Curriculum Development and Design Flashcards

Which term describes the curriculum as it is actually experienced by individual students, shaped by their personal interpretations?

Answer: Received curriculum

The received curriculum is what students individually perceive and internalize, which may differ from what was planned or taught.

A school adopts project-based learning across all departments. Which curriculum design challenge is most likely to arise?

Answer: Difficulty ensuring content coverage and standards alignment

Project-based learning can make it harder to guarantee systematic coverage of required content and alignment to specific standards across all students.

In curriculum design, 'transfer goals' represent:

Answer: The long-term ability to apply learning independently in new contexts

Transfer goals describe what students should be able to do with their learning in novel, real-world situations beyond the classroom.

Which assessment practice best aligns with a standards-based curriculum design model?

Answer: Criterion-referenced assessment tied to specific learning standards

Criterion-referenced assessment measures student performance against defined standards rather than comparing students to each other.

Which curriculum design consideration is MOST critical when designing for neurodivergent and gifted learners simultaneously?

Answer: Providing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with multiple means of representation

UDL principles ensure curriculum is accessible and appropriately challenging for all learners by offering multiple ways to engage, represent, and express learning.

A curriculum coordinator discovers that teachers are skipping the most cognitively demanding standards due to time pressure. This gap between planned and taught curriculum is called:

Answer: Curriculum drift

Curriculum drift occurs when implemented instruction deviates significantly from the planned curriculum, often omitting the most rigorous content.

Which stakeholder group's input is MOST essential during a needs assessment phase of curriculum development?

Answer: Students, teachers, parents, and community members

A comprehensive needs assessment gathers data from all key stakeholders — students, educators, families, and the community — to ground curriculum in real needs.