7 Factors That Influence Curriculum and Curriculum Evaluation
7 Factors That Influence Curriculum and Curriculum Evaluation
“The public believes, incorrectly, that classroom instruction is as natural as showing your child how to fish or helping a nephew play Ms. Pac-Man. But those comparisons don’t take into account the profoundly specialized discourse of K–12 instruction.”
–Todd Finley
Introduction
After a curriculum is developed, the curriculum committee can breathe a sigh of relief, but their work is not done. Only when the curriculum is implemented and then evaluated will the committee know to what extent their efforts were successful. It is fair to say that no curriculum is perfect because there are almost always factors that may influence the curriculum that were unknown during the development process. As a former curriculum coordinator, I know that every curriculum, if it is to be most effective, is revised based on the results of an evaluation.
Essential Questions
- Why is curriculum evaluation an essential part of the curriculum development process?
- How is monitoring different than evaluation?
- What are the types of curriculum evaluation?
- What are the key elements in writing good curriculum?
- How does a well-written curriculum affect teaching and learning?
- How can the Aligned Curriculum concept help to organize the curriculum development process?
Meaning of Curriculum Evaluation
Curriculum evaluation is the assessment of programs, processes, and curricular products that are resources, not people (Oliva, 2009). There are two parts to the evaluation of the curriculum instruction process. The first is the evaluation of students (most often in meeting the standards) which takes place before, during, and after instruction. The question is, have the objectives been met? Teachers analyze student assessment data to see how many students have met or not met the objectives, and at what level of performance. The second is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the guides and resources, and the instructor or teacher. This is often done in groups, and over a period of time.
From Curriculum Studies, pp. 87- 93
Evaluation helps to establish the worth of a program and make decisions on whether to continue, stop, or modify the project. The various tools for collecting data and the sources of the data is also discussed.
As with most terms in the curriculum, there are a variety of definitions given to evaluation. Simply described, it is a process of establishing the extent to which the objectives of a program have been achieved by analyzing performance in given areas. Thus, evaluation is a judgmental process aimed at decision-making. Doll (1992) also defines evaluation as a broad and continuous effort to inquire into the effects of utilizing educational content and process to meet clearly defined goals.
Yet another definition states that “evaluation is a process of collection and provision of data for the sake of facilitating decision making at various stages of curriculum development.” (Shiundu & Omulando, 1