Curriculum Design: Squaring the Circle

All curriculum planning templates are “constructions” that follow deeply held beliefs about teaching and learning, perhaps even about life itself. 

Diagram 1. illustrates a mainstream paradigm of curriculum design used throughout Canada and the United States. 

It is common to order the above questions in linear ways. The thinking goes that first, one “designs down” from standards and built-in evidence towards instructional methods and necessary resources. Secondly, one then “delivers up” from instruction and resources to meet standards and measure evidence. This particular paradigm is said to be "results-based" and reflects the philosophy of the educational  pragmatist. An idealist might see emphasis on results and measurement getting in the way of the joy of learning, expecting that evidence of student skill and understanding simply follows masterful teaching.  

In workshops, many teachers have asked me about more holistic paradigms. Do not the complementary acts of designing and delivering suggest not a line but a circle, whose parts react to, reverberate with, and are informed by each other? Isn’t the distinction between designing (a complex term) and delivering (a strange one) artificial and more about the business of education than its art?

Establishing a consistent, operational order on paper is central educational practice, but busy teachers are often overwhelmed by the complexity and time involved in planning lessons, units, and courses. Defensively, some reach for the quick, canned lesson (the Web is full of them) rather than plan and implement their own rich and comprehensive work. Worst still, this planning is often done merely to satisfy administrative and policy-driven demands “from above.” Whatever the finished paper trail, exemplary curriculum design always focuses on student learning.

How then can jurisdictions motivate their teachers to be robust curriculum designers? Ten years ago, the Ontario Ministry of Education spent time and money on creating an electronic planning tool called the Ontario Curriculum Unit Planner (OCUP).  Those of us who developed OCUP met with some success in building capacity for good results-based planning, with the CD-ROM’s template, commissioned units, and web-support made available for all Ontario teachers. OCUP’s demise is unfortunate, now that the Web has the potential to develop it with more flexible templates, real-time networking, and dynamic resources.

For 21st century learning, teachers need tools that reflect jurisdictional design principles, while providing flexible templates that meet local needs. We need to better harness social networks that leverage new ideas and quality resources. My favourites are Quebec’s Dotplan and Authentic Education’s Curriculum Framer. If you have your own Web-based favourites, why not share your findings in my comments section? I am currently scanning provinces and states for more models and will report my findings here. 

Designing curriculum is integral to my professionalism. In the end, it motivates me to do my best and celebrate the joy of teaching and learning. Call me both a pragmatist and an idealist!