Pros And Cons Of Curriculum Design

Conclusion

In higher education, competing demands for accountability and innovation in the face of globalization, technology, and budget cuts cause us to consider how best to prepare learners who will learn for a lifetime. We contend that a shift in our understanding of curriculum design to accommodate learner-centeredness will provide the framework for preparing graduates for a lifetime of learning. Learner-centered curriculum proposes to create highly developed individuals, providing them the skills to continue creating learning experiences, digest current knowledge, and create new knowledge within the curriculum itself.

Curriculum characteristics, as identified in the curriculum design project presented here, include content appropriate

In the privilege of assisting students in their educational and life goals, we also face the challenge of building students’ mindsets for success and social-emotional growth.

It is a fact that learner-centered pedagogy encourages questioning, fosters balanced, deep and collaborative learning, and changes the narrow canon of assessment practices. We’ve looked at the kinds of pedagogies and curriculum that can bring about powerful learning in students, to promote their self-direction, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, and desire to learn—having the most impact when teachers are role models of curiosity, open-mindedness, and shared power (McCombs & Miller, 2007; Weimer, 2002).

The shelf life of knowledge is shorter than ever in our information-rich society, making the learning of facts less important than teaching students how to think, problem-solve, create, evaluate, and work in teams. As we face the challenge and privilege of training successful college graduates—escalated from 3 percent to 32 in the last 100 years—we are called to participate in a paradigm shift in the role we play at this pivotal point in their lives (Spence, 2001). It is not a call to arms as much as it is a call

How will course design change? How might we encourage students to assume more responsibility for their own learning? How might course content become more than something we cover—and become the means rather than the end?

Changes in economic and social structures demand adjustments in theprocess and outcomes of education. Our definition of learner-centeredcurriculum responds to the requirements as they are currently envisionedin a globalized, highly technical information based society. The proposed outcome of engaging in a learner-centered curriculum is highly developedindividuals with the skills to continue the process of creating learningexperiences, digesting current knowledge, and creating new knowledgewithin the curriculum itself. Curriculum characteristics, as identified in the curriculum design project presented here, include content appropriateto the characteristic of a new society. It also includes all that is requiredof a curriculum in order for it to be transparent and easily understood asthe framework of learning. In this way, the revised definition of a learner-centeredcurriculum includes components that educators deem to be