Republic of the Philippines

PSU- OPEN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

Lingayen, Pangasinan

Module I
Student: MS. MICHELLE A. BORJA
Professor: DR. VALENTIN B. CALPO JR.

How would you differentiate the four different approaches to understanding curriculum
theory and practice?

Curriculum as product

The central theory of curriculum is simple.  Human life, however varied, consists
in the performance of specific activities.  Education that prepares for life is one that
prepares definitely and adequately for these specific activities.  However numerous and
diverse they may be for any social class they can be discovered.  This requires only that
one go out into the world of affairs and discover the particulars of which their affairs
consist.  These will show the abilities, attitudes, habits, appreciations and forms of
knowledge that men need.  These will be the objectives of the curriculum.  They will be
numerous, definite and particularized.  The curriculum will then be that series of
experiences which children and youth must have by way of obtaining those objectives. 

A familiar, and more restricted, example of this approach can be found in many
training programmes, where particular tasks or jobs have been analyzed – broken down
into their component elements – and lists of competencies drawn up.  In other words,
the curriculum was not to be the result of ‘armchair speculation’ but the product of
systematic study. 

Curriculum as process

Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with

an ability to think critically, -in-action

an understanding of their role and the expectations others have of them, and

a proposal for action which sets out essential principles and features of the educational
encounter.
Guided by these, they encourage

conversations between, and with, people in the situation

out of which may come

thinking and action.

They

continually evaluate the process and what they can see of outcomes.

Stenhouse on curriculum
As a minimum, a curriculum should provide a basis for planning a course, studying it
empirically and considering the grounds of its justification.  It should offer:
A. In planning:
1. Principle for the selection of content – what is to be learned and taught
2. Principles for the development of a teaching strategy – how it is to be learned
and taught.
3. Principles for the making of decisions about sequence.
4. Principles on which to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of individual
students and differentiate the general principles 1, 2 and 3 above, to meet
individual cases.
B. In empirical study:
1. Principles on which to study and evaluate the progress of students.
2. Principles on which to study and evaluate the progress of teachers.
3. Guidance as to the feasibility of implementing the curriculum in varying school
contexts, pupil contexts, environments and peer-group situations.
4. Information about the variability of effects in differing contexts and on different
pupils and an understanding of the causes of the variation.
C. In relation to justification:
A formulation of the intention or aim of the curriculum which is accessible to
critical scrutiny.
Curriculum as praxis

Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with

a personal, but shared idea of the good and a commitment to human emancipation,
an ability to think critically, -in-action
an understanding of their role and the expectations others have of them, and
a proposal for action which sets out essential principles and features of the educational
encounter.
Guided by these, they encourage
conversations between, and with, people in the situation
out of which may come
informed and committed action.
They
continually evaluate the process and what they can see of outcomes.
In this approach the curriculum itself develops through the dynamic interaction of
action and reflection. ‘That is, the curriculum is not simply a set of plans to be
implemented, but rather is constituted through an active process in which planning,
acting and evaluating are all reciprocally related and integrated into the process’
(Grundy 1987: 115). At its centre is praxis: informed, committed action.

Curriculum in context

In contrast, Stenhouse defines curriculum as the attempt to describe what

happens in classrooms rather than what actually occurs.  Cornbleth further contends
that curriculum as practice cannot be understood adequately or changed substantially
without attention to its setting or context.  Curriculum is contextually shaped.   While I
may quibble about the simple equation of curriculum with process, what Cornbleth does
by focusing on the interaction is to bring out the significance of context.
What we also need to recognize is that by treating curriculum as a contextualized
social process, the notion of hidden curriculum becomes rather redundant.  If we need
to stay in touch with milieu as we build curriculum then it is not hidden but becomes a
central part of our processes.
Discuss the educational system and the relationship of its part. How is the concept of
curriculum related to the education?


Curriculum – an umbrella term denoting the totality of the learning experience of
children and young people in school. Considering the curriculum would thus
include the questions of what, how and why listed below, as well as assessment.
 Curriculum purposes – statements of what the curriculum is intended to
achieve. These include narrowly defined outcomes or objectives, and more
broadly defined aims or goals. This is the ‘why’ of the curriculum, and is often
(but not always) made explicit in official documents.
 Curriculum framework – the documents that outline the structure of the
curriculum and its purposes. This also usually includes the content to be taught –
the ‘what’ of the curriculum.
 Curriculum provision – the systems and structures established in schools to
organise teaching – for example, timetabling. This is the ‘how’ of the curriculum.
 Pedagogy (often termed ‘instruction’ in the literature, especially in American
writing) – usually referring to the teaching strategies and learning activities
planned to achieve the aims and fulfil the planned framework. This is also the
‘how’ of the curriculum.
 Assessment – the methods used to judge the extent of students’ learning (e.g.
tests, homework, observation). Assessment judgments might be used formatively
(to provide feedback to learners to inform future learning), summatively (to
provide a grade) or evaluatively (to judge whether teaching has been effective).

