Curriculum Development: Southern New Hampshire University
854 Words4 Pages
Denise Walsh
EDU 547: Curriculum Development
Southern New Hampshire University
Curriculum has been a part of modern day education since the early 1900’s when the term was first used to describe courses of study (Hewitt, 2006, p. 80). Since then, educators have determined that curriculum development is a vital component of education, and making sure that the content is accessible to all students is even more important. A “one size fits all” philosophy on curriculum is detrimental to the advancement of students and should be frowned upon. Students do not all look and learn alike and therefore curriculum development should be thought of as an intricate puzzle. If teachers are able to open their minds to all of the advancements…show more content… 17). In other words, the curriculum that a teacher presents should be multi-faceted. Many teachers buy into the “one size fits all” idea of curriculum and this will not be beneficial for any student to further their understanding of the concept. Specifically, special education students have a lot of hurdles to jump over and understanding the curriculum that they are learning should not be one of them. These types of students need a flexible teacher who can adapt the curriculum even more than they would for the “normal”…show more content… 199), science curriculum is examined and it is stated that an active approach to learning is more ideal than the traditional lecture-based teaching. They further state that the approach allows for flexibility, student-friendly delivery, and relevance to the students’ daily lives. This active approach to learning also tends to draw in the multiple intelligences of the students and allows them to continue to prove their knowledge in the content. Manner (2001) seems to back this approach as she states that “students have different learning styles and multiple intelligences [and] this has implications for the design and execution of a field study, or any teaching situation”. If a teacher has the ability to make the content more active and engaging, students are more likely to participate and therefore learn. Science curriculum is a completely different style than other classes because it affords itself to be significantly more hands-on and allows the students to be very active in the classroom. Laboratory experiments are one of the key components of a science class. Experiments allow a student to physically see what is happening versus being told what could