Goals and Standards
The first goal that I want to develop for the curriculum change plan is to increase the efficiency of the educational process. This will be done by switching to student-oriented education. The curriculum will include teaching methods that shift the emphasis in teaching from the teacher to the student. In student-centered learning, students’ interests will be put first, and students’ opinions will be a key element of the learning process. At the moment, in the curriculum plan, teachers are assigned primarily an active role, while students play a more passive, receptive role. On the contrary, with student-centered learning, students will be active, responsible participants in their own learning and with their own pace of learning.
This point is one of the most important conditions for the modernization of the modern education system. The main task of curriculum change plan is to ensure the modern quality of education on the basis of preserving its fundamental nature. The second goal that I want to develop for the curriculum change plan is to solve the problem of optimizing training sessions. It is necessary to plan not an abstract, but a concrete educational activity involving work with specific students. When designing the educational process, it is necessary to anticipate possible difficulties in mastering the educational material. The third goal that I want to develop for the curriculum change plan is to eliminate student overload. In order to preserve the mental and physical health of students, it is necessary to reduce the volume and intensity of the educational load.
My theoretical basis relates to my goals for the curriculum change plan because it allows to trace the impact of introducing a new element into the plan. The theoretical basis permits a comprehensive study of existing problems in dynamics, and identifying new ways to solve them. My personal educational experience that is influencing my goals for the curriculum change plan is related to the need to learn a large amount of unrelated information in a short time. Due to the fact that the material was not repeated, and the teachers did not pay attention to the difficulties of the students, the effectiveness of the education was not very high.
In my curriculum change plan, I will use national standards for the results of mastering basic educational programs. In particular, state requirements for the ratio of parts of the main educational program and their volume will be used (Wang, 2019). The number of hours allocated for students to master the curriculum of a general education institution should not collectively exceed the amount of a week’s educational load. The amount of weekly educational load implemented through scheduled and extracurricular activities will be determined in accordance with the table provided in the state document (Wang, 2019). These standards are appropriate for my curriculum change plan, as they contribute most to achieving the goals set. They make it possible to guarantee that the necessary quality of education will be respected with the changes being implemented (Nordin & Sundberg, 2018). Moreover, the standard in education allows to adhere to the basis for promotion from one level of education to another.
According to state standard K-11, the effectiveness of the current functioning of the educational process at school is reflected by the following criteria: functionality and reliability (Nordin & Sundberg, 2018). The criterion of functionality as a whole reflects the quality of the preparation of the educational process. The reliability criterion is characterized by a number of separate criteria reflecting the quality of the educational process of implementation: thoroughness, functional and structural reliability. Thus, guided by the standard, one can be sure that the planned curriculum change meets the requirements for the effectiveness of education.
The state standard K-12 includes requirements for the construction of the educational process taking into account the individual age, psychological and physiological characteristics of students (Nordin & Sundberg, 2018). Guided by these requirements, it is possible to conduct a curriculum change designed to optimize the learning process. At the same time, the state standard will help to avoid an overloaded schedule that creates too much, or, conversely, insufficient physical or mental load for students. Thus, this standard will be applicable to achieve two educational goals – optimization and avoidance of overload.
The standards used address student in the way, so that if they move to the different school, they can adapt to the curriculum at another educational institution. The use of standards allows students to build a base for higher education. The standards used address societal needs, allowing students to join the culture and adopt the values of society. The application of national and state standards will also allow students to master modern and effective knowledge. They will be able to apply them in their further studies and work, improving the economic performance of the country and the world community.
Organization Plan: Tactical
To organize a curriculum change plan, the organizational plan, suitable for multiple changes, will be needed. A valid organizational plan will be selected depending on the type of changes. The time at which changes are introduced will also play an important role (whether it is the beginning of the year or its middle). In this case, a short-term tactical plan will be required to implement the curriculum plan changes. The peculiarity of the short-term plan is that the indicators reflected in it are adjusted quarterly to more fully reflect the changes taking place. The term tactical means that the plan deals with decisions about how the resources of an educational organization should be allocated to achieve strategic goals. In addition, the implementation of tactical decisions is better monitored, since they relate mainly to internal problems. They are better evaluated because they can be expressed in specific digital results.
