Planning The Curriculum

The report will document and evaluate the design problems and strengths that did, and dominantly could, occur when planning a vocationally based Wedding Planner course. Moreover, the process of reflecting on each factor sought after in an educational setting, including recommendations regarding equality and diversity, a teacher's responsibility under the IFL Code of Practice (2013), and quality assurance checks, will be examined to produce a specifically humanistic approach to delivering a curriculum. Frymier (1975,75) coins the curriculum study unit into three phases: that which is planned, that which occurs, and the evaluation. This report analyses each phase to form the conclusion that each concept of curriculum inevitably affects student and economic well-being.

The recommendations of the validating panel: To begin, Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) defines the nature of curriculum planning, in regards to its capability to be subject to recommendations: "A curriculum is an attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice" (Pring, 2000, 124). With this in mind, the validation presented four recommendations to assist the design of delivering the course specifically tailored to individuals of diverse, possibly life experienced, backgrounds that needed a formal qualification to develop themselves as wedding planners. The recommendations were as follows: (1) to hire guest speakers to deliver material; (2) to consider reductions for people on low incomes or disability benefits; (3) to take into account the possibility of funding from other sources i.e. lottery; and (4) to recruit trainee teachers to deliver parts of the course. To make the curriculum increasingly beneficial, one way of reflecting on the changes needed would be to relate theory to practice, and an additional recommendation, upon reflection, would be to actively involve existing, or potential, wedding planner students in the curriculum development planning stages. "Needs identification," as Walkin (1990, 237) states, is a term that directly links with this suggestion and enables teachers to continually identify their personal training needs as part of their establishment thus having more relevant training delivered to them. As a trainee teacher, this has been experienced by asking specific topic questions (to a mentor) to consolidate knowledge in a particularly lacking area, which is recorded in a CPD record. To clarify, theory, without a doubt, highlights a better understanding of an area for development. However, students' personal development and agendas need to take precedence, and actively encouraging them to voice opinions and expectations through discussions will develop a deeper rapport between teacher/learner relations and clearer more relevant aims for the course in construction. A critique to this change in the planning procedure could be a possible indication that the students may not understand what they need from the course, in which case the teacher will still gauge an understanding of the abilities and apprehensions of other educational experiences while the students still feel like their concerns are valid. In addition, the curriculum was designed to focus on functional experiences, such as networking with clients and other small business owners at wedding fairs (and collating research information to present to the group), kinaesthetically developing own style and choice in regards to table layout/personal business card design, along with flexible part-time evening classes to assist in inclusive learning to the demographic of adults with other commitments. This process led design is supported by Grundy who states that "the learners in this model are not objects to be acted upon. They have a clear voice in the way that the sessions evolve. The focus is on interactions. This can mean that attention shifts from teaching to learning" (Srivastava 2005,13). As with personal teaching experience, a lesson plan can be adhered to but the priority is that learners are thriving in an inclusive environment, meaning that, at times, the learners may need support and consolidation on, say, literacy terms that require the teacher to be responsive to a particular individual. Specifically, the Humanistic approach-through thoughts and feelings and a non-traditional environment to encourage self-choice and evaluation- is the basis for any personal curriculum modification that would be made thus achieving full autonomy for the learner. Secondly, the recommendations by the panel fall under the umbrella term of equality, and assuring that a wide demographic of society can partake in this course without exclusion. In relation, the suggestion to recruit both male and female guest speakers in this specialized career field not only added relevance to the material being taught (in a working life context) but it encouraged the recruitment of male learners in a stereotypically female centered career therefore not marginalizing individuals. Similarly, there would be an alteration in regards to a financial discount for low incomes and people receiving disability allowances due to the course being self-funded, and, again, the emphasis on making the course available to everyone within reason. The Equality Act 2010 coincided with this decision, in which it has "extended protection against indirect discrimination to disability," on the basis that financial assistance should be taken into consideration where the learner is unable to work. It could be said that the curriculum, upon self-reflection, was then viewed from a Democratic, Socialist ideology (Morrison 1989, 67) in which the focus on socially relevant tasks and the teacher's role of being "the catalyst of social change" became crucial. External factors of the current 2013 Government giving small businesses a financial boost, as passed by Vince Cable (2013), affected the decision to promote this vocational subject that could provide economic well-being to society; this course encourages the growth of small businesses. Finally, the recommendation to employ trainee teachers to deliver segments of the course not only could assist in reducing the amount of funding needed but could offer the opportunity for more collaborative work between teachers in regards to professional development. For example, teachers with more extensive knowledge could discuss building the curriculum with trainee teachers who are entering the field with a new vision of teaching strategy. Recordings of these discussions could improve future ideas and implementations for the curriculum design. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (2005, 12) support other professional goals that could be used when altering this curriculum for example "changing your student instruction and PDP after analysing students' daily work and progress" and "participating in professional readings, viewing of videos, and website searches to locate and record new content knowledge, resources, and instructional strategies that can be immediately used in class."

