Curriculum Development in Turkey from the Viewpoints of Research Assistants of Curriculum and Instruction Department

Abstract

The concept of “curriculum” is used as “educational program” in education and curriculum development field, and curriculum is important for arranging the educational activities and implementing them in a planned way. However, the area of curriculum development should be evaluated and improved to be able to reflect the social, economic and political changes to programs. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to explore the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in curriculum development area from the research assistants’ point of views and to serve solutions and recommendations to the threats and weaknesses in the area. The results showed that the participants have some common points on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. While
student-centered studies and quality of academicians in the area are stated as strengths; inadequacy of needs assessment and deficiency in communication between stakeholders are indicated as weaknesses. The results were discussed in the end.