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The curriculum development cycle

1. Identify and describe the target student body.

• What knowledge, skills, attitudes and needs do they have?
• What assumptions can be made? What initial testing may be required?
• How can this profile be kept up to date?
  

2. Identify pathways to be followed by the students after the course is completed.

 

• What knowledge, skills and attitudes will be required in the future?
• How can graduate students be tracked to get further data?
  

3. Identify the Big Ideas of the course, and supporting information.

 

• What are the principle concepts to be taught and why? These "Big Ideas" are the linking concepts that flow through the course and provide its structure.
• What information is being provided in order to teach the Big Ideas. Detail all the supporting information and structure. At what point is knowledge assumed?
  

4. Write specific objectives for the course.

 

• What are the most appropriate contexts to use? (there may be many suitable contexts to teach particular concepts).
• What are appropriate examples in these contexts that best link with students' current knowledge and interests? How can these be obtained from the students?
• What knowledge, other than content information, are students expected to gain?
• Objectives should be written to describe the students at the end of the course, and should include a mixture of process and outcome statements. Content knowledge, skills, strategies and attitudes should all be addressed in explicit statements.
  

5. Develop teaching methods that best achieve the course objectives.

 

• Different types of knowledge need to be taught different ways, while opportunity should be provided for students to actively engage in a learning process that values and builds on their prior knowledge.
  

6. Develop assessment methods that promote learning, and provide realistic measure of the course objectives.

 

• Assessment should provide information about:
  
  • Initial knowledge of the students (to guide teaching),
  • feedback to the students and the teacher about progress during the course,
  • and provide meaningful final evaluations that map directly to the course objectives and allow students, teachers and administrators to see changes in students' knowledge.
    

 

• What messages does the assessment structure give the students? What is actually valued?

7. Ongoing evaluation of the course, and staff professional development. Staff involved must maintain up-to-date knowledge of:

 

• student profiles at entry;
• the business, society and subsequent educational demands on graduates of the course;
• new developments in the content of the subject area, and how it relates to the future careers of graduates;
• the results of the students measured against objectives - how many were achieved and to what level?
• the most appropriate teaching and assessment methods for quality learning; and
• the latest development opportunities for teaching staff to maintain their professional standing as teaching academics.
  
  

 

 

 

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