Criteria for selection of educational objects in the process of curriculum development

1. “CRITERIAFOR SELECTIONOF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTSIN THE
PROCESSOF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT”
Content:
 Definition
 The main elements of a curriculum
 The process ofcurriculum development
 Characteristics of a good curriculum development
Definition;
 Curriculum can be defined as sum total of all the experiences a learner
undergoes under the guidance of the school, institution.
 Curriculum can refer to the entire program provided by a classroom,
School, District, State or country. A classroom is assigned sections of
the curriculum as defined by the school.
 Curriculum is the planned interaction of students with instructional
content, material, resources, and process forevaluation attainment of
educational objectives.
The main elements of curriculum development;
1: Aims and objectives: reflect the most specific levels of educational outcomes.
2: Content/Subject matter: Knowledge and skills to be included in a subject.
3: Methods: development of knowledge, skills and values.
4: Evaluation: systematic assessment of the worth or merit of some objects.
The process ofcurriculum development;
1: Situational analysis:
“A situation which is made up of a number of factors such as pupils” home and
background, school, its climate, its staff, facilities and equipment. Analysis of
those factors, together with a self-analysis, followed by study of their implications
for curriculum planning constitutes one step towards the rational approachof
curriculum”.
2: Formulating objectives:

2. Are more specific than goals and the specificity is increased as one advances from
programmer objectives to a module and from a unit to lesson /lecture objectives.
3: Selectionof content:
Curriculum content is a body of facts, ideas, concepts and skills that are presented,
discussed and involved in the course. The content selected should reflect the pre-
determined curriculum objectives and experiences needed by the learner.
4: Guidelines for selection:
 Priorities: select what is basically needed in specific circumstances. It
should therefore not be overcrowded.
 Balance:Ensure that the content is properly balanced in terms of time and
resources available.
 Completeness:It should properly cater for all the three domains
psychomotor(hand skills), Cognitive (head-knowledge) and effective
(heart-attitudes/values).
 Sequence: it should be properly sequenced i.e. simple to complex, known to
unknown and spiraled.
 Comprehensiveness:It should include all the necessary details needed by a
specific learner.
5: Need for selection
hkiDue to the ever changing society, both local and international, there is needed to
select from the abundance of generated knowledge and skills.
There is need to remain current by replacing content that may be outdated
 Quality: There is need to ensure quality
 Quantity: There is need to gauge how much to cover on a particular course.
 Scope:helps in demarcating or deciding on the breadth and depth of what to
cover.
6:Criteria for selecting content
Selection of contents is always based on the following criteria:
Philosophical: The knowledge we select must be of established value to
participants and the society they are going to serve after learning.

3. Psychological:This means that what is selected should meet the needs and
interests of the learners. The psychology of adult learners should be learned and
applied
Sociological/cultural:What society has achieved, its institutions, aspirations,
traditions, beliefs etc. should guide selection of content. This is becausesome of
these will themselves form the content of courses. For example in Uganda today
we have issues of gender, environment, self-reliance, poverty alleviation,
addiction, HIV/AIDS, small scale enterprises e.g. ICT cafes. These are social
issues that should be considered when developing curricula.
References: