Introduction: Curriculum development is important in achieving educational objectives and to foster the development of qualified persons graduating from colleges. In recent years curriculum reforms have occurred which resulted in attention being given to develop curriculum objectives and improved selection of teaching content and methods. However this has not included a curriculum evaluation system. Curriculum evaluation is an important tool to determine whether curriculum objectives have been achieved or not. Since there are large differences in curriculum evaluation across colleges, it is necessary to study this in order to achieve curriculum objectives. Methods The methods used included literature review, questionnaires, and the Delphi approach. The study focused on the present situation of curriculum evaluation and the development of a new evaluation system. Results / Discussion The major findings of the study suggest that the curriculum evaluation of the content of swimming speciality training of physical education majors in sport colleges included 6 major areas: swimming skill levels, ability in swimming teaching, coaching, refereeing, and research, and attitudes toward learning. The evaluation systems used in the colleges stressed swimming skill levels, but did not provide enough information on practical working abilities as well as attitudes. This might be because it is easy to assess swimming skills and the evaluation criteria of swimming skill level are relatively objective. In order to overcome the weaknesses of the present evaluation system, a new curriculum evaluation system was proposed. The system is based on weighted criteria with respect to level of swimming, practical ability and learning attitude. In turn weightings are suggested for other criteria within these domains such as teaching ability .25, technique analysis .21, training ability .19, research and innovation .18 and refereeing and organisational capability .17 under the practical ability domain. To develop a reasonable evaluation criteria and assessment procedures the key is to execute curriculum evaluation. Thus, swimming teaching departments in sport colleges should work together to establish evaluation criteria and assessment procedures.
© Copyright 2008 2008 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport: Proceedings, Vol. III. Veröffentlicht von People´s Sports Publishing House. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.