Dear Ellen Castro,

Keeping the curriculum responsive to changing demands is essential to any organization’s strategy. Use of technology as part of the curriculum review and design process can help you to communicate in better ways, capture and share information and data more efficiently, and improve administration.

Planning and designing the curriculum involves every aspect of a learning provider’s( research institution)  from field research and course development to quality assurance and enhancement, resource allocation, timetabling, recruitment and assessment.

Best regards,

Musab Tr

I am a teacher who has created and worked through at least 2 rapid curriculum changes. Personally I have never had an issue with the changes because the way we work in Queensland Australia has always allowed us some scope to adjust curriculum in our teaching. Despite that statement, I can think of several issues:

Dear Ellen Castro,

Keeping the curriculum responsive to changing demands is essential to any organization’s strategy. Use of technology as part of the curriculum review and design process can help you to communicate in better ways, capture and share information and data more efficiently, and improve administration.

Planning and designing the curriculum involves every aspect of a learning provider’s( research institution)  from field research and course development to quality assurance and enhancement, resource allocation, timetabling, recruitment and assessment.

Best regards,

Musab Tr

Dear Ellen Castro,

Indubitably, curriculum  seems to be central to the goals that a particular educational program aims to attain. However, curriculum change must be the result of a carefully implemented evaluation program  since there should be strong reasons justifying the potential values that specify  why the change  is  necessary in the first place. Consequently, when we talk about curriculum change , we  should apply what has been learned from the related evaluation simply because the results of evaluation most often act as a diving board for changing the status quo and creating a situation that caters to the redefined educational goals. Nonetheless, curriculum change will not be successful unless the evaluation process is driven by objective principles determined by the evaluators because impressionistic , ad hoc and subjective criteria may result in premature decisions . In my country , Iran, two most fundamental curriculum changes at the secondary level have failed to create the expected outcomes mostly due to lack of reliability and validity of the  decisions made by the policy makers and those involved in the evaluation process.

Best regards,

R. Biria

I agree with Mark E Gould.

Regards

SM Najim

Honestly, rapid curricullum change often enhances the possibilities of inconsistencies in education structure, yet many of the curriculum changes are politically motivated which always end up giving the education system worse structure than the original status.

Regards

Olawale Adetunji

Rapid Curriculum change enhances the possibilities of inconsistencies, that's correct. But even a thorough planning can be incomplete. On the other hand offers rapid curriculum change the chance to get rid of obsolete traditions.

When you switch from a 10 year curriculum to a 12 year curriculum, I would call a transition in less than three years rapid. What is your understanding of rapid?

Hi

Curriculum and teaching materials should be changed/revised to make them more in line with the students' needs, and the advancement in technology (that can save time and energy and increase efficiency). However, before making any changes:

1. Educational systems should collaborate with different stakeholders in education specially the teachers. Teachers should be involved in the process of any changes.

2.  Professional development programs should be held for teachers to make them familiar with the changes... 

3. If needed the required facilities at schools should be provided 

4. If the change is at the national level, the policy makes should pay attention to all parts of the country.

5. The changes should be made based on a clear understanding of the status quo, the available resources and infrastructures, and the successful practices of other countries. 

Hossein 

Ellen, it would be interesting to know more about the change, as this will affect the impacts. Several of us are looking at some large scale "disruptive" changes and their effects (like the structure of "classrooms"). Having the stakeholders excited about changes seems one of the keys to positive outcomes.

Curriculum change is a complex issue and the context in which it occurs has significant implications for how it is prepared for and implemented.

We might usefully consider several issues:

Rationale -Teachers are more accepting of curriculum change if they are aware of and accept the rationale for such changes. Where such a rationale is aligned with the professional value-set of the teaching workforce then it is likely to be accepted and teachers will make small local adjustments to make the change work.

Pace - Change will be a trade-off between urgency and the need to exercise caution. Educational systems are complex and it is unlikely that even the most rigorous planning can predict some of the negative and unintended consequences of curriculum change. Phased and carefully monitored change can be used to make tactical adjustments and the feedback used to refine and develop policy. This requires a degree of pragmatism and a willingness to moderate policy in practice.

Ownership and participation - Policy may be constructed in the offices of a central government but it must be implemented in the classroom. Effective implementation will be supported where the teaching workforce feels ownership of the changes they are to deliver. Where the valuable insight from classroom level teachers has been heard and responded to through participatory consultation then teachers will feel they have a stake in making change work.

Obviously the issue of curriculum change management is more complex than this but much can be done to make it a success by simply:

Explaining why change is necessary.

Phasing and monitoring implementation in partnership with practitioners.

Including the teaching body as a valuable and “expert” stakeholder in designing as well as implementing change.

I hope this is helpful.

I would agree with Adrian Mee's comments and add another point: the perception of the value of the qualifications among employers and wider society. 

It's an under-appreciated aspect of academic qualifications that the perception of them as academically rigorous and therefore meaningful is fundamental to them. If people rightly or wrongly start to believe that the curriculum is somehow "easier" or less demanding than previously than that detracts from the worth of the qualification achieved. You end up with qualification inflation. 

For this reason, I think abrupt and dramatic curriculum changes should be very carefully researched before they are made and should be avoided if possible. A gradual change to keep up with changing needs and times is far better to preserve the "social capital" of the qualification.

Hi! I agree that curriculum change is a very serious matter and should be researched and discussed thorougly before it is carried out. Curriculum changes should not be trendy toys for politicians in elections to want more of this or less of that, as happens sometimes.

However, I also think that curriculum, at all levels, need a serious and radical discussion for a thorough change when we think of our ICT-integrated future. The philosopher Luciano Floridi has proposed "The languages of Information" as what to learn in school, and Roger Schank has another interesting idea: learn how to use knowledge processes (Diagnosis, planning, evaluation, experimentation, etc - on more and more complex topics during an educational voyage - the content is chosen by students, school teaches and train students on how to work with the content. Both tries to avoid the discipline-specific kind of curriculum, which always shows us the "half-life of knowledge" anyway.