CURRICULUM THEORY AND PRACTICE

Innocent K. Wanja
Definitions of “Curriculum implementation”
 The term “curriculum implementation” refers to “the ‘actual
use’ of a curriculum/syllabus, or what it ‘consists of in practice”
(Fullan and Pomfret, 1977: cited in Marsh, 2004).
 Mkpa and Izuagba (2009) defines curriculum implementation as
“the actual engagement of the learner with planned learning
opportunities”.
 “… the process of putting to work the curriculum, as planned by
developers, to achieve educational objectives” (Bernard Yaw
Sekyi Acquah, 2022).
Definitions of “Curriculum implementation”
 Okello and Kagoire (1996) defines curriculum
implementations as “a network of varying activities
involved in translating curriculum designs into classroom
activities and changing people’s attitudes to accept and
participate in these activities”
Definitions of “Curriculum implementation”
 Thus, curriculum implementation can simply be defined as “a
process of putting in action a curriculum that has been
planned, designed and developed”.
- It involves translating ideas into practice.
- The learner, through the guide of a teacher, interacts with
the planned learning activities so as to maximize learning.
- It is often implemented in schools to impact on students
 Implementation is a key part of the curriculum development
process and not an end in itself.
Curriculum implementation (cont’d)
 Ivowi (2009) states that implementation involves three major
things;
1. The dissemination of the structured set of learning
experiences,
2. The provision of resources to effectively execute the plan,
and
3. The actual execution of the plan in the classroom setting
where teacher-learner interactions take place
Aspects of curriculum implementation
 There are:
1. Theoretical aspects
o These include careful planning, communication, cooperation
and support
2. Practical aspects
o Include trialing, preparation and mass production of
instructional materials, orientation of teachers, actual
implementation, monitoring and evaluation
1. Theoretical aspects
a. Careful planning
b. Communication
 Comprehensive and open networks of communication is a key to
successful implementation of any new programme.
 It creates awareness among different stakeholders e.g. teachers,
school heads & parents whilst allowing them to give their input.
 This can be done by means of: letters or circulars, memos, articles,
books, bulletins, research reports, speeches and staff meetings
 If the curriculum is completely new or has many changes, training
workshops, meetings, role plays, mentoring may also be used
Theoretical aspects (cont’d)
b. Cooperation
 Successful implementation requires cooperation among all
stakeholders in all stages of curriculum devpt process.
 Teachers should be involved in curriculum development process to
ensure their commitment and ownership.
 Most study findings indicate that when teachers actively participate
in curriculum development, their commitment & cooperation during
implementation increases
Theoretical aspects (cont’d)
c. Support
 Curriculum implementation is a process that incurs a lot of costs in
monetary and material form
 Support is needed for effective in-service trainings for teachers and
other stakeholders, and evaluation of the implementation process
 Money is needed for: materials and equipment; orientation of
teachers; and provision fof human support
2. Practical aspects
a. Pilot or trialing phase
 A series of curriculum trials are conducted to gather information on
suitability of the curriculum.
 Piloting serves as a form of pre-implementation evaluation strategy
meant to:
▪ collect empirical data to justify the new curriculum;
▪ identify weaknesses for correction, and also
▪ help take key decisions about the impending programme to
facilitate effective implementation.
Practical aspects (cont’d)
 Some of the activities involved in curriculum piloting include:
o Developing units
o Sampling of trial schools to try the curriculum
o Testing the sample units
o Evaluation and obtaining feedback
 The information gained from evaluation is sent back to the
curriculum developer.
 Depending on the nature of feedback, the curriculum may be
rejected, accepted and improved.
 Piloting is done in phases, in a series of tryout activities.
