From what I have learned in my short teaching career the curriculum lays out and explains different subjects and information that should be taught in class. It doesn't have to be followed word for word, but it is a guideline to what should be taught in the classroom. All different subjects have their own curriculum and the goals and objectives of each can be very different, but they are all aimed at improving students' knowledge and skills. Where as a physical education curriculum may focus on improving one's health through physcial activity, a math curriculum's purpose is working with algebra, geometry, etc. Although these two curriculums are very different they are both benefiting the student.
I feel that teachers should be the primary designers of curriculum. I feel this way because who has a better sense of what should be taught in classes than the people who who are doing the actual teaching. They know what goes on in class, and what work or doesn't work. When developing curriculum it's very important to stay current with what is happening in the present time. I feel curriculum does need to be changed oftern in some circumstances because what may have worked ten years ago might not make much sense now.
I think curriculum should be controled by groups of teachers, administrators, and specialist. No one person should have the final say if curriculum needs to be changed. In order for changes to be made it should go through a group process in which the majority of the group agrees that changes need to be made.
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4 comments:
I agree with you. If something needs to be changed (as it often does with curriculum), one person should not be in complete control. A committee definitely should be formed to address any revisions.
There should definitely be a group of people involved in curriculum change, but I think that you need to be careful not to involve too many people because then it's hard for things to get done.
I agree that the primary people who control and make curriculum should be the teachers, but we all know that it often doesn't work that way. I'm working with curriculum from 1999, when I was a senior in high school, so as you can imagine, it is incredibly outdated. It should be a panel of all the stakeholders involved in the educational process, and the primary people who control it should be the teachers.
And yet, politics are a big part of what the curriculum ends up being. As a society, we may agree that something is wrong (for instance, public education needs to be changed), but we can't agree on what public ed could or should be. For good or bad, those who control the money decide upon quick structural fixes that only touch upon the surface. They do nothing to affect the deep structures of schooling.
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