Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

In the education setting, curriculum, instruction and assessment go hand in hand

for the success of student achievement. Henson (2015) referenced James
Macdonald who defined curriculum as “planned actions for instruction”. Henson
(2015) also quoted other writers who defined curriculum as ‘school planned
experiences’, ‘all learning opportunities provided by the school’, ‘experiences
children have under the guidance of the teacher,’ and ’planned or formal
specification of content to be taught.’ In all the given definitions, the common
factors show that curriculum outlines what will be taught or rather, what we teach
and hence what the learner will experience. At the end of each school term, my
department meet to discuss what next topic we will be teaching based on what was
covered during the last term. This information is selected from the Caribbean
Examination Council from which we have created a five year plan curriculum for
the five years that students spend at our secondary school. This curriculum is the
reference point for all our content. At certain points, we use our own hidden
curriculum to convey what messages that we want students to learn in terms of
values, morals and habits however we go back to the document curriculum for all
other purposes.

Instruction
On the other hand, instruction is the way we teach the curriculum for learning. It is
the action that teaches the material outlined in the curriculum to the learner.
According to Henson (2015), all curricula exist to provide the basis for effective
instruction-that is, instruction that maximizes learning. Effective instruction is a
result of proper and extensive planning. Planning starts with organizing material
from the curriculum. After deciding what material will be used, the next step is
sequencing that material in the way students will experience it (Henson, 2015).
Teachers then decide on what activities will bring meaning to the curriculum to be
taught. For the implementation of the lesson, that is, instruction, we must bear in
mind time management as well as ensuring that the lesson is summarized to the
end to allow students to make connections (Henson, 2015). From our curriculum,
we chose topics and decide what way we will teach it. Our instruction varies on the
topic and on the abilities, learning styles and interests of our students as well as on
our experience. To teach circle geometry, we gave the students all the different
circle theorems and then showed them several circle questions to identify the
theorems within and find missing angles using these theorems. There was no
success in this type of instruction as students did not remember the theorems
hence they could not identify or apply them in questions. We decided to alter our
instruction to created different circle handouts where students are directed to
draw lines to create the theorems, measure the angles with groups and infer circle
theorems based on what they observed. This new instruction of Circle geometry
gave far better results as students were remembering most of the theorem since
they discovered them on their own.

