LIBERIA BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

RIA/ Schiefflin Highway

Paynesville City, Monrovia
Liberia, West Africa

Semester III: May – July 2023

Course Title: Curriculum Development Motto: “WALK
WORTHY OF THE
Couse Code: EDUC 437 VOCATION WHEREWITH YE
Credit Hour 3 ARE CALLED, Ephesians 4:1.”
Classroom: R 6
The reflective reader hears practical (“walk”),
ethical (“worth”) and theological (“vocation”)
reminders about the broad foundation of
Instructor Name: Ambruse Faith Joel Sandy (Rev.) seminary education.
B.Th, M.Th. RE
Office Location: Lott Carey Baptist Mission School, Administrative Building
Phone: (+231) 880555547/777024884
E-mail: [email protected]

I. The Mission of the Seminary

The mission of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary is to provide educational
and professional training for men and women called to the vocation for practicing
Christian ministry through the local church, and other arenas of Christian ministry
II. The Vision of the Seminary
The vision of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary is to cultivate in our students,
faculty, staff, and graduates an awareness of the demands of the Gospel that
encompass "heart, soul, strength and mind" (Luke 10:27) that, in turn, encourage a
life of discipleship and service, locally and globally.
III. Our Identity and Faith
With Christians world-wide we share basic conversations. We worship God. We
strive to follow Jesus. We commit to the study of the Bible in which find the witness
to the truths of God's eternal activity as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We strive
to become the Body of Christ, that is the church, in word and deed.

With Baptist World-wide we affirm that every human is competent to approach God
and find in God through Jesus the Christ is the source of our being reconciled and,
that through faith we are called to a holy vocation to "grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior" (2 Peter 3:18).

1
 Therefore, Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary strives to be a free and faithful
learning community that:
Worships God;
Follows Jesus;
Reads and studies the Bible;
Engages the tradition in history of the church;
Nurtures the Body of Christ, which is the church;
Upholds the prophetic demands to confront the world's evil with hope;
Seeks peace with justice for all;
And supports the freedom of all humans to confess or deny faith in Christ.

We worship God as a dynamic presence in the world that creates, redeems, and sustains through
the Godhead of father/Son/Holy Spirit.

We strive to follow Jesus of Nazareth, whom we confess to be the Christ, the Son of the Living
God.

We read the Bible as the authoritative witness to the power of the fullness of God in History in
covenant with the seed of Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants, to be a light to the nations,
which reached a defining pinnacle in the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We participate in the continuing adventure of being and becoming the Body of Christ, which is
the church.

We know that history confirms the reality of evil in the world and, too, that evil prevails when
good people do nothing (Edmund Burke)

We understand that the Gospel lived demands that disciples pursue peace and justice and,
therefore, we strive to identify with the least of these in our one world who, too often, are
neglected or devalued.

We resist efforts of those who would resist the freedoms of women and men created in the image
of God in order to coerce acceptance of cultural, social, and political limits upon a faithful
reading of the Bible.

We embrace the local church as a lively representation of the Body of Christ that can and should
join with other local churches in order to work together to bear witness to the Gospel and to
promote the Gospel as a certain hope for this world and the world beyond.

We affirm that God alone is the author of grace and that God alone is judge. For that reason we
respect the conscience of others, even those with whom we have significant disagreements. Our
goal is to affirm what we believe, to declare it as clearly as we can, and to invite a conversation
within our communities of faith clearly as we can and to invite a conversation within our
communities of faith and beyond about what the Gospel demands from followers of Jesus.

2
 Course Description
In this class, you will learn to develop and evaluate a curriculum knowledgeably by engaging
in curriculum design. Using a backward design framework, I organized the class around our
curriculum development work.
We will also consider a series of current curriculum design issues and leadership issues.
Guiding questions for the seminar include: What political, social, and pedagogical purposes
does curriculum serve? What are the major design frameworks for the development of
curricula? How should decisions be made about curriculum?
Course Objectives
• To develop a significant piece of curriculum for one grade and subject.
• To understand and use curriculum design and evaluation frameworks.
• To critically examine issues in curriculum development and evaluation, including the
roles of various stakeholders in decision-making about curriculum, the pros and cons
of a national curriculum, and the characteristics of quality learning experiences.
• To understand how to structure curriculum and create learning experiences that are
broadly impactful for students.

Seminar 1: Introduction – This seminar section interacts with the students and welcomes them.
Time is spent to read the course description and clarify issues and concepts that may help a total
grasp of the course. There will be opportunity to go through the course outline and check for
areas that may require additional or updating.

Seminar 2: CURRICULUM AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT – Curriculum

development describes all the ways in which training or teaching organization plans and guides
learning. This learning can take place in groups or with individual learners. In this seminar,
learners will learn to define Curriculum, discuss the characteristics of Curriculum Development,
Dimensions of Curriculum, etc.

Seminar 3: TYPES OF CURRICULUM – During this seminar, the types of curriculum will be
discussed.
Seminar 4: CURRICULUM PLANNING – Curriculum planning deals with a number of
reality-oriented statements concerning with the questions such as: What should be taught? How
should it be taught? To what segment of population? What should be the relationship between
the various components of curriculum? These and many more will be discuss.

