Curriculum

Curriculum

1. The Academic Plan

   • Eight Elements
     • 1. Purpose
       • This is what the students will be learning
       • Includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudents
       • Intended outcomes
     • 2. Content
       • Subject matter selected to convey specif knowledge skills, and attitudes
       • desired learning outcomes and subject matter are not the same thing.
     • 4. Learners
       • how the plan will address a specific group
       • Takes into consideration their goals, abilities, and preparation
       • Play a large role in the curriculum
       • Weather curriculum works can depend greatly on if the learner was considered properly
     • 3. Sequence
       • order of subject matter
       • Organized to lead to specific outcomes for learners
     • 5. Instructional Process
       • Activities in which learning takes place
       • Instructors are often unfamiliar with multiple types besides lectures
       • Expanding Choices
         • Establishing and Communicating expectations
           • Having a well constructed and clear syllabus
           • creating program guides that allow students to see program goals and create connections to classes
         • Experiential Learning
           • Cooperative education allows students to alternate or combine periods of academic study and employment,
           • International Study - Allowing students to study abroad
           • Classroom-based experiential learning often involves projects or facilitation by the students
         • Knowing Learners
           • Linking thing to what motives the students
           • Creating an environment that builds a welcoming learning space
           • Encourage student to learn and develop their learning style
         • Interactive Instructional Process
           • These practices actively engage learners in the process
           • Many options to do this
             • Discussions
             • Case Studies
             • Simulations
             • Collaborative and Cooperative Learning
               • Very intentional group activities
             • Peer teaching
         • Addressing Student Diversity
           • Allowing students to choice among options that will best suit their needs
           • Letting student work at their own pace
           • Culturally responsive teaching looks at teachers reflection on how their culture and experiences what they bring to their lessons
       • Teaching for intentional learning
         • carefully orchestrate this process, encouraging students to become self-directed learners who choose to learn, know how to learn, and make decisions about their learning.
         • Questioning: asking independent questions about what is to be learned
           • Hoping to enhance critical thinking
         • Organizing: developing an understanding what was learned
         • Connecting: integrating new with old to develop patterns
         • Reflecting: the what, how and why of learning
         • Adapting: Learning that is changing perspective
     • 6. Educational Resources
       • Materials and settings to be used in the process
       • Includes many things. Some examples are:
         • Materials
           • Pens and Paper
           • Hand outs
         • Physical spaces
           • Labs
           • Classrooms
           • Outdoor spaces
           • Practicum sites
         • Technology
           • Laptops
           • Phones
           • Projector
           • Lab equipment
           • Blackboard/Canvas
         • Learners
     • 7.Evaluation
       • Strategies to determine if goals were meet
       • examples of evaluation
         • Student Grades
         • Pre/Post assessments
         • Student evaluations and feedback
         • Program Reviews
       • Critical to the educational process
       • Evaluation Strategies
         • Informal Evaluation
           • In class feedback
           • Conversations about course
           • General feedback
         • Student-Center Evaluation
           • checking goal congruence
           • Evaluates if the plan was useful, beneficial, and satisfying to the student
           • Seek specific information
         • Goal-Free Evaluation
           • seek to understand what happened to students
         • Assessment
           • Determine if learning outcomes were met
           • Four-step process
     • 8. Adjustment
       • Changes made based on the experiences and evaluation
       • Change can occur on both small and large scales
       • Models of change
         • Diffusion Theories
           • The change occurs slowly over time through integration of stages
             • Awareness Stage
               • Recognizing need and developing an interest for plan
             • Adaption Stage
               • Developing plan, exploring options and small-scale implementation
             • Confirmation Stage
               • Adapting and Implementing the plan
         • Political Model
           • Using power to implement change
           • Uses natural conflict to implement the changes needed
         • Social Cognition Model
           • Context leads to knowledge and experiences
           • Knowledge of group norms and social skills are needed to create the change
   • The goal of a plan is lay out the student learning process
   • Can be used for single lesson to major
   • Academic plans involve decision on the item through the 8 elements
   • Curriculum: An Academic Plan
     • One set definition of curriculum is hard to come, but some elements are include
       • Mission, purpose, or collective expression of what is important to learn
       • Set of courses offered
       • Set of experiences all students should have
       • Set of courses students elect to take
       • Content within a discipline
       • Time/Credit frame in which college provide education
     • Lack of clear definition cause problems with individuals not have shared language
     • An academic plan be used to conceptualize curriculum
       • This implies a deliberate planning process
   • Creating Academic Plans
     • Internal and external influences impact this process.
     • Program Planning
       • Maps out course sequence for a degree
     • Course Planning
       • "Course planning is the decision making about the selection, organization, and sequencing of routines"
       • Faculty will have different levels of involvement in their course planning.
     • Campus-Wide Planning
       • Type of campus-wide curriculum. General or specialized?

