PAPER

CMD

“INTRODUCING CURRICULUM”

GROUP 1

NAME:
 DESI TRISNAWATI
 ETHA TANAN
 MIRSAL ARRANG

CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA TORAJA

2014
 INTRODUCING CURRICULUM
Curriculum is an area of vital importance to the professional teacher. Such a development is highly
appropriate for professional teacher. Curriculum is after all the very substance of schooling and the
reason for teacher in schools. Therefore teachers need to be knowledgeable about curriculum and
understand the process by which curricula may be developed. When teachers consider curriculum
issues, for example, they tackle the substantive matter of schooling which may be expressed in terms of
the fundamental questions of curriculum, namely:
What to teach ?
How to teach ?
When to teach ?
What is the impact of teaching ?

And from these general question come a flood of well-recognized curriculum-directed question for
the teacher and curriculum developer to answer, such as:
What knowledge is of most worth to learners ?
What activities are most effective in enabling learners to acquire this knowledge ?
How do I know if learners have acquired this knowledge ?

These questions, and many others, will be addressed in subsequent chapters as we examine the
processed involved with curriculum design and development. And underlying this examination will rest
a fundamental premise-that the above questions is the proffesional teacher. To that end, the following
chapters will hopefully assist the educational professional act more effectively with the curriculum.

1. The Nature of Curriculum

There are many ways of referring to curriculum and in schooling there are three categories: a
systemic curriculum, a subject curriculum, and a school/institution curriculum. The way of
conceptualising curriculum is to view it in terms of the perceptions people have of curricula.
Different people perceive a school’s curriculum in different ways and sometimes in multiple ways
depending upon the context in which the concept is used. To complicate matters further, someone
may perceive the curriculum in a particular way and use the term “curriculum” to describe what they
mean, while another uses the same term but means something different.
For example , a teacher may refer to the school curriculum and really mean to “intended” or
“written” curriculum, while a parent may refer to the school curriculum and mean the “entitlement”
curriculum or the “achieved” curriculum.

2. Characterisations of Curriculum
William Schubert (1986) refers to many different images or characterisations of curriculum. He
prefers these terms to that of “defenition” because they denote a broader conseptualisation than the
label for a thing. However, an image or characterisation can also mean a way of perceiving or
 viewing the concept concerned and hence facilitating understanding. Such characterisations may also
facilitate an understanding of differing definitions. A selection of these characterisations includes:
 Curriculum as asubject matter: This is the most traditional image of curriculum which depicts
it as the combining of subject matter to form a body of content to be taught. As a result of this
content, one can predetermine the curriculum for learners. Most teachers, when asked to
describe their school’s curriculum, provide a litany of subject matter taught to students.
 Curriculum as experience: A more recent image sees curriculum as the set of experiences
learners encounter in educational contexts. In this characterisation of curriculum the teacher
acts more as a facilitator to enhance the learner’s personal growth.
 Curriculum as cultural reproduction: One characterisation of curriculum that receives support
is the view that curriculum should reflect the culture of a particular society. The role of the
school, it is argued, and hence the curriculum, is to pass on the salient knowledge and values
used by one generation to the succeding generation.
 Curriculum as ‘currere’: A more recent characterisation of curriculum view it as a process of
providing continuous personal meaning to individuals. However this characterisation is also
social in nature, in that a sharing of experiences and reconcepttualisation is favoured. And
through this social process of sharing, individuals come to a greater understanding of
themselves as well as others and the world.

3. The Hidden Curriculum

Students acquired numerous learnings that were not planned and these have become
subquently known as the hidden curriculum.

Hidden curriculum has become an accepted and commonly used part of educational discourse
in the past decade. The hidden curriculum refer to the outcomes of educational and the processes
leading to those outcomes, which are not explicity intend by educators.

The example of hidden curriculum highlight the essential feature of the concept its
hiddenness. The messages passed on to students are essentially ‘hidden’ from them,at least in the
sense that they have not been stated explicitly. Other researcherr suggest that the hidden curriculum
may alson be hidden to teachers,as well as students,at least at a concious level. In the first and fourth
examples citied, it is quiet possible that the teacher were quite unaware of what they were doing.

4. Curriculum: A Cultural Construct

Curriculum come from Australia they are generally prodused by the curriculum directorate or
branch within the departement of education. Similiarly when these people construct their curriculum
document they take into account the society in which we live, the nature of schools,the nature of
learners and the resources available. In so doing they create a curriculum which is a construct of that
culture.
In other words,the curriculum that has been devised reflect the nature of the culture. And this
is perfectly. Thus when curricula are devised,they are planned by certain people who have paricular
intentions in mind of what should be happending to learners, whether they be in school,tertiary
institutions or other organisation.
 Curriculum development must therefore be seen as a delibrate, purposeful, planning activity
which seeks to achieve general and specific intentions. If curriculum decision-makers have different
purposes which they wish to achieve,these reflect the different conceptions or viewpoints of
curriculum that people have.

