What’s on the Curriculum Menu?
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Adopting—then adapting—high-high-quality curricula is important to elevating student achievement schoolwide. To help school leaders decide what curriculum to adopt, education researcher Bryan Goodwin presents a few concerns to target curricula powerful for all college students in the new issue of Instructional Management.
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Source connection The word ‘curriculum’ conjures up a variety of meanings and translations, such as: ‘a course of study,’ ‘all the subjects and topics taught in a school or college,’ and ‘a plan of activities and goals in education, self-improvement, personal development and job-related endeavours’. Whilst this embraces a broad spectrum of possibilities, what, then, is ‘on the curriculum menu’, so to speak?
The primary school curriculum will tend to embrace the core elements of Mathematics, English, Science, Social Studies, Humanities and the Arts, such as painting, craft, music, dance, drama and media. Typically, there are also curriculum initiatives, particularly in Science and Maths, which will carry the topics and subjects on at secondary level.
At secondary level, the menu broadens to include a variety of topics and subjects, and of course, there is the all-important topic of career planning and life-long learning. Additionally, there may be specialist areas such as Information and Communications Technology, Languages and Sports studies, which may differ from one school to another.
The post-secondary curriculum is more varied, with the range of options for either study or further job-training courses. For example, courses in business and commerce, health studies, engineering and science, computer programming, multimedia and web development to name but a few.
Ultimately, ‘the curriculum menu’ is down to the individual and what they are looking to gain from the educational experience. It can be a journey of exploration and discovery where the individual gains a wealth of knowledge and skills that can be used to pursue any chosen vocation.
The expression ‘you are what you eat’ may as well be applied to education. To obtain the most nourishment and benefit, it is important to choose the right options and exercise selection to get the most out of the experience. In short, make the most of what’s ‘on the curriculum menu’!
