Applying the Rationale
Applying the Rationale
Two possibilities
- The whole school staff agrees to reconstruct the curriculum.
- The rationale is applied systematically to part of the program.
Revision can be partial
- Revision can happen at one school, one subject, one grade, or one part of the plan.
- A partial version must be planned in relation to the parts not being changed.
Where to begin
- Revision need not follow the course’s exact steps and sequence.
- Begin from staff concerns, identified problems, and available data, at any point.
The rationale of curriculum development explains the elements of a program and how they relate. But it does not say how a real school applies that rationale to rebuild its own curriculum. There are two ways, and a school can choose the scale that fits it.
Two possibilities
A school can apply the rationale in one of two ways:
- The whole school staff agrees to reconstruct the curriculum together.
- The rationale is applied systematically to a part of the program.
A school-wide program of reconstruction is demanding. It calls for extensive faculty participation, with each teacher clearly understanding the objectives of the instructional program, understanding the learning experiences that attain those objectives, and being able to guide learners’ activities so they actually get those experiences. Meet those demands and the program becomes an effective instrument for promoting the school’s aims. The pay-off is real, but so is the effort.
The whole staff reconstructs the curriculum, or the rationale is applied to part of the program
A whole-school rebuild demands extensive faculty participation. Applying it to one part is lighter but uses the same rationale.
Revision can be partial
Reconstruction does not have to be all-or-nothing. Curriculum building, revision, and improvement can be done at the level of one school, one subject, one grade, or one part of the instructional plan. The whole curriculum, a single subject, a grade level, or a segment, the same general rationale applies to all of them.
There is one rule for partial work: a partial version of the curriculum must be planned in relation to the other parts of the instructional program that are not being modified. A revised grade-six science unit still has to fit the grades around it and the subjects beside it. You cannot rebuild one room of a house without checking how it joins the others.
Where to begin
A natural question is whether revision must follow the exact steps and sequence taught in a course on curriculum. The answer is no. Real revision begins from where a school actually is: from the issues and concerns raised by the staff, the problems already identified, and the data available. A school starts with its real situation, not with step one of a textbook.
This is possible because the rationale shows the elements of a program and their necessary interrelations, so the program can be improved by attacks beginning at any point. A school might start from a child-study program as an entering wedge into studying the learner, or from deliberation about the psychology of learning that leads into revising objectives and then experiences. Wherever it starts, the developer provides the results of analysis and suggested modifications, and those modifications are followed through the related elements until, eventually, all aspects of the curriculum have been studied and revised.
The rationale shows the elements and their interrelations, so a change ripples through the rest
A school can start from a child-study program, or from rethinking the psychology of learning. Modifications follow through the related elements until all aspects are eventually studied and revised.
How was this article?