The subject that will be focused on is EBBS 4103: Structural Analysis. Before we go into detail to discuss how the course content is developed and signed, it is important that we understand what curriculum development and design is all about. 1. 1 Curriculum Development As with most activities in education, curriculum development is not carried out in isolation from other activities, but is part of an iterative planning, development, implementation and review cycle.
It should be noted that the term can be used to describe development at different levels: large-scale curricular reform, modification of existing programs or making simple changes to one’s own lessons. However, the same principles apply in a range of contexts and to both argue and small-scale activities. Some forms of educational development include curriculum development although usually educational development refers to any kind of development activity in an educational context. The word curriculum derives from the Latin “curer” meaning ‘to run’.
This implies that one of the functions of a curriculum is to provide a template or design which enables learning to take place. Curricula usually define the learning that is expected to take place during a course or programmer of study in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes, they should specify the main teaching, learning ND assessment methods and provide an indication of the learning resources required to support the effective delivery of the course. The curriculum that is written and published, for example as course documentation, is the official or formal curriculum.
The aim of educational development is to ensure that the official curriculum is delivered as the functional curriculum and there is not a mismatch as development turns into implementation. The official curriculum can also be distinguished from the hidden, unofficial or counter curriculum. The hidden curriculum describes those aspects of the educational environment ND student learning (such as values and expectations that students acquire as a result of going through an educational process) which are not formally or explicitly stated but which relate to the culture and ethos of an organization.
This highlights that the process of learning is as important as its product and as teachers we need to be aware of both the formal and informal factors which impact on learning. 1. 2 Course Design and Planning The educational and professional context must be discussed and clearly defined. This can reflect a number of factors: current or prevailing educational or social ideology, culture, politics, economy, students, teachers and parents, commerce and industry, professional bodies, exam boards, funding bodies and history or influence of the past.
In any discipline, there may be current trends in general education which need to be addressed and specific trends or issues in medical or healthcare education which relate to the healthcare system or context. Theories of adult learning, student centered learning, active learning and self-directed learning may all influence the overall programmer philosophy, as may other opportunities or student needs, such as the need for flexible earning programmer (egg. Distance or open learning). Programmer may be modular in structure or credit based, depending on the organization within which the curriculum is being designed. . Selection of Course Content One of the major steps in Curriculum Development and Design is determining the course content. A curriculum developer must be able to determine which part of the knowledge base is to be used for educational purposes. The selection of course content can be based on a few criteria. The course content selection may be based on:- Self sufficiency – the content should help in attaining self sufficiency in an economical manner i. . Economy of teaching efforts.
In EBBS 4103, this is evident by the division of the curriculum into 8 important topics, each of which has been compacted to ease the educator in terms of economy of teaching efforts Significance – The content to be learned should be significant in terms of its contribution to the basic ideas and concepts. A clear example of this is Topic 1: Basic Concepts, which explains the meaning of terms such as trusses, beams and frames, components, such as roller, pin, and fixed supports, and concepts, such as planar structure, principle of equilibrium, free body diagram, and statistical determinacy.
Validity – The content should be valid and authentic. For example, the Principle of Equilibrium and its usage as described in Topic 2: Computation of Reactions. Interest – The content should suit the personality and intellectual capabilities of the students. This is evident in EBBS 4103, through the prerequisite for the students to have basic knowledge of engineering mathematics and engineering mechanics. Utility – The course content should be useful to the learner.
For instance, lessons learnt in Topic 3: Analysis of Statically Determinate Trusses can be useful for a Structural Design Engineer when he/she deeds to determine the internal loads within a truss system. Learnable – The course content should have optimal placement and appropriate organization and sequencing of the content. This is evident in the placement of Topics 3 and 4, where the student learns the Analysis of Statically Determinate Trusses and Beams before moving on to Statically Indeterminate Structures in Topics 6,7 and 8.
Feasibility – Planners should be compelled to analyze and examine the content in the light of the time and resources available to the students, costs involved, socio-political climate, etc. In Topic 1. 4: Concept of Planar Structures, it is explained how actual structures are three dimensional (AD), but for the purpose of the module, the curriculum shall focus on two dimensional (AD) structures within the same plane. This is due to Feasibility. 3. 0 Content Organization Content organization is a very important part of Curriculum Development and Design.
It demands a thorough understanding of the teaching-learning process. There are a few important aspects of Content Organization, namely: Scope Scope refers to both the breadth and depth of content and includes all topics, learning experiences and organizing threads found in the curriculum plan. Scope not only refers to cognitive learning but also affective learning, and some would argue spiritual learning. Sometimes the scope of a curriculum is narrow, consisting of just a simple listing of key topics and activities.
When we talk of scope, we are concerned with questions such as: How much science should students in primary school know? What is the level of mathematics required of students before they graduate from secondary school? When curriculum developers are engaged in deciding how much content should be included, they are determining the scope of the curriculum. When deciding bout the scope of a curriculum, the following guidelines may be useful: The usefulness of the content selected. Whether the content caters to diverse student abilities.
The amount of content selected and the specified period of time for it to be covered. Finding a balance in the content selected between cognitive, psychosomatic and affective or spiritual outcomes. Sequencing Sequence refers to the organization of content and the extent to which it fosters cumulative and continuous learning (referred to as vertical relationship among sections of the curriculum). Do students have the opportunity to make injections and enrich their understanding of content?