Practical aspects (cont’d)
 According to Lewy (1990), there are three phases of curriculum
"tryout“ namely; laboratory tryout, pilot tryout, and field tryout
i. Laboratory trial
 A curriculum is tested to a few students who are sampled from
different schools, gathered at an identified place of learning and
taught sampled parts/units of the curriculum
ii. Pilot trial
 This is a small-scale testing that conducted with small number of
learners rather than the whole class, on parts of the curriculum
rather than the entire curriculum.
Practical aspects (cont’d)
 NB: Pilot testing is better conducted with students of
 above-average abilities (they’re more articulate)
 below-average abilities (they make more errors)
 Pilot testing is necessary in identifying curriculum design defects in
areas like content and time.
iii. Field trial
 Involves trying out the new curriculum under conditions of typical
use.
 The whole curriculum is tried out with the whole class.
Practical aspects (cont’d)
b. Preparation and mass production of instructional materials to be
used for the implementation of a curriculum
o These may include textbooks, teachers’ guides, worksheets, handouts,
multimedia, models, manipulatives, or funding to purchase them.
o These materials should align with the curriculum objectives and cater
to diverse learner needs
c. Orientation of teachers
 This stage involves familiarizing teachers with the curriculum through
training.
Practical aspects (cont’d)
d. Implementation phase
 The improved, revised curriculum is now adopted and put into
practice.
 The curriculum is now used in the entire school system and not a few
selected schools.
 It involves instruction, administering a variety of assessments to
measure student learning and provide feedback to students and
parents
Practical aspects (cont’d)
e. Curriculum monitoring and evaluation
 This stage involves assessing the effectiveness of the curriculum and
implementation process.
 Developers assess the impact of the curriculum on student learning
& determine whether desired outcomes have been achieved or not.
 It also involves analyzing student performance data, assessing the
effectiveness of the teaching methods used, and identifying areas for
improvement.
 Data collected during the evaluation can be used to inform future
curriculum development and implementation (Hopkins, 2008)
Agents of implementation
 Teachers
 PTAs
 Oversight committees
 Donor support
 NGOs
 School administrators
 Community
Challenges that affect curriculum implementation
1. Teacher resistance
a. May spring from tradition
b. Teachers not clearly understanding of what is expected of them in
their new role
c. Lack of ownership – If a curriculum is perceived to have come
from the top administrators, teachers may resist to implement it.
d. Increased workload – many teachers are hostile to implement a
that will add work to their already-heavy schedules.
e. Lack of administrative support – e.g. in form of training.
f. Lack of skills to carry out their new role
Challenges that affect curriculum implementation
2. Financial constraints
- e.g. lack of funding.
3. Resource constraints
- i.e. inadequate T & L resources such as textbooks, writing materials,
chalk or board marker, science apparatus, etc.
- Lack of these force teachers to either improvise or implement the
curriculum in a way that does not reflect what was originally
intended by curriculum developers .
4. Inadequate infrastructure
- e.g. schools, libraries, offices, hostels, resource centers, etc.
Challenges that affect curriculum implementation
5. Low quality & quantity of teaching staff
- Teachers are inadequate, overstretched, overloaded, which affect
their capacity to teach effectively.
- Teachers who did not major in a particular subject being made to
handle certain subjects.
6. Poor working conditions for curriculum implementers
- Demotivates teachers resulting into mass exodus into other jobs.
7. Poor organizational arrangement by the school administrators
- e.g. inflexible timetable, funeral, prayers, school assemblies, political
functions, educational functions etc.
Challenges that affect curriculum implementation
8. Poor instructional supervision
- Non-supervised teachers may not take the curriculum
implementation task seriously.
- e.g. some teachers do not prepare lesson plans, schemes, etc.
9. Lack of/inadequate public support for the curriculum implementation
10. Lack of/inadequate training
11. Absence of feedback procedures (M & E)
12. Poor planning
13. Political interference
[Link] of external examination bodies (assessment)
Challenges that affect curriculum implementation
Activity
 Suggest the possible solutions to the challenges of
curriculum implementation.
 What are the possible reasons why most teachers resist
implementing new curriculum?