Information involving curriculum development

An educational institution’s curriculum comprises every experience encountered by a pupil under the institution’s direction. All academic systems’ curricula are designed based on societal needs. Thus, owing to society’s dynamic nature, curricula are dynamic as well; educational institutions normally alter their curricula every once in a while. In this paper, the process of math and English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum development will be addressed, with the following curricular development stages highlighted: determining scholastic aims and goals, determining desired pupil learning experiences, organizing and testing the designed curriculum, implementing it and curriculum evaluation. Further, it will deal with a few curriculum development models.

Within the context of modern education, a school curriculum comprises every experience encountered by a pupil under the institution’s direction. Moreover, this modern notion of a school curriculum covers course program, instructional techniques adopted for individual courses, the institution’s guidance program, and extra-curricular activities. Curricular content and techniques adopted for presenting it before students are governed by the society’s, courses’ and students’ nature (Badmus, 2002). According to Hosford in Badmus (2002), curriculum represents a collection of experiences intended to guide students to achieve institutional goals. In this context, the institution is the school, in addition to other diverse situations the academic program operates for. Students include humans as well as animals. After all, animals too have schools (for instance, dog-training institutes).

The curriculum design and development process covers the following five stages: determining goals, technology or technical operations, curriculum application, curriculum implementation, and curriculum evaluation.

Curriculum goals-related decision-making is influenced by the subject, the student, and society (Badmus, 2002)
The society – Societal values, needs, and forces have an impact on educational institutions, and place demands on them. Society is ever-changing. Consequently, an educational institution’s curriculum planning team ought to choose educational goals which take such changes into account. Curriculum planners are responsible for studying the effects of societal change whilst making decisions pertaining to novel institutional courses. A few societal changes which need to be taken into account include: employment trends, as educational institutions have a duty to instill basic skills in their pupils, and needs stemming from novel welfare activities and health behaviors, and recent political developments. Consider, for instance, the incorporation of information and communication technology (ICT), quantitative reasoning and AIDS/HIV education in the curriculum, from 2006 onwards. (FME, 2006)

The student’s needs. This encompasses the student’s nature and method of learning. Within the societal context, the curriculum design process ought to take into account students’ vocational and employment needs, as education is, essentially, intended to make an individual fit to lead a fulfilling life in society.

Subject matter. Under this head are included the philosophy and nature of distinct disciplines. Akin to society, the content taught under different disciplines is ever-changing. Educational institutions’ curriculum planning processes ought to taken into account the incorporation of novel findings, structures, topics and so forth significant within the modern societal context.

An efficiently-designed curriculum proves crucial to long-run math and ESL competency and confidence development. Thus, ESL and mathematics curricula ought to:
· Be planned, developed, assessed and perfected gradually, and in coordination, by academic experts in the ESL and math disciplines
· Support learners’ capability of resolving problems and reasoning mathematically
· Be reinforced by superior-quality resources and professional development avenues for promoting effective planning and instruction within the schoolroom setting.
· Be evaluated appropriately and test every math and ESL curricular goal
Aspects in the timeline that lead to need for a change of content
The process of new curriculum implementation for improving all students’ academic experiences is characterized by the following challenges:
· The novel curriculum might not provide sufficient guidance in the area of ESL concept progression from one grade to the next, and across important stages.
· The novel curriculum might not provide sufficient guidance in the area of mathematical concept progression from one grade to the next, and across important stages.
· High-stakes evaluation, target culture and performance measures may hinder mathematical reasoning, and ESL and mathematical skills acquisition.
· With ESL and mathematics curriculum not expected to be compulsorily followed by a number of educational institutions, concerns are raised with regard to entitlement for every learner.
· Quick curricular modifications create challenges when it comes to developing superior- quality, practically-tested math and ESL textbooks, and other instructional matter.
Educators struggle with delivering the novel curriculum in class owing to the following issues:
· A large number of lower secondary- and primary- level educators lack adequate expertise of subject matter.
· Superior-quality shared resources and guidance for supporting instruction geared at math and ESL classroom understanding is lacking.
· ESL and math educators’ professional development opportunities are inconsistent, unreliable, fragmented and discontinuous.
What needs to happen?

1. Broader insights into core curricular objectives must be developed among educational institutions’ and school districts’ governors, leaders and educators.
· Math and ESL educators ought to offer connected, rich, stimulating, and interesting classroom experiences to their pupils.
· If educators concentrate on improving mathematical and ESL understanding, pupils’ performance improves and they acquire the capability of solving new problems.
· Maths Hubs and similar educator networks may be able to facilitate dissemination of best practices within the sphere of integrating fluency, problem solving and mathematical reasoning into mathematics instruction.

2. Superior-quality professional development avenues and curriculum resources must be created, which address every math and ESL curricular objective.
· There is a need for kite-marking or national sponsorship of superior-quality ESL and mathematics curricular support resources (e.g., relevant textbooks or curriculum planning instruments). These superior-quality textbooks ought to be in line with the prescribed math and ESL curricula, a strategy adopted by a large number of high- performing school districts.
· Professional development ought to guarantee math and ESL curricular aspirations are attainable by every student.

3. A critical need for improving evaluation, especially with respect to problem solving, has been identified.
· Problem-solving within the mathematical discipline has not been adequately understood. There is a critical need for designing and implementing improved evaluation models for avoiding instruction that concentrates only on preparing pupils to pass standardized examination, and for ensuring tests administered to pupils adequately measure ESL skills acquisition and mathematical reasoning and understanding. Such models ought to be carefully designed and assessed by professionals who engage in the development of a general mathematics curriculum across every academic stage.

4. The need for a novel long-term math and ESL curriculum development model has been identified.
· Continuous, repeated, trial-informed reviews ought to be conducted, say, once in ten years, for ensuring stability.
· A recognized, transparent expert committee, able to access the entire range of pertinent expertise and evidence, must shoulder the responsibility of qualification and curriculum reform, which includes evaluation process reform.
· The expert team would come up with a superior-quality assessment process, aligned to curriculum development, for guaranteeing coherence.