Heather Metzgar

Curriculum Theories Table

Scholar Academic Ideology

Aim: The aim of Scholar Academic education is to promote personal development,
strengthen respect for human rights and freedoms, enable individuals to participate as
effective citizens and to promote understanding, friendship and tolerance. This education is
grounded in academic disciplines with a goal to introduce them to younger people.

Child: The child is rarely discussed in this ideology. When the child is referred to, it is the
mind of the child that is mentioned. Curriculum is created so that the child will learn to know,
think and behave in the same way as a university professor.

Learning: The ideology thinks of learning as a function of teaching. It is believed that learning
is a consequence of how a person is taught.

Teaching: Teachers are mediators between the curriculum and the student. They are
transmitters of the discipline. Educators who subscribe to the scholar academic ideology use
three main teaching methods: didactic discourse, supervised practice, and socratic
discussions. 

Knowledge: Knowledge is taught from the perspective of a specific discipline. It is usually

broken into five disciplines: English, Science, Math, History and Foreign Language. The
highest priority of this ideology is the cultivation of knowledge.

Evaluation: In terms of assessment, the scholar academic ideology view assessment as a way
to rank students for a future academic position in the discipline.

The TEKS, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, are aligned to the Scholar Academic Ideology.

For example, in the new 6th grade English Language Arts TEKS, there are seven strands that

focus on the academic discipline of ELA. The seven strands (major topics) are: developing and

sustaining language skills, comprehension skills, response skills, multiple genres, author’s

purpose and craft, composition, inquiry and research. Like the academic scholar, the

English/Language Arts TEKS build on concepts from year to year to teach students how to read

and write. The teacher leads instruction based on the content in the standards to impart the

knowledge to the student while they receive it.

Heather Metzgar
Curriculum Theories Table

The Scholar Academic ideology is aligned to the A-F accountability system because a large

portion of it is based on the STAAR test (high stakes testing). The STAAR test is written to assess

the TEKS and the students ability to think at the appropriate cognitive level based on their

grade level.
Heather Metzgar
Curriculum Theories Table

Social Efficiency Ideology

Aim: The focus of the Social Efficiency ideology is to develop skills necessary to fill needs in
the workplace. As said by Schiro, Social Efficiency educators concern is, “always the future
learning of the child rather than the present growing of the child.”

Child: The child is viewed as potential adult members of the society. This ideology places less
emphasis on the needs of the child and more emphasis on the capability of the child to fill
social needs of the future workplace.

Learning: Learning in the Social Efficiency ideology is meant to “prepare the individual to lead
a meaningful adult life in society.”

Learning takes place through curriculum that is a sequenced set of standards, each
representing a behavior or skill to be learned. These learning objectives gradually leads the
learner from incompetence to competence. The learning process is active, requires practice
and is influenced by feedback.

Teaching: The Social Efficiency ideology views the teacher as the manager of the conditions
of learning. The teacher provides consultation and conferencing with the student to reach
their destination. The teacher prepares the environment, engages
the students and supervises their work.

Knowledge: In the Social Efficiency ideology, knowledge is gained with a simple task, then
building on it once you have mastered it, and learning through practice and repetition.

Evaluation: The focus for assessment and evaluation is to show learning through the
sequence of skills and behaviors. Monitoring and feedback is needed to ensure that students
learn in sequence.

The Social Efficiency ideology is not as closely aligned to the TEKS as the Academic

Scholar. Social Efficiency is based more on practice and skills than on the academic disciplines

and knowledge. School curriculum that supports student-environment interaction shapes

student’s learning because it responds to student’s needs. This type of curriculum or standards

are reflected in some TEKS such as in Career and Technical Education, but not so much in the

STAAR tested TEKS.

Heather Metzgar
Curriculum Theories Table

The Social Efficiency ideology does relate to the A-F Accountability system only in the College,

Career and Military Readiness portion of the Domain. Students who have passed a certification

exam toward a career on a list produced by the TEA count towards your CCMR score which is a

small portion of one of the accountability domains. Since the aim of the Social Efficiency

ideology is to produce students to fill the needs of the local workforce, the certification portion

for CCMR would align to this ideology.