User:SGall2021/sandbox

The State of Curriculum Development in Barbados

Curriculum development is described as a phenomenon that encompasses how a curriculum is planned, implemented and evaluated. It includes the people and procedures that are involved in the curriculum development process.

In Barbados, the Curriculum and Assessment Section of the Ministry of Education (MOE) was created to assist teachers in various areas. It strives to maintain an adherence to the national syllabi, attainment targets and methods of assessment . Moreover, it evaluates and revises curricula to ensure relevant content and pedagogically sound practices are present in each educational institution. The ensuing discourse will present a critical discussion of the two main approaches to curriculum development and reveal any comparisons between their associated models and Barbados' national curriculum practices.

The Tyler Rational: A Technical-Scientific Approach to Curriculum Development

Ralph W. Tyler (1902-1994) was a leading proponent of the technical-scientific approach Ralph W. Tyler. He was, and still is closely associated with curriculum theory and development, as well as educational assessment and evaluation. Many consider him to be the "father" of behavioral objectives, a concept he frequently used to describe learning as a process through which new patterns of behavior are attained . Tyler's scholarly publications were many and spanned his entire career. Among his most useful works is Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949). Each of the first four sections of the book is titled with a question :

1.      What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

2.      How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives?

3.      How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction?

4.      How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?

The fifth and final section describes "How a school or College staff may work on curriculum building." In the first section of his book, Tyler explains that one of the main problems with education is that educational programs "do not have clearly defined purposes." These "purposes", as he describes them, should be translated into educational objectives. Teachers and curriculum designers become scientific observers, determining whether their curricular hypotheses are in fact demonstrated by student behaviour or learning outcomes. Then, they return to the curricular plans to make necessary adjustments that ensure proper outcomes in the classroom. The students do not participate on any level in the planning or implementation of their education. They solely assume the role of object of study.

The technical-scientific approach to curriculum development stresses on the acquisition of knowledge and specifies what areas of knowledge are most important to gain. It is structured in a step-by-step manner to optimize students’ learning and to allow them to increase their output . It is predominantly teacher centric and focuses on content structured assessment tools . Similarities appear to exist between this approach to curriculum development and the curriculum practices exhibited in Barbados. On the Barbadian syllabi, specific content for each individually taught subject area are published as "must know" content. The teaching of this content is sequentially ordered, from the simple to more complex knowledge. At the end of a teaching period, students are assessed based on the areas outlined in the pre-established curricula. This practice is exemplified through the administration of the standardized Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examination.

A Critique of Tyler’s Model

It is posited that Tyler’s model reduces the complex task of curriculum planning and development by providing a sequential step-by-step approach. However, this is only valid if the material being taught is easily divisible into a step-by-step process. Further, the model emphasizes measurable objectives, and the choice of objectives are often limited to easily quantified behaviours or outcomes. Consequently, many moral or ethical objectives, particularly those from the affective dimension, cannot be included in measurable objectives. Moreover, Tyler posited that personal opinions should not affect the choice of the means as efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the ends is the major goal. Therefore, many advocated for a more democratic relationship between teacher and student, fearing that the overly technical approach gave power to teachers while limiting students’ rights in regard to their own learning .  

Deliberative Curriculum: A Nontechnical-Nonscientific Approach to Curriculum Development

The deliberative model of curriculum development has been hailed as one effective way of developing school-based curriculum . Its participatory, egalitarian and discursive characteristics have helped to generate the much-needed synergy and ownership feeling among the curriculum team members that lead to curriculum success . It sought to address the gap between complete freedom for students to choose what they would like to learn and the prescription of learning. As such, it is characterized as a nontechnical-nonscientific approach to curriculum development. Whereas the technical-scientific approach is subject and content-centred, the nontechnical-nonscientific approach is student-centred with the emphasis on the learners rather than the outputs .

Decker Walker, the proponent of the deliberative model, was an assistant professor of Education at Stanford University. There, he received his PhD in 1971 [1]. His specialty and major interests were the process of curriculum development and curriculum policy making . Using his own studies on groups doing curriculum development, and the way they made curriculum decisions, Walker noted that the ways of proceeding were not linear and predetermined but negotiated as the stakeholders worked their way out of the problem. The key feature was the deliberative process in which personal agendas, with a lot of value laden positions or perspectives, were tabled for open articulation, exchange and discussion. Teachers’ individual and collective beliefs about schools, schooling and related classroom issues constitute a kind of deliberative platform. An adapted diagrammatical depiction of Walker's model is attached herein .

Walker's Deliberative Model

Walker's model reflects an approach to teaching and learning, which the MOE in Barbados has fought to adopt. Yet, it's adoption appears more prevalent in practice than in theory or official documentation. Barbadian educators are encouraged to foster and maintain student-centered learning environments, where the needs and interests of students are deemed irrevocably significant. The current state of curriculum development in Barbados can be comically represented as this: the curriculum designers are the parents, the teachers are the children. The parents exclaim, "Do as I say child, not as I write/do"!

A Critique of Walker's Model

The input of curriculum developers, target groups and other stakeholders in the development of the curriculum has been seen as one of the model's major advantages. Stakeholder engagement in the planning and development stages empowers and acknowledges them, especially teachers, as valuable contributors. However, it is believed that Walker describes what happens in the process of curriculum design but fails to describe what happens in the actual classroom. What's more, the processes of deliberation can be time-consuming and resource intensive, and can result in curriculum products that may not be consistent and aligned internally .

Conclusion

Although curriculum development models are technically useful, they often overlook the human aspect such as the personal attitudes, feelings, values involved in curriculum making. Therefore, they are not a recipe and should not be a substitute for using professional and personal judgement on what is a good approach to enhancing student learning .