Curriculum- Functions, features and types

Curriculum- Functions, features, and types

Functions of a curriculum

• It states objectives to modify the behavior of the students
• It offers the subject matter to teach the students
• It is a platform of learning experiences planned by the school for the students
• It gives opportunities to the students to mold and to grow in the society
• It is flexible based on the needs of the society

A nursing curriculum is planned based on the health needs and issues of the society. It is influenced by the policy decisions based on the national health programs.

Features of an outstanding curriculum

• It should describe theory and way of putting theory into practice
• It should be able to cope up with the scientific advancements
• It should deliver knowledge in an efficient and economical way
• It helps the students to utilize knowledge to live in reality
• It facilitates the professional and personal growth of students
• It gives a space for students to think, develop and contribute to the existing body of knowledge

Types of curriculum

Based on philosophical, psychological and sociological principles, there are a few types of curriculum. 

• Subject-centered curriculum- More emphasis on subjects rather than on children. The students are expected to gain mastery of subject matters that have been predetermined by a panel of experts.
• Child-centered curriculum- The students determine the direction of their learning following their natural curiosities, interests, and passions. The teacher's role is to facilitate the child's learning by providing a comfortable environment for them. 
• Activity curriculum- It is also called as a project or experience curriculum. The curriculum is designed based on the interests and purposes of the children being planned cooperatively by the teacher and students. This method is just opposite to passive learning through lectures and observation.
• Experience curriculum- The child learns from the events, people, the social and emotional environment of the classroom. It also considers that the social experience of the child has an educational value.
• Undifferentiated curriculum- It aims the development of all-around personality fo the child through integrated experiences by the unification of the subjects. 
• Basic education curriculum- The purpose is to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of reforms in basic education; pre-primary, primary, secondary and inclusive education.
• Life centered curriculum- It is designed for students with learning disabilities, aiming to teach the basic life skills to live in the society.
• Correlated curriculum- It means the establishment of relationships among the various subjects by planning a serious sequence of experiences in one subject field.
• Integrated curriculum- It means the unification of two or more subjects together to improve student achievements.
• Official curriculum- In which, the course of the study, duration and aims are officially or traditionally understood by everyone.
• Institutional curriculum- This curriculum had designed based on the needs of the institution.

Curriculum- concepts and models of curriculum in nursing education

Curriculum- concepts and models of the curriculum in nursing education

Definition: 

It is a very well planned blueprint of the educational activities in an academic year. It consists of assessing the needs and demands of the society, formulating objectives, planning teaching-learning process, implementing and evaluating its outcome. A nursing curriculum is a systematic arrangement of the sum total of selected experiences planned by a school for a defined group of students to attain the aims of a particular educational programme. 

The modern concept of the curriculum:

The modern society needs the children to be equipped with the overall development including curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular achievements. The secondary education commision said that according to the best modern educational thought, the curriculum does not mean only the academic subjects traditionally taught in the school but it includes the totality of the experiences that a pupil receives through the manifold activities that go on in the school- in the classroom, library, playgrounds and in the numerous informal contacts between the teachers and pupils. In this case, the whole life of the school becomes the curriculum which can touch the lives of the students at all points and help in the development of a balanced personality. 

The types of curriculum

Through the readings of Smith and co, the four types are;

1. Explicit curriculum
2. Implicit curriculum
3. Hidden curriculum
4. Excluded curriculum

Explicit curriculum: The mission of the school is delivered through the subjects taught in the school. The school expects the successful students to acquire it.

Implicit curriculum: The lessons that arise with the culture of the school and it is characterized by behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of the school and students.

Hidden curriculum: The things which the students learn because of the way in which the work of the school is planned and organized but which are not in themselves overtly included in the planning or even in the consciousness of those responsible for the school arrangements. 

Excluded curriculum: In which, the specified topics and perspectives are completely excluded from the curriculum.

The development of the curriculum:

It has seven steps;

1. Assessment of the needs
2. Formulation of the objectives
3. Selection of content 
4. Organization of the content
5. Selection of learning experiences
6. Organization of learning experiences
7. Determination of evaluation methods.

