Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 31

Lynch, Smith, Howarth
yearly overview of work. The school has functional control over what teaching occurs in the school, which
then cues the teacher to focus on what needs to happen in their classroom each school term. The teacher
then uses a ‘daily teaching plan’ to plan and document their teaching work. We examine these processes in
Chapter Five.
Whether a teacher works in an environment where the school has developed a school curriculum or not, the
prime responsibility of the teacher is the achievement of defined syllabus learning outcomes in students. Put
simply, curriculum can be sophisticated or as simple as a government, system, agency, school or teacher
wants it to be, but its success or failure depends overwhelmingly on the implementation of pedagogical
practice. That is to say, curriculum outcomes are an effect of pedagogical practice by skilful teachers who know
how to translate curriculum of whatever emphasis or form into pedagogical strategies fit for the purposes at
hand. Pedagogical practice is the crucial link-pin in the quest for successful learning outcomes. We elaborate
on this theme in Chapter Four through the theory of Learning Management and in Chapters Five through
Ten, where the Learning Management Design Process is explained and outlined for teaching reference.
This chapter shows that there are various meanings attributed to curriculum and depending on which one
is selected, there are implications for how they explain teaching. The contents of the curriculum, what counts
as valid knowledge, are always shaped by social forces most notably ideological, historical, epistemological,
economic and political elements. In turn, the work of the teacher and patterns of teaching are influenced
because many of the most fundamental knowledge selection processes have already been made elsewhere.
Our take on all of this then is that the work of teaching is not unlike the carpenter’s relationship with timber.
The carpenter takes timber and uses expert knowledge and skill to transform the wood into a thing of beauty
or utility and in some cases, both. By analogy, the teacher creates a classroom curriculum so that it can be
transformed into pedagogical practices with definite student learning goals in mind.
1. What is the difference between a syllabus and a curriculum?
2. How does an objectives based and an outcomes based curriculum differ? What are the teaching
implications when using each type?
3. Governments have always taken an active interest in what constitutes the curriculum. Why
might this be so? How might Governments use the concept of a mandated curriculum for societal
impact?
4. What are the differences between the term ‘design’ and ‘plan’?
5. What is meant by the terms ‘model’, ‘platform’ and ‘framework’? What are their fundamental
differences?
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