Introduction
Unlike in the United States where curriculum differs from State to State, Australia uses a national curriculum that is used in every state in the country. This is meant to bring unity and uniformity in the education standards. The curriculum is used mostly in F-10 in sciences but at college level the teachers are given the freedom to make the structure of the course. In the United States, apart from giving individual States the power to design their education curriculum, teachers are also allowed to design the units of study in a structure that will not only flow with the course but also achieve the intended goals and expectations of the students. There are different factors that lead to the revision of a unit; these factors may include incorporating new learning styles, assessment and learning activities. Backward design is one of the best methods that educators can use to design a unit of study because it first focuses on the objectives and goals of the unit (Spencer, 2004). Backward design, or backward mapping, focuses on the expectation of the students and the goals of the teacher. Designing a unit also requires an education to have adequate knowledge in addition to working with other experts in the education sector (Land, 2012).
This essay examines Course Design and the method that educators can use to design a course that will meet the expectation of student and the goals of the curriculum. In addition, the essay provides the delivery and evaluation process of the designed unit.
Background
Unit Design
As a Science unit teacher, the unit should be designed in order to ensure that the students’ needs are fully met in the syllabus. First and foremost, the framework of using the same curriculum in the entire country may fail to service the core need of every student in Australia. There are various shortcomings in the process that is currently being used to offer the unit such as lack of diversity and autonomy. One of the shortcomings is that the unit is not comprehensive enough to accommodate all the details provided by the course (Hicks, 2007). This means that the students are not fully equipped with the knowledge that is required to achieve the desired goals stipulated in the course. The other issue is that the teachers were not involved in creating the syllabus, thus they may be reluctant to follow the whole guidelines provide the schools. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority given the mandate is not well represented with teachers thus failing to address the pertinent issues in the system. Science unit should be served in a way that students can apply the knowledge in the real world, a factor that is not well served by the current system. According to Spencer (2004), the instructors should structure that unit in a way it will not only cover all the pertinent issues in the course but also help ensure that set goals of the unit are achieve.
The Science course is a 12 week unit that the students are required to take as a major. In the course, the students are taught the concepts of science through lectures and other activities that are conducted by the lecturer and are stipulated in the course outline (Hicks, 2007). The unit provides all the steps that are required to be followed in the unit but it fails to address the pertinent issues that include describing how the objectives of the unit will effectively be achieved. Backward design helps teachers create units focused on the goals of learning rather than the teaching process. Because the unit design begins with the end is often a counter-intuitive process, backward design gives educators a structure they can follow when creating a curriculum and planning their instructional process. Advocates of backward design argue that the instructional process should serve the goals of the study of the unit (Spencer, 2004).
Rationale
Need for improvement
The Science course needs to be improved in order to address various issues such as aligning the unit with the new changes taking place in the education system and the industry in general. Science is constantly changing and thus the unit should be structure to align with the changes taking place in the various industries. This means the unit should be improved in order to embrace the new activities that are not clearly defined in the in the unit meant to improve the ability of the students to relate the unit to the real world. In addition, the unit needs improvement especially on the teaching strategies and learning strategies in order to help to help the students to easily understand (Land, 2012).
The new learning strategies will revolve around offering whole-class discussion and presentation that will help the students to effectively interact with the lecturer. The new learning style will also involve weekly exams that will be meant to examine the performance of the students. The learning lesson will be focused on giving the students a set of materials that will be based on the main goals and objectives of the unit.
According to Biggs (2012), technology has transformed the process used in lecturing the students and in handling the assignments. The new change will involve the use of technology in providing effective learning for the students. Scienceis a course that is changing with the development of the world economy, therefore technology is an effective tool for aligning the unit with the change in the industry.
Development
New teaching and learning activities
The syllabus will require new set of activities that will enable the students to gain much from their study. The teaching activities will include offering lecture and one on one discussion with the students (Spencer, 2004). The students will also be required to work on the individual and group projects to test their understanding of the course. In higher learning, unlike in other level of education, the learning activities are usually different because it mostly relies on the curriculum designed to guide the educators (Stewart, 2012). The syllabus should contain a day-to-day breakdown of the different topics that will be addressed by the educator.
