No matter how many bright students, wonderful instructors, and useful resources an automotive classroom has, there’s one thing that can make the learning process more—or less—difficult: curriculum.
Curriculum, which is comprised of the learning objectives, lessons, materials, assignments, and assessments used to teach a course, is the last thing you want to work against your students’ success. In fact, studies show that better curriculum—and textbooks—can improve student achievement.
But how do you know if your current curriculum is the problem?
Are your students consistently falling behind?
Your curriculum might sound great, but does it work in the classroom?
Maybe there’s just too much material to cover or not enough support. It’s important to remember that both students and instructors have limitations on what and how much material they can focus on during class time. Are you successfully balancing breadth and depth of content?
This is especially important to consider as technological advancements continue to change the face of the automotive industry. It’s easy to get side-tracked, dive too deep, or try to cover too much material. Following guidelines like those set by the ASE Education Foundation can help bring focus to a curriculum.
Similarly, having a wide variety of targeted resources that works with your curriculum can provide extra support that leads to student mastery.
Are you always struggling to keep up?
Reliable support should be available for instructors as well.
Whether that means having more instructor resources, taking time for professional development, or simply keeping up with new industry trends and instruction methods, good curriculum should help instructors stay up-to-date in these areas.
Is your course out-of-touch with what your students will need?
Today’s technicians require knowledge that technicians 20 years ago didn’t even need to think about.
As a result, today’s automotive courses have changed. The problem for most automotive programs is that they haven’t been able to keep up with these technical changes.
One of the best ways to ensure your curriculum is up-to-date is to look at the kinds of vehicles your students will be working on and the jobs they will be doing once they leave the program. Use your advisory committee to determine the skills they are looking for in new hires. Then, compare your curriculum to those requirements to see if students are being prepared to master them. When possible, enhance the curriculum by bringing new vehicle technologies into the classroom and shop for students to practice on.
Teaching the practical skills that students need to master is a critical component of a good curriculum. These skills are dependent on having up-to-date materials and adequate classroom curriculum support.
Considering a curriculum change?
Talk to a representative today to learn more about how CDX Learning Systems can help you and your students succeed.