PSI Curriculum Development & Design 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A police academy is revising its curriculum to meet new state standards. Which source should carry the MOST weight when establishing course content requirements?
- Instructor personal preferences and past experience
- State POST commission standards and job task analysis results (Correct answer)
- National bestselling textbooks in law enforcement
- Recruit feedback from previous academy classes
Correct answer: State POST commission standards and job task analysis results
POST commission standards and job task analysis data provide authoritative, legally defensible bases for curriculum content.
Question 2: During a needs assessment for a new fire suppression curriculum, a training manager conducts surveys, interviews, and observations. This process is BEST described as:
- Summative evaluation
- Front-end analysis (Correct answer)
- Formative testing
- Task sequencing
Correct answer: Front-end analysis
Front-end analysis gathers data about performance gaps and learner needs before curriculum development begins.
Question 3: An instructor designs a public safety course where each new topic deliberately revisits and expands on concepts from earlier lessons. This design strategy reflects the:
- Linear curriculum model
- Spiral curriculum approach (Correct answer)
- Competency-based progression
- Subject-centered design
Correct answer: Spiral curriculum approach
The spiral curriculum, associated with Bruner, revisits concepts at increasing levels of complexity across the course.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST describes criterion-referenced assessment in a public safety curriculum?
- Ranking students against each other on a bell curve
- Measuring student performance against a predetermined standard (Correct answer)
- Grading based on instructor subjective judgment
- Comparing current class results to historical class averages
Correct answer: Measuring student performance against a predetermined standard
Criterion-referenced assessment evaluates whether each student meets a defined performance standard, regardless of how peers perform.
Question 5: A hazmat instructor wants to ensure curriculum content is job-relevant. Which tool would BEST validate that training tasks directly reflect actual hazmat technician duties?
- Student satisfaction surveys
- Job task analysis (JTA) (Correct answer)
- Curriculum committee vote
- Comparison with courses at other agencies
Correct answer: Job task analysis (JTA)
A job task analysis systematically identifies the actual tasks performed on the job and is the gold standard for ensuring curriculum relevance.
Question 6: When developing a blended learning curriculum for EMS continuing education, what is a PRIMARY advantage of incorporating online pre-work before hands-on labs?
- It eliminates the need for qualified instructors
- It allows lab time to focus on higher-order psychomotor and scenario skills (Correct answer)
- It reduces the need for skill competency verification
- It satisfies all state CE requirements without practical sessions
Correct answer: It allows lab time to focus on higher-order psychomotor and scenario skills
Pre-work allows knowledge acquisition online so that valuable lab time is used for practice and application rather than lecture.
Question 7: Which curriculum characteristic ensures that content, objectives, instructional methods, and assessments all align with each other?
- Redundancy
- Constructive alignment (Correct answer)
- Content saturation
- Affective loading
Correct answer: Constructive alignment
Constructive alignment means that learning outcomes, teaching activities, and assessments are deliberately designed to support each other.
PSI Curriculum Development & Design 3
A police academy is revising its curriculum to meet new state standards.
Which source should carry the MOST weight when establishing course content requirements?