CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Curriculum Development for Inclusive Practice



Curriculum Development for Inclusive Practice

Introduction

Questions about the nature and purpose of curriculum - what should be taught, why it should be taught and how it should be taught - have been long debated in education. They also have been of major concern to the field of special education, where for many years, the curriculum was separate from that which was on offer in mainstream schools, as were the debates about its nature and purpose. However, in the past 20 years, two major international developments, inclusion and standards-based reform, are now forcing a reconsideration of the notion of curriculum in the field of special education. It could be argued that this historic separation of special and mainstream curricula now presents particular challenges to the creation of more inclusive education systems, particularly as many countries have enacted education reforms that attempt to raise standards and to provide a common set of educational experiences for all children. At the heart of these challenges are questions about the extent to which a common curriculum with specified standardised content, together with high standards of achievement and a single system of assessment, can meet the needs of all learners. (White 2003, 9-14)

But the curriculum is a contested concept and it can be defined in many ways. At its most simple it can be considered as a course of study to be followed, but such a definition ignores other vital elements of learning. More broadly, it could be considered as being all the formal and informal opportunities for learning provided by the school. Alexander (2004, p. 16), takes a more comprehensive view when he defines the curriculum as 'a variety of traditions of doing, understanding, knowing, investigating, making sense and creating, that it is advantageous for students to meet, and how these are most suitably structured and translated for teaching'. This paper discusses curriculum development for inclusive practice.

Discussion

In special education, the focus of curriculum development historically entailed attempts to harmonize outcomes, process, and content of the curriculum to the developmental, cognitive, functional and social wants of the student. Further, the special education curriculum was informed, not only by beliefs about the perceived deficits of students, but also by developments  in learning theory. Thus, the power of behavioural psychology happened to be obvious in the extensive acceptance of an objectives-based curriculum, direct-instruction and precision teaching. But a focus on the observable outcomes of learning on one hand, and a narrow emphasis on functional skills for living on the other, lead Tomlinson (1982) to describe the special education curriculum at the instance as a curriculum of 'academic non-knowledge'. The wider demands of society, such as the need for a skilled workforce, for active citizens and to ensure cultural continuity, which have so often influenced the development of the general education curriculum, were usually absent from the special education debate as was any philosophical discussion about a curriculum for a 'good life'. But now the current context of educational reform and inclusion provides ...