According to Taba (1962) "curriculum design is a statement which identifies the elements of the curriculum, states their relationships to each other, indicates the principles of organisation and the requirement of that organisation for the administrative conditions • under which it is to operate" This concept of curriculum design has gained wide acceptance. For example, opinions differ regarding what elements should be included in the curriculum. Some suggest that the curriculum document should include lesson plans, teaching strategies etc. where as other suggests that a list of objectives only are needed, leaving other aspects to the instructional system.
Table 5.1 General Competency Profile of Technical Manpower Graduate Engineers Diploma Engineers/Technician
Engineers
Skilled Workers/Craftsmen
Knowledge and Associated Skills pertaining to:
Knowledge & Associated Skills pertaining to:
Knowledge Associated Skills pertaining to: 1. Materials, specifications and
manufacturing processes/practices (including CAD−CAM process control, automation etc.
1. Materials, specifications and processes
1. Operation of machines, plant and equipment
2. National and International standards 2. Awareness of National and International standards and quality control operations.
2. Measurement and testing skills
3. Indian Economy and thrust areas 3. Innovations pertaining to shop floor/field operations
3. Skills in reading drawings
4. Design & development of new products, technologies and systems
4. Reading & interpreting drawings 4. Diagnostic and repair and
maintenance skills
5. Proto−type development 5. Estimation and costing 5. Construction and
installation skills 6. Quality Engineering and Total Quality
Management
6. Supervision techniques
7. Futuristic Planning 7. Work−study techniques
8. Budgeting and Financial Management 8. Erection/installation techniques 9. Management of Physical, Human &
Financial resources leading to
optimization of resources and efficiency
9. Measurement and testing skills
10. Generic skills of problem−solving, time management, stress management, managing change etc
10. Diagnostic skills
11. Interpersonal and communication skills
11. Pollution control and safety at work places
12. Management skills
13. Interpersonal and communication skills
However, the level at which the curriculum is being offered (whether at certificate, diploma and degree levels) will determine the extent to which details should be provided in the curriculum.
The most frequently quoted curriculum rationale is that proposed by Ralph Tyler (1950). It is based on four basic questions:
(1) What educational purposes should an institute seek to attain?
(2) What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain the purposes? (3) How can these educational experiences be effectively organised?
(4) How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
This rationale has been further developed by Taba (1962) in proposing an orderly procedure for curriculum development. The steps suggested in that procedure are:
(a) Diagnosis of needs (b) Formulation of objectives (c) Selection of content (d) Organisation of content
(e) Selection of learning experiences (f) Organisation of learning experiences
(g) Determination of what to evaluate and the way sand means of doing it. The steps proposed are not linear but cyclic in nature.
It is important to understand that curriculum design is the organizational pattern or structure of a curriculum. It is determined by decisions made at two different levels of development; a broad level which involves the technical planning and implementation of curriculum elements. At the broader level of decision making, curriculum design is influenced by the choice of the data source or sources, historically, have been used as bases for choices in making curricular decisions: Organized subject matter, the student who are to experience the curriculum and society (Tyler 1950). The curricular elements usually referred to in a discussion of a design are: i) objective, ii) content, iii) learning activities and iv) evaluation procedures (Zain 1976). Some authors also include; v) learning materials and resources, vi) time, vii) space and environment, viii) grouping and ix) teaching strategies as curricular elements. These nine elements can be treated in different ways when developing curricula and through these different treatments, a variety of designs can be created (Good Lad 1979). Thus, at this technical level to development, a specific curriculum design is created by the ways in which the elements are treated and the inter−relationships which occur among them. The challenge to curriculum developers is to make the necessary decisions so that the curriculum which is created has a high degree of internal consistency (Hunkins 1980).
If the decisions made about each of the data sources and curricular elements are compatible, the curriculum will have internal consistency and it will have a greater potential for having the desired impact upon the students. Designs created on a theoretical level rarely exist in practice in a pure form (Zais 1976). The
realities of schooling force change and require compromises. Thus, conducting research to determine the best curriculum design to use is not feasible. Evaluation studies can be and have been conducted to determine the impact of a particular curriculum upon the students. These studies, however, are not intended to help make decisions about other curricular designs which are created for different learning goals and purposes. Curriculum designs created, by devoting major or exclusive emphasis to each of the three primary data sources for decisions making, organized subject matter, the student and the society, have their own merits and demerits.
According to CPSC Publication (1982), effective curriculum design starts with the values held by the society and reflected in the educational system. These values determine the objectives, or goals or purposes which the system strives to achieve. The scheme next suggests that the important issues of what the content should be and what method should be used are guided by the three sources given below. These sources are widely accepted as the sources for important curriculum decision. Expressed in slightly different terms, the primary sources for curriculum are:
(a) Needs of the individuals learner (individual needs approach)
(b) Structure of the organised body of knowledge (subject − specialisation approach) (c) Needs of the society (social demand and job analysis approach)
All the three must be used for deriving the objectives and the content. These different models are thus available for arriving at curriculum decisions.
Individual Needs Approach
In this model, the education is considered to be for the development and growth of an individual to the fullest extent. The students are compared with budding flowers and the teachers are expected to handle these according to their interests and needs. The steps adopted in this model are given below:
(1) Identify needs and interest of the students
(2) Group the students according to similarity of interests and needs
(3) Select appropriate content/learning experiences from different fields relevant to the needs and interest of the group
(4) Organise teaching − learning process and implement the programme (5) Evaluate the success of the programme.
Subject Specialization Approach
According to Foshay (1962) any discipline has three main elements:
(a) It has domains − the phenomena or aspects of life for which it takes responsibility (b) It has methods and rules according to which the scholar in the discipline seeks out and handles the data given in the domain and according to which the quality. of the generalisation he/she may be judged
(c) Any discipline has a history or a tradition, which enters into the decision on both the domains and the rules according to which it proceeds as a field of learning
Typical steps used in developing a curriculum are given below: (1) Interpret or formulate goals and policies
(2) Setup curriculum committees consisting of professionals/experienced scholars in the discipline
(3) Analyse discipline for its structures, logic methods
(4) Organise content which brings out the logical structure and relationships of the discipline. (5) Prepare instructional resources
(6) Implement on pilot basis in selected institutions (7) Collect data from the field and identify gaps
(8) Take corrective steps to prepare the final document for full scale implementation.
Social Demand and Job Analysis Approach
The philosophy underlying this approach is to satisfy the needs of the society and should be relevant to those needs. Education is treated as preparation for life. Life consists of performance of specific activities which can be analysed in terms of knowledge and skills for preparing the teaching plan. These objectives then form the objectives of the curriculum. When seen in this context, the approach could be better called as an Activity or Job Analysis Approach for curriculum design. Steps of this model are:
(1) Conduct feasibility study, occupational analysis and form job clusters. (2) Analyse jobs clusters i.e. activities; knowledge, skills, equipment etc. (3) Develop Training objectives
(4) Develop Instructional packages
(6) Finalise instructional package for wider dissemination
None of the models presented above may be wholly adequate for any specific system of technical education, but all may contain ideas which could be fruitfully adapted.