In offering the science unit, the students will be subject to frequent assignment combined with projects that will be used to measure the progress of the students and their understanding of the unit. The learning process will also align with the change in technology where technology has increasingly been embraced in promoting effective in the education sector. Different technology platforms have been innovated to boost learning especially in the higher learning. These include software that allows for easy sharing of information and virtual discussion platforms.
The course should have clear description of the all the topics that will be covered and the time and duration. According to Hicks (2007), because the students in the institutions of higher learning are given the freedom to choose their course of study, the educators should design it to be very appealing to the students. This means, apart form ensuring that the whole syllabus is covered, the teacher should focus on the value of the course to the students. The course should offer a description which should include the course content, the learning objectives and the classes (Hicks, 2007).
Current curriculum and educational values
According to Spencer (2004), at the college level, the curriculum is not general as it is followed in K-12 system. College level requires the teacher to decide on the on best learning materials and other learning activities such as individual and group projects and frequent assessments. Designing a curriculum is ideally something that is first of all effective and matches assessment with what is taught on a course (Caffarella, 2002). However, it also aims to give students a broader perspective. This approach to design is not only shaped by knowledge of the subject but by the various internal and external influences that have influence on the academic content of the University’s modules and programs. Institutions of higher learning should have their designs of units and courses but should not jeopardize the quality of education (Trigwell & Prosser, 2003).
Measuring student’s abilities
Design the course around activities that will enable the students to achieve the goals set in the coursework. Some of the activities may include offering direct lectures, active experimentation, practice and discussion. The teacher should promote activities that will help the students improve their abilities. The teacher should seek to get the evidence that the students are actually grapping the vision that of the course. This means apart from adhering to the activities stipulated in the curriculum, the teach should device other middle and short term activities to access the progress of the students. These activities may include weekly activities, objective tests, individual and group projects (Stewart, 2012). An assessment of students is an important part of every learning thus the instructor should be careful to structure assessments that will help to reflect the improvement of the students.
The syllabus is ingrained in the course and it provides the students and teachers a reference point through the study period. The syllabus provides the learners and the teacher a guide for the all the steps should be involved in the learning. The teacher should provide the student with the copies of the syllabus whether in hard or soft copies. Syllabus varies from one school to the other and it depends on the discipline, course, department and the instructor. However, there are common components that are contained in a syllabus and they include the topics to be covered, the assignment, course activities and the expectation of the syllabus (Hicks, 2007). Course and units vary from one institution to the other with each designed to achieve common goal of providing quality and relevant knowledge to the industry.
In designing the syllabus, the teacher should be aware of different aspects; the goal of offering the course, the number of weeks that the course is expected to take, the time of each session. According to Biggs (2012), teachers have the ability to design the unit because of their familiarity with the classroom, the students and whole learning process. This gives then the opportunity to understand what works and what does not work in a given group. In addition, setting a syllabus is an effective strategy that teachers use to incorporate learning materials that are relevant to the course to meet the learning need of the students. The other aspect of creating learning units is that its helps teachers to be careful and serious on offering the lessons because they feel they are part of the whole formation (Trigwell & Prosser, 2003).
Reflection and unit design
Student needs
The process of curriculum begins with identifying the need of the students which is based on the backward design of the curriculum. Backward design focus on the goals that the curriculum aims to achieve then introducing the unit. The needs of the students are examined depending on what the need to achieve in their course. In identifying the needs the new teacher should consult with his colleagues in order to get more information about the units and the whole course. The teacher should examine whether the students are new in the course and their motivation for taking the course (Hicks, 2007). Students’ needs are aligned with the expectation and the goal of the students in order to meet their desires. The type of the course also has a significant role in the arrangement of the course because the students are driven by the ambitions of the on the course. If the students are taking the course as a major, then the teacher should ensure that the actual needs of the students are met; on the other had, if the course are not common course, the teacher can be at will to design.
