How Many Types of Curriculum Design Are There?
Curriculum design describes the methodical organization of the curriculum within a course or class. It refers to a way through which teachers can plan their instructions. Instructors design and develop curricula to create educational goals and learning outcomes for their students.
If you hail from the educational field, it is important to know the types and objectives of curriculum design. By designing curriculum effectively, you can help your students to achieve academic success. Teachers develop curricula with a particular academic objective in mind. Listed are the four types of curriculum design that every educator must know.
What are the Four Cs of Curriculum?
Besides referring to the curriculum design example, one must be aware of the four Cs of curriculum as follows:
- Critical Thinking: Critical thinking refers to the focused and careful analysis of a topic to better comprehend it.
- Creative Thinking: Creative thinking is the expansive and open-ended invitation and discovery of specific possibilities.
- Collaboration: Collaboration is another important “C” of curriculum design. It makes sure that your students can collaborate and achieve the learning outcomes.
- Communication: While designing a curriculum, you should include the aspects associated with communication. Reading, speaking, listening, and writing are the essential parts of communication.
What are the Essential Elements of Curriculum Design?
It is important for educators to know about the essential components of curriculum design to ensure the success of their students. You can refer to the types of curriculum design PDF to understand these components. Outlined are the integral components of curriculum design.
- Set the outcomes of your instruction
- Design the curriculum based on coherent instructions
- Demonstrate knowledge related to pedagogy through the curriculum
- Creating student assessments
- Showcase the knowledge of students
What are the Four Curriculum Designs?
Note that students design each curriculum with a specific educational goal in mind. Though the ultimate aim is to improve the academic performance of students, there are other reasons to design it. Here are the four types of curriculum design.
Subject-Centered Curriculum Design:
Customary to its name, the theme of the subject-centered curriculum design involves a specific subject. For instance, this curriculum type may concentrate on specific subjects like Biology, Physics, English language, etc.
So, as you can see, the subject-centered curriculum emphasizes the learning outcomes of a course or a subject. The main drawback of a subject-centered curriculum is that it doesn’t consider the student’s learning styles.
Problem-Centered Curriculum Design:
Unlike a subject-centered curriculum design, a problem-centered curriculum design considers the problems of students. It focuses on teaching students how to address the common challenges in achieving the learning outcomes. This type of curriculum design increases the confidence of students and allows them to be creative.
Learner-Centered Curriculum Design:
If your main objective is to address each student’s goals and problems, the learner-centered curriculum is ideal. The main objective of this curriculum design is to empower students.
It offers a wide variety of choices to learners in an educational setting. One of the major cons of a learner-centered curriculum is that it’s tough to create. Considering the goals and problems of each student is not possible for teachers.
Process-Centered Design:
This type of curriculum design in higher education involves educating learners through activities. In this type of curriculum, instructors adopt a hands-on approach to teaching. The main advantage of a process-centred curriculum is that it makes students participate actively. It also focuses on helping students develop skills like critical thinking, reasoning, etc.
By learning about the types of curriculum design, you can boost engagement among students. Moreover, with an all-inclusive curriculum design type, you can develop the learning goals of students. Considering the intricacies of curriculum design can sometimes be challenging. Therefore, it is crucial to collaborate with the best curriculum development companies to design an effective curriculum.
