Curriculum Change Plan: Part 4 - Approaches to Implementation Assignment Instructions Overview You have learned about specific goals/objectives, classification systems, and evidence-based instructio

Running Head: CURRICULUM CHANGE PLAN: PART 3 CORE DECISIONS 0

Curriculum Change Plan: Part 3 Core Decision

Kelly-Ann Riddell

Liberty University

EDUC 771

Dr. Hopper

June 13, 2021

Goals and Standards

In this curriculum change plan, I will focus on three goals that I will develop for this curriculum change plan. They include; skills, knowledge and behaviour. Those goals play an important role in the development of student's learning. A good curriculum is based on the goals that follow the change plan that will enable students to explore ideas as well as carrying out certain activities. A curriculum goal is a term that is derived from the philosophy that aims to address student's needs. It can be defined as a general statement of what a program will do in order to provide the student with the required skills and knowledge. Also, it entails what student will do in order to gain desired skills and knowledge. Curricular goals are different from knowledge and skills; those are outcomes of learning.

The first goal is knowledge which is a practical or theoretical understanding of a subject. This can be implicit or explicit; that is, understanding through practical skills or expertise or the theoretical understanding of a specific subject (McTighe & Wiggins, 2017). Knowledge can be formal or informal; particular or systematic. Student can be subjected to various programs that will enable them to gain knowledge. When students have the knowledge, they will be able to have a deep understanding of what they have been taught, thus leading to their success. With this approach within my plan, students must have knowledge about other culture. This is because we are living in a multicultural world and lots of conflicts can arise from misunderstanding ones' culture. By learning and understanding different culture, people will be able to understand why people do things the way they do. This will minimize the chance of conflict arising, and when such students move to society, they will not discriminate or condemn others for what they do. Also, when an individual has knowledge on a particular field, he or she can utilize it and change his or her life.

The second goal that I focused on is the skills. These are the expertise or talents that are needed in order to do a certain task. Also, it can be defined as an individual's ability to express what he or she has been taught through actions. In this case, a person might be knowledgeable but he or she doesn’t have skills (McTighe & Wiggins, 2017). For instance, a leader might have a lot of knowledge in a particular field, but he or she may lack leadership skills. When students are subjected to learning programs, they are able to acquire knowledge and at the same time, they are taught some skills that will help them utilize the knowledge acquired. This curriculum plan focuses more on ensuring students have acquired skills that will help them solve problems that they might encounter in the future.

The last goal that I selected is behaviour. There are various factors that influence individual behaviours, for instance, Albert Bandura stated that people learn behaviour through modelling, observation and imitation. In this case, when a child is growing up, he or she is surrounded by various forms of models such as media and parents. According to the principle of observation, Albert Bandura stated that children learn behaviour through observation of their model. For instance, if a child is raised in an environment full of conflict, there are high chances that the child will grow up knowing that everything is resolved through conflict. Other psychologists such as B.F. Skinner stated that people learn behaviour through classical conditioning and operant conditioning. This theory states that people learn behaviour through reinforcement; that is, when a person is rewarded for a certain action, he or she is likely to repeat the action in order to be rewarded more. On the other hand, when a person is punished, there are high chances that the person will not repeat the action to avoid punishment. In this curriculum change plan, there are some strategies that can be used to reinforce the behaviour of students. For instance, rewarding students who have achieved goods grades. In this case, such student will be motivated and they will work hard to be rewarded in the future. Also, other students will be motivated to and try to work hard in order to be rewarded.

Organization Plan

There are different type of design that can be used in order to implement changes in the social studies curriculum. In this case, I will use a background design. Using this design, I will start with the end in mind, assessment, goals, tasks that student will complete, questions that will be asked to students throughout the lesson and flexibility of choices for the questions. This type of design entails three main stages. In the first stage, the teacher is much focused on what is expecting from students. In this stage, there are some questions that might be asked, for instance, what should learners know at the end of the lesson? What are the main ideas? What does the student need to know? The main goal of this stage is to ensure that the students are provided with the skills as well as the knowledge they require. During this stage, the learning objectives enables the instructor to focus more on lesson. This is when the teacher develops strategies that he or she can use to assess students, coming up with materials that can be used during the lesson as well as developing strategies that he or she will use to ensure that students are getting the right information.

The second stage of the background design focuses on determining the acceptable evidence. In this stage, the teacher will develop some strategies that he or she can use to determine whether students have learned something. For instance, the teacher can set some test or subject student in an examination which entails what they have been taught. This is the best way to determine whether students have learned (McTighe & Wiggins, 2017). This will also help the teacher to determine which area of studies that they need to focus more, for instance, if a large group of student fails in a particular topic, is an indication that they didn't understand the topic, therefore the teacher is supposed to revisit the topic and set a test to ensure that students have understood it. According to Chatham University (2020), the teacher has to conduct reflection and assessment to the student in order to prove that the student has understood what they have been taught. There are various types of assessment that can be used, for instance, subjecting them to an oral or written test.

