Strategic Plannning and Curriculum

Strategic planning and decision making are important in educational curriculum planning because the stakes for a failure of a big-picture perspective of issue fronts in the educational context are extremely high. For the sake of the targets of education--the students--institutional coherence is essential. The learning process must not be corrupted by an environment that is unpredictable or so uncomfortable as to prevent meaningful instruction from taking place. If learning objectives are to be achieved, any difficulties or details of organizational management must be opaque to students. Further to that point, this is why, as Finch and Crunkilton explain, professional educators should be included on decision-making boards and committees. They are best suited to recognizing "alternatives to problems, the impact of various alternatives, and assembling data needed for decisions, as well as a number of other vital activities" (1999, p. 49).

2. Decision making in education involves two major areas. Distinguish between operational decision making and policy decision making. What experiences do you have with respect to each?

Operational decision making is the name given to the set of choices that fall to teachers and administrators who inhabit and run day-to-day activities of any educational institution. These are the people whose job it is to implement po

. . .
philosophy and personality are what individuals bring to the banquet of policy and operational decision making. Inevitably these features affect the character of negotiation and decision making because it is impossible to avoid preexisting influences in present contexts. To make themselves more aware of the effects of idiosyncratic attributes, planners should systematically engage in what Finch and Crunkilton call scenario planning. That involves defining the scope of a subject under consideration, identifying major stakeholders, identifying basic trends (e.g., public, social, and political aspects of a problem), identifying "key uncertainties" (unanticipated issues), constructing scenario themes (e.g., possible impact of decisions), checking for consistency, and so on. Chapter 4 1. What is your opinion concerning the usefulness and applicability of the methods identified in the text (pp. 81-86) for determining student occupational interest? Would these methods work with all students? What other methods, if any, can you identify that might be useful? Testing in order to determine students' occupational interests is a necessary evil--necessary because there must be some benchmark of vocational interest if schools are really g
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Finch Crunkilton, , Fionch Crunkilton, finch crunkilton, vocational technical, educational institution, operational decision, technical education, vocational technical education, Allyn Bacon, teachers play helping, themselves aware effects, educational curriculum planning, school system, decision educational curriculum, ability senior, in-service training, 1999 49, teachers play,
Approximate Word count = 1366
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)