Curriculum The term curriculum refers to the lessons
and academic content taught in a school or in a specific
course or program. In dictionaries, curriculum is often defined as the courses offered by a school, but it is rarely used in such a general sense in schools. Depending on how broadly educators define or employ the term, curriculum typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning. An individual teacher’s curriculum, for example, would be the specific learning standards, lessons, assignments, and materials used to organize and teach a particular course. The Characteristics of a Good Curriculum are as follows: 1. It should faster the growth of development of attitude and skills required for maintaining a planned social order of democratic type. To put more concretely, it should contribute towards democratic living. 2. It should not be narrowly conceived but dynamic and forward looking, sample adequately both the scientific content and the abilities of the pupils to the developed, should cater to the right use of leisure later on and should be related to the environment in which the children live. Consequently, it will then become exiting, real and imaginative 3. It is tested and improved through research. 4. It should aim at bringing about an intelligent and effective adjustment with the environment itself. Further, it should enable pupils to acquire relevant scientific information of subsequent use in the significant areas of human living. 5. It should be psychologically sound. It should take into account the theories of learning relevant to science teaching. Further, children’s capacities and capabilities, if taken into account, will lead to the development of differentiated curriculum. Incorporating geographical difference in it will be another innovation. 6. It should provided sufficient scope for the cultivation of skills, interest, attitudes and appreciations. 7. It must be mostly based upon the first hand experiences of the pupils from all the significant areas of human living. These experiences are characterized by newness, novelty, challenge, stimulation and creativity. Science Content receives increasing emphasis as the children move to the higher grades.
Evaluation of curriculum is an integral and essential
part of the whole process of curriculum development. It is a continuous activity and not a "tail-end-process". Evaluation and planning are complementary processes which occur almost simultaneously and continuously. Planning is made on the basis of evaluation and vice versa. However, as a separate state evaluation has its own entity. The importance of curriculum evaluation is to determine the value of the curriculum itself is the curriculum appropriate for the particular group of students with whom it is being used? Are the instructional methods selected, the best choices in the light of the objectives sought? Is the content the best that could be selected? Are the materials recommended for instructional purpose appropriate and the best available for the purpose envisaged?
Objectives of Curriculum Evaluation
1. To determine the outcomes of a programme. 2. To help in deciding whether to accept or reject a programme. 3. To ascertain the need for the revision of the course content. 4. To help in future development of the curriculum material for continuous improvement. 5. To improve methods of teaching and instructional techniques. Types of Curriculum Evaluation According to Screven, following are the 3 main types
Formative Evaluation. It occurs during the course
of curriculum development. Its purpose is to contribute to the improvement of the educational programme. The merits of a programme are evaluated during the process of its development. The evaluation results provide information to the programme developers and enable them to correct flaws detected in the programme. Summative Evaluation. In summative evaluation, the final effects of a curriculum are evaluated on the basis of its stated objectives. It takes place after the curriculum has been fully developed and put into operations. Diagnostic Evaluation. Diagnostic evaluation is directed towards two purposes either for placement of students properly at the outset of an instructional level (such as secondary school),or to discover the underlying cause of deviancies in student learning in any field of study.