Contents
Curriculum and Learning Contents Development Resources
Introduction
In education, a curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses and their contents offered by an institution such as a school or university. In some cases, a curriculum may be partially or entirely determined by an external body (such as the National Curriculum for England in English schools). In the US, the basic curriculum is established by each state with the individual school districts adjusting it to their desires. Each state, however, builds its curriculum relying heavily on the input of national groups selected by the United States Department of Education, for example the National Council of Math Teachers for mathematics instruction. In Australia each state's Education Department sets the various curricula.
Note that the term curriculum may relate to the range of courses that students can select from (as defined above) but may also relate to a specific programme. In the latter context, the curriculum describes the collective teaching, learning and assessment materials that are available for that particular course.
A crucial part of the curriculum is the definition of the course objectives which are often expressed in terms of learning outcomes and normally includes the assessment strategy for the program. These learning outcomes (and assessments) are often grouped into units (or modules) and the curriculum, therefore, comprises a collection of such units, each specialising on a specific part of the curriculum. So a typical curriculum would include units on communications, numeracy, information technology, inter-personal skills together with more specialised provision.
In K9, the curriculum's scope and sequence must be "mapped" against the scope and sequence of previous and subsequent years as well as against other subjects.
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Lesson/Teaching Plan
A Lesson Plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for an individual lesson. While there is no one way to construct a correct lesson plan, most lesson plans contain some or all of these elements, typically in this order:
1. the title of the lesson
2. the amount of time required to complete the lesson
3. a list of required materials
4. a list of objectives. These may be stated as behavioural objectives (what the student is expected to be able to do upon completion of the lesson) or as knowledge objectives (what the student is expected to know upon completion of the lesson.
5. the set or lead-in to the lesson. This is designed to focus students on the skill or concept about to be instructed. Common sets include showing pictures or models, asking leading questions, or reviewing previously taught lessons.
6. the instructional component. This describes the sequence of events which will take place as the lesson is delivered. It includes the instructional input—what the teacher plans to do and say, and guided practice—an opportunity for students to try new skills or express new ideas with the modeling and guidance of the teacher.
7. independent practice. This component allows students to practice the skill or extend the knowledge on their own.
8. the summary. This is an opportunity for the teacher to wrap up the discussion and for the students to pose unanswered questions.
9. evaluation. Some, but not all, lessons have an evaluative component where the teacher can check for mastery of the instructed skills or concepts. This may take the form of a set of questions to be answered or a set of instructions to be followed. The evaluation may be formative; that is to say, used to guide subsequent learning, or summative; that is to say, used to determine a grade or other achievement criterion.
10. analysis. Often not part of a lesson plan, this component allows the teacher to reflect on the lesson and answer questions such as what went well, what needs improving, and how students reacted to the lesson.
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External links
- LessonPlan - A lesson plan wiki and coming soon lesson plan software for linux and windows.
- Wikiteach - A wiki library of lesson plans.
- The Teacher's Corner - Lesson plans, bulletin boards and teacher help.
- LessonPlanSearch - Lesson Plan Directory - Directory of lesson plans; categorized by subject, and searchable.
- Lesson Plans Page - Collection of 20,000 lessons.
- Lesson Plans from the Portal to Texas History using primary sources.
- Lesson plans for teachers - Free lesson plans from Dorling Kindersley
- Tips for Teachers - Teacher tips and lesson plans.
Learning Contents
The module specific learning and teaching material has been designed to exceed the learning objectives and outcomes of your course. Whilst our the aim is to support the teachers, tutors and instructors' in-class and/or open learning delivery within their often tight schedules, we would like you to succeed in your course and career by gaining a understanding the 'big picture'. That means going some way beyond the learning outcomes and teaching schedules. You may like to take look at the Systems Theory which attempts to explain that everything, including yourself, your environment and your course can be thought of as a system. Therefore your study subject is a part of a learning system or the big picture of the field of business and management.
The purpose of the learning and teaching contents is to help you, your teacher and your employer to save time and resources by giving you an opportunity of not only meeting your prescribed learning outcomes and pass your exams, but to become a professional manager in the shortest possible time.