Models of curriculum development

The behavioral objective model

This model was developed by Ralph Taylor. He suggested that a curriculum should be able to answer the four fundamental questions. They are

1. What the educational purposes should the school seek to attain, ie, objectives?
2. How can learning experiences be selected that are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives?
3. How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction?
4. How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?

This model gives important to the achievement of the objectives by the student. This model mainly supports four main components such as objectives, content, method, and evaluation.

Stenhouse's process model

It emphasizes on learning experiences or the process of education. He said that it was possible to organize the curriculum without thinking about the expected outcomes of the students. The teacher's role is a learner and has to strive excellence in learning and teaching process. The teacher should appraise the student's work and enhance the self-appraisal ability among the students.

Beattie's Four fold model

It has main three aspects;

1. The curriculum is a key map of key subjects
2. The curriculum is a schedule of basic skills
3. The curriculum is a meaningful portfolio of personal experiences
4. The curriculum is delivering the culture to next generations

It is really important to understand that when you decide the curriculum, all the aspects such as aims, content, teaching process, learning process and evaluation process integrated with the culture, needs, demands, and issues of the society should be included. 

Blooms taxonomy objectives-Psychomotor domain

Blooms taxonomy objectives-Psychomotor domain
Simpson (1972) proposed the seven levels to describe the ability to manipulate a tool or instrument physically like a hammer or a hand. 

The levels are

1. Perception
2. Set
3. Guided response
4. Mechanism
5. Complex overt response
6. Adaptation
7. Origination

Perception
The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity. This level ranges from the reception of stimuli to translation to action. For eg. a nurse adjusts the height of the bed depends on the patient's height.

The verbs used are chooses, describes, detects, differentiates, identifies, isolates, distinguishes.

Set
This level is concerned with readiness to act: physical, mental and emotional sets. It determines a person's response to different situations. For eg. a nurse understands patient's likes and dislikes of food pattern.

The verbs used are begins, moves, reacts, shows, starts, proceeds, volunteers, displays, initiates.

Guided response
This level is seen in early stages of learning that includes imitation and trial and errors. Adequacy of performance is achieved by persistent practicing. For eg., a student nurse learns to do IM injections among the peer group.

The verbs used are copies, traces, follows, reacts, reproduces, responds

Mechanism
This level includes the intermediate stage of learning a complex skill. The student is able to practice learned skills successfully with confidence and proficiency. For eg. the nurse is able to insert IV cannulas at first attempt without any failure.

The verbs used are assembles, calibrates, constructs, displays, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, sketches.

Complex overt response
It involves complex movement patterns. The student is able to perform skills with a quick, accurate, highly coordinated using minimum energy without any failures. For eg. the nurse is able to insert an IV cannula in a severely dehydrated patient at first attempt.

The verbs used are builds, constructs, fastens, fixes

Adaptation
Skills of the student are well defined and able to perform in any type of situations. For eg. the nurse is able to insert IV cannula without a tourniquet in a disaster emergency situation outside the hospital.

The verbs used are adapts, alters, changes, revises, varies, reorganizes

Origination
The student is able to create new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or to solve problems. For eg. the nurse is able to develop innovative methods to reduce the pain of patients while IV cannula insertion.

The verbs used are arranges, builds, constructs, composes, creates, innovates, develops, initiates, makes.

Bloom's taxonomy of objectives- Affective domain

Bloom's taxonomy of objectives- Affective domain

Francis M Quinn described that it is the way the people react emotionally and their ability to feel on the other things. It includes values and attitudes. Values refer to the person's concept of what she or he considers desirable and attitudes are positive or negative feelings about certain things. 

They are five levels in the affective domain moving from low level to high level.

1. Receiving
2. Responding
3. Valuing 
4. Organization
5. Characterization

Receiving

In this level, the student passively or actively listens to the information. Without this level, no learning occurs. The verbs can be used are attends, listens and receives. 

