Curriculum Development Principles*

Curriculum development is a comprehensive term, inside cover: planning, implementation and evaluation. Curriculum planning is the first step to build the curriculum when the curriculum workers to make decisions and take action to produce a plan that will be used by teachers and learners. Implementation of curriculum or curriculum implementation is also commonly referred to curriculum planning to transfer into operational action. Curriculum evaluation is the final step of curriculum development to determine how big the learning outcomes, level of achievement for programs that have been planned, and the results of the curriculum itself. In curriculum development, not only involve people directly associated with education alone, but it has involved many people, such as politicians, businessmen, parents of students, teachers, and elements - other elements of society who feel concerned with education.
The principles will be used in curriculum development activities are essentially the rules or laws that would animate a curriculum. In curriculum development, can use the principles that have developed in daily life or even creating their own new principles. Therefore, in implementing a curriculum in educational institutions is very possible the use of different principles with curriculum that is used in other educational institutions, so it will find a lot of the principles that were used in a curriculum development. In this case, Nana Syaodih Sukmadinata (1997) explores the principles of curriculum development is divided into two groups: (1) principles - General principles: relevance, flexibility, continuity, practical, and effectiveness, (2) specific principles: principles with respect to educational objectives, content selection principles with respect to education, the principle regarding the selection of teaching and learning process, the principle regarding the selection of media and learning tools, and principles regarding the selection of assessment activities. While Hernawan Asep Herry et al (2002) put forward five principles in curriculum development, namely:

   1. The principle of relevance; internally that have relevance in the curriculum between the components of the curriculum (goals, materials, strategies, organization and evaluation). While externally that the components tersebutmemiliki relevance to the demands of science and technology (epistomologis relevance), demand and potential learners (psychological relevance) and the demands and needs of the community development (relevance sosilogis).
   2. The principle of flexibility; in curriculum development effort that produced by nature flexible, supple and flexible in its implementation, allow for adjustments based on the situation and condition of the place and time is always growing, and the ability and background bekang learners.
   3. The principle of continuity, namely the existence of kesinambungandalam curriculum, both vertically or horizontally. Learning experiences provided the curriculum should pay attention to sustainability, both inside the classroom level, between levels of education, as well as between levels of education with the type of work.
   4. The principle of efficiency, ie see to it that can utilize in curriculum development time, cost, and other sources that there is an optimal, carefully and precisely so that the results adequately.
   5. The principle of effectiveness; ie curriculum development activities seek to achieve goals without the wasteful activities, both in quality and quantity.
Related with Education Unit Level Curriculum development, there are some principles that must be met, namely:

   1. Centered on the potential, progress, needs and interests of learners and their environment. The curriculum was developed based on the principle that learners have a central position to develop the competencies to be a human being faithful and obedient to God's compassion, morality, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become citizens of a democratic and accountable. To support the achievement of these objectives the development of competencies of students adjusted to the potential, progress, needs and interests of learners and the demands of the environment.
   2. The curriculum was developed by taking into account the diversity of learner characteristics, local conditions, and levels and types of education, without distinction of religion, ethnicity, culture and customs, as well as socioeconomic status and gender. The curriculum shall include the substance of the charge component of the curriculum, local content, and self-development in an integrated way, and have been prepared in the relevance and sustainability antarsubstansi meaningful and appropriate.
   3. Responsive to developments in science, technology and art. The curriculum was developed on the basis of the awareness that science, technology and art of growing dynamically, and therefore the spirit and content of the curriculum encourages students to follow and make the proper development of science, technology and art.
   4. Relevant to their lives. Curriculum development conducted by involving stakeholders (stakeholders) to ensure the relevance of education to the needs of life, including social life, business world and the world of work. Therefore, the development of personal skills, thinking skills, social skills, academic skills, and vocational skills is a necessity.
   5. Comprehensive and sustainable. The substance of the curriculum covers all dimensions of competency, the field of scholarly study and subjects who planned and presented on an ongoing basis antarsemua levels of education.
   6. Lifelong learning. The curriculum is directed to the development process, acculturation and the empowerment of learners that lasts a lifetime. The curriculum reflects the linkages between the elements of formal education, non-formal and informal, to conditions and demands of the evolving environment and the direction of the whole human development.
   7. Balance between national interests and regional interests. The curriculum was developed by taking into account national interests and regional interests to build a society, nation and state. National interests and regional interests must complement and empower in line with the motto Unity in Diversity within the framework of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Compliance with the principles above is what distinguishes between applying one with Education Unit Level Curriculum previous curriculum, which was apparently often neglected. Because of these principles may be regarded as a spirit or soul curriculum
In face it PT a change in the curriculum, many people focused only on meeting the curriculum as a body structure of the curriculum. Yet far more important is the change kutural (behavior) to meet the specific principles contained in curriculum development.
*Sumber akhmadsudrajat.wordpress.com