5. Teacher Curriculum Decision-Making

These are the very substance of their daily teaching tasks and include such activities as
selection of spesific content,selection of teaching strategies,use of audio-visual aids and so forth.
This classroom level of curriculum decision-making will not be convered in depth here.
The nature of this participation may be seen in the various roles that teachers adopt in the
decision-making process. It is suggested that teachers may participate in any combination of four
curriculum decision-making roles at the school level:
- Implementers
- Adapter
- Developers
- Researchers
As implementers or receivers the teacher’s role is to apply curriculum developed elsewhere.
In the teacher has a minimum of responsibility and involvement in the curriculum development phase
of the curriculum process, though nevertheless a significant role in the application phase. In this
phase teachers play a vital part in implementing,monitoring and evaluating the curriculum.
The teacher could adopt the role of adapter or modifier. Here an externally developed
curriculum is interpreted and change to meet the needs of a particular school population. For
example, may be appropriate in some schools but cause resistance in others. The curriculum
developer role involves the teacher in designing and developing, usually as a member of a group, a
curriculum to meet student needs. Though the use of techniques such as situational analysis and
needs assessment,teacher have been able to determine the nature of students needs. For
example,many teachers have developed curricula to meet the needs of non-tertiarybound students
saying on in upper secondary school.
Finally teacher may undertake the fourth role of ‘curriculum researcher’. Here staff may be
involved in improving one’s own practise, testing curriculum materials, evaluating new curricula,
testing teaching strategies and collecting data on student record needs. An example of this role was
the nomerous teachers involved with the testing of the SEMP packages in the late 1970s.
In recent year and increasing number of teacher have become involved with action research,a
role which has made them involved both with curriculum research and curriculum reflection.
6. School-Based Curriculum Development

a. Nature of SBCD
SBCD is the development of a curriculum, or an aspect of it, by one or more teachers in a
school to meet the perccived needs of a school population, that is, an on –site resolution, in
curriculum terms, of problems experiencedwith the exiting curricula. As they are considederedn
to be those educators most aware of student needs. In effect, then,SBCD is the reverse of the
bureaucratic, hierarchical, centralist approach to curriculum development.
Example of SBCD could include multicultural experiences in a multiethic shool; an accelerated
program for highly talented student; an agricultural unit in an outer urban secondary shool; and
an appropriate reading program for less able learners.

b. Advantages of SBCD
1. Those in the best position to apprecite the needs of a specific group of learners are the local
teachers who can also determine the best use of the school’s resources.
2. Those who implement the curriculum are those who have developed it.this gives a greater
sense of identification with the learning tasks.
3. The needs of specific groups of students are met, which in turn has a powerfulimpac upon
learners.
4. Greater accountability of curriculla and teacher performance is noticed.
5. Parent and community members may be easily involved in meaningful curriculum planning.

c. Disadvantages of SBCD
1. Lack of support structuresnfor administrators and teachers.
2. Conformity syndrom of administrators and teacher reduces creativity.
3. Lack of time for teachers to undertake SBCD.
4. Lack of teacher experienced or trained in the proces of SBCD.
5. Movement of teacher between school for promotion, country service and the like produces an
unstable teacher base
6. Requires significant changes in the roles of teacher and administrators, which are naturally
resisted.
7. Schools can quicklyn become out of step with each other and overlapping may occur where
students transfer between shools.

Nevertheless, the 1990s thus far have continued this change in the way educators address the
issue of SBCD.
7. Curriculum Development
As teacher become involved with sholl-level curriculum decisionmaking, they require a
sound understending of curriculum-related activity effectively, it is imperative that teacher acquire a
basic familiarity with the principles of curriculum design and development.
Planning, design and development in curriculum are closely related terms. Once a curriculum
has been conceptualised, trough the process of curriculum planning and incorporatining a curriculum
design, it may then be development usually to be come a writen document and finally to be
implemented and evaluated.
In practice this means that curriculum, construc a curriculum document from it, implement or
monitor the implementation of that document and finally appraise the effectiveness of the entire
curriculum.

8. Summary
 There are many ways of referning to curriculum and in scholing there are at least there levels-
systematic, subjec and institutional.
 Curriculumis devined as all the planned learning opportunitieaoffered to learners encounter when
when that curriculum is implemented.
 Shooling consist of the (overt) curriculum together with all the unplanned learnings that students
acquire.
 While the essential feature of the hiddencurriculum is that learnings are acquired unknowingly,
there have been many recent example of trasferring such learning to the overtcurriculum.
 The process of curriculum may be seen as a deliberate, purposeful, planing activity that seeks to
achieve general and specific intentions.
 Teacher have an important role in schools as curriculum developer as well as implementers,
adapters and researchers of curriculla.
 SBCD is the development of a curriculum, or an aspect of it, by one on more teachers in a school
to meet the perceived needs of a school population.
 Curriculum development is devined as the process of planing, implementing and evaluating
learning opportunities intended to produce desired changes in learners. curriculum design is
conserned with the arrangement of curriculum elements to produce a unified curriculum.