Curriculum map: characteristics, parts and functions

The curriculum map is a tool used by teachers and educators in general. Let's see what it looks like.

Curriculum maps are visual tools that allow to organize what is going to be taught in an educational center, taking into account each subject or thematic area, age period and period of the year, whether months, trimesters or semesters.

The curriculum map is presented in the form of a table and, thanks to its simple structure, is easy to use. and, thanks to its simple structure, it is very easy to understand and to consult in the future. Next we will see more in depth what they are, which are their characteristics, how they are elaborated and what functions they have.

What is a curriculum map?

A curriculum map is an educational tool in which the contents of the curriculum are represented in a visual way.. Thus, it is an element that helps teachers in the development and implementation of the school year. This tool is very useful, since it allows teachers to find inconsistencies and overlaps in some of the elements they had planned to teach, or to find aspects of the academic year to improve.

In order to elaborate a curriculum map it is necessary to specify the topics and skills to be taught in each of the subjects and levels of the school. In this way, teachers can adapt their teaching style to the needs of the student body and taking into and taking into account what other teachers are teaching.

The format of the curriculum map is usually that of a spreadsheet or table. Its columns show the time periods to be worked on, while the rows include information about the topics to be taught during those periods. However, this is not the only way to elaborate a curriculum map, since each teacher and center may consider a different organization more appropriate. each teacher and center may consider another organization to be more appropriate..

Characteristics of the curriculum map

We can highlight three characteristics of curriculum maps.

1. Visually represented data

The most advantageous feature of curriculum maps is that they are tools that make it possible to represent all the information concerning a curriculum and the needs of students visually and in a single document.

Thanks to this, the curriculum map is very beneficial at the administrative level. Teachers can check at a glance whether they are meeting the objectives they set out to achieve or whether they need to change something in their approach.

Another advantage of this point is that it is easier to understand for people outside the educational institution, such as new teachers, educational inspectors and parents of students. It is a very intuitive tool to understand.

Summary of important information

When making a curriculum map a lot of information has to be placed in a limited space..

To do this, it is necessary to synthesize the data that are necessary and that are sufficiently clear to help understand what is to be taught.

3. Organized in several sections

To make them easier to understand, curriculum maps are usually divided into several complementary sections, according to several criteria. according to various criteria established by the teacher who prepares them.

The exact divisions vary in each of them, depending on the technique used to create them, although they tend to look very similar.

• The divisions are usually made on the basis of these three criteria:
• The areas to be taught (mathematics, language, biology...).
• The age of the students
• School period (trimesters, semesters, months...).

In this way, if you want to check what is to be learned by each age group at a given point in the course, you only need to look at the section on the curriculum map and see which school objectives are described there..

Structure and parts

Although the shape of the curriculum map can vary greatly depending on what is represented on it, the fact is that in the vast majority of cases its structure is in the form of a table or spreadsheet.

This design is, in fact, one of the aspects of the curriculum maps that make them truly useful, allowing for locate at a glance the data you want to consult about a student, his or her class or the subject in question.

Columns

Generally, the columns represent periods of time, such as the terms into which the academic year is divided. Along with this, in each of the columns there are usually subdivisionsrepresenting the different teaching areas to which the curriculum map refers, such as the artistic or scientific fields.

Rows

In the rows part, the educational levels of the students to be taught are usually represented. Normally this division is made according to the grades they belong to, or according to the cycles they are in. In this way, some curriculum maps can be divided into the years of primary, secondary, preschool... while others do it by joining them two by two or cycles.

You can also go a step further and make a much more detailed curriculum map, in which all the information about each of the students is captured.. In these cases the rows would represent knowledge and objectives of a single student, and are more oriented to schools with fewer students or special centers.

Elaboration

When elaborating a curriculum map it is necessary for teachers to have established what teaching objectives they wish to achieve. In addition, teachers should make an effort and collect all the necessary information to specify what they want to teach and what they want to teach. specify what they want to teach and what they have seen other teachers teach as well, avoiding overlaps and repetitions.avoiding overlaps and repetitions.

Once this is done, the teacher will only have to capture the information for each of the courses he/she teaches in a spreadsheet or table. In doing so, you should make sure that the result is as clear as possible in order to facilitate its understanding in future consultations, or to avoid misunderstandings if other teachers have to resort to this curriculum map.

As mentioned in the previous section, the organization of each curriculum map can vary, depending on the needs of the students, the academic situation or what is to be taught.

However, as we have seen the most common way is to divide the table into columns according to the curricular areas and the time periods into which the course is divided. into which the course is divided, while the rows would contain the information for each of the educational levels taught.

Functions in the educational field

Based on what we have seen, we can specify two main functions of curriculum maps.

Organizing teaching activity

Curriculum maps usually serve, mainly, to a tool that allows teachers to organize themselvesThe teacher can use the school objectives to determine what school objectives they have to achieve during the school year.

It is common for a single teacher to be in charge of many students at different levels in his or her subject or subjects, which means that having a useful and clarifying tool such as the curriculum map greatly facilitates his or her teaching activity.

Guide to measuring results

If a curriculum map is well elaborated, it is also an ideal tool to measure the results achieved during the course of the course. measuring the results achieved during the course of the academic year.. The curriculum map allows the teacher to realize at all times whether he/she is achieving the results he/she had set out to achieve at the beginning of the school year.

In case you have not reached the expected objectives, you will be able to correct in a simple way, acting and reorganizing the contents that you teach in class, having a very simple reference when reading the curriculum map.

Conclusions

As we have been able to see, curriculum maps are very useful tools for teachersThey allow us to establish from the very beginning what we want to achieve during the teaching process. In addition, it allows to see if there are teachers who overlap with others in terms of the contents to be taught, besides the fact that they are tools that allow to evaluate how the course is being given and to check if the initially set objectives are being achieved.

Bibliographical references:

• Jacobs, H. (1998). Connections, Mapping, and Structures for Learning: Interview with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs. Independent School Magazine. National Association of Independent Schools. 57 (3).
• Hale, J. A. (2008). A Guide to Curriculum Mapping. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. p. 145.