Education Essay Example: Curriculum Implementation

Other scholars believe that in a good definition of curriculum, the following concepts must be included. Firstly, there must be a selection of the aggregate of special courses to be done (Lattuca & Stark, 2009). There must be the methodology of the delivery of the knowledge, and lastly the objective must be to achieve a certain outcome. A good curriculum development process should lead to a good curriculum process.

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In a recap of the many definitions, curriculum has been defined as a concept of an academic plan that outlines the lessons, and the modules to be delivered to students in a given learning institution. According to Lattuca & Stark (2009), thinking of a curriculum as a plan increases the consideration of all the elements despite the attention to singular aspects, such as specific content, and instrumental strategies. When we think of curriculum as an academic plan, it will have the following elements:

- Purpose; This involves the skills, knowledge and attitude to be learned

- Content; This what is used to communicate the specific knowledge

- Sequence; An arrangement of all the subject matter

- Learners; A Specific group that the plan is intended for

- Instructional process; directional activities by which learning is done

- Instructional resources; instruments used in the learning process in totality

- Evaluation; This is how the level not objective achievement is tested

- Adjustments; strengthening the plan based on experience

These are very important elements to follow when viewing the curriculum as an academic plan. The academic plan concept of the curriculum is the concept used to narrow the development of a curriculum so that it fits the most important needs of the students.

Curriculum in totality can be looked at in two different ways, it can be viewed as a process or as a product, those who see the curriculum as a process are rather open ended where they emphasize on continuous development. In this process, the design of viewing curriculum and the outcome is perceived to embody what the model is about (Grollios, 2009, p. 43). The product model kind of the curriculum development process has been described to lead to a desirable product. Some of the examples of the product are mastery of certain skills and knowledge of certain facts. Either of the two curriculums development processes have challenges associated with them.

Specialists in curriculum, administrators, educational companies and government agencies devote hours on end working on developing curriculum (Yeung, 2012, p. 53). However, the teachers are most likely to be in a position to understand what the curriculum should be composed of. Teachers are in direct contact with the students in delivering the content and therefore know how the students benefit from the content. Therefore, in order to develop a strong curriculum as suggested by Koopman, it is important to integrate the input of teachers in the curriculum development process. Involving the teachers in curriculum development would be very crucial by the virtue that the teachers that are involved in the implementation part of the curriculum (Koopman, 2003).

Teachers are more aware of the needs their students have more than the curriculum developers (Altonji, Blom, Meghir, & National Bureau of Economic Research, 2012, p. 23). This stems from the daily personal level interaction teachers have with students. While the authorities can state the skills required to be imparted by the curriculum, it is the teachers who are able to provide insight into the activities, sets of skills and the materials that would be of better impact in the learning process (Gross & Stevick, 2015, p. 142). Since the teacher is handling most of the curriculums, it is logical to conclude that teachers would easily understand the learners needs and the methodology of delivery (Wolff, 2009, p. 83). It is also clear that only the teacher would understand how to assess the particular learner and know how he can be graded. After the development of the curriculum, a good process of implementation has to follow.

Curriculum implementation is the act of putting into practice the officially recommended courses of study, syllabuses, and subjects (Van, 2012, p. 76). It entails the act of assisting the student to gain knowledge, expertise, and experience. It is very essential to note that the curriculum implementation does not take place without the learner. He is the central figure in the curriculum implementation procedure (Amegago, 2011, p. 43). When the learner acquires the intended experience, knowledge, and skills, we say that implementation has taken place.

Curriculum implementation is that stage in the education program where the curriculum that was developed is put into effect as a curriculum of use. Scholars believe that putting the curriculum into a functioning state is a very complicated and sensitive process. This process requires an implementing agent who, in this case, is the teacher (Goodlad, 2009). They narrow the implementation in a manner that various aspects of knowledge are selected and mixed in the syllabus or the curriculum document. Teachers are tasked with the implementation process in the classroom. Teachers have to remain within the boundaries of a painstakingly created plan (Hardy, 2009, p. 182). When a teacher does not implement the curriculum effectively, they risk failing standards or imparting effective performance in the classroom. However, the teacher is still free to institute minor changes. The best curriculum is flexible enough to allow teachers to include their personalized structures in selected activities.

Curriculum development is a process that systematically plans what would be taught, who will be taught, and the methodology of teaching. The components of curriculum development interact with each other, for example, what will be taught will be affected by the stage of development and the maturity level of who is being taught (Kapfer, 2010). The following will be the essential consideration of curriculum development. Issues have to be identified, as well as the characteristics and needs of learners, changes intended for learners, important and relevant content methods to accomplish intended outcomes, and lastly the evaluation methods for the studies (Haugen & Musser, 2009, p. 275).

The curriculum development model explains how the components of curriculum development relate to each other and the curriculum development process (Kern, Thomas & Hughes, 2009). The process commences when there is a problem with the curriculum, and it needs to be resolved. If it is believed that education for the masses will solve the problem, the curriculum would be made to support the education whereby human and financial resources are allocated (Thornton, 2005, p. 24).

The team mandated would be making a systematic decision about the learners, the objective outcome, the content method, as well as the evaluation strategies. The team would then come up with a simple draft curriculum (Sherrow, 2011, p. 94). The draft would be what would be followed to develop the actual curriculum. The draft is tested, evaluated, and re-designed in order to make sure that it can achieve the outcome objective (Beswech, 2007). After getting the final product, conducting a volunteer training would be very essential because it would profit the necessary feedback making the curriculum...