It is important that the sequencing of content lead to cumulative development of intellectual and affective processes. The sequence of content and experiences should be based on the logic of the subject matter and the way in which individuals learn. It should be based on psychological principles and understanding of human development and learning. The following are some principles identified as guidelines in sequencing the curriculum: a) Simple to complex – content is organized going from simple subordinate components to complex components depicting interrelationships among monuments.
Optimal learning occurs when students are presented with easy, often concrete content and to more difficult and abstract content. B) Spiral – In a ‘spiral curriculum’, concepts may be introduced on a simple level in the early grades, and then revisited with more and more complexity and application later on. C) Prerequisites – it works on the assumption that bits of information or learning must be grasped before other bits of information can be understood. D) Whole to part – content is better understood if an overview (whole) is first presented to show the connections between the parts. ) Chronology – this is a useful organizer for sequencing content especially in subjects such as history, political science and world events. F) Vertical organization – This simply means that content and skills are arranged so that they build on one another; that they align with the general sequence of cognitive development. They indicate what students have learned and what they will learn later. G) Horizontal organization It involves how skills and content that are taught during one level or one period of time relate to another.
For example, in a social science course, you might consider particular issues from a historical, sociological, political and economic mint of view. Integration Integration is the bringing together of the concepts, skills and values of different subject areas to reinforce each other. Bits of information from different subject areas are brought together in such a way to present the learner with a unified picture of knowledge. Some have argued that however much curriculum planners try to integrate information; it is the learners who integrate what they are learning in their minds.
It is something that happens within the individual learner. The idea of integration was popularized in the ass by Hailed Tab because of once that school curriculum was too disjointed, fragmented and detached. Lately, there has been a surge of interest in curriculum integration due to rapid accumulation of information that is doubling in a shorter period of time. Increasingly, there is a realization that knowledge has to be viewed in a much broader sense, particularly in dealing with ideas that cut across disciplines.
When faced with real-world situations, seldom is one area of content sufficient to explain complex phenomena. The need to examine phenomena drawing from various disciplines has intensified interest in the integrated curriculum. Examples f the integrated curriculum include science-technology-society and reading across the curriculum. In the science-technology-society (SST) curriculum, science is combined with social sciences in attempting to solve practical, everyday problems. The integrated approach takes the student outside the laboratory and away from the textbook into the local community.
Continuity Continuity ensures that ideas, themes and skills are repeated as the learner progresses through the grades. Why? This is because students may not grasp certain concepts and skills in one experience and have to be presented again before they become clear. For example, students in the primary grades are taught the principles of essay writing. The same principles are repeated in the succeeding years. Continuity ensures the reappearance of certain major ideas at different grade levels at increased depth and complexity over the length of the curriculum.
For example, doing experiments is a learning experience that is repeated throughout the teaching of science at increasing levels of complexity and abstraction. 4. 0 Selection of Learning Experiences 4. 1 What are Learning Experiences? While content is the “meat” of the curriculum plan, we can consider learning experiences planned for the students as the “heart” of the plan (Orenstein and Hunks, 1998). The learning experiences are the means towards achieving the goals and objectives of the curriculum.
Learning experiences is the instructional component of the curriculum providing for the interaction between teacher, student and the content. Learning experiences, designed for the purpose of achieving the goals and objectives of the curriculum plan can be divided into: teaching methods adopted, and, learning activities. There are many types of teaching methods and some examples of teaching ethos include; the inquiry method, the discovery approach, the lecture method, small group discussion, role-playing, fieldwork and so forth. Learning activities are opportunities for students to question, clarify, create and apply knowledge.
Examples of learning activities are answering questions, solving problems, journal writing, viewing videos, conducting experiments, playing games and so forth. Both teaching methods and learning activities are equally important parts of the learning experience and should be carefully planned. In many instances, there is overlap between teaching methods and learning activities and some people may find the distinction problematic. 4. 2 Criteria for Selection of Learning Experiences Learning experiences (teaching methods and learning activities) are selected to translate the goals and objectives of the curriculum plan.
It includes all the actions of teachers necessary to influence student behavior and ultimately, their learning. The particular actions of the teacher may vary according to the teaching method adopted and learning activities used, but they all are aimed towards bringing about learning. The most important criterion for the selection of learning experiences is to ensure that there is alignment between objectives, content and learning experiences. Will the learning experiences selected achieve the objectives of the curriculum? This criterion is termed as validity. Learning experiences should also be selected in terms of feasibility.
In other words, whether the experiences suggested can be carried out given the time, available facilities and expertise of teachers. It would be futile to propose learning experiences which may be good on paper but difficult to implement in the classroom because teachers are not trained and facilities are inadequate. For example, learning experiences which quire using the internet when the school does not have internet connection. Learning experiences should also be selected on the basis whether they will enhance students’ learning of the content as well as motivate them to continue learning.
The learning experiences should also attempt to develop thinking skills of students and to stimulate greater understanding of their own existence as individuals and as members of groups. In other words, the learning experiences selected should encourage group interaction and collaborative learning which are skills required in the world of work. Learning experiences should foster cognitive, affective, psychosomatic and spiritual development of the learner. In the selection of learning experiences, educators should not separate content and experiences.
