Developing an effective curriculum is not an easy task. Generally, learners go to school learn, developed their social and physical skills. All this are determined by the type of curriculum being used. Curriculum making therefore, is the process through which there are positive and planned improvements in the education system. The major purpose of the curriculum in any system is to make sure students receive learning experiences which lead to their social and physical development academic wise and also professionally ( ten Cate et al ., 2015) . Situational factors take a vital space in the formulation of a curriculum. In this essay, we shall discuss the place of situational factors in curriculum making according to Decker F.Walker and Jonas F. Soltis from their course text teaching relevant literature.
Curriculum organizes all learning experiences to give students extreme benefits from each level of their school career. In this paper, we shall major on disability as a situational factor in the curriculum making process. Students with disabilities have unique needs which may and may require extra attention in their education ( Starmer et al. , 2014) . Learning is supposed to provide equal access to services, not sidelining students with special needs. Over time, the government has demonstrated its commitment to provide education to children with special educations needs through some initiatives.
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This includes the formulation of special needs education policy, the education for all handicapped children act. All these have been enacted to ensure efficient service delivery to learners with exceptional need. Starmer et al. (2014), maintain that to provide the curriculum is valid, learners different special needs are identified by professionals such as teachers and also their parents whereby different goals are set for each learner need which may determine their placements and other services.
Students who possess different special need have the right to receive special education services. In accordance with each students need, they are placed in specialized schools or given specialized services in school or isolated rooms ( Keating, 2014) . Individual education programs are being formulated to address physical, speech, self-care, vocational training and different social skills.
In curriculum planning, disability is being invigorated into the curriculum by including other critical approaches used in current school curricula. Methods such as learner centered project approach and suggested activities, these approaches are aimed at addressing essential domains in the development of a child ( Keating, 2014) . Through the integration of these approaches, the curriculum is taking into consideration each child’s learning needs as their different learning styles are acknowledged. By using the learner-centered approach, the curriculum is primarily focusing on the individuals learning whereby the role of the teacher is to check or facilitate the developments of learners and act as a guide for instruction.
This approach of teaching has been incorporated into the curriculum to encourage learners to look into what they learn and the purpose to which they engage in learning; this has given learners some form of control over their learning experience. Zhang and Liu (2014) state that situational factors had highly contributed to this type of approach because before teachers were totally in control of the learning process by deciding how students learn the environment to which they learn and again this same teachers were the ones to come into conclusion of how much students have learnt. By doing this ends up leaving students with different needs disadvantaged. A learner-centered approach, however; power is shared between the students and the teachers. Learners are given some choice about the type of assignment they should complete. Teachers might let students set assignment deadlines for themselves within a given time window. Learners may also be asked to help in creating assessment criteria.
Another situational factor that affects the formulation of a curriculum is work. Disabled persons add some diversity and new perspectives to workplaces. Disabled people in the workplace widen the life of those in business and society as a whole. Therefore, curriculums are formulated in search of a way that learners with needs are not disadvantaged. Some issues about certificates for students with disabilities need attention; there should be a distinction between disabled students and an average student ( Zhang & Liu, 2014). During the making of a curriculum, the learning disabled are considered and use separate methods should be used in teaching the two students. According to ten Cate et al . (2015), if the standard for a high school diploma is increased, more students with a disability may end up not getting certificates to the point that they will not be able to meet the requirements of a potential employer since students with disability operate in a credential universe which is more complicated than their counterparts. Potential employers may find it challenging to put the credentials of learners in an appropriate context, and this makes it harder for students with disabilities to showcase their achievement and abilities.
In conclusion, situational factors such as work, disabilities profoundly affect the process of curriculum making because all these differences have to be looked into to acquire a balanced learning system.
References
Keating, S. B. (Ed.). (2014). Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing . Springer Publishing Company.
Starmer, A. J., O’toole, J. K., Rosenbluth, G., Calaman, S., Balmer, D., West, D. C., ... & Srivastava, R. (2014). Development, implementation, and dissemination of the I-PASS handoff curriculum: a multisite educational intervention to improve patient handoffs. Academic Medicine , 89 (6), 876-884.
Ten Cate, O., Chen, H. C., Hoff, R. G., Peters, H., Bok, H., & van der Schaaf, M. (2015). Curriculum development for the workplace using entrust able professional activities (EPAs): AMEE guide no. 99. Medical teacher , 37 (11), 983-1002.
Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2014). A study of secondary school English teachers’ beliefs in the context of curriculum reform in China. Language Teaching Research , 18 (2), 187-204.