2. Learners

   • Access
     • As more people gained access to higher education, the curriculum was impacted. It changed the landscape!
     • Women
       • First wave of increased access was the 1800s with seminaries.
       • Wars impact women being able to enroll
     • HBCUs
       • Morrill Land Grant allowed access through the support of HBCUs
     • After WWII the traditional student changed
     • Civil rights increased access
   • Many factors of a learner impact how the course planned and implemented.
     • Background
       • What stereotypes exist?
       • What is the age of the learner?
     • Preparation and ability
       • This is not to be confused with ability.
       • What prior education do students have?
       • What practical experiences do learners have?
     • Goals
       • What are students' priorities?
     • Effort and Involvement
       • Are students willing to learn?
       • Are students completing course work?
       • Are students participating in the course?
   • Perspectives on Learning
     • Behavioral Perspectives
       • Defined learning as a change in behavior
       • Focuses on persons response to situations
     • Cognitive Perspectives
       • Argue that changes in knowledge and understanding, which may or may not be evidenced in observable behaviors, are evidence of learning.
       • The mind may passively respond to situations
       • Individuals construct their understanding of themselves and the world
     • Sociocultural Perspectives
       • Similar to cognitive, but adds social contexts and interactions play in the construction of meaning.
       • very complex as they consider a vast array of mediating factors in learning.
   • Learners and the Learning Process
     • Approaches to learning
       • Meaningful learning
         • the learner extracts personal meaning from what is being taugh
       • Rote Learning
         • in which the student simply seeks to remember what is taught
     • Learning Styles
       • Many different ways to process information
         • acting quickly or reflecting
         • Concrete or abstract
         • Learning alone or in groups
         • Complex or simply
         • one or multiple solutions
     • Learning Strategies
       • Aspects that impact how someone learns
       • selection - controls the attention given
       • Acquisition - transfer of information for short to long therm memory
       • Construction - builds connections to memory
       • Integration - Connects information to prior knowledge

3. Influences on curriculum

   • External Influences
     • Factors that impact curriculum outside colleges and universities
     • Examples that impact curriculum
       • Market forces
       • Societal Trends
       • Government polices and actions
       • disciplinary associations outside the college
       • Job market
     • Societal needs play a large role in curriculum
     • Emphasis on Quality Control
       • Government Funding is tied to quality and it creates increased accountability for institutions
       • Accrediting bodies set standards that impact how institutions implement and modify curriculum
       • The student preparation impact the quality
         • Having a high average ACT/SAT Scores
         • High course compilations rates
         • High employment rates
   • Institutional missions
     • Debates in purpose resulted in different types of instituional missions
     • Types of Missions
       • Utilitarian Mission
         • Train citizians to participate in soceity
         • Prior to professional schools
       • Mixed Mission
         • Prominent by the mid-1900s
         • Increase of different types of institutions, such as two-year & for-profit
       • Increasing Diversity of Mission
         • specialization became a threat the pendulum swag back
         • Important during the Great Depression to increase career flexibility
       • Liberal Arts Mission
         • Evolved from classic education
         • Became prominent at the start of the 20s century
         • Stress preservation of knowledge and improving students' ability to appreciate the knowledge and think critically
       • Research Mission
         • Dedication to producing new knowledge
         • Developed in mid to late 1800s
         • Tend to have a graduate focus, but for financial reasons include both graduate and undergrad programs
     • The needs of society have shaped the mission of colleges and universities
   • Types of curriculum
     • General Education
       • Most 4-year degrees require 1/3 of general ed courses
         • Can be known as "core curriculum"
       • Creates a broad base of knowledge and skills
       • Foundation for study prior to specialization
       • Introduction to other fields
       • The Yale Report 1828
         • A report that argued for the beneifits of a liberal arts curriculum
         • discipline and the furniture of the mind
           • Expanding the power of the mind
           • Creating space and structure for the knowledge
         • Laid the groundwork for the importance of general education that is still being used today
         • Talked about how Latin and Greek languages, thought not used often, helped build a solid foundation for learning
     • Specialization
       • Done through academic majors, preprofessional majors, interdisciplinary major or liberal studies majors
       • Sequence of knowledge through the course of study
       • Practice in a specific field, even during the course of undergrad study
       • Focus on a professional or occupational field
   • Internal Influences
     • College and university Contexts
       • Each institution will respond uniquely to the external influences, and this creates a specific context.
       • The type of institution impacts how the university or college will respond.
       • Goals, missions, and institutional priority impact their response
       • The governance structure will impact the response
         • Do faculty have a strong voice?
         • Do students play a large role?
         • Are there complex systems in place to make change?
         • What type of board oversees the institution?
         • How powerful is the administration?
       • Occurs on a large institutional level all the way down to small unit levels
     • Academic Fields
       • The things occurring within a field can play a huge role in how curriculum is implemented.
       • Occurs within tradition disciplines, professional, and interdisciplinary areas.
       • An academic field is a grouping based on similarities among the group. Examples include social science, humanaties
       • Trends and norms of the field impact the way a professor plans curriculum