Analyzing Curriculum Guide (Term Paper Sample)

Analyzing Curriculum Guide Name: Institution: Generally, a curriculum is based on the philosophy of its developer, for instance, standards that were seen as the basis. The curriculum affects the teachers and students a great deal yet they are seen as the least contributors to how it is constructed as well as developed. There have been arguments that teachers need to be more engaged in the curriculum guides, as it is through this that they will implement information they have always regarded vital. Further, it is easier for teachers to use what they have prepared themselves as it is easier understood. At times comprehending the curriculum presented may prove hard on teacher's part thus misguiding students. The basis for curriculum development is classified into outsiders, intermediate and insiders. To start with, the outsiders encompass those at the national and federal levels. The national herein including the greatest commercials, whereas, the federal are those of areas with governing legislations. The Intermediate include the state level while the insiders are teachers who as earlier stated are rarely participants (Glickman , 2004). According to the New Jersey Core Curriculum, there are several content standards that can be used as the basis for coming up with curriculum guides. These standards include; the teaching and learning Standards employed at the pre schools and further the K-12 standards. The latter in this case encompass the following; the Visual and Performing Arts, Social Studies, Science, World Languages, Comprehensive Education, both health and physical as well as Technology and the 21st century standards in the then life and careers of the times. The Council of Chief States School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governor's Association partner with other various organizations to set the required content standard initiatives which are common core since New Jersey is among the governed states or rather basis for Mathematics and Language Arts Literacy. The guide brings forth important priorities in education that are in line with the required knowledge and skills that the students and teachers require after they are through with secondary education. The skills would include those required in community colleges, those of technical training, military, direct recruitment to jobs and other several careers. Some of these are in response to the needs of the 21st century generation which has popularly come to be regarded as that of the digital learners. The curriculum guide hence aims at incorporating the literacy that has emerged with time due to the innovative nature of the economy and the availability of information. The guide should go a big mile in ensuring problems in the education field are solved and that the students undergoing the learning process end up as ethical citizens. The students in the 21st century require that their curriculum guides be constructed in line with all the changes that take place and the current developments, The earlier standards should be revised to a higher level to integrate the needs of the country products at the time. In this era, teachers need to be involved so as to keep them abreast of the changes they expect. The most important aspect is that of technology and connections available in the 21st century as opposed to the earlier generations and more so the upcoming global changes and themes. The traditional curricular requires a total new face and approaches to ensure that learning environments are in line with the needs of the 21st century (N.J. D. E,2010). The teachers and students have much more to do than was the case in the traditional world. The academic content of the curriculum guides need a deeper content that will equip both teachers and students to be able to solve all emerging issues. While at writing of curriculum guides, there are several formats that may be used or rather followed. To start with, is behavioral objective entails there being a linear format with regard to the set objectives. This is the traditional means by which and end has been reached. However the drawback arises since teachers are not involved in the construction and thus it is not clear as to which format would be the highest yielder. A second format is that widely used by William Kilpatrick as early as in 1925 and is known as webbing. This shows activities and their outcomes. Posner and Rudnitsky further came up with a format, which combined the first two discussed ones, by the name conceptual mapping. It has been through this that teachers have got directions and ways of accomplishing their skills by providing services to students. The results format demands that the teacher is liable for the results and not the procedures used to reach the results. Thus in this specific format, the end justifies the means. The curriculum guide in this case was developed using conceptual mapping format, which is a more result yielding mode especially for the 21st century. For instance, webbing goes very well in hand with the needs of the digital generation (Glickman , 2004). This particular format ensures that both teachers and students are incorporated and thus are able to deal with these guides better. With the technology, then students need to be engaged so that they keep abreast of the 21st century. As opposed to where even teachers were not involved and also a case where only results matter, then involvement is better a great deal. The results format for instance would see the use of odd applications in technology yielding result and being regarded a right procedure which is not the case (N.J. D. E,2010). With regard to the format, it can therefore be deduced that the generation in question is also important. The traditional curricular would never meet the needs of students in the 21st century. Different curriculum developments reflect different aspects depending on how they are presented. An imitative reflection per say will involve a situation in which an earlier curricular is deduced and used as it is earlier was with little or no editing. The guide ends up being the same over years thus hindering room for improvement. The curriculum development in this case reflects a generative level as it takes into consideration the needs of the upcoming generations and the changes that need to be taken care of. The curriculum development may be imitative, meditative or creative and generative. The generative nature of curriculum development in the 21st century is of great importance as technology is upheld and innovations are implemented to the latter. Through generative, the constructors of the guide are able to keep the purpose, content, format and the organization at par with the required needs at different times. This remains important to the students while on the other hand, the teachers can choose and commit to be implementers. The generative reflection gives room for creativity among the students and teachers thus giving a highly transformative curriculum. The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was done by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and has been applied by curriculum planners, researchers among other education experts. This came up with a framework through which communication would be made to improve educational objectives. Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives includes statements of what the educators and constructors of the curriculum development guides require the students to have grasped at the end of the specific education period. After the conclusion of a given curriculum development guide, then the content of the same should be reflected as grasped by the students while the teacher handled the same. Bloom's group came up with behavioral thinking and the same was divided into three domains namely; cognitive, affective and psychomotor. All these are divided into classes and subclasses. To start with, cognitive domain consists knowledge of specifics, dealing with them, that of universals and abstractions, secondly, comprehension, making due application, analyzing, synthesizing to come up with unique communication and further carrying out evaluations of both external and internal fields. The second and affective domain calls for receiving and attending to, making responses, valuing, organizing and characterizing of values. The last domain is that of psychomotor which was not actually published by Bloom, but by Harrow in 1972, Dave in 1970 and Simpson in 1966 ( I.C.E.L.S, 2013). According to Bloom's taxonomy, it is evident that educational objectives consider the outcome of education, which learning ends after instruction. Education objectives are said to be standards in a case where they are set up by an authority of the educational field. Benjamin Bloom of the discussed taxonomy was an assistant director of the Board of Examinations at the University of Chicago. His was a sought to reduce the labor by...