Developing the curriculum chapter 3

CHAPTER 3: CURRICULUM PLANNING: A MULTI-

LEVEL, MULTISECTOR PROCESS

Developing the CurriculumEighth Edition

Peter F. OlivaWilliam R. Gordon II

Oliva/Gordon Developing the Curriculum, 8e. © 2012, 2009, 2005, 2001, 1997 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

•Describe types of curriculum planning that are conducted at five levels and in three sectors.

•Describe an organizational pattern for curriculum development at the individual school level.

•Describe an organizational pattern for curriculum development at the school district level.


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ILLUSTRATIONS OF CURRICULUM DECISIONS

•Examples of curriculum decisions like the following are being made in some school district somewhere in the United States on a daily basis. Examples are:○A school system has revised a plan for bilingual education.

○An elementary school has decided to replace its reading series with that of another publisher.

○A school district prepares pupils to take a state-mandated test.


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VARIATIONS AMONG SCHOOLS

•Federal and state legislation and court decisions have brought about curricular change, but we must also look elsewhere for other causes or partial causes of simultaneous development of curricular plans.


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SIMULTANEOUS DEVELOPMENTS

•Although highly unlikely, similar curriculum developments in different school systems may unfold at the same time by pure chance.

• It is more likely that our country’s efficient systems of transportation and communication can be pointed to as principal reasons for concurrent curriculum development.


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SIMULTANEOUS DEVELOPMENTS

• It is often difficult in an enterprise as large as education to pinpoint the source of a particular curriculum change, and it is not usually necessary to do so.

•What is important to the student and practitioner in curriculum planning is to understand that processes for effecting change are in operation. These processes extend beyond the classroom, the school, even the school district.


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LEVELS OF PLANNING

• Curriculum planning is viewed as occurring on five levels. The five levels of planning are: 1. Classroom 2. Team/grade/department 3. Individual school 4. School district 5. State

• Each level in ascending order exercises authority over levels below it.


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LEVELS OF PLANNING

•Classroom planning is far more important than any of the successive steps. At the classroom level, the results of curriculum planning make their impact on the learners.


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SECTORS OF PLANNING

• In sectors, planning takes place in regional, national, and world sectors.

•The concept of sectors eliminates the hierarchical and sequence problems of the step model.

•Sectors are distinguished from levels because powers of the sectors over the five levels are nonexistent or limited.


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• In practice, responsibility for curriculum planning is spread across the levels of classroom, school, district, and state. ○Whereas teachers and curriculum specialists may

participate in curriculum projects at the state level, their curriculum efforts at that level are purely advisory. Only the state board of education, the state department of education, or the state legislature can mandate incorporating the projects’ results in the schools’ programs. School systems must follow specific state regulations and statutes after which, allowing for state curriculum mandates, they may then demonstrate initiative in curriculum planning.

A HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE


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LIMITATIONS OF HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

• In our decentralized system of education, authority for education is reserved to the states. The regional, national (with appropriate qualifications), and international sectors may seek to bring about curriculum change only through persuasion by working through state and local levels.


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LIMITATIONS OF HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

•Officials at the national level can intervene in state and local school matters only subsequent to federal legislation that they are empowered and required to enforce. Additionally the dollar, distributed by the federal government is, of course, in itself a powerfully persuasive instrument.


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CURRICULUM EFFORTS AT THE VARIOUS LEVELS

• In order for curriculum decision making to take place, appropriate organizational structures at various levels are essential. The five levels are:1. The Classroom Level2. The Team, Grade, and Department Level3. The School Level4. The School District Level5. The State Level


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•Curriculum planning and development are complex and demanding responsibilities of the teacher. At this level many curricular and instructional decisions are made, especially in selecting delivery systems, adapting techniques to students’ learning styles, diagnosing student problems, and prescribing remediation when needed.

LEVEL 1: THE CLASSROOM


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LEVEL 2: THE TEAM, GRADE AND DEPARTMENT

•Often teachers in a team from a given grade or particular department are called on to make curricular decisions. Examples of curricular decisions at this level are:○sequencing subject matter○establishing or revising team, grade, or departmental objectives

○writing tests to be taken by students of the team, grade, or department

○planning tutorial programs for students who do not do well on state exams


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LEVEL 3: THE SCHOOL

•Each institution must provide some mechanism whereby the curriculum is articulated and integrated. Curriculum committees or councils exist in many schools. Examples of decisions at the school level are:○adding new programs for the school, including interdisciplinary programs

○evaluating the school’s curriculum○planning ways to overcome curricular deficiencies


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LEVEL 4: THE SCHOOL DISTRICT

•Curriculum planning on a districtwide level is often conducted through the district curriculum council composed of teachers, administrators, supervisors, laypersons, and, in some cases, students.

•District-wide committees meet to consider problems such as these:○adding new programs for the district○abandoning district-wide programs○articulating programs between levels


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LEVEL 5: THE STATE

•The state department of education develops statewide standards of philosophy, goals, and objectives while providing general leadership to the schools; it interprets, enforces, and monitors legislated regulations as well as its own regulations that hold the force of law.

• It wields great power over the districts. In curriculum matters it accredits and monitors school programs, disburses state and federal-through-state moneys for specific programs, sets specifications for amounts of time to be devoted to specific content areas, creates and monitors state assessments, enforces standards for high school graduation, and judges and publicizes academic success of its schools.


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CURRICULUM EFFORTS IN VARIOUS SECTORS BEYOND THE STATE

• Planning takes place in regional, national, and world sectors. Sectors are distinguished from levels because powers of the sectors over the five levels are nonexistent or limited. The 3 sectors are:1. Regional 2. National 3. International


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SECTOR 1: REGIONAL

•Curriculum specialists of a particular region of the United States, from around the nation, or even from a number of foreign countries may assemble and develop curriculum materials that they will then disseminate or try out in their own schools. In addition, teachers, administrators and curriculum specialists may take part on regional accreditation teams.


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SECTOR 1: REGIONAL

•Much of the participation in which school personnel take part in the regional sector falls into the category of curriculum evaluation in contrast to planning or implementation of the curriculum. Examples are:○Commission on Elementary Schools○Commission on Secondary Schools○ regional accreditation associations


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SECTOR 2: NATIONAL

•The Department of Education with its large bureaucracy gathers data, disseminates information, provides consultative assistance, sponsors and conducts research, funds projects, and disburses money appropriated by Congress.


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SECTOR 2: NATIONAL

•The national scene is peppered with a variety of public, private, and professional curriculum activities, and school personnel from the state level and below play key roles in some of these activities. Examples are:○Professional Education Organizations○Private Foundations and Business Organizations○The National Governors Association


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SECTOR 3: INTERNATIONAL

•Development of both awareness and understanding of other cultures (both within and outside of our borders) remains a high priority of our elementary and secondary curricula.

• Involvement of American curriculum workers on the international scene is made possible through membership in international professional associations, primarily those based in the United States. Examples are:○ International Reading Association○World Council for Curriculum and Instruction ○ International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies.


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SECTOR 3: INTERNATIONAL

•Significant efforts primarily in comparing achievement of students in a number of countries and in a variety of disciplines have been conducted on the international level. Examples are:○ International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)

○ International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP)

○Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD)

○Programme for International Assessment (PISA).


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A FINAL THOUGHT:

•Curriculum development is perceived as a multilevel, multisector process and as a collaborative effort. Forces outside the schools also influence curriculum decision making.