Discuss four major elements of a curriculm and outline and structure the function of each elements.

I
imagine there is some variability in curriculum design, depending upon state and teacher
training program.  Nomenclature may differ, but the idea is basically the same.

The first element of curriculum design is the aims.  These are often expressed in terms
of state standards, which are expressed in somewhat general terms, then broken down into more
specific goals, sometimes broken down into subsets of those goals.  Sometimes the goals and
subgoals are sorted as cognitive, affective, social, and psychomotor.  Where I was trained,
these goals were expressed as "The student will...." We begin with this element
because it is difficult to plan a successful trip without a destination.  When you are learning
how to do this, it might seem odd to begin with the end, but it really does work out much better
this way.

A second element is the content of the curriculum.  What is it
exactly that will be studied?  What body of knowledge will the student take away when the course
is done, knowledge and understanding that assures that the standards will be met?  How can I
arrange content to ensure that each pieceis a building blockfor the next piece? How might I
break content downinto units that,together, work together coherently?  Should I proceedfrom a
"bigpicture" and let the students break it down into its parts,or should Ibegin with
the parts and let the students discover the bigpicture?  We need to think about this to consider
the next element.

A third element of curriculum design is designing the
delivery of knowledge and understanding.  This, to me, is the most creative part of curriculum
design.  Sometimes the domains are invoked here, too, at least in the planning.  How can I
engage the student cognitively, affectively, socially, and with pychomotor involvement? Can I
plan in a way that no matter what experiences the student brings to the classroom, that student
can learn this content?  What textsshould I choose, if I have choices?   What experiences can I
provide for the students?  At the beginning, it feels as though I am drowning in choices, but,
somehow, each time, it really does fall into place.

A fourth element is
assessment.  There are two aspects of assessment to consider, those being assessment of the
curriculum and assessment of the student.  As a teacher, there are aspects of curriculum
assessment that you can make, but the bottom line for assessment of the curriculum, in many
ways, rests with assessment of the student.  If the student does not achieve the standards, it
really isn't going to matter how good the curriculum looks.

Constructing a
curriculum is exhilerating and exhausting. Every teacher should learn to do
this.