Allama iqbal Open University

Name AMRA SARWAR

Roll Number 99PCL2164
Course. Curriculum and instruction
Course Code (6503)
Level. M.A ( teacher Education)
Assignment No 2

Question no 1

Describe the categories of curriculum design. What

are the critical problems that need to beAddressed
while designing the curriculum?
Answer
A piece of paper on a teacher’s desk with the following
text written on it, Design Tips for Teachers: create a list
of learning goals, know your time constraints, plan your
instructional methods, establish evaluation methods.

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Curriculum design is a term used to describe the
purposeful, deliberate, and systematic organization of
curriculum (instructional blocks) within a class or
course. In other words, it is a way for teachers to plan
instruction. When teachers design curriculum, they
identify what will be done, who will do it, and what
schedule to follow.
➢
Purpose of Curriculum Design

Teachers design each curriculum with a specific

educational purpose in mind. The ultimate goal is to
improve student learning, but there are other reasons to
employ curriculum design as well. For example, designing
a curriculum for middle school students with both
elementary and high school curricula in mind helps to
make sure that learning goals are aligned and
complement each other from one stage to the next. If a
middle school curriculum is designed without taking prior
knowledge from elementary school or future learning in
high school into account it can create real problems for
the students.
➢
Types of Curriculum Design

There are three basic types of curriculum design:

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• Subject-centered design
• Learner-centered design
• Problem-centered design
• Subject-Centered Curriculum Design
Subject-centered curriculum design revolves around a
particular subject matter or discipline. For example, a
subject-centered curriculum may focus on math or
biology. This type of curriculum design tends to focus
on the subject rather than the individual. It is the most
common type of curriculum used in K-12 public schools
in states and local districts in the United States.
Subject-centered curriculum design describes what
needs to be studied and how it should be studied. Core
curriculum is an example of a subject-centered design
that can be standardized across schools, states, and the
country as a whole. In standardized core curricula,
teachers are provided a pre-determined list of things
that they need to teach their students, along with
specific examples of how these things should be taught.
You can also find subject-centered designs in large
college classes in which teachers focus on a particular
subject or discipline.

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The primary drawback of subject-centered curriculum
design is that it is not student-centered. In particular,
this form of curriculum design is constructed without
taking into account the specific learning styles of the
students. This can cause problems with student
engagement and motivation and may even cause
students to fall behind in class.
➢
Learner-Centered Curriculum Design

In contrast, learner-centered curriculum design takes

each individual’s needs, interests, and goals into
consideration. In other words, it acknowledges that
students are not uniform and adjust to those student
needs. Learner-centered curriculum design is meant to
empower learners and allow them to shape their
education through choices.Instructional plans in a
learner-centered curriculum are differentiated, giving
students the opportunity to choose assignments,
learning experiences or activities. This can motivate
students and help them stay engaged in the material
that they are learning.
➢
Problem-Centered Curriculum Design

Like learner-centered curriculum design, problem-

centered curriculum design is also a form of student-

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centered design. Problem-centered curricula focus on
teaching students how to look at a problem and come
up with a solution to the problem. Students are thus
exposed to real-life issues, which helps them develop
skills that are transferable to the real world.
Problem-centered curriculum design increases the
relevance of the curriculum and allows students to be
creative and innovate as they are learning. The
drawback to this form of curriculum design is that it
does not always take learning styles into consideration.
The following curriculum design tips can help educators
manage each stage of the curriculum design process.
Identify the needs of stakeholders (i.e., students) early
on in the curriculum design process. This can be done
through needs analysis, which involves the collection
and analysis of data related to the learner. This data
might include what learners already know and what they
need to know to be proficient in a particular area or skill.
It may also include information about learner
perceptions, strengths, and weaknesses.
Create a clear list of learning goals and outcomes. This
will help you to focus on the intended purpose of the
curriculum and allow you to plan instruction that can