In this organizational plan, backward design will be partially used: it can act as a tool for personnel management and improving the efficiency of processes. Using backward design, information exchange between the manager and subordinates will be carried out, and up-to-date information about the consequences of management decisions will be obtained (Martin et al., 2019). The universal design used in the development of this curriculum change plan assumes consideration of the capabilities and needs of the maximum number of students, regardless of their physical condition or other factors (Evmenova, 2018). The universal or inclusive design of the curriculum change plan is designed to ensure that the use of the modified curriculum is accessible to everyone, without exception. This organization plan will help all of the identified stakeholders for the curriculum change plan. This is due to the fact that all of them are interested in improving the quality of education, which is the main goal of this organization plan.
Evidence Plan
The best evidence plans for the curriculum change plan is the one based on similar norms of study hours in subjects in each class. It must also have similar qualifications and the number of subject teachers working in the classroom, teacher lesson overlays, etc. The analysis of the best evidence plan allows to conclude that the activity of students’ mental performance falls on the interval of 10-12 hours (Cobbett & Soeren, 2019). Therefore, the main subjects should be taught in 2, 3, 4 lessons (Chadha et al., 2022). The level of mental performance of students increases by the middle of the week and remains low on Monday and Friday. The largest amount of training load should be on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The evaluation will be conducted at all stages of the curriculum change plan implementation. This will include various criteria, such as budgeting, the need to use additional resources, and others. Needs assessment for students will be carried out by directly questioning the students themselves and monitoring their progress. In the questionnaire, both satisfaction with school life and questions concerning a specific schedule will be clarified. The monitoring of academic performance will be comparative and will include an analysis of the indicators that prevailed before the implementation of the curriculum change plan. Needs assessment for society will be based on compliance with biblical values. The Bible says: “Try to present yourself to God as an approved worker who does not need to be ashamed.” (Timothy 2:15). Therefore, assessment will be based on the applicability of the acquired knowledge in further work.
The rationale for this evidence plan is that it is logical and clear; guided by it, it is possible to implement the planned changes in full. It is based on a good theoretical literature, which made it possible to develop a high-quality evidence-based conceptual scheme. The evidence plan aligns with the goals mentioned in this assignment. It allows to improve academic performance by reducing the burden on students. In addition, it allows using the needs assessment methods of students to identify the points of the program that require optimization.
References
Chadha, D., Campbell, J., Maraj, M., Brechtelsbauer, C., Kogelbauer, A., Shah, U., … Hellgardt, K. (2022). Engaging students to shape their own learning: Driving curriculum re-design using a theory of change approach. Education for Chemical Engineers, 38(3), 14-21.
Cobbett, S., & Soeren, M. (2019). The significance of preplanning and faculty engagement in curriculum change. International Journal of Advanced Nursing Education and Research, 4(3), 43-52.
Evmenova, A. (2018). Preparing teachers to use universal design for learning to support diverse learners. Journal of Online Learning Research, 4(2), 147-171.
KJV Holy Bible (2022). New York, NY: Christian Art Publishers.
Martin, F., Ritzhaupt, A., Kumar, S., & Budhrani, K. (2019). Award-winning faculty online teaching practices: Course design, assessment and evaluation, and facilitation. The Internet and Higher Education, 42(9), 34-43.
Nordin, A., & Sundberg, D. (2018). Exploring curriculum change using discursive institutionalism: A conceptual framework. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(6), 820-835.
Wang, T. (2019). Competence for students’ future: Curriculum change and policy redesign in China. ECNU Review of Education, 2(2), 234-245.