Developing your curriculum design skills

One of the biggest changes in education in the last few years has been a shift of focus from pedagogy to curriculum. As a new teacher, it is increasingly important to understand the principles behind meaningful curriculum design, both for your own development and to empower you to take part in the conversation at a whole-school level. If we take seriously the idea that ‘the curriculum defines the purposes of a school and the journey a school wants its pupils to take’ (Young et al., 2014) then every decision we make in school is a curricular decision. However, for the purposes of this article, I am considering the academic curriculum – the subjects taught – rather than the extended curriculum. Curriculum design requires you to read, think and question more than any other aspect of teaching. It is both the everything and the everyday. Here, I outline seven useful categories of curriculum design to guide your thinking. Categories of curriculum design 1 Purpose Ralph Tylerâ€