Understanding Curriculum: Elements and Importance

Introduction
Curriculum is a complex term and it might be difficult to understand as it is widely
used in different areas. While reading any literature, it is important to think about the
curriculum means in the specific text. This section of the document is going to provide a clear
understanding of the curriculum and the elements which are included in it. The term
curriculum is generally used in many ways and it is equivalent to an entire education
program. In my case, the term curriculums for program aspects are about the course level of
family medicine course. Being a family doctor I am working in university of Saudi Arabia
and teaching both the undergraduate as well as the post graduate level student in my
institution and I am teaching family medicine course there. The end goal of the curriculum is
to provide a clear knowledge to all the pupils about the family medicine course. Students will
achieve the competency over the importance of medicines and its applications when required.
In my institution, the top most priorities are the students who are learning and it is always
checked as well as analyzed thoroughly that whether the aims and educational goals are
emphasized or not. The curriculum development examines various aspects of education and it
includes an undergraduate degree course along with a post graduate course and a one-hour
lecture. The curriculum in this institution strictly follows some design steps and for the
development cycle of education, it follows five recurring phases that includes analysis,
design, development, implementation and evaluation. As I am the teacher of the university
and teaching both undergraduate and post graduate level, hence the age group of the pupils
vary from each other and different curriculum is set for different students to teach the family
medicine course as their power of learning also differ from each other as per their knowledge
and experience. I use different teaching methods that consist of lectures as well as problem-
based learning. Apart from this, I used Power point presentation to focus on the curriculum
level. In order to teach all the pupils regarding family medicine course, it was necessary to

have a laboratory and all the necessary lab equipments along with computer rooms, library
and other necessary facilities such as classroom, models etc. In this type of curriculum,
practical knowledge receives more priority than the theoretical knowledge. Keeping all these
things in mind, the whole set up was organized in the institution for both the undergraduate as
well as post-graduate students who were a part of the course of family medicine. It is
essential to properly follow the specific structure of the curriculum so that the teaching
process can be completed in a systematic way and all the pupils can get benefit from it
(Gustafson & Branch, 2002). I also followed the structure of the curriculum and was focussed
enough to achieve the goal so that all the students can get the satisfaction while learning and
can acquire the entire knowledge in a quick and easy manner.
Justification
Curriculum navigator is used to explore the attitude of teachers towards the current
curriculum of the institution which is being followed. The curriculum navigator framework
basically integrates the well-known approaches into a conceptual framework which is
comprehensive in order to explore the process of curriculum planning. According to
literatures, curriculum is mainly termed as a sophisticated amalgamation of educational
strategies. It integrates the 14 approaches and curriculum navigator helps a teacher to have an
insight into the practices. Again, according to literatures six education strategies together
have been identified as the SPICES model and it can be related to the medical school and also
to our institution. Curriculum can be developed using a SPICES model and it serves various
purposes such as, it helps in reviewing an existing curriculum to check if any improvement is
required or not. It also works in developing a new curriculum from the scratch, tackling
specific questions or issues related to the curriculum is also possible with the help of this
model. The appropriate teaching method for any course can also be selected using this model
and the format in which the assessment should be taken or evaluated can also be decided with

the use of SPICES model. This model basically is the abbreviation of student centred,
problem based, integrated, community based, elective and systematic. In any kind of student
centred learning process, learners are involved n the curriculum design. In the curriculum
planning, this model of curriculum strategy analysis is always used. I preferred curriculum
navigator above SPICES model and there are various reasons behind my preference to this
framework. This navigator framework integrated 14 approaches which can be divided into
two main categories and they are focal approaches and decision-making approaches. In focal
approaches, the emphasis is on the aims and objectives of the curriculum. It also focuses on
the teaching techniques as well as methods used by the educators. At the initial state, the
content and all the topics are enlisted properly which makes it easier to understand about the
complete syllabus. Again, in this curriculum planning, the decision is made by the consensus
of representatives of groups. In this method, widest input from the stakeholders can be
availed. In this approach of curriculum, everyone is involved including student, public and
other healthcare team and they can take decisions together which make the process better and
due to these reasons I preferred curriculum navigator above the SPICE model in my
institution.
Current pattern
The curriculum navigator has 10 different dimensions. Each of the dimensions is
basically represented in a four-point continuum between two styles and they are
lawyer/detective, ant’s eye/bird’s eye, human/non-human resources, activist/bureaucratic,
fashionable/dogmatic, collaborative/authoritative decision making, salesman/spy,
mentor/magician, crafting/shopping, quality assurance/public relations (Al-Eraky, 2012).
Lawyer/detective

When people are asked about their curriculum various opinions might come and some
of them can be satisfied and some of them might seem to be over-confident in this regard. It
can be compared with lawyer as they constantly advocate their efficacy and believes that they
have the best curriculum over others’. On the other hand, detectives meticulously look for the
issues in their existing curriculum (Al-Eraky, 2012).
Ant’s eye/bird’s eye view
Details of curriculum can be viewed in two perspectives. First one is ant’s eye view,
in which a narrow view can be achieved as ants are the hard workers but they will have
narrow perspectives. Again on the other hand, through the bird’s eye view, it is possible to
capture the aerial view and reading the mission and vision of the organization, curriculum can
also be expected with such view. The duty of the educators is balancing the curriculum bird’s
and ant’s view (Al-Eraky, 2012).
Human/non human resources
Two types of resources are there and they are either human or non-human. Non
human resources can generally be achieved negatively such as lack of simulators, budget
limits and others and positively through introduction of smart boards and others. Both of
them can lead to some particular curriculum changes (Al-Eraky, 2012).
Bureaucratic/ activist
Bureaucratic planners are the policy centred and they work upon the policies only but
the activists are the policy breaker on the other hand. They believe that rules are made just to
be broken. They always perceive any kind of rules as restrictions (Al-Eraky, 2012).
Dogmatic/fashionable