Educators and teachers are concerned about what choices are to make about teaching
content and methods. As for the parents, they would like to know what their children are
going to learn. Learners are also concerned about what kinds of content they are going
to have in class. “Curriculum” seems to be considered greatly as what teachers are
going to teach and, in other words, what learners are going to learn. In fact, “curriculum”
is also closely related to how well the learners learn—the outcomes. Thus, as an
umbrella term, “curriculum” includes a lot of issues, for example, teaching
curriculum, learning curriculum, testing curriculum, administrative curriculum and the
hidden curriculum. This
paper presents relevant literature associated with the term “curriculum” to help clarify
what is the entity that we need to
be concerned about in the school context.

A. Curricula as a Set of Objectives

Curriculum can be seen as a means of achieving specific educational goals and

objectives. In this sense, a curriculum can be regarded as a checklist of desired
outcomes. In the curriculum development process, generally speaking, the objectives
are clear and specific in behavioral and observable terms. The emphasis on objectives
is the characterization of an objectives curriculum model. In this sense, the focus is on
products or ends, and is also teacher-orientated or administrative-oriented. If it is the
latter, curriculum is set by politicians without consulting teachers and very few of the
teachers feel any sense of “ownership” for the material they are compelled to teach

B. Curricula as Courses of Study or Content

Curriculum can be understood as a process of selecting courses of study or content

(Beauchamp, 1977; Wood & Davis, 1978). In this sense, a curriculum also either
describes or prescribes the content and goals of formal instruction but lays the means of
instruction out of the foreground of focus. Although this use of the curriculum appears
similar to the above-mentioned definition-Curricula as a Set of Objectives-in terms of the
inclusion of goals, in fact, there is a different focus. The first definition emphasizes the
specification and prescription of instructional objectives whereas the definition here
focuses on course content rather than learning objectives. The “courses” feature a
variation of scope and amount.

C. Curricula as Plans
A curriculum can be seen as a plan, or a sort of blueprint for systematically
implementing educational activities. This sense of the term combines content with
instructional methods and hence has a wider scope than the former two curricular
paradigms because of the inclusion of methods. In this vein, Tom (1984) canvasses
curriculum as “a plan for this view of curriculum is not pragmatically equated with
methods themselves in action.

teaching or instruction” (p.89). Similarly, Pratt (1994) conceives it as “a plan for a

sustained process of teaching and
learning” (p.5) with a specific focus on content and the process of teaching and learning.
What is worth noting is that

D. Curricula as Documents
Other people, for example, Brady (1995), view curriculum as a document--an outline of
a course program that is written on a piece of paper. Thus, curriculum “has become
associated with the official written programs of study published by ministries or
departments of education, local authorities or boards of education, and commercial
firms or teams of educational specialists working on specially funded projects” (Barrow
& Milburn, 1990, p.84). This view of the visual written document attached to curriculum
derives from the need that, particularly in the phases of curriculum development and
implementation, a written form has to be made to include a statement of objectives,
content, method, and assessment.

E. Curricula as Experiences
Instead of regarding curricula narrowly as formalized classroom content or prescriptive
learning objectives, it may be useful to think of them more holistically as programs for
experiences. Following this line of definition, one may recall what Marsh (1997) posits
of curriculum as “an interrelated set of plans and experiences which a student
completes under the guidance of the school” (p.5). That means: the relationship
between “plans and experiences” is intertwined, where “plans” are attributed to
planned curricula in advance and “experiences” refer to unplanned happenings in
classrooms. Although planning is a precursor to action, it is important to acknowledge
that unplanned happenings often occur in classroom settings. For this reason, Marsh
(1997) states, “the actual curricula which are implemented in classroom to activities
outside the classroom (Marsh, 1997).

Differentiate Tyler and Taba’s theory of curriculum. Which do you think is the most
relevant to our present system of education?
classrooms consist of an amalgam of plans and experiences…” (p.5). In other
words, teaching is seldom entirely spontaneous or planned, but rather an interplay
between impulse and intention; learning experiences extend beyond the

 In the Tyler Model, the general objectives that successfully pass through the two
screens become what are now popularly known as instructional objectives.

Setting Objectives • What educational purposes should the institution seek to attain?
Learning experiences and content • What educational experiences can be provided that
are likely to attain these purposes? Organizing learning experiences • How can these
educational experiences be effectively organized? Evaluation • How can we determine
whether these purposes are being attained? 

