EDUC 615

EDUC 615: Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Prerequisite: Graduate standing

Credit Hours: (3)

This course provides a foundation for designing effective classroom instruction using the principles of curriculum and instructional design.  Teachers and teacher candidates working in pk-12 school settings will learn best practices in teaching, learning, and assessing for student understanding and how to incorporate these best practices into instructional opportunities for their diverse learners.

Detailed Description of Course Syllabus

Engaging all students and ensuring their progress requires teachers to make strategic and well-informed decisions about curriculum, lesson design, and assessment. Universal Design for Learning will serve as the overarching framework for lesson design in this course. Universal Design for Learning requires the teacher to consider individual students and their needs prior to beginning the design process. Teachers and teacher candidates will learn to set goals for their instruction; to consider learners’ prior knowledge, interests, and needs; and to align instructional components with the objectives and assessments for maximum student success. Instructional choices will be guided by an understanding of child development, the science of learning, knowledge of state and national standards, and research on which teaching models and instructional strategies have been instrumental in designing effective instruction, including discipline-specific methodologies.

 
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

Course readings (including research literature), lectures, demonstration videos, and exemplar learning designs will introduce teachers and teacher candidates to key concepts of the lesson plan design process. Engaging in practice activities and simulations on lesson planning, analyzing and creating assessments, and using data to evaluate instruction and plan for differentiation allow students to develop conceptual understanding of effective instructional design.

 

Goals and Objectives of the Course

Goals, objectives, and assignments address selected Virginia Department of Education professional studies regulations for early/primary, elementary education, middle education, secondary education, pre-k-12 endorsements, special education, and adult education.

Having successfully completed this course, teachers and teacher candidates will demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and dispositions as follows: 

Goal 1: Teachers and teacher candidates will explore curriculum standards, researched-based instructional practices, theories of learning, methods of instruction, and assessments for planning instruction to meet the needs of learners of diverse strengths, talents, abilities, experiences, cultures, races, and linguistic backgrounds.

1. Explain Universal Design for Learning and how it provides a framework for planning, delivering, monitoring, and assessing instruction that is equitable and inclusive of all learners.
2. Research and evaluate age-appropriate and culturally relevant media, materials, and contemporary technologies (educational and/or assistive) to support teaching content, and promote student engagement and inclusivity of all learners.  
3. Review the principles of online learning and online instructional strategies and the application of skills to deliver online instruction.
4. Review research to explain and analyze a variety of instructional practices; discipline-specific methodologies; and their uses and effectiveness with a variety of student abilities and ages, including the use of play, lecture, and direct, explicit, implicit, experiential, inquiry-based, and problem-based methods.
5. Reflect critically on how instructional practices and assessment decisions are connected to issues of access, equity, and inclusivity for diverse learners.
6. Review required curriculum content found in national and state standards, including the Virginia Standards of Learning and the Virginia Early Learning and Development Standards.
7. Review the importance of and methods for engaging families in the educational success of their student and to report student instructional needs.

Goal 2: Plan organized instruction based on knowledge of content, the students, the community, and curriculum standards to meet the needs of learners with diverse strengths, talents, abilities, experiences, cultures, races, and linguistic backgrounds.

1. Explain and use the backwards design process of lesson planning for designing instruction.
2. Design differentiated lessons that align with national standards, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Standards of Learning, and the Virginia Early Learning and Development Standards, and which include measurable objectives and content vocabulary as well as appropriate discipline-specific teaching methods, activities, and assessment measures. 
3. Choose and incorporate instructional strategies to promote successful student learning of content, including but not limited to the use of educational technology, discipline-specific methods, whole and small group instruction, modeling, inquiry, concept mapping, and vocabulary instruction, as well as opportunities for critical thinking and student communication and collaboration.
4. Create informal and formal assessment opportunities for understanding student progress before, during, and after instruction.
5. Create a family-school communication opportunity based on the social/emotional and instructional needs of learners.

 
Assessment Measures

A variety of assessments may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lesson plans that reflect understanding of the curriculum content, best instructional practices, discipline-specific methodologies, and considerations for diverse learners 
• An implementation-ready sequence of instructional plans aligned to appropriate curriculum standards
• Lesson observations, task analyses, reading annotations, and/or other informal writings
• Presentations or micro-teaching exercises
• Quizzes, tests, or formal writing assignments
• Class participation and discussion

 

Other Course Information

None.

Approval and Subsequent Reviews
 
10-16-08             Reviewed and modified                     Kristan Morrison

12/22/08              Revised/ Approved

March 21, 2024