School Based Curriculum Development

 Acronym. Definition. SBCD. School-Based Curriculum Development.

Content
This unit will cover the following topics:
 definitions of a school curriculum
 Key features of school based curriculum
 reasons for designing a school curriculum
 factors that influence a school curriculum
 the process of designing a school curriculum

 DEFINITION OF SCHOOL BASED CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT. 

Before determining the terms of SBCD, it is necessary to examine the notion of
SBCD, which is the central of our discussion. The word “school-based” literally
implies that all curricular decision are made at the school level. When combining
with the word “curriculum development”, it connotes that all activities associated
with the creation of curriculum materials, such as planning, designing,
producing, implementing, and evaluating must be conducted at school level. 
 What is the school based curriculum?

School curriculum refers to a particular set of courses that a school or governing body designates,
but may also refer to a variety of activities designed to foster education and meet the needs of a
learning community.

The school based curriculum development is defined as bellow:

‘[SBCD is] a process in which some or all of the members of a school community plan,
implement and/or evaluate an aspect or aspects of the curriculum offering of the school.
This may involve adapting an existing curriculum, adopting it unchanged, or creating a
new curriculum. SBCD is a collaborative effort which should not be confused with the
individual efforts of teachers or administrators operating outside the boundaries of a
collaboratively accepted framework’ (Curriculum Development: principles, Processes and
Practices, 2004:5)

 Key features of SBCD include:

 it involves school staff making decisions about programmes of learning

for their students
 collaborative decision-making processes are involved
 it represents an alternative to "top-down" or centralized curriculum
decision-making.
 Reasons for Designing a School Curriculum
As you are already aware, a school serves the needs of the child. All
that is done by the school should be for the good of the child. You as a
teacher should not lose sight of this fact. The school is established to
improve the community, the environment and the lives of the learners.
It therefore becomes

the responsibility of the school to develop the following:

 The capacity of the learner

 the manipulative skills of the learner
 the attitudes and value systems of the learner.
If the school fulfils these three responsibilities, a learner will be able to
display new behaviors. A school curriculum should help all learners to
develop their mental capacity, acquire manipulative or technical skills
and develop their emotional state. To accomplish these goals, the
school curriculum must meet certain demands.
 Self-Assessment 1

What is a school curriculum?

Possible answers to this activity are provided at the end of this unit.

 Factors That Influence a School-Based Curriculum

Design
Assuming that the school curriculum developers design their
curriculum with the child in mind, there are a number of
factors that they need to consider. These are described below.
1) National Goals of Education
Learning in any country is guided by its national goals and
philosophy. These are influenced by political considerations to ensure
national identity. Curriculum development can be centralized at the national
level or decentralized to the local level.
2).Number of Subject Options Available

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The central pattern of curriculum design is further influenced by the number
of subjects in the national curriculum. Normally, a school cannot include on
its list a subject that is not on the national curriculum, so the school
curriculum is limited to what the national list has to offer.
3).The Learner
In addition to national goals, the school curriculum is influenced
greatly by the mental, physical and emotional requirements of the
child. The school curriculum developers look at the child’s level of
development and maturity. The juniors should be given what they can
handle in terms of depth and quantity. For example, in science at the
primary level, there is more concern with the systems and processes
that affect the learner’s life without giving the principles and theories
behind them. At higher levels, the physical, chemical and biological
systems and processes are described in terms of the principles and
theories that explain them. The level of complexity increases as the
mental capacity of the learner develops. Learning experiences increase
in intensity and complexity with increased manipulative skills.
4).Resource Availability
By resources, we are referring to learning facilities, materials and
personal factors such as qualification and experience. A school should
not select a subject merely because other schools are offering it. A
secondary school should not offer computer science if it has no
electricity, or opt for rugby if there are no grounds and trainers
qualified to coach the sport. The developers must look at the
resources that are available before selecting a subject for the school.
Self-Assessment 2
1. What pattern of curriculum design is used in your country?
Is it centralized or decentralized? Explain.
2. What considerations about your own learners were taken
into account in making the curriculum you are using?

