Curriculum Development: Emerging Trends (original) (raw)

For many decades during the 20th century, the majority of educational institutions across the United States had imposed prescribed curricula on their curriculum users (teachers, administrators, and students). The users had very little input or feedback in the process. Because of their non-involvement, teachers, in particular, had to implement and follow largely contradicting directives with hardly any conviction. This situation led to an obvious disconnect between curriculum and instruction. Several schools of thought made great strides to deal with this issue, notably, the progressivist-experimentalist thinkers, who called for making teachers not only active participants but also most accountable in the process of curriculum development, from conceptualization, to design, to implementation, to evaluation, to finally, revision and improvement. In what follows, I will allude to the place of the teacher within two major components of curriculum development; curriculum design and instructional design. I will explain the theoretical foundations of curriculum development in my workplace. I will also suggest a few practical implications for teachers to integrate approaches for developing curriculum and managing instruction for all learners. I will then refer to current issues and future trends in the fields of education and curriculum and analyze strategies for improvement in both fields. Finally, I will conclude with my own thoughts and aspirations for fundamental, not superficial, change.