Contents

• Introduction
• Curriculum – Concept
• Curriculum – Function
• Curriculum - Disciplines
• Functions of Assessment
• Important Terms and Distinctions
• Qualitative and quantitative assessment
• Formative and summative assessment
• Analytic and holistic assessment
• Continuous/progressive and final/terminal assessment
• Place of Assessment in the Curriculum: Constructive Alignment
• Curriculum and assessment of New Zealand - Higher Secondary Education
• New Zealand Curriculum – Framework
• Policy about curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment
• Each school formulates its own curriculum
• Essential Learning Areas
• Schools consult with their communities
• National Qualifications
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• References

Description

Basically a man is born without as an infant, physically, mentally and spiritually. As he grows, with all the external happenings and the opportunities he gets in order to grow he blooms in to an adult with profound knowledge. Education is one of the valuable assets of one’s life. It can be said to be a process which leads to a self lightening which would bring about an awareness of the world around us. It helps any individual in the process of gaining the basic knowledge, then proceeds towards giving him a profound knowledge in the chosen field and this factor tends to lead us to utilize limitless opportunities in order to develop the academic area in our life (Kliebard, 1987). Education helps us to gain the knowledge and it develops a clear perspective within us to look at the life. In the field of education, a set of course along with its content that is being offered to its students by the school or university is called as curriculum. General syllabus forms is base which is just mentioning about the topics that should be understood by the student of that particular grade either in the school or university and what level he has to move to in his knowledge in order to go to the next level of learning. It means two things- one is about the range of the course which means that the student could choose whatever subject he wishes to study and the second one is the specific learning program. The later contains the details about the teaching method, learning method and the assessment materials that are provided to the students for the chosen study (Brown, 2004).
At present the spiral curriculum is being promoted globally. This type of curriculum is allowing the students to study the subject at the various levels of the development of the subject matter. Constructive approach proposes that the students are able to learn to best of their ability when are learning by an active engagement with the educational environment. This type of learning is also called as the discovery learning. Most important feature of the curriculum is the course objectives that are defined as the learning outcomes. They usually include the assessment strategy of the learning outcomes. Both the outcomes and the assessment are known to be as modules. Curriculum contains many modules in turn each of these units comprises the specialized part of the curriculum. A typical curriculum contains communications, information technology, numeric, social skill modules with specific specialized teaching of each module (Scott, 2008).
This paper discusses about the concepts, distinctions, definitions and functions of the curriculum and assessment. It examines the theories and models for the curriculum and assessment. It also explores the critique issues that are related to curriculum and assessment of high school education in New Zealand and its influencing factors. In the field of education, a set of course along with its content that is being offered to its students by the school or university is called as curriculum.