The Essentials of Curriculum Planning

A curriculum is a springboard that provides direction and impetus to student learning. It sets the requirements for student learning based on the state of society and its valued skills as well as the subject and age-appropriate proficiency in it. For a curriculum to have the desired outcome, it needs to be structured with due consideration to its purpose, goals, instruments or methods of learning, resources, and proof of its success.

Usually driven by larger educational policies, a curriculum provides direction in two ways:

First, it answers the ‘What’ by laying down the desired outcome – the end goal product of the learning experience. This part is fixed and defined.

Second, it provides the ‘How’ by outlining the milestones and framework on which learning progresses. This part is flexible and broad, allowing room for a personalised and individual approach.

Curriculum planning (also known as curriculum mapping) concerns itself with the second aspect in order to fulfill the first part – the end goal. It acts as the roadmap that enables educators to steer their students toward the attainment of the intended outcome.

What Is Curriculum Planning?

Curriculum Planning is the process of detailing what is learned, how it is learned, why it is learned, and when it is learned, in line with a defined goal and key milestones. Curriculum planning sets down a tiered approach to a subject for stage-wise and grade-wise learning.

Starting at the top, a curriculum plan can have multiple stages of meticulously detailed actionable steps. Each stage charts out a plan of action to achieve the intermediate goal, adding up to the final learning outcome.

In India, the National Education Policy (NEP) outlines the overarching learning goal and the broad framework for the educational system via the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). With the target and the guidelines articulated, the onus of curriculum development falls on the educational boards, curriculum developers, educational institutes, administrators and teachers. Curriculum planning puts educators in the driving seat to develop and execute an optimised learning strategy. It gives them the freedom to choose the best approach for this purpose, keeping in mind institutional values, preferred teaching styles and student needs.

To achieve this, curriculum planning takes into account the goals for student learning, methods that can be utilised to achieve these goals, the material required to assist the learning process, formative assessments to gauge the learning and finally summative assessments that can measure the learning outcome.

The process of curriculum planning takes place in two phases – Strategic and Implementation. For the strategic phase of curriculum planning, educators first need to zero in on the goals in context to their grade, course or subject. Next, they need to outline the objectives. Objectives are different from the goal in that, that they are more detailed, time-bound and specific. They may include the various milestones that need to be achieved as the learning progresses. The implementation phase of curriculum planning includes finalising the instructional design, learning materials, teaching methodologies, formative assessment design and summative assessments.

Benefits of Curriculum Planning:

• Helps Translate Learning Goals : A thorough curriculum plan integrates various scheduled activities and learning milestones, providing a breakdown for aligned and conscious progress of the learning experiences. It offers clarity on the purpose of education to all stakeholders including educators, parents and students.
• Structured Learning : A curriculum plan provides the central structure for educators to design and organise their lesson plans. It plays a key role in standardising the flow of the course. It assists educators in aligning teaching material and pedagogies making the teaching activity more efficient.
• Promotes Coherence : Curriculum planning makes different aspects of the learning experience consistent and coherent. It helps educators coordinate their efforts across different subjects, topics and grades to deliver learning continuity.
• Effective Assessment : Curriculum planning helps track student rate of progress compared to the mapped learning. Setting clear learning objectives guides the teachers’ choice of formative and summative assessments to gauge student learning and growth.
• Self-Evaluation : Curriculum planning offers educators regular reference points to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching styles, instruction design and learning methodologies. It provides a source of corresponding feedback to make necessary adjustments to the teaching activity.
• Facilitates Collaboration : The process of curriculum planning helps teachers collaborate and leverage their shared experience, insights and expertise to design an efficient and supportive learning environment. It builds consistent instructional standards and helps reduce duplication of effort.
• Aids Efficacy : A curriculum plan offers immediate feedback and opportunities for sustained alignment with the learning goals. Educators can address learning gaps immediately and effectively, improving the efficacy of the teaching activity.
• Comparative Tool : A curriculum plan provides teachers with a reference point to reflect and refine teaching strategies and instructional design to introduce suitable pedagogies year on year. Equipped with a comparative device, teachers can adjust their teaching practices to be more precise and deliver enhanced results.
• Time Management: With a well-thought-out strategy and blueprint in place, teachers are free to focus on their day-to-day lesson plans and formative assessments. A curriculum plan helps teachers plan, prioritise and allocate their time effectively. It supports the teaching-learning activity by ensuring all aspects receive the necessary attention.
• Supports Different Learning Styles: Designing a curriculum plan helps educators factor in resources, materials and teaching techniques to support different learning styles. This not only helps educators engage students better and improve the learning outcome but also reduces the demands of last-minute introductions in the lesson plan thus creating a joyful learning experience for all.

A well-designed, thought-through curriculum plan creates optimal learning experiences, facilitating the reaching of a learning goal in an intentional and planned manner. Even though sometimes it might seem like a long and laborious process, curriculum planning is an exercise that aligns teaching efforts with learning outcomes. It provides teachers with a roadmap for higher teaching efficacy and improved learning results. These plans help keep all stakeholders on the same page, greatly assisting in saving time and ensuring consistency on a day-to-day basis.

Last Updated on July 8, 2024