1.

What do we know about effective curriculum development?

Answer Quite a lot. Far from slavishly following a tightly specified curriculum, more and more
practitioners are planning teaching and learning activites creatively in response to the needs and
abilities of students. Now researchers have synthesised the evidence from reviews of curriculum related
research and found that there are some key findings about learning, whatever the subject, phase or
pedagogic focus, that might help teachers in doing this. They found that learning thrives when: •
students engage in collaborative learning and structured dialogue in group work • the curriculum is
designed around context based teaching and learning • cross curricular learning can take place within a
flexible curriculum • the curriculum and its delivery builds on students’ current knowledge and
understanding • the curriculum extends to home and family • teachers receive appropriate professional
development to build on and improve subject knowledge The reviews also found that ongoing teacher
professional development was a consistently important feature of effective curriculum innovation and
development.

Developing, designing and implementing an education curriculum is no easy task. With the rise of
educational technology and the diverse types of students attending higher educational institutions these
days, instructors have their work cut out for them. But by following the fundamental guidelines and
framework of curriculum development, educators will be setting themselves — and their students — up
for long-term success.

2.

How will you know your students have met your learning objectives?

After you have clearly outlined your learning objectives or desired results, you will move onto the next
stage of lesson planning—planning assessments. In order to do this you should ask yourself the
following three questions:

What evidence can show that students have reached the desired learning objectives?

What assessment tasks and other evidence will guide our instruction?

What should we look for to determine the extent of student understanding?

It is very important to first consider how you will know that students achieved the outcomes before
planning the instruction. Assessment evidence should prove that the students have met the desired
outcomes, rather than simply generate grades. Using one form of assessment at the end of a teaching
unit is likely not going to give you the best idea of how well students understand the material. It is
important use a variety of assessment methods to gather evidence as you progress through a lesson.

For information on various ways to assess student learning visit the Assessments and Evaluation
resource area.
3.

1 The importance of having a clear vision for your school

The purpose of these School Leadership units is to help you to become a more effective
leader in your school. Four behaviours that characterise an effective school leader
(Rutherford, 1985) are to:

 have clear, informed visions of what they want their schools to become; visions that
focus on students and their needs
 translate these visions into goals for their schools and expectations for their
teachers, students and administrators
 not stand back and wait for things to happen, but continuously monitor progress
 intervene, when necessary,in a supportive or corrective manner.
So developing a vision for your school is an important part of being an effective school
leader. In a report that examined a number of educational systems across the world to
see what factors led to improvement, it was found that ‘almost all school leaders say
that setting vision and direction’ are among ‘the biggest contributors to their success’
(McKinsey & Co., 2010).

A ‘vision’ is a clear statement of what the school is trying to achieve so that all
stakeholders – teachers, students, their families and community members – are working
together. It is about looking forward and seeking to motivate and unify everyone to
achieve the very best for the students. The vision needs to capture the aims of a school
in its particular context, and guide and inform the preparation of a school development
plan.

A vision is important for schools (West-Burnham, 2010) because it:

 provides the focus for all aspects of organisational life

 informs planning and the development of policies
 clarifies and prioritises the work of individuals
 helps to articulate shared beliefs and develop a common language,thereby
securing alignment and effective communication
 characterises the organisation to the rest of the world.
The vision is much more than a few words of vague intention; it embodies the values of
the community and is the foundation for actions that will lead to school improvement.

Geir you are on target, the success of all schools, teachers and students depends on set goals and
missions. I am happy that your mission, vision, values, and goals as a team, so all members of staff
can have a input, as the success in our school and the achievement of students being the best they
can be, needs the collaboration and input of all teachers. Far too often administrators leave teacher
(one of the most important stakeholder) out of the planning
Dr. Kay Fruizi posted an article using a five step model approach to establish a professional learning
community. I am recommending that this model be followed as it is a sure formula for success.
Therefore I am sending the link.

I completely agree with you. Without knowing our goal or purpose, how are we going to achieve
anything? It is vital to a school's success that the teachers and administrators work together in
developing the school's mission so that they are all working toward the same goal. Along with that,
they must also continue to collaborate on ways to meet their goal and assess along the way if what
they are doing is working or not. Taking it one step further, teachers must set targets for their
students and share these targets with them so that the students know what they are working
towards. If the students have no idea what they are supposed to learn they will never know if they
have mastered the goal for the day or how to ask for help.