Curriculum

The word Curriculum has the meaning of educational path and describes the learning process in a much more comprehensive and complex fashion than is possible with Plans of learning content or learning material. These days, curriculum development is oriented towards the learner - the student/trainee and his learning process than towards the content of learning. Unfortunately, there is no precise definition of just what a Curriculum is? The increasing amount of research and literature in this field has been accompanied by an increasing fuzziness in the term "curriculum". For this reason, one adopts the term curriculum instead of teaching plan. In such an approach, not only teaching material and its organisation are analyzed, but also several interconnected areas of curricular decision-making, namely the goals, subjects and organisation of learning are stressed and new comprehensive trades researched.

A curriculum, in contrast, provides information on the following aspects of learning:

• At whom is the educational process aimed ?
• What goals and qualifications are to be achieved ?
• What contents are to be learned ?
• What teaching methods and aids are to be used ?
• How is the result to be tested ?

Links to Online Resources

• City & Guilds UK (http://www.cityandguilds.com/uk-qualifications.html) provides 500 Qualifications in over 28 industries
• The GTZ online training resource library (http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/wirtschaft-beschaeftigung/berufsbildung/26360.htm) covers a wide range of occupational training subjects in various languages (but mostly English), e.g. Pedagogy, eLearning, Teacher Training, Supervisory Development Program, Total Quality Management, Traditional Apprenticeship, Automotive Engineering, Construction, Electrical Engineering / Electronics, Maintenance and Repair, Metalwork, HIV/AIDS Prevention, Woodwork, Teaching Software
• http://www.tesda.gov.ph/inc/downloads.aspx Hundreds of exemplar curricula encompassing all kinds of areas can be downloaded from the website of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Philippines

Designing Curricula

• How to Design a Vocational Curriculum: A Practical Guide for Schools and Colleges (http://books.google.de/books?id=1m0a-l8c-FEC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=monitoring+and+evaluation+vocational&source=bl&ots=4cRU0L63G0&sig=eByGR76DoEbGeDjn2SPKMC52ozw&hl=de&ei=ptu0SfXOGoaS_gargZ3OBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA134,M1)The book that provides practical help to curriculum designers in schools and colleges currently developing vocational courses.Von Tony Nasta, Google books. (155 pages)
• DACUM - describes a method for developing curricula

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