Curriculum change

1. Curriculum change
Dr.M.Deivam
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University),
Gandhigram, Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu – 624 302

2. Curriculum change
• Curriculum is a runway for attaining goals of
education.
• It is considered as a blueprint of educational
programme.
• Curriculum revision means making the
curriculum different in some way, to give it a
new point or direction.
• Any major curriculum change is significantly to
improve the existing curriculum.

3. Cont.,
• The process of curriculum change helps in the
assessment of future needs of the existing
curriculum (What needs to be changed and
selection of possible solutions to problems
and the means by which the necessary
changes can be achieved).
• Curriculum development should bring
desirable changes is the people who will
ultimately bring changes in curriculum.
• It implies that society should be involved in
curriculum development to ensure its
commitment to changes.

4. Cont.,
• Several teachers who are grass root level
workers are not taken in to confidence for
curriculum development.
• Alice Miel (1946) – “Changing the curriculum” –
changes in people in their desires.
• Vesson Anderson (1996) – “Curriculum
Guideline” – no curriculum change without a
change in people’s thinking.
• Albert I. Oliver (1997) – “Curriculum
improvement” – curriculum improvement is a
cooperative endeavor.

5. Need for curriculum change
• Society needs and aspirations are changing.
• Growth and development are the
distinguishing characteristics of human life,
individual as well as collective.
• Society has also to become more and more
refined. We have to plan for this growth and
development upward.
• Technology is fast developing, Educational
technology has brought in changes in the
concepts in the aids, strategies and
instructional purposes.

6. Cont.,
• Curriculum content should be based on current
information and not the past information.
• Knowledge is expanding at astronomical speed.
New knowledge is being discovered day by day,
second by second.
• There is need for changing, updating, constantly
the curriculum content.
• Curriculum and its various components, the
objectives, the content the instructional
methods, have to be changing.

7. Cont.,
• A stagnant curriculum will ‘strike’ like a
stagnant pool. If curriculum is not
changing it will serve the purpose and
will hinder the growth and progress in
nation.
• The curriculum has to be renewed
constantly. Provision for change, for
renewal, should be build-in in the
curriculum framework itself.

8. Objectives of Curriculum change
The following are the objectives of Curriculum Change:
• To restructure the curriculum according to the
needs, interests or abilities of the learner.
• To eliminate unnecessary units, teaching
methods and contents from existing
curriculum.
• To introduce latest and updated methods of
teaching and content in the curriculum.
• To add or delete number of teaching hours of
instruction according to the curriculum.

9. Cont.,
• To correlate between the student’s
theory courses and learning practices.
• To accommodate innovative techniques
and strategies relevant to the level of
learners.
• To add the components of innovations in
technology in teaching-learning process.
• To update the science and trends of the
subject-matter in the curriculum.

10. Nature of curriculum change
• It comprises a challenging selection of subjects
that help children and young people understand
the world.
• It highlights skills necessary for learning
throughout life, as well as for work, and for one’s
personal development and well-being
• A school curriculum is intended to provide children
and young people with the knowledge and skills
required to lead successful lives
• There is growing concern that the taught
curriculum needs to be reconsidered and
redesigned.

11. Categories of Curriculum change
• Introduction of a whole new degree program or
specialized stream at the undergraduate level.
• Introduction of a whole new (course-work) degree
program at the postgraduate level.
• Introduction of a new subject, or deletion of an
existing subject.
• Change to or within a first-year or other core
subject, such as a change to the first language
taught to undergraduate students.
• Change to or within an elective subject, such as a
change in the choice of language used in a third-
year subject.

12. Strategies for curriculum change
• Changing curriculum and instruction should be a
gradual process
• Curriculum change should be worked with individual
teachers at first, or with small clusters of motivated
individuals
• Individuals respond uniquely (at times unpredictably) to
new ways of doing things, no matter how sensible or
appealing the new ways might be
• It takes time — often years — to successfully
implement curriculum change
• A number of organizations host websites and
conferences dedicated to curriculum improvement.