Principles of Curriculum Development By Bruce Sander AM

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” -Alexander Trenfor

This presentation will focus on… The Aims and purpose of Curriculum Development Curriculum and values The nature and shape of quality curriculum Resourcing Curriculum links to other teaching concepts and issues Before we start, please complete worksheet 1.1.

For the sake of this workshop, Curriculum Design will include: What subjects and courses your school will offer What you will teach and how you will teach it in each course How you will link your school curriculum to National or Regional curriculum

1)The Aims and purpose of Curriculum Development Curriculum development starts with the learner: What do you want them to know or be able to do? For what purpose? Why do you want them to know this? And then it moves on to: What do they know already? How will you teach them? How do you know that they have learned it?

What do you want them to know or be able to do. For what purpose What do you want them to know or be able to do? For what purpose? Why do you want them to know this? There are some short and obvious answers to these questions, such as: “I want them to be able to get a job” “I want them to be able to go to university” “I want them to understand the world” “I want them to value and believe in the same things I do”

Obviously, these goals will affect your school curriculum choices. If you want them to get a job, you will teach a more vocational curriculum. If you want them to go to university, you will teach them to do research, write well, and include more academic topics If you want them to understand the world, your curriculum will prioritise science, history, geography, liberal arts If you want them to share your beliefs and values, your curriculum will focus on history, philosophy, political science, cultural learning

“An Australian Curriculum in the 21st century needs to acknowledge the changing ways in which young people will learn and the challenges that will continue to shape their learning in the future. The curriculum is important in setting out what will be taught, what students need to learn and the expected quality of that learning.” -Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority

So before we go any further… Please think about and list the ten most important goals that you believe your school curriculum should have for a successful student. Use the worksheet 1.2 provided and discuss it with one or two of your colleagues when you are finished.

Just to get you started, here are a few ideas from the Australian curriculum ( there are 25 in total and they are in your resource book as Resource 1.1)

Successful learners:  develop their capacity to learn and play an active role in their own learning  have the essential skills in literacy and numeracy, and are creative and productive users of technology, especially ICT, as a foundation for success in all learning areas  are able to think deeply and logically, and obtain and evaluate evidence in a disciplined way as the result of studying fundamental disciplines  are creative, innovative and resourceful, and are able to solve problems in ways that draw upon a range of learning areas and disciplines

2) Curriculum and values Our values define what we believe about the world, how we think we should live and what is important to us in our lives.

Curriculum design will and should always reflect the values of your society, culture and the school leaders who design the curriculum For example, if you value family life and social stability, your curriculum will include local history, life skills, child rearing study, fitness, health, etc. If you value wealth, your curriculum will include vocational courses, business studies, mathematics, accounting, leadership, etc.

As school leaders, it is vital to ensure that we are aware of what values we want our school to teach and what values we want our students to get from their education, and our entire teaching staff shares these values. However, we must provide students with the skills, wisdom and understanding to assess values for themselves and not just blindly accept what we tell them to think. Our students must have the capacity to live in a future that we do not live in ourselves.

3) The nature and shape of quality curriculum Old curriculum taught information. It emphasised content and ‘pouring facts’ into the heads of students. It could do this because school was the primary way to get facts and information about the world. Now many students have much wider access to information. New curriculum needs to emphasise skills, application of facts and information, judgement and how to turn information into knowledge and wisdom.

Think about the game of Chess and a curriculum to teach it You could simply teach a student the rules of the game and how each piece moves. This would be information. They would be able to play chess…but they would have no knowledge of the game or any high skill in playing it. They would have little joy or engagement with chess.

However, you could additionally, teach them strategy, how to open the game, how to play endings. You could play games with them and point out their mistakes and how to improve. They could participate in games, record them, learn from them, review them, study famous games and players. Eventually this curriculum will allow them to progress beyond what you have taught them.

Just teaching facts and information is like putting a seed in the ground but then walking away.

New curriculum is like planting a seed of information, watering it, tending it, weeding around it and harvesting it into knowledge and wisdom.

Complete curriculum development includes all of the following: Aims and objectives - what do you want them to know or do Links to syllabus – what part of the syllabus does this cover Scope and Sequence – what order will you do it in and how long Suggested teaching strategies – what are some good ways to teach this Suggested resources – textbooks, worksheets, videos, books, library, etc. Formative assessment- while you are teaching, how will you know they are learning Summative assessment-after you have taught, how will you know what they learned

Quality Curriculum does all of the following: It finds the balance between being prescriptive and being flexible It guides a novice teacher but doesn’t constrain or limit a creative or experienced teacher It acknowledges the time and resource limitations that your teachers have

It builds a learning sequence from basic to high order, from young to older students It caters for students of all abilities and learning styles It is modern, relevant, motivating, engaging and fun to teach and learn

4) Resourcing It would be nice to think that every school has unlimited and magnificent teaching resources.

But we all know that the reality everywhere in both of our countries is different.

Curriculum Design needs to be tailored to the available facilities, teachers and resources Teacher experience and skills Class size and diversity Information Technology access Textbooks Libraries Facilities

5) Curriculum links to other teaching concepts and issues Curriculum seems like it should be the most important member of the school family. But it does not exist in a vacuum and it can only work as well as all of the structures which support it and live with it. When you design curriculum you must realistically consider and acknowledge all of the other factors in the school community which will impact on it. These will include:

Parent and Community expectations Finance Size of your school, number of students and diversity of them Reporting and assessment needs Government requirements Number, experience and quality of your teachers Strength of your leadership team Motivation of the students to learn

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery