What is a Curriculum?

Key Questions for Curriculum

• What knowledge, skills & Attitudes are most useful to attain and Why?

(Purpose, Valuations)

• How are they most effectively attained?(Pedagogy - teaching approaches/learning theories)

• How are they most validly and efficiently assessed?(Technical)

Reflect on these Quotes

 “It is not proposed that the children of the poor should be educated in a manner to elevate their minds above the rank they are destined to fill in society… Utopian schemes for an extensive diffusion of knowledge would be injurious and absurd.” (Colquhoun, 1806, writing about education in England) “We must get away from the idea that it is only the people at the top who should be thinking, and the job of everybody else is to do as told. Instead we want to bring about a spirit of innovation, of learning by doing, of everybody each at his own level all the time asking how he can do his job better.” (The Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, 1997, at the opening of the 7th International Conference on Thinking)

Major Influences on Curriculum

Curriculum

Educationalinstitutions

Practitioners

Industry

Dominanteducationalperspective

Students

Dominantpoliticalideology

“Curriculum can be seen as the battlefield of many competing influences and ideologies” (Kelly, 1995, p.149)

Curriculum Development Cycle

Needs AnalysisLearning Outcomes

Content

InstructionalStrategies

AssessmentEvaluationResources

The various curriculum components must be Aligned, which means that:Learning Outcomes (and content) must be effectively & efficiently taught through the Instructional Strategies used and accurately measured in the Assessment System.

Broad Parameters of Curriculum Design & Development

Purpose of the

curriculum

Competency standards

Target groups

Curriculum qualification

Subject matter

Purpose of the Curriculum

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Defined as the major learning goals and learning objectives of the curriculum

Educational Aims

“Human beings have potential for developing in many directions and the problem of educational aims is deciding which kinds of development should be fostered and whichdiscouraged”

Wringe, C., 1988, ‘Understanding Educational Aims’, P.43)

Target Groups

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Profiled in terms of both • Demographic• Social &

Psychological factors

Subject Matter

Subject matter can be determined through:• literature Review of the latest

findings on the field of knowledge

• Creative (but evidence based) Inferences about what might be needed in future, but not explicitly identified at present

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Competency Standards

• Competency elements• Performance criteria• Underpinning knowledge• Range and context• Evidence sources

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Curriculum Qualification

WSQ System: Seven qualifications (but six levels)

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WSQ Qualification Level Graduate Diploma HighestGraduate CertificateSpecialist DiplomaDiplomaAdvanced CertificateCertificateStatement of Attainment Minimum

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Graduate Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education

Specialist Diploma in Training Management

WSQ Level 6

Advanced Certificate in Workplace Coaching

Workplace Trainer Programme

Hosted Masters Degrees in Lifelong Learning / Training and Development

Advanced Certificate in Training

& Assessment

Hosted Bachelor of Training

Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education (DACE)

Aligned Professional Doctorate Programs linked to IAL Research

WSQ Level 5

WSQ Level 4

WSQ Level 3

WSQ Level 1 & 2

National Training and Adult Education Professional DevelopmentFramework - Qualifications Roadmap