Identify decisions that have to be made in the curriculum planning process.

Examine factors that can affect decision-making.

Explore decision-making strategies to guide expert committees in defining problems and considering alternatives.

Decisions are made at all levels of education regarding the adoption and development of curriculum. Someone must decide if the course is to be developed, if it is to be offered and how the content will be structured. Once decisions have been made to develop and offer a course, someone has to decide what specific competencies will make up the course. These two decisions may be made by the same group but in some cases by two different groups. For example in extension it may be the county program extension advisory group that decides the curriculum should be developed but a group of content experts in the content area would actually decide what goes in the curriculum. In agricultural education, a high school advisory group may decide the course is needed but another group of content experts would decide what should be taught in the course.

Groups who make the decision whether a curriculum is needed could be made up of individuals from industry, education and/or government and may possess a variety of philosophies and experiences. As the facilitator of the decision making process, you must be able to use the appropriate decision making tool for each situation.

In this lesson we will review how decisions are made, what factors can affect decision making, and strategies that exist for sound decision-making. This week you need to begin thinking about who would approve the offering of a new or modified course in your educational system. Would your local advisory committee be the first to approve the idea for a new course? Would your principal, county school board or WDE/CTE advisory council then have to approve the new course? Who would decide what content/competencies would be in the course? If you don't know the answer to these questions, ask your local administration and read below.

Read Chapter 3 "Making Decisions in Planning the Curriculum" Curriculum Development in Vocational and Technical Education by Finch and Crunkilton. To view the PowerPoint the summarizes it click here. To download it, click here.

Review the Procedures Manual for the Development of North Carolina Standard Course of Study posted on last week's site. How many committee decisions are made? Who would make up these committees? Which strategies discussed this week would work best with these groups?

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has developed a Standard Course of Study which includes state adopted courses in North Carolina. Blueprints, assessments and curriculum have been developed for each WDE/CTE course and local educational agencies can offer these courses on an elective basis. What are the curriculum planning responsibilities of the local agencies according to NCDPI?

If local educational agencies want to offer courses different than those that are in the North Carolina High School Standard Course of Study they must seek approval of a local course offering. Look again in the Standard Course of Study on page 15/ Appendix B and consider what committees and decision making strategies would be useful in this process?

Phase I: We are beginning our course project this week. I am asking you to turn in a one to two page report that describes a course you would like to create, a systems model of how this course would serve a purpose in a community (make sure to include the five parts of a system), and a mock description of how you would set up an advisory committee meeting (to decide if this course is the best alternative for the community) including the decision making strategy to be used with the group. Please review information we covered in previous chapters to complete this assignment.
Send it to bwilson@ncsu.edu and name it yourlastnamephase1.

The open book mid term exam will be e-mailed to you on Oct. 10 and must be returned to me by Oct.17. The exam will consist of ten essay questions sent by email and twenty multiple choice questions on Vista WebCt.