Our courseware designers and authors have recognised the fact that we all learn according to our individual learning styles. Understandably, the traditional in-class learning environment allows little room for individuality, ranging from none in a lecture theater to some in smaller group tutorials. On the other hand, open learning methodology may appear ideal for individualism but in practice it also tends to lose on one of the most effective learning situations - students learning from each other - where students discuss their learning issues, problems and solution in meeting face to face or online. Open or distance learners may have their occasional scheduled seminars, summer schools, etc but, at other times, must rely on the usual communication media such as telephone, email and fax at a considerable cost to themselves.
Structure
Overview
The above diagram illustrates the main components of our module specific Learning Material or Courseware. The components are based on your course syllabus where you should find them under the 'Learning Contents' heading. Your tutors may use indicative Teaching Plan as it is or, as he/she is facing tight and time restricted schedules, may well prefer to reschedule his/her teaching according to the time allocated for the delivery of the module/course/programme and to accommodate any adaptations required by his/her institution, your or your employers interest, etc.
1. Lessons/Lectures and Tutorial
A lesson is a structured period of time where learning is intended to occur. It involves one or more students (also called course members or learners in some circumstances) being taught by a teacher or instructor. A lesson may be either one section of a textbook (which, apart from the printed page, can also include multimedia) or, more frequently, a short period of time during which learners are taught about a particular subject or taught how to perform a particular activity. Lessons are generally taught in a classroom but may instead take place in a situated learning environment.
In a wider sense, a lesson is an insight gained by a learner into a previously unfamiliar subject-matter. Such a lesson can be either planned or accidental, enjoyable or painful. The colloquial phrase "to teach someone a lesson", means to punish or scold a person for a mistake they have made in order to ensure that they do not make the same mistake again.
Lessons can also be made entertaining. When the term education is combined with entertainment, the term edutainment is coined. Edutainment also called 'e-learning' are new methods and practices that enabled learning in faster, more efficient and more entertaining ways. The idea is usually to combine games with learning, using software or interactive courses. There are also blogs [1] on edutainment that keep up with the latest news and updates on software, videos, and lessons that use edutainment as a basis for teaching in a more efficient and faster way [2].
- Frontal instruction
- Educational materials
- Open Educational Resources
- Biz/ed
- UK Open University's OpenLearn
- Connexions
- MIT OpenCourseWare
- Open CourseWare Consortium
- CMU Open Learning Initiative
- WikiEducator
- Utah State University OpenCourseWare
- Open-Of-Course - multilingual portal for open content courses and tutorials
- Sharing of Free Intellectual Assets -- SOFIA -- Foothill-De Anza Community College District
2. Readings
Reading material is offered to widen the scope of lectures and tutorials. As such, reading serve as related, in-depth study material for students' self-directed study, additional sources for lesson/lecture contents for the staff wishing to customise his/her output, web based case studies, or varying arguments for or against those presented in the contents outlines.
3. Staff Development
This is a comprehensive resource for tutors with contents varying from brief updates and relevant news items to full workshops such as the teaching skill, student motivation, ISD, etc. Many of the resources are indicative and will be developed further according to the needs of the client learning centres and individual staff members.
4. Workshops
A workshop is also a gathering or training session which may be several days in length. It emphasizes problem-solving, hands-on training, and requires the involvement of the participants. Workshops are often based on a specialised publication or textbook with relevant reading material from external sources and other areas added as updates to provide further depth to the in-class discussions. Similarly to the Readings, workshops can and should be used as self-directed study material by the students and additional or alternative lecture/tutorial source base by the faculty or visiting professors/lecturers. Any use of the workshops not scheduled in the teaching plan is voluntary for the students and staff.
Relevant workshop contents outlines are shown in the OER Learning Centres.
5. Learner Support
Learner Support units provide material ranging from 'learning to learn' to complete subject specific courses on areas which an individual may not have studied or experienced earlier. For those who have not been involved in any academic study for some time, will find these resources useful as 'catching-up' units whilst everybody should benefit by using them as dip-in resources as and when a need arises.
Learner Support units are offered at various levels, for example, Management of Learning as an induction programme for MBA candidates, whereas Learning Dynamics with similar some shared resources is intended for the undergraduate students. The online libraries are shared between all concerned.
6. Activities
Activities include exercises of all types from multiple choice self-tests to case study reports according to the level of the course, learning objectives and the media used. The latter may be an online event for the open learning students or a 3-hour open-book assessment undertaken in examination conditions. The assessment strategy is stated in the module syllabus and the students should receive their briefs in good time prior to the event.
External links
Resources
