Curriculum Development Project Idea, Essay Example

The project will focus on a small business that needs a curriculum developed in order to facilitate the building of human resource management skills. The lesson will be directed at employees currently positioned in the human resources department and in charge of employee training. The curriculum will be delivered during the employee’s normal working hours and will be provided onsite in their established conference room. All employees have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, which will allow the lessons to be provided at a college level. For principles or topics that are specific to management theory, the lesson will be explained in more detail to ensure that all employees understand and are able to follow along with the instructor.

Subject matter that will be covered will entail employees learning styles, coupled with theories of psychological learning. Other material that will be covered will be learning barriers in the workplace, motivation and theories of adult learning. The lesson is scheduled to cover an eight hour work day, with short hourly breaks, as well as the employees normal 60 minute lunch hour.

How do the characteristics of adult learners, such as described in the readings, relate to the adult learners who will participate in the curriculum you are developing? Include the element of motivation in your considerations.
According to Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner, motivation is generally blocked by socially accepted barriers (2007). Of these barriers are typically a lack of time and money to better themselves or engage in furthering their education. Because this workshop will be provided by their employer at no cost to them, those typical barriers will be removed. Knowles notes that the “growing reservoir of experience functions as a rich resource for learning (1980). With the barriers removed and the employee’s ability to bring their college experience as well as work experience into the workshop they will be able to derive additional benefit. As Knowles suggests, these employees can draw from their own personal experience and facilitate learning new information through what they already know. They can also learn from their coworkers and improve the efficiency of their company training and employee improvement movement. As noted by Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner, those past experiences of the management team will provide additional learning, knowledge and skills through the accumulation of new resources (2007).

What insights, questions, issues about the learning process—informed by the readings (and your own experience)–do you bring to your curriculum development project?

There are many differences through the development of technology in the workplace. Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner suggest that many learners/employees have to learn or train for positions that did not even exist several years ago (2007). This places human resources and employees in charge of training at a disadvantage, because of the lack of resource, reference and information. One of the questions that will be examined through the project is how the theory of adult learning actually relates to the practice principles implemented by the human resources training team. While adult learning theories and the psychology of learning can be taught it would be interesting to determine the true difference in training techniques as well as success after the implementation of the workshop. This can be seen through my own personal experience of understanding a particular theory, but having a difference or difficulty putting it into action. This is a common phenomenon, and will likely present during the proposed curriculum project.

Select ONE of the foundational theories for investigation and articulate your rationale for this selection. How is your selection relevant to your curriculum project?

The Social Cognitive Orientation will be referenced for the curriculum project. The text refers to this theory as one that allows for individuals to learn through observing others (Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner, 2007). This is especially important in the field of human resources and training those that teach/train others. By allowing these employees to use their own personal experience, as well as share with other participants, they all stand to learn a great deal more than they would with a simple class presented by one instructor. Other factors of this theory such as rehearsal, motivation, retention and memory will also assist with the employees learning new techniques throughout the workshop.