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achieve the desired results. Learning goals are the things
teachers want students to achieve in the course.
Learning outcomes are the measurable knowledge,
skills, and attitudes that students should have achieved
in the course. Identify constraints that will impact your
curriculum design. For example, time is a common
constraint that must be considered. There are only so
many hours, days, weeks or months in the term. If there
isn’t enough time to deliver all of the instruction that has
been planned, it will impact learning outcomes.
Consider creating a curriculum map (also known as a
curriculum matrix) so that you can properly evaluate the
sequence and coherence of instruction. Curriculum
mapping provides visual diagrams or indexes of a
curriculum. Analyzing a visual representation of the
curriculum is a good way to quickly and easily identify
potential gaps, redundancies or alignment issues in the
sequencing of instruction. Curriculum maps can be
created on paper or with software programs or online
services designed specifically for this purpose.
Identify the instructional methods that will be used
throughout the course and consider how they will work
with student learning styles. If the instructional methods
are not conducive to the curriculum, the instructional

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design or the curriculum design will need to be
altered accordingly.
Establish evaluation methods that will be used at the end
and during the school year to assess learners, instructors,
and the curriculum. Evaluation will help you determine if
the curriculum design is working or if it is failing.
Examples of things that should be evaluated include
the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum and
achievement rates related to learning outcomes. The
most effective evaluation is ongoing and summative.

Question no 2

Why situational analysis is important, how is it

carried out? Highlight the three domains
ofEducational objectives.
Answer
Developing and delivering lessons by teachers are
integral in the teaching process. It is hence important for
teachers to ensure that the three (3) domains of learning
which include cognitive (thinking), affective (emotions or
feeling) and Psychomotor (Physical or kinesthetic) to be
achieved. It is imperative to understand that there are

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different categories of learners who have varying needs
and as such different methods must be adopted in the
planning and delivery of lessons to ensure that such
needs are addressed. The world of education has
gradually adopted the strategy of ‘Every child matters’
structure that requires that all learners with different
needs are counted.This article aims to evaluate the
three domains of learning (cognitive, affective and
psychomotor) and their benefits to addressing the
different learning styles of students.
❖
DOMAINS OF LEARNING
Initially developed between 1956 and 1972, the domains
of learning have received considerable contributions
from researchers and experts in the field of education.
Studies by Benjamin Bloom (on cognitive domain), David
Krathwohl (affective domain) and Anita Harrow
(Psychomotor domain) have been encompassed into the
three domains of learning .
A holistic lesson developed by a teacher requires the
inclusion of all the three domains in constructing learning
tasks for students. The diversity in such learning tasks help
creates a comparatively well – rounded learning

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experience that meets a number of learning styles and
learning modalities. An increased level of diversity in the
delivery of lessons help engage students as well as
create more neural networks and pathways that helps
with recollection of information and events.
Learning helps develop an individual’s attitude as well as
encourage the acquisition of new skills. The cognitive
domain aims to develop the mental skills and the
acquisition of knowledge of the individual. The cognitive
domain encompasses of six categories which include
knowledge; comprehension; application; analysis;
synthesis; and evaluation. Knowledge includes the ability
of the learner to recall data or information. This is
followed with comprehension which assesses the ability
of the learner to understand the meaning of what is
known. This is the case where a student is able to explain
an existing theory in his or her own words (Anderson et
al, 2011). This is followed by application which shows the
ability of the student to use the abstract knowledge in a
new situation. A typical case is when an Economics
student is able to apply the theory of demand and supply
to the changing market trend of clothing during a
particular season. The analysis category aims to
differentiate facts and opinions. The synthesis category