Assessment
Last but not least, the assessment is the measure of whether or not students have
learnt what has been taught in the curriculum. In my example above, it is the
assessment that helped us determine that the students did not learn the circle
theorems and so we had to use new instruction. Assessment is usually given in the
form of standardized testing. ‘Standardized testing when used correctly can
increase learning and can be used to enhance instruction when kept separate from
accountability’ (Henson, 2015). Assessment, usually through standard testing is
what happens first or what should happen first to diagnose what knowledge or
skills is known. At this point, we then refer to the curriculum which directs us to
what content needs to be taught based on the knowledge we have gained on the
learner’s prerequisites. When I started teaching I received a class and was given the
curriculum to follow however I found that students were not getting anything that
they were taught and I could move on to a next topic in the curriculum. As I
questioned students throughout, I realized that students were lost because of an
academic gap. They had not complete the prerequisite in their previous grade and
so they were unable to grasp the new content. If I had diagnosed without assuming
and moving on with the curriculum, I would save a lot of instructional time.
Assessment should occur during as a formative assessment to continuous assess
learning throughout instruction. In teaching mathematics, I often use concept
learning where students are given an explanation, examples and non-examples
after which they engage in working sums on their own or in groups. Periodically
during the lesson I stop students and have them share their answers. This allows
me to know if everyone is on task, if everyone has understood and whether I have
to revisit the instruction in a different way if students are making several errors.
Assessments are also given at the end of instruction which is called summative
assessment. At this point, we refer to the curriculum as the assessment has
determined whether or not the instruction was effective and whether the learners
have gained the knowledge outlined in the curriculum. If they have learned, the
curriculum then guides us to what next needs to be taught. If they have not, then
the instruction is redesigned to better cater to the learners. Henson (2015) stated
that ‘if the students do not learn the way we teach them, we must teach them the
way they learn.’
We teach students in the way they learn by individualizing instruction for
them. Henson (2015) stated that ‘individualized instruction is based on the premise
that each student is different and that each has unique learning needs that every
teacher must make special efforts to meet.’ He further stated that the effects of
not differentiating instruction is either that the students become bored because
they are not challenged or discouraged because the instruction is beyond their
abilities. Individualized instruction includes clear expectations, meaningful
activities, daily monitoring of lesson objectives and student behavior, flexibility to
take ‘side trips’ and refocus on the lesson (Henson, 2015). This differentiated
instruction must first be guided by differentiated curriculum. According to Henson
(2015), another definition of curriculum is ‘the advance arrangement of learning
opportunities for a particular population of learners.’ I believe this when what is be
taught caters to different learners and learning styles as well as learner’s varying
abilities. Differentiated curriculum provides support for learning of all students by
utilizing a variety of approaches and strategies to address diversity in students’
needs, interests, experiences, and abilities(Mastropieri, Scruggs, Norland, Berkeley,
Mc Duffle, Tornquist & Connors. 2006). Henson (2015) stated that no single method
can help all students learn.’ Hence, with the knowledge of differentiated
curriculum, I can better address the different learning ability and styles of my
students. Cooperative learning is an ideal application of instruction of the
differentiated curriculum as it allows each child to share and work at their level. It
also pushes students through the experiences of others to move from their ability
to their zone of proximal development. I enjoy using cooperative learning when I
can in my classroom. I can see the ease that it brings students who are not very
confident in their mathematical ability to have the peer support. Mastropieri,
Scruggs, Norland, Berkeley, Mc Duffle, Tornquist & Connors (2006) in their
investigation suggested socially mediated learning in peer groups such as peer
tutoring. VanTassel-Baska (2014) also suggested discussion among peers as well as
project based learning which is collaborative and caters to all exceptionalities.
Being an advocate for differentiate learning mainly for gifted learners, VanTassel-
Baska(2014) suggested advanced learning so that students are challenged, learning
a second language, connected learning of skills and concepts across the subject
areas and using biography as a tool. I believe biography is a tool that can be used
for all learners as understand and use their culture to learn and tie concepts
together.
When curriculum and instruction is differentiated, evaluation must also be
differentiated. Henson (2015) stated that the teacher may be pleased to assess
advance students in nontraditional ways as the traditional testing may not show
the progress that we are monitoring with the mixed ability students. Suggest
evaluations include oral discussions, one on one questions, term projects,
portfolios, games. According to Henson (2015), it has been observed that in often
cases, standardized testing impede teacher’s efforts to meet the needs of all
students.
In considering the interrelationship between curriculum, instruction and
assessment as well as how and when to differentiate them, we have to engage in
constant reflection and observation to be cognizant of our students’ knowledge,
skills and abilities to make informed decisions on what aspects of the curriculum
they know and need to know, how they will be taught the selected contented and
how we will know that they are learning or have learned. Therefore in designing
lessons, we follow the goals from the curriculum which will push students to be
motivated to achieve the outlined objectives as we instruct them and then reflect
on instruction as we assess (Baxter, 2012).These actions are clearly following the
Propositions 2, 3 and 4 of the National Board Standards which state
respectively that ‘ Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those
subjects to students’, ‘Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring
student learning’ and ‘Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn
from experience’. Baxter (2012) identifies the instructional strategy of using hand
on activities in the curriculum where students socialize with their peers and share
ideas. In order for instruction, teachers must prepare and may create ‘hook
stations’ with lots of hand on activities that students do in groups which they can
then present to share their findings from the activity (Baker, 2012). Baxter’s
example of the interrelationship between curriculum, instruction and assessment
is similar to a Discovery lesson I used to help my students discovery the formula to
find the sum of the interior angles of any polygon. This is objective in the curriculum
is that students know the sum of angles in a given polygon. For this instruction, I
placed students in groups with different cut out polygons and each group was given
a table and directions. At the end of the activity students had to share their findings
in the table and share inferences based on their findings to derive the formula for
the sum of angles in any polygon. Baxter (2012) also stated that this
interrelationship extends to homework and even discipline.
The concerns I have with the curriculum design process is that we have very little
say as teachers based on the way our educational system is organized. Even when
we plan to omit certain topics from the syllabus to create our curriculum because
of how bulky the syllabus given is, it does not make sense because the standardized
test will not omit the topic because we have. The assessment body should
therefore work hand in hand with the teachers who use the curriculum for
instruction as they clearly work hand in hand. Another concern I have with design
process of the curriculum is its design as a spiral curriculum. As much as I believe
that it has its advantages in building up on topics which means each level would
most likely cater to the child’s cognitive level as they grow, it makes the content
become repetitive in most cases and boring.