For eg. The student listens to the patient during history collection.

Responding

The student actively participates not only listens but also responds to the information too.The verbs can be used are replies, respond, asks, confirms etc.

For eg. The student clarifies the doubt on the information of the patient by confirming with relatives. 

Valuing

Here, the student attaches a value to an object, phenomenon or a piece of information. Verbs can be used are respects, regards, favors, recognizes and honors.

For eg. The student respects the belongings of the patient and uses for care instead of hospital supplies. 

Organization

The student put all the information together, relates, compares and differentiates and organizes together.

Verbs can be used are arranges, order, combine and modifies.

For eg. The student combines personal, family, social information together to study and work on the patient as 'individual' entity.

Characterization

This is the highest level of knowledge and the student tries to build philosophies in the life based on the gained knowledge.

Verbs can be used are formulates, develops, innovates and articulates.

For eg. Based on the existing information of the patient, the student plans a complete care and able to execute successfully. 

Affective domain guides the student to innoculate new attitudes and modify the behaviors based on the situation and needs of the society.

Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives- Cognitive domain

Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives- Cognitive domain
These objectives were developed by Benjamin Bloom, who chaired the committee of educators that devised the taxonomy. Bloom's taxonomy is a classification of educational objectives using a set of three hierarchical models, named cognitive, affective and sensory domains. 

The cognitive domain
It is mainly focused on the traditional way of education to structure the curriculum objectives, assessments, and activities. It has divided into six categories and they are:

• Remembering
• Comprehending
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Synthesizing
• Evaluating 

Remembering 
It involves recalling facts, terms or concepts with out an understanding what they mean.It represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain. For example: learning of classifications or categories. Name the pairs of chromosomes. Majority of the students try to learn by heart and able to recall names without thinking or to memorize something, only for exams.

Verbs can be used to state the objectives are: define, state, list, name, outline, write, recall, recognize, label, underline, select, measure, describe, identify etc.
 
Comprehending
It involves understanding of facts by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting and extrapolating it. Organization means a student can organize the ideas based on hierarchy or occurrence. The comparison means comparing similarities and differences of facts each other. Translation means communicating ideas in other words or languages without altering the meaning. Interpretation means ability to explain a fact in their own words without altering the meaning. Extrapolation means foreseeing or predicting the unknown events by understanding the known events. For example; Identify the differences between the chromosome and chromatin.
  
Verbs can be used to state the objectives are: identify, select, compare, translate, interpret, extrapolate, justify, organize, indicate, illustrate, represent, formulate, judge, classify etc.

Applying
Applying involves a student to solve daily problems in new situations with learned knowledge successfully. Learners are able to identify, relate prior knowledge and to apply in situations. It requires a higher level of understanding of facts and ideas to apply in an unexpected situation.
For example, a learner is able to give first aid in real life situation.

Verbs can be used to state the objectives are:  predict, select, assess, explain, choose, find, show, demonstrate, construct, compute, use, perform, discover, prepare, produce and relate.

Analyzing
This refers to examining and breaking information into parts, constructing relation to each other, making a generalization and finding evidences to support generalization. For example, an expert in nursing examined the concept of nursing care, broke into different parts, arranged in a synchronized manner such as assessment, goals, diagnosis, plan of action, rationale, implementation and evaluation, which helps the learners to give nursing care in an uniform manner.

Verbs can be used to state the objectives are: analyse, identify, conclude, differentiate, select, separate, compare, contrast, justify, resolve, distinguish etc.

Synthesizing
It includes the action of putting all related elements together and to form a 'whole'. It helps to formulate a new concepts or patterns.

Verbs can be used to state the objectives are:  combine, summarize, precise, conclude, compile, compose etc.

Evaluating
It involves presenting opinions by making judgment about the utility of work or quality of work based on a set of criteria. For example, which educational philosophy are best for curriculum implementation today?
 
 Verbs can be used to state the objectives are: evaluate, judge, compare, contrast etc..