Key Principles to Keep in Mind . . . Developing high-quality curricula requires a serious commitment and a significant investment of money, time and human energy. 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 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.
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. 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.