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shows the ability to integrate different elements or
concepts in order to form a sound pattern or structure to
help establish a new meaning. The category of evaluation
shows the ability to come up with judgments about the
importance of concepts. A typical scenario is when a
manager is able to identify and implement the most cost
effective methods of production in the bid to increase
profits whilst sustaining a high level of competitive
advantage.
The affective domain includes the feelings, emotions and
attitudes of the individual. The categories of affective
domain include receiving phenomena; responding to
phenomena; valuing; organization; and characterization
(Anderson et al, 2011). The sub domain of receiving
phenomena creates the awareness of feelings and
emotions as well as the ability to utilize selected
attention. This can include listening attentively to
lessons in class. The next sub domain of responding to
phenomena involves active participation of the learner
in class or during group discussion (Cannon and
Feinstein, 2005). Valuing involves the ability to see the
worth of something and express it. This includes the
ability of a learner to share their views and ideas about
various issues raised in class. The ability of the student to

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prioritize a value over another and create a unique
value system is known as organization. This can be
assessed with the need to value one’s academic work as
against their social relatIonships. The sub domain of
characterization explains the ability to internalize values
and let them control the behavior of the individual. In
view of this, a student considers the academic work
highly important as it plays an important role in deciding
the career path chosen rather than what may be
available.
The psychomotor domain includes utilizing motor skills
and the ability to coordinate them. The sub domains of
psychomotor include perception; set; guided response;
mechanism; complex overt response; adaptation; and
origination. Perception involves the ability to apply
sensory information to motor activity. For instance, a
student practices a series of exercises in a text book with
the aim of scoring higher marks during exams. Set, as a
sub domain, involves the readiness to act upon a series
of challenges to overcome them. In relation to guided
responses, it includes the ability to imitate a displayed
behavior or utilize a trial and error method to resolve a
situation (Sousa, 2016). The sub domain of mechanism
includes the ability to convert learned responses into

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habitual actions with proficiency and confidence.
Students are able to solve exams questions after they
have confidently been able to answer some past
questions. Complex Overt responses explain the ability
to skillfully perform complex patterns of actions. A
typical instance has to do with the ability of a student to
have an increased typing speed when using a computer.
Adaptability is an integral part of the domain which
exhibits the ability to modify learned skills to meet
special events. An instance is when a student who has
learnt various underlying theories is able to invent or
make a working model using everyday materials.
Origination also involves creating new movement
patterns for a specific situation (Sincero, 2011).
❖
CONCLUSION
Learning is an integral part of every individual’s life. It is
very key to growth and development and hence
requires the need for both students and teachers to be
committed to the process. It is further necessary to
ensure that the delivery of learning combines generally
different facets which have been identified to be the
domains of learning.

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With the continually increasing need to ensure that
students are taught with varying strategies and
techniques, it is important for teachers to adopt a
teaching strategy that combines various domains
of learning to enable teaching and learning to be
considered as effective.
At London School of Management of Education (LSME) we
are proud to inform our cherished students and
stakeholders that we actively ensure that all our
facilitators apply the best and suitable delivery techniques
that would impact positively on the Cognitive, Affective
and Psychomotor Domains of the students.
All our lecturers are well trained and experienced in
pedagogy and they excel based on the feedback from
the results churned by ur students in all external exams
and standardization. All our graduated students are in
gainful employment in the UK, USA, Canada, UAE, India,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Germany, Spain
and most countries in the EU. We are proud of our
enviable record in delivering the best training to our
students, our partners!
The learning process must go beyond reading and
memorizing facts and information to the ability to

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critically evaluate the information, explain to others
as well as design things out for everyday use… and
that is what we do best at LSME.

