Michigan State University Extension Children, Youth, Families and Communities

The Michigan CYFC Curriculum Web Site

Welcome to the Journey!

Overview and Contents

The mission of Michigan 4-H Youth Development is to provide fun, educational opportunities and resources to positively develop youth and the volunteers and professionals who work with them. The mission of Family and Consumer Sciences is to provide cutting edge, research-based, culturally appropriate programs to improve the quality of life across the lifespan for diverse individuals, families and communities through education and collaboration that empowers them to be self-sufficient and live rewarding lives. Creating CYFC (both FCS and 4-H) curriculum materials to support these missions is an awesome undertaking. This site is designed to help you navigate through the curriculum development process and build your skills and abilities to carry out the various stages of the process.

Key Principles to Keep in Mind . . .

As you begin your journey, consider the following key principles of curriculum development:

Curriculum development is serious business! Developing high-quality curricula requires a serious commitment and a significant investment of money, time and human energy. This is why a CYFC Curriculum Development Form must be submitted to propose the development of any new Michigan CYFC curriculum materials.
Curriculum development requires a team approach. In curriculum development design teams, the whole truly is greater than the sum of the parts. By bringing together people with expertise in content or subject matter, youth development and adult education issues, experiential learning approaches and educational media - along with representatives of your target audiences - you heighten the creativity and quality quotient of your potential curriculum.
Good curriculum is steeped in significant conceptual development and research. This includes researching the specific need for a curriculum (including clearly identifying and knowing the characteristics of your potential audience) and connecting your curriculum to research on positive youth development, the respective subject or content area, and experiential learning.
Getting input from potential audiences is a critical step in the process. By building in ways to get audience feedback throughout the curriculum development process, you help guarantee that your end product is relevant and useful. Having representatives from your potential audiences pilot materials, provide input through focus groups or serve on your design team can all heighten the quality and authenticity of the process and final product.
Curriculum development is not a linear process! Although the "steps" involved appear to be presented in a linear fashion in this Web site, you'll note that there are many connections back and forth and aspects that affect other parts of the process along the way. If you're looking for a process that's straight-forward and simple to complete, you're in the wrong business!
Curriculum is never really completely done! This ties in with the previous point that curriculum development is not a linear process. It will be a wonderful accomplishment to get to the point where you've completed your curriculum product, promoted it to a variety of audiences and provided training to some targeted audiences. However, it's critical to continue to study your audiences and their needs and to check the ongoing relevance of your materials. When that occurs, you've really come full circle in the curriculum development process.

Starting Your Journey

To help you begin this journey well-prepared to meet the challenges of the curriculum development process, this Web site provides the following sections, each of which is supported by a series of "curriculum tools." Before moving ahead with any curriculum development, be sure to submit a completed copy of the CYFC Curriculum Development Form and related worksheets:

Navigating the Site Contents

CONTENTS

Welcome To the Journey: Overview and Contents