Curriculum Analysis

Question

First set. Curriculum documentation

and origins
I. How is the curriculum documented?
1. On what curriculum and standards
documents and other resources will you
base your analysis? Which state and
national standards are relevant to the
curriculum you have chosen?
2. On what aspects of the analysis do the
curriculum and standards documents focus?
3. What limitations in documentation do you
find?

II. What situation resulted in the ddevelopment of the

curriculum?
1. If you an find out, who made up the cast of characters
in the developmentof the curriculum? What were their
names, with what institutions were they affiliated, and
what were their respective roles in the project? Within
the project team, who represented the learners, the
teachers, the subject matter, and the milieu? Was there
an obvious blind spot on the team?
2. To what social, economic, political, or educational
problem was the curriculum attempting to respond?
3. What planning elements dominated the curriculum
development process?

III. What perspective, if any, does the

curriculum represent?

Second Set: The Curriculum

Proper
IV. What are the purposes and content of the
curriculum?
1. What aspects of the curriculum are
intended for training, and what aspects are
intended for educational contexts?
2. At what level, if at all, does the curriculum
express its purposes?
3. What educational goals and educational
aims are emphasized, and what are their
relative priorities?

4. What types of leearning objectives are

included and emphasized in the curriculum?
5. What are the primary ways in which the
curriculum represents the subjects matter to
students?
6. Does your curriculum have a view of
multicultural education in its content? Would
you considerate an assimilationist,
multiethnic, or social reconstructionist view?

7. How is determined if students have met the standards?

What are the concequences for students, teachers and
scholls, if it is determined the students have not met
standards? Does it matter if you adhere to the standards?
8. Is the curriculum alignedwith the standards? Does the
curriculum facilitate student understanding of the content
and processes aspoused by the standards? Are portrayals
of the nature/structure of the discipline congruent between
the curriculum and standards? Are the balances of depth
and bredth of the curriculum and the standards congruent?
Are the standards cited for each topic/activity?
9. How does technology affect the content of the
curriculum?

V. What assumptions underlie the curriculums

approach to purpose or content?
1. What conceptions of learning, objectives,
curriculum, and teaching underlie the
materials you are analyzing?
2. What aspects of a hidden curriculum are
likely to accompany the conceptions and
perspectives underlying the curriculum?
3. To what extent is the curriculum likely to play
a hegemonic role in its purposes or content?

VI. How is the curriculum organized?

1. What provision, if any, is made for macro-level vertical and/or
horizontal organization?
2. What basic configurations of content are found at more micro
level?
3. How are variouss media and technologies employed to
deliver the curriculum?
4. What organizational principles does the curriculum employ?
Does or can technology play a role in the curriculum
organization?
5. What are the social and political implications of technology in
curriculum organization?
6. Does the curriculum organization increase or decrease the
likelihood that tracking will be used?

VII. What assumptions underlie the

curriculums organization?
1. What epistemological assumptions, If any,
underlie the curriculumss organization?
2. What pssycological assumptions, if any,
underlie the curriculums organization?
3. What other assumptions, if any, related to
your curriculums organization underlie
the curriculum?

Third set: The curriculum in

use
VIII. How should the curriculum be implemented?
1. What are the temporal, physical, organizational,
and political-legal requirements of the curriculum?
2. What are the probable costs and benefits
associated with the curriculum change?
3. To what extent will the curriculum be consistent
with and appropriate for the teachers attitudes,
beliefs, aand competencies?
4. What values are embenddeed in the curriculum,
and how well are these values likely to be suited to
the community?

5. To wwhat extent is the curriculum aligned to the

standards?
6. What technologies are required for implementation
of the curriculum?
7. To what extent does curriculum take into account
the students cultural, ethnic, or social backgrounds?
To what extent does it accommodate gender
differences?
8. What approaches to curriculum change seem to be
consistent with the curriculum?
9. If your curriculum has already been implemented,
what approaches characterized the change efforts?

IX. What can you learn about the curriculum from an

evaluation point of view?
1. what, if any, available data does the curriculum
provide? What conclusions about the curriculum
seem warrated based on the data provide?
2. What standardized tests are relevant to this
curriculum? How well is the curriculum aligned with
the relevant standardized test?
3. What instruments or suggestions for collecting data
does the curriculum provide? Are these tools equally
fair for all social, economic, cultural, and ethnic
groups?

4. What are your concerns about the

curriculum that could be clarified by
evaluation data? Consider short-term
outcomes, long-term outcomes, antecedents,
and transactions
5. Does the approach to student evaluation in
the curriculum manifest a measurementbased or an integrated approach, or both?
6. What would a non concervaative (or
radical) evaluation of the curriculum look like?

Fourth set: Critique

X. What is your judgement about the
curriculum?
1. What are its strengths and
weaknesses?
2. Of what dangers would you want to
be careful if you implemented it?
3. How would you adapt it to maximiza
its benefits and strengths and to
minimize its limitations and risks?