The Relationship Between Instructional Design and Curriculum

Instructional Design and Curriculum

The process of learning has to be focused , intentional and should take into account the competencies of the learners and the skills and competencies they have to learn during the course of their study . As such , a curriculum is of utmost importance to the learning process of the learner and for the teachers to know what kinds of s , skills and abilities they should impart to their students . Formal schooling has to have curriculum , which refers to a set of subjects or courses required work for each course

, and content being offered by the school The government usually has a hand in the development of curriculum to help ensure that the students will become productive citizens in the future (Kelly , 2004

Under the constructivist approach to learning , students learn best with the process of discovery through active engagement with their learning environment . This also means that they have to revisit a particular subject at different levels of their development . The curriculum also contains the course objectives , which usually comes in the form of expected learning outcomes (Kelly , 2004

In to transmit knowledge and teach lessons effectively , an instructional design is needed . Instructional design refers to the use of various media and communication strategies and technology so that the course content and lessons are transferred more effectively and easily to students . The level of understanding of the learner should be understood and established first and analyze how the learner could best achieve the learning outcomes and objectives . Sometimes , intervention in the form of media is needed to help the learner grasp the lesson more quickly and more effectively (Mayer , 2001

Instructional Design is rooted in the tradition of cognitive and behavioral psychology . Through the advancements in cognitive load theory , Sweller (1988 ) was able to prove that the instructional materials used can have a direct effect on the learning process and performance of the learner . This then led teachers , educators and textbook and materials to revise their view and construct a more learning-centered approach to education

Learning-centered approach is different from other kinds of methodologies in the educational process . Instead of creating a list of s that the learners should learn and imposing these on the learner the learning-centered approach considers four components . The first one is the situational factors , which refer to the status of the learner the ability of the teacher and other environmental factors that may affect the learning process . Secondly , the learning goals are identified based on the situational factors . After this , there is a process for feedback and assessment to check whether the learner has achieved the goals identified . Lastly , there are teaching and learning activities that both the teacher and the learner must undergo together (Fink 2005

With this approach to education , student learning is promoted and every material and activity should contribute to the learning experience . The four factors of the learning-centered approach work together in enhancing the learning experience of the learner . It also means that the learner...