Teacher Involvement in Curriculum Development

All students should have access to a well-developed curriculum that acts as the backbone for fair school policies and teacher researched instructional practices. A balanced curriculum should take into account student interests and in doing so help students to develop the motivation to succeed. A student-centered curriculum translates into research-based instructional practices that have a positive impact on students, teachers, and parents.

Consequently, I trust that a superiority curriculum needs to inspire teachers to know their pupils. A superiority curriculum must be transparent with no hidden curriculum and accessible to all stakeholders. A well-developed curriculum needs to encompass high but realistic standards that all students can attain. It needs to be flexible and based on modern solid research not based on the latest passing teaching fad or opinions of what one teacher thinks works does not work. 

In my experience, the three most pressing issues in curriculum design are:

1) curriculum not based on educational research;

2) not student-centered and

3) not flexible.

Far too many times, I have had the unsettling experience of witnessing the curriculum being developed or changed based on the whim of a teacher’s opinion of what works or does not work in their classroom. The majority accepted the vote as evidence of research. There was little or no research-based experience considered in the development of large parts of the curriculum.

For many, there still seems a divide between what happens in the classroom and what educational research tells them.

I have sat through curriculum development meetings where teachers only focused on their needs, and in far too many instances students’ needs did not even figure into the discussion. If we are not building the curriculum for the students, then why are we building it?

Number three sums up numbers one and two. Teachers need to examine research and stay student-centered. However, I noticed that giving “lip service” comes very easy to a lot of teachers, but getting them on board to accomplish a task is a very different matter, if it involves the C-word, you guessed it CHANGE.