Goals and Objectives
After addressing the needs of the students, the second step is to create the goals and objectives for taking the curriculum. The curriculum should have well defined goals and objectives that it aims at achieving. The goals should constantly be accessed in order to identify the progress of the students. The tests are designed to be taken at periodic time which is decided by designing team of the curriculum. The goals of the course are determined by combinations of the instructor’s experience with the course and the expectation of students taking the course. According to Hicks (2007), the goal of learning in the institutions of higher learning is focused gaining knowledge that is applicable in the industry. This means, designing of the course should also take into considerations the changes taking place in the industry and how the course will impact the students with knowledge that is applicable.
Materials
According to Stewart (2012), the materials decided to be used in the curriculum plays a significant role in determining the success of the curriculum. Although the curriculum defines the general materials to be used in the courses, materials to be used on different courses are decided by individual teachers. After the materials are decided, the teacher should arrange the materials in logical order to achieve the success of every unit. The materials should be coined with various activities to monitor the success of curriculum. The materials to be used in studying a unit depend on the decision of the instructor and the goals of the course and the expectations of the students.
Reflection
Reflection part is conducted to examine whether the unit has been successful in achieving the desired goals and objectives. Reflection is means to examine the experience that has been gained by teaching the unit in order to determine various challenges that needs to be addressed and some of the improvement that can be incorporated on the unit (Spencer, 2004). The reflection process includes examining whether the goals and objectives have been achieved and the new adjustments that should be involved in order to align the unit with the change in the industry.
Revision of the unit
Revision is the last step of designing a syllabus because it includes amending different processes and activities of the unit to make it more effective. This means going back to the beginning and evaluating the new needs of the students. However, it is important to understand that revision can also mean leaving the unit as it is based on the changes that have taken place in the learning curriculum (Land, 2012). The unit can be used in the subsequent classes if no major changes have taken place that may affect the effectives of the unit.
Conclusion
Unit is a component of the course that the students have chosen to undertake at an education institution. The unit of learning is designed by taking various factors into consideration such as objectives and goals in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in learning. Syllabus varies from one school to the other and it depends on the discipline, course, department and the instructor. The unit of study should be statured in a sequence that will increase the level of understanding of students in addition to meeting their expectations for taking the unit. However, there common components that are contained in a syllabus and they include the topics to be covered, the assignment, course activities and the expectation of the syllabus. In designing a unit of study, the teacher and the designing team should use a backward design. A backward design first focuses on the objectives and the goal of the course before setting other processes and activities (Caffarella, 2002). The designing of the economic unit will require incorporating new adjustments in order to improve the performance of the unit. In the economic unit, there is need for improvement because of the numerous changes that have been made in the curriculum. Unlike in the tradition, the current curriculum gives teachers the ability to conduct adjustment on the units to make its more suitable to the student. However, the quality should still be maintained by following the standards that are set by the given state (Caffarella 2002).).
References
Biggs, J. (2012). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. HERD, 31, 39-55.
Caffarella, R.S. (2002). Chapter 9: Designing instructional plans. In R.S. Caffarella, Planning programs for adult learners: A practical guide for educators, trainers and staff developers (pp. 166-202)
Trigwell & Prosser (2003). Qualitative difference in university teaching. Access and Exclusion, 2, 185-216.
Hicks, O. (2007). Curriculum in Higher Education – Hello? Proceedings of the 30th HERDSA Annual Conference, Adelaide, 3-11 July, 2007
Land, R. (2012). Discipline-based teaching. In L. Hunt & D. Chalmers (Eds.), University teaching in focus: A learning- centred approach (pp. 38-55). Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press
Spencer, B. (2004). In G. Foley (Ed.), Dimensions of adult learning (pp. 189-200). Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Stewart, M. (2012). Understanding learning: Theories and critique. In L. Hunt & D. Chalmers (Eds.), University teaching in focus: A learning-centred approach (p. 19). Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press.
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