Seminar 5: CURRICULUM THEORY – Theory: refers to statement which explains some

series of events covering a given subject matter, from which a compressive and consistent set of
specific and testable hypothesis can be deduced (figured out) logically. Taking this into
consideration, we will be discussing: characteristics of a good theory, Branches of good theory,
importance of good curriculum theory and problem of curriculum theory will all be consider.
Seminar 6: SOURCE OF CURRICULUM DECISION – There is disagreement between
curriculum theoreticians and practitioners on several sources of curriculum decisions e.g. early

3
curriculum scholars advocated the adult survey and job analysis as the principal bases for
determining curriculum content, while others contended that man’s accumulated culture should
be the recognized source. Against this backdrop, we will be discussing curriculum design issues
and problems, Issues and problems in curriculum objectives and Issues in curriculum
engineering.

Seminar 7: CURRICULUM COMPONENTS – Curriculum consists of five widely agreed

upon components. These are:
1. Curriculum goals and instructional objectives
2. Curriculum content
3. Teaching and learning methods and strategies
4. Teaching and learning material
5. Curriculum evaluation. These and many more will be discuss during this time.

Seminar 8: DOMAINS OF LEARNING – It is recommended that instructional goals and

objectives be stated within the three domains of learning. With this being said, the Cognitive,
Affective and the Psychomotor domains will be discuss during this seminar.
Seminar 9: TAXONOMICAL LEVEL – Taxonomies of educational objectives were
introduced for the first time by an American educationist Benjamin Bloom. In his book
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) he identified and defined three levels of taxonomy.
These levels will be discuss and how they can contribute to the development of curriculum.

Seminar 10: CURRICULUM CONTENT – It is impossible for schools and colleges to teach
everything. A selection is to be done from the vast store of knowledge possessed by each nation
and society. A list of priority should be developed from philosophical, political, sociological,
cultural and psychological considerations.

Teaching Models

SEMINARS/DISCUSSIONS
PRESENTATIONS FROM RELATED SEMINARS PAPER/POWERPOINTS/PDF/NOTES
ON THE COURSE
FIELDWORK/PRACTICUM
SMALL GROUP WORK/QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
REVIEW PRESENTATIONS
SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Evaluation

1. Attendance/Participation ----- 10marks

2. Mid-term paper (To be arrange) -------- 30 marks
3. Final Exam ------------------------------ 50marks
4. Evaluation of the Seminar ------------- 10marks

4
GRADING:

Grading System

Percentage Letter Grade Grading Points Level of Achievement

93 – 100 A 4.0 Excellent
90 – 92 A- 3.7
87 – 89 B+ 3.3
83 – 86 B 3.0 Good
80 – 82 B- 2.7
77 – 79 C+ 2.3 Fair
73 – 76 C 2.0
70 – 72 C- 1.7
67 – 69 D+ 1.3 Poor
63 – 66 D 1.0
60 – 62 D- 0.7
0 – 59 F 0.0 Failure
I Incomplete
W Withdrawal
WP Withdrawal Passing

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Write one seminar paper of about 5-7 pages on related seminar topic and be prepared to
make the presentation in the class. The choice of seminar topic is subject to approval, and
there must not be any duplication. Seminar paper must be documented appropriately
based on the approved format of the Seminary and use nothing less than 8-15 sources.
Due on ………………………...
2. Evaluate the Seminar and what you have gained in the semester (3-5 pages).
3. Be prepared to do daily pop-quiz to enable us to generate your grades for final exams.
4. Punctual and Regular Class Attendance are required. If you cannot attend for some
reason, a notification should be given to the lecturer before class in writing (WhatsApp
message preferably). After the third absence, the overall grade for the course will be
negatively affected by 2% for each additional absence. A total of 3 absences will result in
a failing grade. You are responsible for obtaining class lectures and information from
peers in the class. Excuse absences (as defined by the handbook or Dean's office) are not
included in the above formula. However, you should notify the lecturer each time an
absence occurs.

Note: The intentional, ongoing personal formation of the minister is critical for ministry
effectiveness. This necessarily involves reading and reflection. The reading load is heavy, but
it is essential for class participation. The lecturer is not just after data transmission but rather
transformative Learning. Simply put, if you haven't read the materials, you won't be able to
constructively engage in the discussion, and chances you will not have the opportunity for
personal and ministerial transformation.

5
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gage, N. L. & Berliner, D. C. (1991). Educational psychology. Toronto, Houghton: Mifflin

Company.

Hanks, L. B. (1996). Vision, Variety & Vitality. Nashville, Tennessee: The Sunday School Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Houston, P. J. (2004). Fundamentals of Learning and memory (2nd Ed.). London: Academic
Press

Ingule, O. F et al (1999). Introduction to psychology. Nairobi: East Africa Education Publishers

Lefrancois, G. R. (1994). Psychology for teaching. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company

Miller, H. L. (1972). Teaching and Learning in Adult Education . New York : Collier-Macmillan
Limited .
Reisberg, (1991). Psychology of Learning and education. Norton: Macmillan

Travers, (2001). Essentials of Learning (Revised ed.). New York: Macmillan

Vacca, Jo Annie L.,. Vacca Richard T, Gove, Mary K. (2000). Reading and Learning to Read.
Edited by Priscilla McGeehon. 4th vols. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational
Publishers Inc.
Williams, J. D. (1969). Guiding Adults . Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press .
Woods, G. F. (1973). Teaching and Learning with Adults in Sunday School. Nashville,
Tennessee: Convention Press.