Curriculum Development and Training

Education for a Better World

The Hearth develops course materials, curricula, and academic structures for schools and universities, using in-house instructional design skills along with the domain knowledge of our senior advisors. We also design and deliver world-class professional development programmes, which are rooted in scientifically-based best practices that result in high-quality teaching and learning. Our curriculum and training programmes are responsive to regional and cultural contexts, conditions and resources.

The Hearth has experience and expertise in devising curricula and a variety of syllabus options for school examination boards, as well as bespoke curriculum options for high-performing schools. The focus is on using learning and instructional design to develop learning experiences that drive institutional goals and are centred on the students. Its services include evaluation of existing curricula and syllabuses, as well as end-to-end curriculum design. We use a systematic approach to blend the school’s objectives with the requires of the national curriculum and examination imperatives, through mapping content to learning objectives. The teacher is the focus of instructional activities, while the student is the centre of learning experiences.

We also design customised assessment systems that accurately measure student achievement against specific academic goals, including isolating areas of strengths and weaknesses at the student, school, regional, and system level.

Our school curriculum solutions are contemporary, progressive and thoroughly researched. These curriculums bring together expert knowledge, flexible worksheets, innovative and detailed lesson plans, planning tools, thorough guidelines for classroom design and management, and relevant contemporary contextualisation for schools that seek to give their students a strong start. With these curriculums, teachers have access to all the information they need, as well as a wealth of ideas and detailed instructions for creating and finding more resources.

At the university level, we help faculty and departments develop academic programming. Depending upon the requirements, we may assist the formulation of programme educational objectives (broad goals) that address institutional and programme mission statements and stakeholders, programme outcomes (knowledge, skills, and attitudes programme graduates should have) to address objectives. We help identify the programme core: a set of courses in the curriculum that address the knowledge, skills, and attitudes specified in the outcomes. Further, we define the structure for planning: identify course content and define measurable learning objectives for it.

We have assisted universities in designing and developing bespoke programmes, such as an integrated Liberal Arts undergraduate qualification.

The Hearth researches the specific needs of institutions or a region for a targeted group of teachers and academic disciplines through needs assessments and relevant academic reviews. This needs analysis is based on standards for the teaching profession, be at schools or universities. We then design and deliver professional development and training programmes either through in-house programme leaders, external experts, or through national and international partners.

We also identify research-based assessment tools and observation rubrics to evaluate teacher performance and determine individual and group needs for professional development. These tools lead to effective and co-created teacher appraisal processes at schools, which often include measures of incremental student outcomes on standards-based assessments.