Responsive Curriculum Development for the 21st Century Education, Innovations and Development in Kenya

Abstract

The 21st century education triggers the expectation that institutions of learning should teach technical skills with emphasis on life skills, learning new things and the development of the abilities to deal with global changes and challenges emerging from the real situations in the world. In order to cope up with the world in the 21st century, curriculum developers through their collaboration with other stakeholders are required to design and develop a responsive curriculum that focuses on the needs of the learner and the society with clear aim, goals and objectives in education. This paper addresses the need for a responsive curriculum as a projection for the 21st century education for innovation and development in Kenya. This paper employs the exploratory research design to delve into the existing literature to examine the various levels, components, designs, types, curriculum responsiveness, factors prompting/causing responsive curriculum and the process of developing a responsive curriculum. This is in line with the new changes under the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) and Competency Education (CE) that envision a curriculum that enables every learner to become empowered through excellent teaching, good learning environment and provisions of teaching and learning resources towards effective and efficient education that promotes the achievement of the desired skills, knowledge and values for the 21st Century development agenda.