Curriculum development and

design
Benson Kinyua
Karatina university
 Definition

• A written document in which all the activities,

transactions and the events of a training programme are
described(from the first day of training to the last day)
• All the experiences that are structured for a learner
Syllabus-An outline of subjects or even topics students
will cover in a course(A breakdown of the content)
 Components of a curriculum

1. Course description e.g. title (KRCHN course)

2. A statement of justification -Gives the
rationale and philosophy of the training program and
why it is required
3. Resources –An
outline of the physical, administrative and financial
requirements for the course
 Cont

4) Entry requirements
-Academic and professional and methods of
selection
5) Educational goals and objectives
6) Content to be covered according to the
objectives
 Cont

7) Learningexperiences
-Description of the teaching/learning methods
to be employed during the educational program
8) Program/course outline
-Outlining a logical sequence of
events i.e. Learning blocks and placements
 Cont

9) Course duration
• Specification of how long each unit or learning,block
should last.
10) Assessment -Outlines
methods of continuous evaluation, final certification,
remedial activities and referral of failed candidates
 10 steps for developing a competence
based curriculum
1) Identification of health problems/needs
2) Identification of professional roles and functions
3) Performing task analysis on professional roles and
functions
4) Development of educational goals and objectives on
the basis of professional functions and task analysis
 Cont

5) Identification and selection of subject

matter/content to be learned
6) Identification of teaching/learning methods
7) Identification/selection of learning resources e.g.
teaching aids
 Cont

8) Identification
of assessment tools to determine
learner performance
9) Curriculum implementation
10) Curriculum review and change
 Factors influencing the development of a
curriculum
Academic factors;
-teachers of a certain discipline borrow from their past
experiences and merge with the current trends.E.g.
nurse graduates
 Social factors

• What is taught has to reflect the current needs of the

local people socially and culturally e.g. ,with the
advent of HIV/AIDS, this new topic has had to be
included in the content
• This also includes the latest technology
 Economic factors

• The cost of implementation of curriculum can determine

the type of health worker trained in a given country.
• Example; A registered nurse in Kenya takes more roles
than one in a developed country
• Midwives in developing countries carry out life saving
measures that are left for experts in industrialised
countries.
 Political factors

• Politicians or political investors can influence the numbers to be

trained and the level of training
• Example; Quota system in Kenyan basic education,844 system
• This, therefore, implies that an individual does
not develop a curriculum.
• It is a cooperative process in which many
• interested parties contribute.
 Participants in curriculum development

• These are people who exert influence directly or

indirectly or decide what activities should be
involved
• They fall into categories; Internal $ External
 Internal participants

• They develop the curriculum, teach and evaluate it

and the students
• These are; professional associations, ministries of
health $ education, boards of examinations,
administrators of training institutions, teachers and
students
 External participants

• Don’t have direct influence

• Are either beneficiaries of the product, service or provide
resources to facilitate its implementation
• Examples; community, business partners and NGOs
• NB; When consulted
properly, these two groups ought to produce a curriculum that
enables the desired change in health care services.
 Approaches(types) to curriculum
development
• Subject-centred approach -
Subject specialists define the content required for a
particular level of health worker
-Needs of students are virtually ignored
-Balancing of theory and practice may not be good
 Integrated approach

• The approach is still subject centered

• It attempts to integrate/combine in a meaningful way disciplined
knowledge to impact wholesome learning for student application
• Emphasize on providing the learner with less discreet chunks of
information
• Units are fused together e.g. anatomy, physiology, microbiology
and nutritional aspects of cardiovascular system learned together
 Competency- based/Task-based

• Best in training health workers

• Curriculum is organized around the functions of a health worker
• Aims at identifying professional competencies required and
teaching to achieve the competencies
• It is assumed that the majority of individuals can master the
required level of proficiency, given appropriate instruction and
sufficient time
 Cont

• Start by determining the health needs of the

community(situation analysis/assessment)
• Followed by analysis of the activities the health
worker will be expected to undertake (job description)
• Then, breakdown of various tasks(task analysis) to
determine the skills, knowledge and attitudes required
 Cont

• Identification of objectives
• Identification of content
• Identification of teaching methods
• Identification of learning resources
• Identification of assessment tools
• Curriculum implementation
• Curriculum review and change.
 Further reading

• Ref; A guide for training teachers of health

workers
Pages; 54-72
 Developing educational objectives

Definitions
• A pattern of behavior(performance) we want the
learner to demonstrate
• A statement describing an instructional outcome
• A statement of what the learner is expected to do at
the end of a learning process
 Importance.

