CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
PROF. O.O. AYENI 
Department of Surveying 
University of Lagos 
Lagos, Nigeria 
ISPRS COMMISSION VI 
ABSTRACT 
Five components of the curriculüm development process are recognised as aims and objectives, content, methods, 
assessment and feedback and analysis. The principles and rationale for developing an appropriate curriculum in 
Photogrammetry at four training levels —sub-technician (Operator), technician, technologist and professional— are 
examined within the context of the needs of developing countries. An attempt is made to define the contents of curriculum 
modules for each level with due recognition of the peculiarities of developing countries. Methods of training at these 
various levels are discussed and the need for proper assessment and feed back is emphasised in a continuous but cyclic 
curriculum development process. 
KEY WORDS: Developing Country, Education, Photogrammetry, Training. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Curriculum development in Photogrammetry has assumed 
great importance in recent years. Some national and 
international institutions have modified and reviewed their 
curricula, taking into consideration internal and external 
factors, thus portraying curriculum development as a 
dynamic process while in others, particularly in developing 
countries, curricula in Photogrammetry have remained 
relatively static for some length of time. The objective of 
this paper is to examine the principles and rationale for 
developing appropriate curricula in Photogrammetry at all 
training levels with particular reference to developing 
countries. 
2. PRINCIPLES AND PROCESS OF CURRICULUM 
DEVELOPMENT 
Curriculum development may be defined as a process in 
which the learning opportunities, materials, equipment and 
other resources are constantly planned, assessed and 
reviewed with the aim of bringing about some positive 
changes in the students being taught. It is clear from this 
definition that curriculum development should be guided 
by certain principles and that it is a dynamic process. The 
components of the process are identified as follows: 
(i) setting up the aims and objectives to be achieved by 
the curriculum; 
(ii) determination of the content of the curriculum; 
(iii) choosing the methods to be adopted in the 
organisation and the presentation of the contents to 
the students; 
(iv) measuring or assessing the progress and performance 
of a student; 
(v) obtaining a feed back from graduates or products of the 
curriculum and analysing the data so as to review other 
components in the curriculum process. 
The dynamics and cyclic process of curriculum 
development, which is based partially on Nicholls et al. 
(1980) is illustrated by Fig. 1. A very important principle of 
curriculum development is that the elements depicted in 
Fig. 1 are not mutually exclusive, rather they are 
interdependent and they do interact as illustrated in Fig. 2. 
The objective of this paper is to apply this principle and 
process to the development of curriculum in 
Photogrammetry. 
3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 
3.1. Although the cyclic nature of the curriculum 
development process suggests that there is no starting 
point, for the purpose of convenience we begin this 
consideration from the point of view of aims and 
objectives. Also for the purpose of clarity, we distinguish 
between aims and objectives. The aims of a curriculum are 
supposed to indicate the general direction of a course or 
training programme whereas objectives define the changes 
in behaviour of a student or what a student should be able 
to do, at end of a training programme. This is sometimes 
called behavioural objectives. The determination of the 
aims and objectives of a curriculum - is usually influenced 
by the teacher’s skills, the students need, the labour 
market and the facilities and time available for the course. 
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