Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 90

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
A Note on Putting it all Together
To this point in the book we have explained the concept of curriculum and presented a brief introduction
into the predominant curriculum development models used in modern day classrooms. While each model is
valid, our concern has been their tendency not to require focus on the detailing of explicit teaching strategies.
Our key point is that it is what the teacher does that makes a difference in student’s learning (Hattie,
2009) and to not provide ‘teaching’ detailing in the classroom curriculum is to create enormous potential for
diminished teaching effect. We introduced the term Pedagogic Void to describe the circumstance where
the classroom curriculum is devoid of an evidence base; a circumstance which tends to emerge when the
teaching strategies are not specifically outlined in a classroom curriculum document or in more simple terms,
a circumstance where the teacher in effect ‘just makes it all up’.
The Learning Management Design Process and its 8 Learning Management Questions provides an explicit
framework for the teacher to follow when they develop their classroom curriculum (the teaching plan). In
this chapter each question has been detailed by way of a series of steps, which when followed, provides
information --- answers as it were --- which together becomes the classroom curriculum.
1. In Chapter One a teaching example based on ‘a child learning to ride a bike’ was outlined. Your
task is to develop a ‘teaching plan’ (or a classroom curriculum b