My name is Irmeli Maunonen-Eskelinen from Jamk University of Applied Sciences.
My name is Telle Halkari from Hamk University of Applied Sciences.
In this video,
we discuss the basic principles of developing curricula.
Let's move to look at the factors that influence curriculum development.
Yes, there are several factors that influence curriculum development,
and we will discuss a few central things here.
Let's start with the societal issues.
The curriculum always needs to respond to the changes in society.
Each society has different visions, aims and goals about the future,
as well as several different societal trends,
such as population structure and immigration issues.
Influence and needs should also be considered.
Another point is the changing competence requirements.
For example, the world of work is constantly evolving,
and the curricula development
has to meet the needs from the world of work.
For example, there are different needs regarding the technological skills,
sustainable development skills or environmental issues,
just to mention a few.
What about some international educational aspects?
Yes, I think when developing curriculum,
some international aspects need to be considered.
For example, European educational policy issues.
Also, international quality frameworks.
We can also learn from other countries,
and we can use comparative research findings
in curriculum development.
These at least come to mind first.
Then, of course, the global development directions
and similarity of curricula can also be seen as a way
of enhancing global equality and the human rights approach.
One thing in curriculum development is very central.
We have to take into account and consider the needs of the students.
New generations have new competencies and values.
We have to find out what does the new generation value,
and what kind of education services do they need?
Let's look at some core issues in curriculum development.
The first point is that the curricula needs to be relevant in the world of work.
We need to consider the professionals that the world of work needs?
There needs to be a continuous dialogue between the world of work and education.
There also needs to be flexibility in the curricula
to meet these needs of the working life.
Another core issue is the competence-based approach.
A competence-based approach
is a research-based framework for curriculum development,
and it's based on recent research on learning and teaching.
The central idea in this approach
is in identifying the competencies that the graduates should achieve.
In this approach, the focus is more on wider competencies
instead of narrow skills.
Yes, and that leads us to think of constructive alignment in curriculum.
Constructive alignment is basically about the quality,
and enhancing and improving teaching and learning.
It means ensuring that different parts of the curriculum,
for example courses, contribute to the achievement
of the overall objective,
the overall competencies of the degree program.
Next let's discuss the teacher education curriculum reform in Kazakhstan
that we were both involved with.
In this curriculum reform,
altogether, 30 teacher education curricula were developed from different fields.
There were four different types of curricula involved.
The majority were bachelor's degrees.
Then, there were master's degrees, a consecutive program,
as well as a postgraduate diploma.
This consecutive program refers to a type of sideways path
to get a teacher qualification.
This is an educational model which is available to individuals
who have already completed a previous degree.
An example of a postgraduate diploma in this curriculum reform
is a study and career guidance counsellor degree program,
which is also available for individuals with a previous degree.
Yes, and generally speaking,
there are different types of structures of curricula.
In this case, concerning the bachelor's curricula,
the structures is as follows.
Firstly, there is a compulsory component,
a pedagogical component and a subject-specific component.
In addition to those,
cross-cutting themes are described in the curriculum,
and cross-cutting themes
are implemented in all different types of curricula
that we have developed.
Other themes, such as student-centeredness,
constructive alignment, inclusion, digitalisation,
and research-based teacher education.
As a final point, we will discuss a little bit about
what needs to be taken into account in the implementation of the curricula.
This is a very important part of the curricula development.
First of all, there needs to be an orientation
to the curriculum reform and informing different parties
about what changes have been taking place.
There needs to be different types of trainings and informing
through various channels.
There also needs to be continuous support for the implementation.
This can take different forms,
for example, websites, workshops, support clinics or podcasts,
videos or different written materials.
There needs to be timely support for the teachers
in parallel with the implementation process.
Of course, during the implementation,
we need information about implementation issues.
Therefore, monitoring the implementation is a very important part of the process.
We collect information from the students and teachers,
about the implementation and perhaps other stakeholders as well.
That gives us a basis for evidence-based development of the curriculum.
In some, continuous development is the basic idea
and curriculum development is a continuous and living process.
Often, the bigger changes take place after a few years cycle.
We have discussed some core issues regarding the curriculum development.
We can conclude this by saying that curriculum development
is a continuous collaborative and co-creative process.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you.