In this week we explore the fundamental issues of curriculum in greater depth, examining mechanisms that underpin the entire system of education in a country. The topics covered are: curriculum formulation, the need for curriculum, curriculum process, and administration of curriculum.

The focus of this week is learning before teaching – putting students first. You will learn about the three-way relationship of the teacher, the curriculum, and the students. As a teacher, you have to be able to contextualize a curriculum that has been made available to you. The curriculum is a general set of content and pedagogic strategies which have to be made real, relevant, and as contextualized as possible for each and every one of the students. The topics to be covered this week are: the three-way relationship, learning as student-specific, theories of student learning, and student-centered teaching.

This week we will bring together some important aspects of teaching and learning that were discussed in the previous weeks. The sessions cover issues of interpretation, designing learning activities, planning lessons, and bringing lessons to life.

We will begin this week by briefly summarizing some philosophical insights into education which have hugely influenced curriculum. You can become a better teacher by learning about philosophical contributions to the practice of teaching. We present the idea of educational philosophy as a system of beliefs and values that affect thinking about education, how it may be conceived, and how it is engaged with by students and by teachers so as to produce desired outcomes.

In this final week we will focus on four main topics: amplifying the role of curriculum, communities of learning, self-check, and the final dialogue. We will look at Lee Shulman’s theoretical work ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (or PCK). Additionally, we will at collaborative learning and take a look at a powerful developing idea - the professional learning community. You will also reassess your knowledge of curriculum through a discussion of six key questions. Finally, we will reflect on what you will take away from the course.