What are the most common challenges in evaluating and improving your teaching curriculum?

An interesting read about how to make IT curriculum more inclusive and sustainable was published by Mishra and Mishra (2020). The paper advocated for a shift in how IT curriculum should incorporate innovative approaches and practices to improve sustainability. I think this reading was particularly helpful in addressing real world challenges about sustainability and shifted my perspective about how inclusive curriculum could mean more than just about individual additional learning needs but can also include broadening to include a topical approach too. Mishra, D. and Mishra, A., 2020. Sustainability inclusion in informatics curriculum development. sustainability, 12(14), p.5769.

Assuring that what pupils learn aligns with what the school wants them to learn is known as "matching goals." Various Learning Styles: Since every student learns differently, it's important to find instructional strategies that suit a wide range of learners. Keeping Up: Because things change so quickly, it might be challenging to incorporate new knowledge or employ innovative teaching techniques. Limited Resources: In certain cases, there isn't enough money, time, or material available to improve the lessons. Sustaining Students' Interest: It can be challenging to maintain students' enthusiasm and interest in the material they are studying.

We need to evaluate a curriculum as it is often socially constructed. It is really interesting that the major categories or classifications of curriculum such as communication/ native language studies or an additional foreign language and mathematical thinking/ literacy etc. were identified in the early 1920s and over 100 years later 95% of the curricula areas across the world still follow the same format as identified by Ross (2000). I do find myself thinking that a given curriculum is often susceptible to emulate socially constructed norms such as gender roles.

I feel principles of management of change can be used here. One example can be by selecting a few levels and some enthusiastic teachers for experimenting a new curriculum or a part of it. Train and motivate them well to implement it. Update the progress to the whole team and celebrate the success. Rewards in the form of appreciation and promotions also can be offered to the successful ones. Gradually we can see the reduction in resistance.

'......among all the solutions put forward throughout history to the problems of power and privilege, there surely does not exist one that is better concealed...than the solution which the educational system provides by contributing to the?reproduction of the structure of class relations?and by concealing, by an apparently neutral attitude, the fact that it fulfills this function.' (Bourdieu, 1971, cited by Ross, 2000, p.91) 'School processes should promote social equality so that ‘each individual gets an opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which he was born, and come in living contact with a broader environment.' (Dewey, cited by Ross, 2000, p.81) these quotes resonate with me as to why we need to innovate.

This should be part of one’s own pedagogical practice. Reflecting on the impact and implementation of teaching and learning is key to keeping students engaged and motivated in their learning. One should strive to monitor, assess, plan and evaluate effectively throughout the whole curriculum.

Embedding functional communication and literacy is crucial for academic development. Although there are many different types of learning and we now understand that traditional ‘English and Mathematics’ literacy is outdated, we cannot underestimate the significance of these modality’s in our everyday life.