Curriculum is defined as the set of courses and their content which refer to the deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature and responsible adults. It is based on a general syllabus agreed upon in a country. A syllabus is an outline of topics to be covered during an education or a complete training course (Thornton & Flinders, 2009). It is descriptive in nature and is often set up by the examinations board or the professor in charge of course quality. Syllabus and curriculum are often fused and given to a student during the first lesson to provide guidelines on how to achieve the objectives set. A curriculum is however prescriptive and that is why the syllabus is used to specify what topics are to be covered when and at what level (Stenhouse, 2005).
Learning is the acquisition of behavior, values, skills, preferences or knowledge and is usually involved in synthesizing the different of types of information that may be offered. Learning may occur in part as training, education or personal development depending on where the learning is taking place (Holt, 2006). There are different types of learning that may used by an individual to grasp what is required. There is the simple non-associative learning which is either habitual or sensitization; there is the associative learning which includes the classical conditioning; there are observational learning, e-learning; imprinting and many others.
The curriculum is basically meant to augment all these types of learning to create a society that is learned. Therefore, those mandated with the creation of these curriculums must set out objectives on their exact goals and aims that they wish to achieve throughout a training course. Proper research needs to be carried out to ensure that the goals of the education system are meant and achieve the needed task of imparting knowledge (Rogers & Freiberg, 2007). The course outline should always be geared towards the generation of qualities that assist an individual to be a desirable member of a certain community. In formal schooling, therefore, curriculum describes a specific learning program. That means it collectively embodies the teaching, learning and assessment materials that are available for that course of study. These curriculums are set up on the basis that they engage the students in active learning in relation to their educational environment. In addition, curriculum is left to define the course objectives that will be used to address the learning outcomes expected and those achieved.
In these curriculums, there are assessment strategies that are mapped out by those in charge of curriculum drafting. They group them in units or modules from which a specific, specialized type of curriculum is applied. Assessment is taken as the process of documenting skills attitudes, beliefs and knowledge in measurable terms. It focuses on either an individual or an entire learning community as may be designed to fit (Atherton, 2010). Different standards are applied when evaluating what is learnt and is required from a particular point of view. It is done in several ways and for different reasons altogether. There is the formative assessment which is generally carried out within an entire course or project. It is used to aid learning by providing information and feedback on a student’s work. There is the summative assessment which is carried out at the end of a course and is evaluative in nature. They are used to measure the amount of skills acquired within a particular learning period. There is also the objective kind of assessment that requires a single correct answer is expected during an examination. Subjective kind of assessment is defined as the form in which different answers in terms of ways of expressing it. This may be in the form of essays while objective assessment questions are either multiple choice or matching questions or true/false answers (Weeden, 2002).
Assessment is done with different meanings attached to it. The summative type of assessment is done to offer a basis for grade allocation in a school system. It acts as a means of gauging the student at a particular point in time in relation to the content standards. Certain aspects of the learning process are determined by performing examinations at the end of the course to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational learning programs in schools (Atherton, 2010). It provides information of where change is needed, whether at the classroom level or an academic stage. Further, this type of assessment gives instructional adjustments and interventions for that particular learning process. Formative assessment is used to accomplish interventions cited during a review of the summative assessment. This is due to its applicability during an instructional process. They target standard-based learning goals within a set period of time. It provides teachers with the required feedback about the students while at the same time provide vital information to the student on their own capabilities (Weeden, 2002). It gives the students a chance to identify achievement within a particular period of time and identify areas for further work.
Assessment should be carried out considering the learners capability and abilities. Providing a standardized test for all students is good start towards the right direction. Validity and reliability are some of the important aspects that require to be carried out speculatively. However, different types of learning occur during a period of time. When formative assessment is carried out, the learners may be tested on one particular aspect of learning which may not encompass all the desired cognitive activities (Atherton, 2010). Thus, there is need to create an assessment that generally involves all the cognitive aspects of an individual instead of favoring those with memorizing ability and disadvantaging those with a more synthesizing type of capability. Examinations should enhance comprehension, synthesis f information and ability to apply it in day-to-day life. Those setting these types of examinations are required to evaluate the benefits expected, the meaning of the examination to both the student and the teacher as well as the conceptualize implication of the assessment results.
The benefits of studying assessment are immense. There is need to create an environment that excites the learners and creates an environment from which this is possible (Brown, 2007). With the continued dynamism of education pedagogies, it is important to map out the most relevant of them for our students. The only way that this can be fused with the learning environment is by understanding how they react and feel about a certain method of learning. This implies that assessment must be done at a level from which both the students and the teachers get to understand what to and what not to do during the learning process (Brown, 2007). Assessment thus offers a basis from which curriculum changes can be effected and towards which direction or field. It also helps develop significant intellectual skills which develop to different extents in different children.
Arising from the research are a number of issues. First, examination is turning out to be the sole objective of education. Children are being trained towards achieving examination excellence, neglecting other core functions of the education process. This undermines the existence of a school curriculum and the objectives therein. Objectives meant to achieve learning outcomes are being sidelined to accommodate different points of view (Weeden, 2002). This means that teachers are preparing their students for examinations rather than their future life outside the classroom. Secondly, schools are being discriminated against in relation to their performance in national examinations. This creates a discrepancy between what is being taught and what is being seen in terms of results. Does it mean that there is no learning that takes place in schools that score poorly in examinations? Or does it imply absence of knowledge on the part of the students? These questions have not yet been answered and this criterion ought to be changed to accommodate other types of learning that help nurture a student towards self-reliance (Weeden, 2002).
Thirdly, assessment is not being utilized fully to encompass all the cognitive domains of an individual. As a result, emotional enfeeblement and moral degeneration are becoming a defining characteristic of our generations in the recent past. Students at institutions of higher leaning run berserk vandalizing property due to small misconceptions or misunderstandings (Weeden, 2002). Fourthly, tests have been seen to cause anxiety and sickness in teachers due to the fear of failure. This is because, the students risk being denied their diploma certificates for failing in a test or for not knowing the required material. Similarly, several factors could come into play that would cause the failure of a student which are never discussed or put into consideration when classifications are being made (Black, 2003). For instance, a student who cheats in an exam will not fair the same with one who is not. A student who is sick during the examination will also not perform as they would if they been healthy. Students from less disadvantaged schools with fewer facilities cannot perform at the same level as those that are centers of excellence. These factors and others undermine the art of assessment as it casts doubts on how summative it really is and how informative the results will prove to be.
Thus, assessment in a school is supposed to be a creation of the present and a reflection of the students’ real capability as opposed to memorizing capability of the student. Different approaches should be used to eliminate these kinds of failures and produce substantive results from assessments conducted during and after the course.
References;
Atherton J S (2010) Assessment: Learning and Teaching; [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/assessment.htm Accessed: 5 November 2010
Black, P. (2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting it into practice. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
Brown, H. Douglas (May 6, 2007). An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy: Teaching by Principles (Third ed.). Pearson ESL
Holt, J. (2006). How Children Learn. UK: Penguin Books.
Rogers, C. and Freiberg, H. J. (2007) Freedom to Learn (3rd edn.), New York: Merrill.
Stenhouse, L. (2005) An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development, London: Heinemann.
Thornton, S. J. and Flinders, D. J. (2009) The Curriculum Studies Reader, London: Routledge.
Weeden P. (2002) What’s in it for schools?: Assessment, London; Routledge,