The final stage of this design focuses on planning and instructions. In this stage, the teacher thinks about what is supposed to be done in the class to prepare the students for different forms of assessments. According to Understanding by Design (UbD), there are some questions that teacher has to ask him or herself, for instance, how do I engage students? Which strategies am I supposed to use in teaching in order to achieve learning outcome? How will I meet the needs of the students?

This form of organization plan has benefits to all stakeholders who have been involved in curriculum change in various ways. For instance, the backward design enables the stakeholders to determine how the plan have been used, and how students will benefit from the plan. Also, it enables the stakeholders to see instructional plans are going to impact students’ performance. UbD states that backward design enables teachers to develop lessons that are logical that will enable students to achieve specific learning objectives (McTighe & Wiggins, 2017). Also, this design creates a closer community within the classroom. For instance, students will learn about different cultures, therefore they will be able to know each other, thus having a strong relationship. Glossary of Education Reform states that when students have learning goals that are consistent, teachers will collaborate with students in order to help them become successful.

Evidence Plan

To conduct an evaluation, there are various ways that work for the curriculum. The first measurable goal that I developed was knowledge. In this case, as an instructor, I have to develop some plans or strategies that I will implement in order to ensure that student has gotten the knowledge that they needed. For instance, I have to develop a lesson plan that will guide me and determine what student will learn, how a particular lesson will be taught as well as how learning will be evaluated (Shah, 2019). The other importance of a lesson plan is that it ensures that a particular lesson has been taught within its timeframe, for instance, it might take fifty hours to teach a particular subject. With the help of a lesson plan, the teacher will be able to plan how to utilize his or her time in order to complete teaching within the time frame. Lastly, the lesson plan will enable the instructor to function more effectively by giving a detailed outline of the topic to be taught. When a teacher has developed a lesson plan, he or she will be able to meet the needs of the students, thus ensuring that student will acquire knowledge. Most of the student lack knowledge because they were taught by an unprofessional who doesn’t have plans, lacks knowledge and have poor teaching strategies. In order to avoid such instances, all instructors must be knowledgeable and must develop good strategies that they will use to meet students’ needs.

The second measurable goal that I came up with was skills. This is one of the most crucial things in learning development. A student might have the knowledge but doesn't have the skills (Wolcott et al., 2021). For instance, a teacher might have the knowledge, but he or she doesn't have the skills of teaching. In this case, such a person cannot teach because he will not be able to do so, and if he or she does so, will use poor methods of teaching. As an educator, I have to ensure that the strategies that am using in teaching are subjecting students to gain some skills. For instance, in order to ensure that students are gaining skills, they have to be subjected to practical studies. In this case, they will be able to put theories they have learnt in class into practice. In most cases, student lack skills because they were not subjected to practical studies. There is a huge difference between a student in a technical school and a student in a theological school. For instance, a medical student who has been involved in practicals will have an easy time when offering medical services than a student who have not been subjected to practicals. Also, there are high chances that such a student might make an error than a student who has been in practicals. Therefore, in order to ensure students has acquired the required skills, I have to develop a lesson plan that incorporates some practical lessons.

The last measurable goal that I selected was behaviour. As an instructor, I have to develop some plans or strategies that will ensure students are behaving accordingly and they maintain high performance. Borrowing ideas from sociologist Albert Bandura and psychologist B.F Skinner, I can develop strategies that will enhance positive behaviour among students. B.F Skinner is well known for operant and classical conditioning. He explained those conditionings using an example of a dog and a ringing bell. He stated that the dog owner was ringing a bell before feeding the dog, therefore, the dog trained its mind that the sound is associated with a reward. Using this example, when instructors promise rewards to students, they will behave accordingly or work hard in order to get the reward. On the other hand, Albert Bandura stated that people learn behaviour through modelling, observation and imitation. In most cases, children learn behaviour through observation, when an individual behaves negatively, there are high chances that the child will behave negatively too. Therefore, in order to ensure that students are heaving accordingly, I have to develop some strategies that reinforce student's behaviour. For instance, a student who portrays positive behaviour or shows some improvement in his or her studies, such student should be rewarded. On the other hand, a student who portrays negative behaviour should be punished in order to deter them as well as others.

Reference

McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2017). Understanding by design framework. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Shah, R. K. (2019). Effective social constructivist approach to learning for social studies classroom. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 3(2), 38-51.

Sund, L., Quennerstedt, M., & Öhman, M. (2019). The embodied social studies classroom–Repositioning the body in the social sciences in school. Cogent Education, 6(1), 1569350.

Wolcott, M. D., Fearnow, B., Moore, Z., Stallard, J., Tittemore, A. J., & Quinonez, R. B. (2021). How to create a faculty‐centered curriculum support system: Launching the Academic Support Center (ASC) to inspire excellence in curriculum change. Journal of Dental Education.