Schools groom the future generations of a nation, but who grooms the schools? Needless to say, the amount of work, planning, and decision-making that takes place behind the closed doors of a school is unimaginable from a layman’s perspective. Gone are the days when schools used to teach in a fixed pattern, adhering to conventional school norms of sticking to the syllabus. However, with the passage of time and change in the general idea of education, the school, and its curriculum had a lot of things to catch up on. The school curriculum acts like a base, an edifice, upon which the discourse that the students enjoy is constructed. A curriculum for a school or any educational institution is not built in a day, there are certain steps of curriculum development before the final nod. It is essential to have a planned curriculum for the development of systematic educational policy at the school level. A well-designed and curated curriculum goes through a lot of scrutinization. However, before we get into the finished product, it is also essential to know what the various steps and chronology of curriculum development are.
Curriculum development, in general, refers to the development and growth in the ways and formulas that go into teaching and managing the school atmosphere. It depends upon the school as to what and how they perceive a curriculum should be and what types of engagement they are going to build for the students. The process that goes behind a healthy and stable curriculum often goes through a lot of comprehension and elimination.
To understand how an educational institution functions, it becomes necessary to first recognize and identify the steps of curriculum development:
The steps to this development are outlined in phases which starts with:
Phase 1: PLANNING:
Anything big and colossal especially the one that is for mass welfare requires planning and agenda for proper execution. Planning has certain components under it which are:
- Identify Issue: Until and unless you recognize the loopholes that are creating an issue or causing hindrance in the process of growth and development, it will continue to happen unless fixed.
- Form a team: Everyone has their sector of expertise and this applies here too. A team of professionals who are good at what they are doing should be assembled. They are to be looking after the needs and wants of the project assigned to them.
- Needs assessment and analysis: It refers to assessment having any sort of shortcomings available in the system whereas analysis refers to the analysis of the gaps or shortcomings in the system.
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Phase2: Content and Methods:
This phase includes the strategy and methods that are going to be implemented for better results or outcomes.
- State Intended Outcomes: Convey the strategies you want to implement and what are the behavior and reactions you are expecting after the whole curriculum is acted upon.
- Select Content: When you seek curriculum development, you are directly aiming at personality development for kids, which means you need to curate contents that are thought-provoking and also beneficial not only for children but at a universal level. This includes knowledge, skills, behavior, along with life and soft skills.
- Design experimental methods: Everything is going new-age and so has education. Children learn more when they are having fun and enjoying what they are studying and therefore, developing unique ways of teaching and engaging students have become an important part of the curriculum.
Phase 3: Implementation:
Lastly, everything that you planned, designed, and formulated has to be implemented to yield results in the future.
- Produce Curriculum Product: The product which was decided upon is ready for execution for its finality.
- Test and Revise Curriculum: As the name suggests, test, experiment and revise the curriculum at hand so that you can eliminate the irrelevant points.
- Recruit and Train Facilitators: Once you realize your product is not only ready but has maximum chances of receiving positive feedback, you should now start to hire and train the faculty accordingly.
- Implement Curriculum: When you know you are ready with the plan, the strategy, the product, and now you have facilitators trained with the knowledge of your product, you are now good to go. You can use this curriculum in the school atmosphere for the students.
Phase 4: Evaluation:
After you plan, you check and revise the pro and cons of the project. There are certain steps to evaluation for a systematic approach:
- Design effective strategies: Strategies that are for the greater good and are also pragmatic when applied. When you are making a school curriculum plan, the first thing you need is a strategy that can work in both theories as well as practicality.
- Reporting and securing resources: To run an educational system, you need to be ready with all the required resources because when you impart knowledge, it is either whole or nothing.
Nowadays, education is all about grooming the students to tackle academic, emotional, and mental tests in the future. The curriculum is now designed to introduce personality development course to strengthen the base of a child’s learning capabilities without which it becomes impossible to induce new knowledge. Hope this article on steps of curriculum development helps you in designing the best possible curriculum for your students.