Professionalism and professional values

With professional goals in mind, the course design takes into account the core professional values that promote equality and diversity in the classroom and is a reflection of continuous development of own personal teacher practice. Specifically, underpinning professional values establish a basis for any teaching practice and solid curriculum, and as of 2013 the core Professional Teaching Values comprise of: (1) respect and acting in accordance with legislation to provide a setting in which colleagues and students are treated equally regardless of diversity; (2) Provision is abided by and reasonable care is shown for the welfare of others; (3) demonstrate integrity to comply with assessment procedures and to not diminish the institutes/professions reputation; (4) Practice up to date record keeping of CPD and take measures to develop professional goals as part of the institution; (5) Disclosure and responsibility to report or assist with matters that could be against the policies set out (IFL 2013) Firstly, in terms of curriculum implementation of equality and diversity, the topic of wedding ceremonies was planned to incorporate all aspects of cultural practice (from religion to traditions and laws) to promote the multi-cultural society that we live in. Also, situations of respectfully signposting and assisting second language English speakers that may have language barriers aimed to promote diversity to students while at the same time, these values are being delivered directly to the student body via the teacher. The point here is the constant balance between essential planning to ensure curriculum content is relevant, and practicing core professional values. The IFL (2013) support how this value of "respect" is conveyed "in a manner which recognises diversity as an asset and does not discriminate in respect of race, gender, disability and/or learning difficulty, age, sexual orientation or religion and belief." Furthermore, core values such as integrity, respect, and care have been improved in my own personal teaching practice by the awareness of situations regarding motivating learners. To demonstrate, having worked with students with particular learning difficulties and hearing disabilities has proved an asset to developing teaching strategies such as a non-traditional classroom layout that encourage group interaction and do not exclude impaired learners from communication. Again, this coincides with the core value of reasonable care and ensuring the welfare of students' development is met by, for instance, creating extra resources to ensure differentiation is being demonstrated at all levels. But moreover, allowing the student to become their own expert in their disability allows for more effective planning and motivates the student to concentrate on their development without interruption. Most importantly, the diversity students bring to class improves the quality and relevant content of the lesson, as Richard Kazis (2007,17) states: "for adult learners, these traditional teaching methods can not only demean and infantilize them, but they do not acknowledge the real-life experiences and knowledge that the students bring to class." Most importantly, if learners in the life-long sector are not provided with an accessible educational programme to learn new skills and be maintained on the course, jobs will be filled with workers who are not skilled enough. Therefore the economy will suffer. Investing in adult education and innovation, which has been done in recent years, is crucial for productive members of society. Distinctly, teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector not only rely on their professionalism of delivering subject knowledge but more increasingly on the responsibility in the ways in which it is taught, as mentioned above. To expand though, the term professionalism in teaching is a socially constructed symbol that helps towards maintaining order in society with characteristics such as autonomy, specialist knowledge, and responsibility being key factors of being a professional. Robson (2006, 10) argues that "as a symbol, profession does not describe any actual occupation; rather it provides a way of thinking about occupations." But it could be said that with the responsibility of autonomy in designing lessons and a curriculum comes the responsibility to make appropriate judgements; inevitably, values and the term professionalism are co-dependent. For instance, in my personal teaching I emphasise on tasks that promote the hidden curriculum such as confidence building through encouragement and the opportunity for students to use speech as a form of strengthening their peer relationships. It is my responsibility to record student data and my own evaluations via the CPD file as part of the institution; however, more formative assessment takes precedence in my recordings, leaving valuable progression overlooked. Recently, I have improved my values of responsibility towards personal professional development by discussing with colleagues how to document these achievements. Likewise, evaluating content of the curriculum, in regards to kinaesthetic assessments that were proposed, involved drawing on the value of care to assure that, for example, tables were at the correct height for wheelchair users to access, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. More importantly, experiencing teaching a class with an array of needs has heightened my awareness for advanced planning of possible situations that allow the classroom to remain inclusive, for instance, organising a separate phonics group for the lower level learners as a request of the learners. In a socio-economic context, it is the teachers professional responsibility to represent education and the fact that it is accessible to all; without which, there would be societal groups that would not economically progress as a result.

Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement In terms of the teacher's responsibility to monitor progress efficiently and record keep, the two main factors in education that underpin these documentations are providing valid and reliable assessment and evaluation. The main problem occurring is not a full understanding of these terms or responsibilities and, as Dickinson (2011,4) supports, the Oxford Dictionary defines the term evaluation as assessment, which causes these meanings to become interchangeable in education. The main difference is that assessment is concerned with measuring informally or formally (and evidencing) the learners' performance, whereas evaluation continually, and cyclically, focuses on the quality of the process as an experience. To clarify, although the curriculum portfolio assessment was based on the process model (documenting best samples of work and growth of strengths overtime) the product model still influenced the resulting summative assessments in the designed evaluation portfolio that was to be produced at the end of the course. It would encompass a quiz, repeated twice, regarding specific wedding planner laws and regulations to ensure that the validity was relevant (in terms of specific content to do with the course) and the reliability produced similar results for grading and progression towards standards for quality assurance by external verification. Next, evaluation would be in the form of responding to more immediate student feedback and achievements via an ILP record and any recommendations by the board to further act on as part of the Quality Improvement cycle. Stakeholders in education such as OFSTED, LLUK, and institutes of employment expect teachers to demonstrate a positive initiative to be part of the quality assurance development. However, through teaching experience, it could be said that a critical approach to evaluating assessment methods and quality assurance is acquired as not every establishment has provided quality assessments; in this case it could be through badly designed tests or members of staff not understanding their full responsibility. The curriculum designed would need ILP feedback filling in accurately and perhaps directed questions to gauge an understanding of how to respond to student evaluation. Next, The United Nations (2012, 122)- education for all- critique of inefficient data recording illustrates that ensuring, for example, a questionnaire is clear to its respondents, each member of the institute (including stakeholders like external verifiers) fills data in accurately, and keeps up to date with monitoring if students have returned, and peer assessed, reading material, can mean the difference in nationally misrepresenting outcomes or, say, ordering more reading material than necessary. Continuing with the critique of quality assurance, my personal placement organisation has demonstrated strategies such as meetings with the examination board to feedback on content and marking criteria, colleagues cross-marking assessments and lesson plans for validity, ILPs recorded by students and teachers, spot inspections recently introduced to make sure lessons are planned efficiently, and success rates and retention through mock exams results. However, the examination board change and do not alter assessments immediately meaning that new material is introduced, questions are not always certain and well-defined, there are no chances of pre teaching new vocabulary to aid students of second languages therefore knowledge of taught lessons is being obscured. It is only through constant interaction with stakeholders that a chance of improvement and quality assurance is met, but as demonstrated there are continual barriers to this. For instance, assuring the reliability and limitations of 'self-report' data should also be considered as established by the curriculum journal:

"the random selection of a representative sample.completion of the survey was not compulsory, and a percentage of schools chose not to respond. One might therefore expect a certain bias in the output - for example, do rather more 'successful' schools tend to participate and therefore 'skew' the resultant data" (Boyle 2008, 9).

Finally, another important point would be an emphasis on retention and success rates through exam scores in which quality assurance is questioned when students are not progressing to the next level of class. "Performance-related pay for teachers will begin from September 2013," the education secretary, Michael Gove (2013), has confirmed, meaning that the process model of confidence building and other areas of the hidden curriculum are, in effect, discounted. At my current organisation, a large percentage of learners partake to develop confidence, socialise, and interact with reasons such as disability (like brain injury) and being beyond working age preventing academic progression. The teachers' responsibility then rests on reacting to evaluation and possibly developing a showcase portfolio to display personal development; and it is these constant critiques that enable quality improvement to be a significant part of the constant educational process. To conclude, the theory of a curriculum model is an essential basis to plan each aspect of providing a quality and accessible medium of education. However, it is not a static product, and like a tutors constant reflection and evaluation of their practice, it needs to be flexible enough to incorporate a response from evaluation by stakeholders, and more importantly the learners themselves. As a result of this report, a more humanisti