Question no 4

Design strategies for the evaluation of specific

educational programmes and suggest means
For their improvement.
Answer
➢
Concept of Evaluation:

In every walk of life the process of evaluation takes place

in one or the other form. If the evaluation process is
eliminated from human life then perhaps the aim of life
may be lost. It is only through evaluation that one can
discriminate between good and bad. The whole cycle of
social development revolves around the evaluation
process.
Education is considered as an investment in human
beings in terms of development of human resources,
skills, motivation, knowledge and the like. Evaluation

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helps to build an educational programme, assess its
achievements and improve upon its effectiveness.
It serves as an in-built monitor within the programme to
review the progress in learning from time to time. It also
provides valuable feedback on the design and the
implementation of the programme. Thus, evaluation
plays a significant role in any educational programme.
Evaluation plays an enormous role in the teaching-
learning process. It helps teachers and learners to
improve teaching and learning. Evaluation is a
continuous process and a periodic exercise.
It helps in forming the values of judgement, educational
status, or achievement of student. Evaluation in one
form or the other is inevitable in teaching-learning, as
in all fields of activity of education judgements need to
be made.
In learning, it contributes to formulation of
objectives, designing of learning experiences and
assessment of learner performance. Besides this, it is
very useful to bring improvement in teaching and
curriculum. It provides accountability to the society,
parents, and to the education system.

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Let us discuss its uses briefly:
(i) Teaching:
Evaluation is concerned with assessing the effectiveness
of teaching, teaching strategies, methods and
techniques. It provides feedback to the teachers about
their teaching and the learners about their learning.
(ii) Curriculum:
The improvement in courses/curricula, texts and
teaching materials is brought about with the help
of evaluation.
(iii) Society:
Evaluatio provides accountability to society in terms
of the demands and requirements of the employment
market.
(iv) Parents:
Evaluation mainly manifests itself in a perceived need for
regular reporting to parents.In brief, evaluation is a very
important requirement for the education system. It
fulfills various purposes in systems of education like
quality control in education, selection/entrance to a
higher grade or tertiary level.

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It also helps one to take decisions about success in

specific future activities and provides guidance to further
studies and occupation. Some of the educationists view
evaluation virtually synonymous with that of learner
appraisal, but evaluation has an expanded role.
Different authors have different notions of evaluation:
1. Encyclopedia of Education Research:
To measure means to observe or determine the
magnitude of variate; evaluation means assessment
or appraisal.
2. James M. Bradfield:
Evaluation is the assignment of symbols to
phenomenon, in order to characterise the worth or
value of a phenomenon, usually with reference to some
social, cultural or scientific standards.
3. Gronlund and Linn:
Evaluation is a systematic process of collecting, analysing
and interpreting information to determine the extent to
which pupils are achieving instructional objectives.
❖
Characteristics of Evaluation:
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The analysis of all the above definitions makes us able
to draw following characteristics of evaluation:
1. Evaluation implies a systematic process which omits
the casual uncontrolled observation of pupils.
2. Evaluation is a continuous process. In an ideal
situation, the teaching- learning process on the one
hand and the evaluation procedure on the other
hand, go together. It is certainly a wrong belief that
the evaluation procedure follows the teaching-
learning process.
3. Evaluation emphasises the broad personality
changes and major objectives of an educational
programme. Therefore, it includes not only subject-
matter achievements but also attitudes, interests
and ideals, ways of thinking, work habits and
personal and social adaptability.
4. Evaluation always assumes that educational
objectives have previously been identified and
defined. This is the reason why teachers are
expected not to lose sight of educational
objectives while planning and carrying out the
teaching-learning process either in the classroom
or outside it.

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5. A comprehensive programme of evaluation involves
the use of many procedures (for example, analytico-
synthetic, heuristic, experimental, lecture, etc.); a
great variety of tests (for example, essay type,
objective type, etc.); and other necessary
techniques (for example, socio-metric, controlled-
observation techniques, etc.).
6. Learning is more important than teaching. Teaching
has no value if it does not result in learning on the
part of the pupils.
7. Objectives and accordingly learning experiences
should be so relevant that ultimately they should
direct the pupils towards the accomplishment of
educational goals.
➢
Steps Involved in Evaluation:

Following are the few steps involved in the process

of evaluation:
(i) Identifying and Defining General Objectives:
In the evaluation process first step is to determine what
to evaluation, i.e., to set down educational objectives.
What kind of abilities and skills should be developed
when a pupil studies, say, Mathematics, for one year?
What type of understanding should be developed in the