• Inform students what is required of them

• Helps in organisation of the subject matter
• Provide a basis for evaluating both students and the programme.
• Provide a means of communication among colleagues
• Form the backbone of any instructional programme
• Indicates the type and extent of activities required for successful
learning
 Types of educational objectives

National objectives
• These are broad statements which serve as broad frameworks
for stating the narrower, general or specific objectives
• Derived from the ministry
Example; The main objective of
establishing KMTC is to train middle level health workers who will provide
quality health care services in Kenya
 Cont

Institutional objectives
• These are broad statements showing the objectives of
an institution in conducting various courses
Example; Kmtc is
committed to train mid-level health workers who will provide quality
health care services in Kenya. The graduates should be able to; carryout
nursing sevices,make dentures for patients, carryout clinical services
 Cont

Departmental objectives
• These are objectives formed from selected points of
the institutional objectives
Example;
At the end of the course the KRCHN graduate should be able to ;
manage a ward, provide quality care to patients……….
 Cont

Instructional/Learning objectives
• These correspond to a given learning activity
• They are of two types;
• General and Specific
 General objectives

• These state the general outcomes expected from a

learning activity
Example;
• At the end of the module the student should be able
to; acquire knowledge and develop skills and
attitudes in teaching
 Specific objectives

• These outline specific learning outcomes expected

to be achieved by the learner
Example;
• At the end of the lesson the student should be able
to; describe the common teaching methods
 NB

• A clearly written objective is one

which, if presented to different but
competent teachers, will teach in a
manner consistent with what you
had in mind.
 Characteristics of a good educational
objective
• Specific; Not open to many
interpretations,clear,simple and specific
• Measurable; can measure or assess the behavior
manifested by the learner, observable
 Cont

• Attainable; Achievable,feasible,it’s within the means to

achieve, it can be performed
• Realistic;relevant,within the context
• Time bound; By when
NB;
An objective always says what a learner is expected to be able
to do
 Components of a good objective

• An action verb/ performance

• An objective always says what a learner is expected
to be able to do.
• It describe the task to be done, using an active
verb.
• The performance indicator is the description of an
act whose satisfactory performance implies that the
student is able to accomplish the actual act required
 Cont

-Describe what the learner is expected to do e.g. to

draw, to describe, to design
-Avoid using passive verbs which are open to many
interpretations e.g. to really understand, to believe,
to have faith in
 Cont

• Conditions
-The condition under which the activity will be done
e.g. dress a wound using aseptic technique
-It includes data, limitations or restrictions if any
 Cont

• Criterion(standard)
-Level of acceptable performance
-proficiency, or accuracy of doing an activity
Example; The
student will apply relevant teaching skills in micro-
teaching
 NB

• Always use active verbs when formulating objectives e.g.

- Explain
- Describe
- List
- State
- Name
- Apply
- Demonstrate
- Discuss
 Sources of instructional objectives

• Yourself-teacher
• Manuals and text books
• Task analysis
• Institutional and departmental objectives
• Subject experts and health workers
• Research data-
 Classification(Taxonomy)of objectives

• Objectives are classified into 3 major

categories(domains);
Cognitive-deals with acquisition of knowledge.
Affective domains- deals with acquisition of
attitude and values.
Psychomotor-Deals with acquisition of skills.
 Cognitive(knowledge) domain

Divided into six(categories); Refer to Blooms taxonomy of levels

of learning
• Simple knowledge
-To recall a wide range of knowledge, facts and experiences
-Ability to recall or repeat information presented earlier
-E.g. At the end of the lesson the student will be able to list the
common methods of teaching
 Cont

• Comprehension
-Ability to interpret or restate acquired information
and facts. Example;
The student will be able to explain the flow of CSF
 Cont

• Application
-Ability to use or apply information in different
situations
-E.g. The student will be able to develop a learning
objective
 Cont

• Analysis
-Ability to divide complex knowledge into it’s
separate parts and to recognize the relationship
Example;
-The student should be able to categorize the learning
aids commonly used in Kenyan colleges
 Cont

• Synthesis
-Ability to put together, separate elements of knowledge,
or principles to form new patterns or whole components
Example;
-The student teacher should be able to design an handout
 Cont

• Evaluation
-The ability to make judgments / decisions and appraisals
using the acquired knowledge or information
Example;
-At the end of the session the student should be able to
assess a child for dehydration
 Psychomotor Domain(skills)

• Involves manipulative skills-- practical performance

Example;
-At the end of the session the student should be able
to perform tooth extraction
 Affective Domain(attitudes)

• Very few objectives have been written on this domain

• Involves objectives concerned with
attitudes,appreciation,values and all
emotions;enjoying,respecting and so on
Example;
-at the end of training the nurse graduate should be able to
attend to patients empathetically
 Levels of affective domain

• Receiving; Willing to give attention to an activity.

• Responding; Willing to react to an event through some form of
participation.
• Valuing; Willing to accept an event through expression of positive
attitude
• Organising;- considers values and selects appropriate alternatives on
their merits.
• Characterizing; acts in accordance with values one accepts,
incorporating this behaviour into ones personality.