GED Curriculum Design & Development 2 — Questions and Answers

Question 1: The 'backward design' model of curriculum development begins with:

Selecting instructional materials and textbooks
Choosing engaging classroom activities
Identifying desired learning outcomes and standards (Correct answer)
Writing daily lesson plans

Correct answer: Identifying desired learning outcomes and standards

Backward design (Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design) starts with the end goal — what students should know and be able to do — then designs assessments and instruction to achieve those goals.

Backward design, articulated in Wiggins and McTighe's 'Understanding by Design' (UbD), reverses traditional curriculum planning. Stage 1: Identify desired results (standards, enduring understandings, essential questions). Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence (how will students demonstrate learning?). Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction. This 'start with the end in mind' approach ensures that all activities and assessments are aligned with the ultimate learning goals rather than being interesting but disconnected activities.

Question 2: Scope in curriculum design refers to:

The sequence in which content is taught across grade levels
The breadth and depth of content covered at a given level (Correct answer)
The time allotted for each lesson
The alignment of curriculum to state standards

Correct answer: The breadth and depth of content covered at a given level

Scope refers to the breadth (range of topics) and depth (how deeply those topics are explored) of content included in the curriculum at a particular level or within a course.

Scope and sequence are two essential concepts in curriculum design. Scope describes what content is included — both horizontally (range of topics) and in terms of depth of treatment. Sequence describes the order in which content is taught. A curriculum document's scope determines what all students will learn at a given level. Decisions about scope involve balancing breadth (covering many topics) vs. depth (thoroughly exploring fewer topics). Research supports prioritizing depth over breadth for conceptual understanding.

Question 3: Which curriculum model emphasizes student interests, real-world problems, and active learning rather than subject-matter disciplines?

Subject-centered curriculum
Experience-centered curriculum (Correct answer)
Core curriculum
Standards-based curriculum

Correct answer: Experience-centered curriculum

Experience-centered (or learner-centered) curriculum is organized around student interests, needs, and real-world problems rather than traditional subject-matter disciplines — rooted in Dewey's progressive education philosophy.

Experience-centered curriculum, rooted in John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy, organizes learning around students' direct experiences, interests, and real-world problems. It emphasizes active learning, student voice, and connections to life outside school. Curriculum emerges from student inquiry rather than predetermined content sequences. While criticized for potentially lacking rigor or systematic skill development, this approach promotes intrinsic motivation, critical thinking, and relevance. Project-based learning and problem-based learning are contemporary expressions of experience-centered principles.

Question 4: Vertical alignment in curriculum design ensures that:

All teachers across subject areas teach the same content simultaneously
Content builds logically and progressively across grade levels over time (Correct answer)
All students receive equal instructional time
Standards are aligned to national benchmarks

Correct answer: Content builds logically and progressively across grade levels over time

Vertical alignment ensures that content, skills, and concepts build coherently from one grade level to the next — students learn prerequisite knowledge before encountering more complex material.

Vertical alignment (also called curriculum articulation) refers to the coordination of curriculum across grade levels to ensure logical progression. It answers: 'What should students know in grade 3 before tackling grade 4 content?' Vertical alignment prevents gaps (topics never taught) and redundancies (same content taught the same way at multiple grade levels). It requires cross-grade collaboration among teachers and is fundamental to standards-based curriculum frameworks. Without vertical alignment, students may encounter content they are not prepared for or repeatedly cover the same material.

Question 5: An 'enduring understanding' in curriculum design is best defined as:

A fact students should memorize for the end-of-year exam
A big idea or transferable insight that has lasting value beyond the classroom (Correct answer)
A unit objective students should master within one week
A standard written by state education departments

Correct answer: A big idea or transferable insight that has lasting value beyond the classroom

Enduring understandings are the big ideas that remain after the details are forgotten — conceptual insights that transfer across contexts and disciplines, forming the core of deep learning.

In Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design framework, enduring understandings are the big, transferable ideas at the heart of a curriculum unit. They go beyond facts and skills to represent the most important insights of a discipline. For example, 'Authors' choices of structure, language, and literary elements shape meaning and impact' is an enduring understanding in English. Students revisit and deepen these understandings over time. Identifying enduring understandings requires distinguishing between knowledge that is 'worth being familiar with,' 'important to know and do,' and 'enduring' — only the latter forms the core.

Question 6: The hidden curriculum refers to:

Content that has been removed from the official curriculum
Unintended lessons, values, and norms students learn from the school environment (Correct answer)
Classified information in teacher manuals
Advanced coursework for gifted students

Correct answer: Unintended lessons, values, and norms students learn from the school environment

The hidden curriculum consists of the implicit messages, values, and social lessons students absorb from the school environment, routines, and interactions — not explicitly taught in any lesson plan.

The hidden curriculum encompasses the unstated lessons about values, norms, and social expectations that students learn through the structure and culture of schooling. Examples include learning to follow authority, respecting schedules, competition vs. cooperation, who gets called on most in class, and what 'counts' as knowledge. Philip Jackson first described the concept in 'Life in Classrooms' (1968). The hidden curriculum can reinforce or undermine the formal curriculum and can perpetuate social inequalities if not critically examined by educators.

GED Curriculum Design & Development 2

The 'backward design' model of curriculum development begins with: