integrating standards into the curriculum is developing a curriculum framework.

Curriculum frameworks can be developed at the national, state, or district level. National

frameworks include those written by national organizations (such as the Principles and Standards

for School Mathematics developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the

National Science Education Standards developed by the National Research Council). National

frameworks come in a wide variety of formats and usually represent a specific content area.

State frameworks include those written by state departments of education (such as the Michigan

Curriculum Framework developed by the Michigan Department of Education). State curriculum

frameworks tend to be highly complex due to the multiple purposes, the variety of audiences,

and the diversity of situations that must be addressed (Blank & Pechman, 1995). A

comprehensive listing of national and state curriculum frameworks can be found in Developing

Educational Standards.

District frameworks are those developed by local or regional school districts. Ideally at the

local level, a curriculum committee is established to develop the standards-based

curriculum and to address the broader concerns that will be reflected in the curriculum

framework. This committee is made up of administrators, school board members, teachers

and school staff, parents, students (when appropriate), and community members, but the

majority should be school personnel. The goal of this committee is to develop a standards-

based curriculum that will increase student learning and promote higher student

achievement.

Approaches to flexible learning

Constructive alignment: A good starting point for flexible learning, or any learning context, is

to commence with the pedagogical needs of the program and course, and bring to these the

diversity of the student cohort. Biggs (1999) approach to pedagogical design aligns the intended

learning outcomes, the curriculum, the teaching methods, the learning environment, and the

assessment procedures. See constructive alignment (The Higher Education Academy, UK).

Online interaction: A model of learning based on interaction between learner and teacher, and

emphasis the importance of interaction and communication in flexible learning: one is Laurillard

(2002) conversational framework, a constructivist approach in which teaching is based on ’an

iterative dialogue between teacher and learner which reveal the participants’ preconceptions, and

the variations between them’ (cited in Mayes & De Freitas 2004, p. 34). Feedback is central to

this approach.

Activity focused learning: A useful conceptual approach to flexible teaching and learning

brings constructivist principles and online collaboration to the learning context, with a focus on

learning activities. Goodyear describes a shift “from content towards activity” (2002, p. 66),

where content becomes a “resource for activity”, rather than content and information which is

transmitted to students.