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pupil who learns his mother tongue? Unless the teacher
identifies and states the objectives, these questions will
remain unanswered.
The process of identifying and defining educational
objectives is a complex one; there is no simple or single
procedure which suits all teachers. Some prefer to
begin with the course content, some with general aims,
and some with lists of objectives suggested by
curriculum experts in the area.
While stating the objectives, therefore, we can
successfully focus our attention on the product i.e.,
the pupil’s behaviour, at the end of a course of study
and state it in terms of his knowledge, understanding,
skill, application, attitudes, interests, appreciation, etc.
(ii) Identifying and Defining Specific Objectives:
It has been said that learning is the modification of
behaviour in a desirable direction. The teacher is more
concerned with a student’s learning than with anything
else. Changes in behaviour are an indication of
learning. These changes, arising out of classroom
instruction, are known as the learning outcome.

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What type of learning outcome is expected from a
student after he has undergone the teaching-learning
process is the first and foremost concern of the
teacher. This is possible only when the teacher
identifies and defines the objectives in terms of
behavioural changes, i.e., learning outcomes.These
specific objectives will provide direction to teaching-
learning process. Not only that it will also be useful in
planning and organising the learning activities, and in
planning and organising evaluation procedures too.
(iii) Selecting Teaching Points:
The next step in the process of evaluation is to select
teaching points through which the objectives can be
realised. Once the objectives are set up, the next step
is to decide the content (curriculum, syllabus, course)
to help in the realisation of objectives.
For the teachers, the objectives and courses of school
subjects are ready at hand. His job is to analyse the
content of the subject matter into teaching points and
to find out what specific objectives can be adequately
realised through the introduction of those teaching
points.

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(iv) Planning Suitable Learning Activities:
In the fourth step, the teacher will have to plan the
learning activities to be provided to the pupils and, at
the same time, bear two things in mind—the objectives
as well as teaching points. The process then becomes
three dimensional, the three co-ordinates being
objectives, teaching points and learning activities. The
teacher gets the objectives and content readymade.
He is completely free to select the type of learning
activities. He may employ the analytico-synthetic
method; he may utilise the inducto-deductive
reasoning; he may employ the experimental method or
a demonstration method; or he may put a pupil in the
position of a discoverer; he may employ the lecture
method; or he may ask the pupils to divide into groups
and to do a sort of group work followed by a general
discussion; and so on. One thing he has to remember is
that he should select only such activities as will make it
possible for him to realise his objectives.
(v) Evaluating:
In the fifth step, the teacher observes and measures the
changes in the behaviour of his pupils through testing.
This step adds one more dimension to the evaluation

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process. While testing, he will keep in mind three things-
objectives, teaching points and learning activities; but
his focus will be on the attainment of objectives. This he
cannot do without enlisting the teaching points and
planning learning activities of his pupils.
Here the teacher will construct a test by making the
maximum use of the teaching points already introduced
in the class and the learning experiences already
acquired by his pupils. He may plan for an oral lest or a
written test; he may administer an essay type test or an
objective type of lest; or he may arrange a practical test.

Question no 5

What are the main problems and issues faced by

curriculum developer? Discuss theImplementation and
modification of curriculum in the light of Algorithmic
model.
Answer
The process of curriculum development is facing serious
issues in Afghanistan. These issues are interference of

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bureaucrats, the absence of involvement of school
and university teachers/lecturers etc.
Experts sitting in curriculum development boards in MOE
(Ministry of Education) do not use academic resources
properly for revising outdated sections of school
textbooks. They should seek professional expertise and
I’m sure they will offer innovative solutions for meeting
the needs of curriculum development in Afghanistan.
Someone might have a question that what is curriculum?
I would say that while thinking about education, the
most important idea that comes to mind is curriculum.
Curriculum is a channel that school/university
administrations need for giving educational and life skills
to students.
However, unluckily, in Afghanistan’s context, this idea is
highly misunderstood due to which students do not get
enriched educational experience in schools/universities.
Curriculum does not change in Afghanistan. Process of
curriculum development in Afghanistan, I would say that
curriculum is not a static process, but it is a dynamic
exercise that must undergo changes according to our
society’s new demands.

