Academic Curriculum and Assessment
Topic 2. Curriculum and Accountability (academic institutions and training)
• Who decides who will learn what?
• Who writes curriculum (in academic institutions) and content to master (training)?
• Who really follows written curriculum, or do teachers do what they please as soon as the door is closed?
• Who decides what is the best way to teach math, social studies, science, etc.? In training institutions, who prescribes how skills are to be taught?
• What are the best strategies for teaching and learning what is to be learned?
• How do we know when a student learns what is to be learned (testing, assessment)?
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Yolanda Ramirez
Edinger, Marlow. Community College Curriculum Development. Truman State University.
Marlow Edinger answers the questions of who decides, writes, and what is to be learned in community colleges. In a survey of 295 randomly selected community colleges, seven key points in community college curriculum are emphasized: general education, applied course of study, blending academic and vocational skills in the module, and multi-disciplinary curriculum levels and vice versa, college within a college approach, and English remediation within academic and vocational courses. The article goes on to explain the various government agencies, commissions, and agencies that have an effect in the development and purpose of education. Starting with The Educational Policies Commission (EPC) of the National Education Association (NEA) purpose statement:
“The Central Purpose of the American Education [is] the purpose which runs through and strengthens all purposes – the common thread of education – is the development of the ability to think.”
The article pinpoints the many challenges faced by community college administrators, faculty and staff in implementing needed change. The most prominent include state mandates that need fulfillment, complex campus procedures in working toward revision, and lack of skills and collaboration between instructors and administrators. The key point that made sense to me in changing college curriculum is that “As society and its requirements change so must the college curriculum evaluate …objectives, and course content, …to [plan and] make necessary modifications to the curriculum .”
The article mentions that The Secretary’s (of Labor) Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), a commission which completed its work in 1992, but its findings and recommendations continue to be a valuable source of information for individuals and organizations involved in education and workforce development. Thus, SCANS plays a huge role in the development of the community college curriculum. In addition the suggestion to have high schools and nearby college consider a cooperative arrangement to avoid segregation involved with a separate vocational track that targets students skills and abilities to prepare them for a satisfying career in technical or vocational careers.
Edinger, M. (April, 1999) Community College Curriculum Development ERIC Document Reproduction Service's ED 428 787 JC 990139 Descriptive report 15 pages. Accessed September 12, 2009 from ERIC.
Key Terms:
Basic skills; college curriculum, curriculum development, educational objectives, instructional development, labor force development, student motivation, teaching methods, two-year colleges and vocational education.
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