Essential Elements of Curriculum Development in Adult Education

BY ALFRED SIMUKOKO
©2019
In simpler terms, curriculum refers to the total learning experiences provided by a school., Including the content of courses which is outlined in the methods deployed. Curriculum development is crucial in enhancing national development. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to discuss essential elements that must be included when designing an adult education  curriculum. In the essay, I will definitely curriculum vission. In addition, I will analyse the value of assessment in curriculum development in adult education.
The nature of elements to be included in the adult education curriculum and the manner in which they are organised may comprise the curriculum design. There are various elements that must be included when designing a curriculum in adult education. The first component or element of curriculum to be included when designing curriculum involves aims, goals and objectives (Lunenburg, 2011). Aims in curriculum the curriculum development process vary, depending on the level of education. The aims of elementary education imvolve providing knowledge, development of skills, attitudes as well as values that are essential in person development and necessary for living in and contributing to a developing and changing society. The aims of elementary education is to provide experiences which increase the learner's awareness of and respiveness of the changes in society.The aims of elementary education also promote work experiences which devep orientation to the world of work and pre gainfully work and prepare be honest and discover gainful work. The aims of secondary education continue to discover and enhence the different apttitudes and interest in order to equip them with skills for productive endeavors and to prepare the learners for tertiery schooling. Ains if tertiey education provide general education with programmes which wit promote national identity, cultural, consciousness, moral integrity and spritual vigor. The aims of tertiery education involve training the nation's manpower in the skills required for national development. The aims of tertiery education are crucial in developing the professions that will provide leadership for the nation and hence knowledge through research and apply new knowledge for improving the quality of human life and respond effectively to changing society. School vission and mission are the other essential components to considered when designing curriculum. An example of a school vission is: " ". On the other hand, an example of a school mission is: " ". In this first category of elements to be included when designing the curriculum, all the three domains are taken into consideration. The cognitive domain includes knowledge, compression, application, Analysis, synthesis, and Evaluation. whilst affective domai itns deal with receiving, responding, valuing, organising, and characterisation; psychomotor domain is concerned with percepy, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation and origination.
The second element to be included when designing the is content or subject matter, including cross cutting issues. Subject matter can be presented variously. In the subject view of curriculum, the value of human knowledge represents the repository of acquired and accumulated discoveries, inventions and innovation of manin the previous century, as a result of man's exploration of the world. In the learner-centred view, knowledge is related to the individual's personal as well as social world and how he or she defines reality. This helps human beings to give meaning and structure to regularities in experience. There are various criteria that are used in the selection of subject matter for the curriculum. Firstly, self sufficient requires less teacher effort and educational resources, less learners effort but more results and effects learning outcomes. Secondly,  significance involves contributing to basic ideas to achieve overall aims of curriculum and develop learning skills. Third, validity refers to the learner based on maturity, prior experience, educational and social value. Fourth, utility refers to the utility of the content either for the present or the future. Fifth, learnability must be considered within the range of experience of the learners. Sixth, feasibility refer to what can be learned within the time allowed, resources available, expertise of the teacher, and nature of the learner.
There are various principles to be observation when designing the learning content. Firstly, the content of the curriculum must be balanced. In other words, curriculum content should fairly distributed in depth and breadth of the particular learning or discipline. Secondly, articulation must be followed when organising the curriculum. Thus, each level of subject matter must be smoothly connected to the next glaring gaps. It refers to the depending and broadening of content as it is taken up in the higher level. Further, the horizontal connections are needed in subject areas that are similar in order to allow learning to be related to one another. Third, subject matter matter must be integrated. In fact, learning requires a continuous application of the new knowledge, skills, attitudes or values so that these would be utilized in every day lives of the learners. Fourth, leaning content must be continuous. Thus, there must be some constant repeatation, review and reinforcement of learning.
The third element essential when designing a curriculum has to do with experience. Curriculum experience is crucial in curriculum designing because instructional strategies and methods would be linked to what learners actually do in the school milieu. Further, instructional strategies and methods would put into action the goals and use of the content in order to produce an outcome. In this regard, teaching stategies are convert the written curriculum to instructions. Prime examples of these methods  time tested strategies that include inquiry approaches, constructivist other ermerging means of reaching out to to learners  that complement new theories teaching and learning. Educational activities like field trips. Conducting experiments and other experiential learning would also firm par  of the repertoire of teaching. Teaching methods are essential components in curriculum designing.
A vission statement, or simply a vission, is a public declaration that schools and other educational institutions use to describe their higher-level goals for the future. It clearly outlines what the school hope to achieve if it Successfully fufills it's organisational purpose or mission.  A vission may describe a school's loftiest ideas, it's core organisational values, it's long term objectives, or what it hopes it's students will learn or be capable of doing after graduating. A vission statement expresses a hpe-for future rearity. In addition, vission statements describe the end goal, which is the change the school needs.
Vission statements, in most cases, result from a collaborative, inclusive development process that includes parents and community members. In addition, administrators and teachers are also involved and are essential sources of vission statements.  Without doubt, it is apparent that schools development mission statements or modify existing statement being operationalized in the school because they will serve as extensions ofan accreditation process or as a basis for grant-funding to improve projects.
Curriculum vission is useful in several ways. Firstly, curriculum vission is the most cost-effective way of providing the backbone for a school's curriculum, which maybe implemented in school and at home for every child. Secondly, curriculum vission is useful in finding different books to read, videos to watch and lots of other information to help the learner undery the topic he or she is learning about. Consequently, there is plenty of information for learners' homework projects. Third, curriculum vission help a school's community to reflect on it's core educational values, operational objectives, purpose as a learning institution, and hipe-for results of students. By reflecting on what the school was founded to achieve and where it is in relation to where it wants to be,  a school can become better organized to achieve it's goals and more forecused on the practical steps to achieve then. In addition, curriculum vission serves as a way to rally support for it's core educational values or an improvement bplan or to mobilize the staff and community to move in a new direction or pursue more ambitious goals. By developing the public commitment s with the involvement of administrators, teachers, students, parents and community members, a school can increase general understanding of what it hopes to accomplish, why it matters, and what may need to change  to realize a strong academy programme. Further, curriculum vission is useful as it focuses on  a school's academic programme on a set of common agreed-upon learning goals. In some schools, teachers may work in relative isolation from one another, and each academic department may operate quash-independently when it comes to making important decisions about what must be taught. Curriculum vission, therefore, has the potential to focus on leaders and educators on making decisions that are aligned with mission, that lead to greater curricular coherence, and that use staff staff and classroom time more efficiently, purposefully and effectively.
There is clear evidence that vission is useful in the curriculum development process. It is apparent, therefore, that  schools must periodically review their statements as often as possible. For instance, a school can review it's vission every year or few few year to assess whether it is making progress towards it's goals, reflect on setbacks that my have occurred along the way, and reconfirm it's commitment. During this process,  schools may choose to revise the statements to better reflect the school's evolving educational values, operational strategies, and learning goals. Vission statements, thus, bring people together to reflect on Noble purpose of education.
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Lunenburg, F.C. (2011).Key Components of a curriculum plan: Objectives, Content and Learning Experiences. Schooling , (2), 1.
Ovens, P. (2011). Development inquiry for learning. New York,NY: Routledge.
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