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In Afghanistan curriculum development is a static
process. There are many reasons for the failure
in developing proper curriculum. Some of them
are discussed below:
Issues in curriculum development
➢
Curriculum is outdated

Firstly, the curriculum is outdated, which does not meet

the local needs of Afghanistan society. The curriculum
problems, notes that our present generation is learning
the same knowledge that previous two/or may be three
generations have learnt.As students from different parts
of the world get difficult mathematical and scientific
knowledge by activity-based learning, our students are
forced to know scientific concepts through cramming.
For example, in school textbooks there are many
scientific and factual mistakes. It is sad situation
that experts designing school textbooks of
sciences/mathematics at secondary level do not pay
attention to the concept of scientific and factual
correctly.
➢
Involvement of government officials

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Secondly, the involvement of government officers in the
development of Afghani curriculum is proving harmful to
our education system.
Someone could suggest that the current process of
curriculum development is based on a uniform policy for
the whole country that has its particular aims and goals,
but I think that it is not possible to apply national
educational policy to different regions of the country
with equality.
For example, there are many underdeveloped areas of
Afghanistan, where parents do not have adequate
resources to send their children to schools. The drop-
out rate from schools is high, because parents cannot
afford the expense of education easily.Hence, a new
educational policy has to be made by government
officers for poor students, so that their problems of
education can be solved.
One way of doing this is to build schools, where
students are allowed to study in evening time, and
where books having basic knowledge about core
subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science, Pashto,
Dari and Islam as well as comparative studies are taught
by trained teachers.

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Lack of academic research

Thirdly, the problem that the process of curriculum
development faces in Afghanistan is improper academic
research for writing school textbooks. We can point out
those experts sitting in the curriculum development
boards use materials of their own choice for instruction
in schools.I must say that most of the times the chosen
content is not up to the mark. This should go through
textbooks approved by a board system in the country, it
becomes clear that no suitable research/evaluation
system is created to revise curriculum.
➢
Absence of school teachers’ involvement

Fourthly, it is seen that the academic experience of

teachers from different schools is also not considered
in designing and revising school curriculum. Daniel
Tanner and Laurel N. Tanner in their book, “Curriculum
Development: Theory into Practice,” suggest that
without intelligent participation of school teachers,
meaningful curriculum development will not be
achieved.

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Tanner and Tanner say that teachers, who are involved
in bringing out educational change, accept and adopt the
new ideas more quickly than those teachers who are not
involved in carrying out change.
Useful evidence suggests that in countries where well-
educated teachers were not involved in the curriculum
development process, they did not accept new
changes in school textbooks.
➢
Result of weak academic skills of researchers

With lack of academic skills in researchers responsible

for designing curriculum for schools, the most important
feature of curriculum, i.e. content suffers a lot. Students
follow rote-learning process, because the content of
their books does not match to their educational skills.
In order to make students problem-solvers, I would argue
that our books must contain questions that relate to
problems we face in our daily life. By answering those
questions, students will learn to solve issues in difficult
situations.
For example, while studying the concept of speed in
science, students must be given questions related to
real-life examples of speed such as speed of a car etc.,
so that they know the application of the concept.

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MOE (Ministry of Education) must contribute to solve

curriculum problems in our country Afghanistan. MOE
should have developed a curriculum that provides
activity-based learning to students and gives problem-
solving skills to them.Peace and prosperity are not
impossible in Afghanistan, if our local and national
leaders pay respect to their national interest!

THE end

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