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5).Culture of the People Around the School
At a secondary school, it does not make much sense for the Bible to be
taught in a Hindu society or the Koran to be taught in a Christian society. In
any country, subjects such as commerce, economics, science and accounting
make a lot of sense because they will help the learners to acquire skills
needed to produce goods and services. To humanists, it makes sense to
include literature, history, science and geography. The content and learning
experiences provided by a school should have cultural relevance for its
learners.
6).The School Environment
Planners should consider what the environment could offer to the learner
and how the environment can be exploited to facilitate the teaching and
learning process. For example, if the school is located in a desert area, you
might think of offering a course on crop science and farming in arid
environments.
7).Evaluation System and Strategies
You should also note that the designer of a school curriculum should
consider the system and strategy for the evaluation of the curriculum.
Practical assessments for certain subjects such as chemistry require special
equipment and apparatus that the school might not be able to afford.
Learners might be frustrated if they followed a course of study for which
they were not assessed, because where there is no assessment, there is no
certification. In addition, the instructors teaching these subjects may not
take them seriously. Without commitment from both the teacher and the
learners, teaching these subjects wastes time and money. It also would not
make much sense to offer a subject in a trade that required industrial testing
equipment if the school could not expose the learners to the same
environment and conditions found in industry. These examples stress the
need to consider evaluation seriously.
Self-Assessment 3

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“List at least three factors that should be considered when designing a
school curriculum.” Explain how each affects the design of the curriculum.
Possible answers to this activity are provided at the end of this unit.
 The Process of School Curriculum Designing
Formulating a school-based curriculum is not different from designing
a curriculum in general, which was discussed in Unit 4 of Module 13.
The only difference is that content and learning experiences are more
localized. Taba (1962: 12) and other writers suggest that the steps
below be followed:
1.Diagnosis of needs
2. Formulation of objectives
3. Selection of content
4. Organization of content
5. Selection of learning experiences
6. Organization of learning experiences
7. Determination of what should be evaluated and the means
of evaluation.
As you can realize, this is almost the same as the task analysis
process referred to in Unit 4 of Module 13. You might be
wondering what happens at each stage. Let us examine each
stage more closely.
1. Diagnosis of Needs
This is a fact-finding stage in which you assess the needs of society and the
available resources. You might need to find
answers to the following questions:
• Who are the learners?
• Who are the teachers?

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• Why is the programme necessary?
• Where will the programme be implemented?
• How will it be implemented?
The answers to these questions will become the basis for establishing policy
or formulating goals.
2. Formulation of Objectives
Once the goals are established, one needs to determine what the outcomes
should be. At this stage, the goals are written as statements of intent that
describe the behaviors which children are expected to exhibit as a result of
studying the curriculum. Once this is done, you must then identify the
content.
3. Selection of Content
After the intended outcomes have been determined, for example, produce
children with inquiring minds, you need to select content that will help
achieve that objective. Subjects such as science, mathematics and
geography may be selected. These subjects are based on inquiry. This stage
relates the objectives formulated in the second stage to the subjects
available from the national curriculum.
4. Organization of Content
The third stage is concerned mainly with the identification of content that
can be included. At this stage, the identified content is sequentially arranged
to correspond to the maturity and development levels of the learners.
Related content is also grouped and all possible relationships established.
Once content has been organized, it will be easier to select learning
experiences.
5. Selection of Learning Experiences
This stage is concerned with the identification of relevant learning
experiences that will enable the learner to understand and appreciate the
content. These are identified in any order and put on paper. When all the

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selected subjects have been reviewed, one then needs to look at sequencing
these experiences.
6. Organization of Learning Experiences
Learning experiences are organized in the same manner in which the
content is organized. Identified experiences are arranged according to their
complexity. The simple tasks come first and the most complex appear later.
This will help the learner to go through the course with ease. At this point,
you should be aware that a school must grade content and learning
experiences. This is why subject matter is prescribed for each grade,
standard or form. These stages determine what should be taught at what
level, and how.
7. Evaluation
Consideration is made at this stage as to whether the desired outcomes
have been met. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to measure
learners’ accomplishments and compare them with the objectives identified
at the beginning of the curriculum planning process. The results of the
evaluation will be used for curriculum improvement.
Self-Assessment 4
Outline the stages to be followed in the process of designing a school
curriculum.
Summary
School curriculum designing follows a systematic process involving seven
stages. This process is also influenced by a number of factors. Each was
discussed in this unit. It was noted that curriculum development is greatly
influenced by the mental, physical and emotional needs of children. Once
the school curriculum has been put in place, a syllabus must be developed.
The next unit will take you through syllabus design.