Curriculum Development
Are students interested in what you are teaching?
"The Tyler Rationale" - Steps to Curriculum
1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? OBJECTIVES!
2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? CRITERIA!
3. How can experiences be organized? REINFORCEMENT OF OBJECTIVES - Vertical/Horizontal!
4. How can is attainment determined? EVALUATION!
The Learning Spiral - The ALPS
A design framework to develop lessons, activities, or projects that encourage the development of students' thinking skills. The scaffolding of the design and planning process helps teach thinking skills and sets standards for the lessons.
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/thinking/design_learning_spiral.cfm
Curriculum Design Process
1. Create K-12 curriculum philosophy & beliefs
2. Create K-12 curriculum design framework (K-12 program standards)
3. Design course/grade level standards - all students have opportunity to learn
4. Course standards = essential learning targets & content
Conclusion
It seems there are plenty of ways to determine what curriculum should be taught, but actually getting students interested in what in being taught can be difficult. There are no easy answers, but the research seems to indicate that having teachers work in teams, and cross curricular, there may be more ideas shared and the content then becomes more relevant to teachers and students.