Unit 2: CURRICULUM PLANNING (Chpt 9)

We begin by asking two questions:

1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION?

2. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CURRICULUM?

DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF THE CURRICULUM

Assessed
Curriculum – Intended
Evaluates whether Curriculum - Plan
what was taught for what is to be
and learnt was taught and learnt
taught and learnt.

Enacted
Curriculum –
What is actually
taught and learnt

IMPLEMENTATION?

 Planning needs to start well before the start of the year

– staff need to be issued with programme before they
return to school
 - The principal and SMT need to have the year
programme for the following year finalized before
school closes at the end of the previous year
 First step: review events of current year together with
notes about things that had gone well / problems
encountered
 List all events planned for the year
 For each event indicate starting and ending time
 Compile list of activities to be included in programme
(see p228 for examples)
 List of events must be inserted in large year planner
 SMT to scrutinize draft programme and allow
comments and suggestions from teachers (see p231 for
example)

THE ACADEMIC YEAR

 Need to make decisions about issues related to

academic programme
 These are influenced by context in which school
operates (work ethic of students, extent to which
parents /community support the school)
 See p230 for dates and events that should be included
NB: For each of these items there needs to be a system in
place (control mechanism) to check that deadlines are met –
principal or delegated academic head should take up
responsibility and follow up on those teachers who do not
meet deadlines
TIMETABLING

 Timetabling is critical to ensuring that optimal use is

made of skills and qualifications of teachers so that
teachers teach the subjects , grades and phases for
which they are best qualified
 The first step is to design an operational model for the
school’s teaching week or teaching cycle
OPERATIONAL MODEL OF THE TEACHING PROGRAMME
‘… the way in which the school chooses to structure its
teaching programme, and includes the size of the school
and the way in which students are grouped in classes and
grades’. Some of the things may be within the schools’
control e.g.
- Limit of intake where there are other schools in the
area
- Other schools may not be that fortunate and may need
to accept every student because they are the only
school in the area
- Whatever the case is, schools need to base their
decisions on realities of the situation
 i) How would you use the ‘operational model’ to
structure your school and indicate what will guide
you in this process?
ii) Are you able to share the operational model of your
school? viz., number of students, grades, classes,
teaching lessons per week and teaching lessons per
day!
 See 232 for example of operational model for a high
school
ACADEMIC DAY AND WEEK
The information above can be used to provide a structure
of a school day and week. See example on p232
Based on the operational model, the number of teaching
lessons allocated to each subject and grade are shown in
table on p233
P/S Principals need to check the latest curriculum policy
documents to ensure that the instructional time allocated
to various curriculum components meets policy
prescriptions
ALLOCATION OF TEACHING LOAD p235

 Calculate the number of lessons each teacher will be

required to teach each week based on the school’s
staff allocation, number of teaching groups allocated to
each grade and the post-levels of teachers (pp233-5)
  Number of lessons taught by individuals are
determined by, post level, subject they teach and needs
of the school
CONSTRUCTING THE TIMETABLE p236

 Special requests (if they can be accommodated) to be

considered before construction of final timetable e.g.
double lessons, linked classes to make team teaching
possible
 Timetabling priorities:
- Major subjects (those with 5 or more lessons a week
e.g. languages, mathematics/literature, choice
subjects in grades 10 -12) – should be allocated at
least 1 period per day
- Subject links i.e. subjects which must teach in
combination because of subject choices offered
- Double lessons – for those subjects that need them
- Periods allocated for subject meetings – if possible
on the timetable
Before starting with the timetable, it is important to test
whether the decisions you have made will make it possible
for you to produce a viable timetable, or whether the
limitations posed by the decisions mean that it is impossible
to produce an operational timetable
When drawing up a timetable, what considerations will you
make for teachers teaching practical subjects?

CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT POLICY (CAPS)

DOCUMENTS

 CAPS documents became policy from 2012 in grades R-

3 and in Grade 10; scheduled to be introduced in Grade
4-6 and 11 in 2013; Grade 7-9 and Grade 12 in 2014
 CAPS documents provide clear and very specific and
prescriptive guidelines on what should be taught and
when it should be taught.
 How and when students should be assessed is clearly
spelt out
 Principals to insist the staff follow the prescriptions
 Teachers should be encouraged to use record sheets
and record books to record information that may be
relevant when providing advice to students and
parents(see p239 for example of information)
 Principals must ensure that proper planning takes
place and that teachers adapt the guidelines and
teaching strategies to the particular context of the
school
(Read more from p238 – 243)
ASSESSMENT
Evaluate the assessment approach as suggested in the CAPS
documents? (p244)
RECORDING AND REPORTING IN THE DIFFERENT PHASES
p244
See guidelines p244
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT (CASS)
To guard against the inflation of CASS marks, principals
need to insist that all assessment tasks which are included
as part of are properly moderated before they are
written/assigned to students, that marks are moderated,
and that averages of the marks are calculated and adjusted
if necessary to bring them in line with results that students
achieve in their formal written examinations
SCHOOL ASSESSMENT POLICY
Principals should ensure that there is an assessment school
policy to ensure that all members of staff understand what
is expected of them in terms of the assessment of student
performance (See example on p247)
Activities
A. Do activity A on p4 of your study guide and base your
answers on your own school or experience
B. Evaluate the subject work scheme and assessment plan
of your school or develop one for the school if you do
not have one