Society Philosophy Subject Matter SOURCES Objectives Screens Instructional

Objectives Learner Psychology Selection of Learning Experiences Organization of
Learning Experiences Evaluation Curriculum Planning Curriculum Design Curriculum
Evaluation

Why do you need instructional objectives in your curriculum? 1. When clearly defined
objectives are lacking, there is – no sound basis for the selection or designing of
instructional materials, content, or methods. – If you don't know where you are going, it
is difficult to select a suitable means for getting there. 2. To find out whether or not the
objective, has in fact been accomplished. • Test items designed to measure whether
important instructional outcomes have been accomplished can be selected or created
intelligently only when those instructional outcomes have been made explicit.

 Good objectives provide students with a means to organize their own efforts toward
accomplishment of those objectives. • Experience has shown that with clear objectives
in view, students at all levels are better able to decide what activities on their part will
help them get to where it is important for them to go.

The Taba Model • Another approach to curriculum development was proposed by Hilda
Taba in her book Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice published in 1962. • An
inductive approach to curriculum development, starting with specifics and building up to
a general design . • Taba took what is known as a grass-roots approach to curriculum
development.

She believed that the curriculum should be designed by the teachers rather than
handed down by higher authority. • Further, she felt that teachers should begin the
process by creating teaching-learning units for their students in their schools rather
initially in creating a general curriculum design. • She noted 7 major steps to her grass-
roots model in which teachers would have major input. • She was of the opinion that the
Tyler model was more of an administrative model.

Hilda Taba : Grassroots Approach 1. Diagnosis of learners needs and expectations of

the larger society. 2. Formulation of learning objectives. 3. Selection of the learning
content. 4. Organization of learning content. 5. Selection of the learning experiences. 6.
Organization of learning activities. 7. Determination of what to evaluate and the means
of doing it.

The Taba Model • Diagnosis of need: The teacher who is also the curriculum designer
starts the process by identifying the needs of students for whom the curriculum is
planned. For example, the majority of students are unable to think critically. •
Formulation of objectives: After the teacher has identified needs that require attention,
he or she specifies objectives to be accomplished.

The Taba Model • Selection of content: The objectives selected or created suggest the
subject matter or content of the curriculum. Not only should objectives and content
match, but also the validity and significance of the content chosen needs to be
determined. i.e. the relevancy and significance of content. • Organisation of content: A
teacher cannot just select content, but must organise it in some type of sequence,
taking into consideration the maturity of learners, their academic achievement, and their
interests.

• Selection of learning experiences: Content must be presented to students and

students must be engaged with the content. At this point, the teacher selects
instructional methods that will involve the students with the content. • Organisation of
learning activities: Just as content must be sequenced and organised, so must the
learning activities. Often, the sequence of the learning activities is determined by the
content. But the teacher needs to keep in mind the particular students whom he or she
will be teaching.

• Evaluation and means of evaluation: The curriculum planner must determine just what
objectives have been accomplished. Evaluation procedures need to be designed to
evaluate learning outcomes.

Evaluation Formulation Of Objectives Diagnosis of Needs Selection of Content

Organization Of Content Selection of Learning Activities Organization of Learning
Activities Teacher Input Teacher Input Teacher Input Taba’s Curriculum Development
Model
In conclusion, the best curriculum model should be according to the needs of learner at
individual or class level, it should also take into account the available study
environment, facilities and time as well. All the needs should be identified at first level
and later the objective should be defined according to learner, environment, subject
matter requirements and time as well. Further, a curriculum should also be interesting,
motivational, flexible as well as practical so that it can be easily implemented.

Describe and discuss a model of curriculum that you can propose to be most relevant to
improve the quality of education in our schools.

A quality school curriculum

One of the factors that determine the quality of schools is the curriculum. Where some
improvement breakthroughs have been taken, but the spirit of students and school
quality is still not maximized then one of the things that must be studied is the
curriculum. Glasser argues that much of the current academic curriculum is not
worth the effort it takes to learn it. The question is how is the quality curriculum?
Students at school (and even at colleges and graduate schools) are asked to study
innumerable facts and the irony of that is only a condition for passing the exam. An
important element in a quality curriculum is that students can show how what they
have learned can be used in their lives. If they can do this, the teacher will know
that the student has actually learned something. Almost all students will have no
trouble accepting that reading, writing, and arithmetic are useful skills, but in good
schools with a good curriculum they are require to show that they can use them.
Students are given problems to solve and are asked to show how the solution
is. A good curriculum is what students learn how to operate, such as how to multiply
numbers. If you are able to master the theory, then directed to be able to practice with
tools, such as calculators to calculate and so forth. Writing skills should be the
main focus as well, and not just emphasize reading skills. Submission of material
with practice is more appropriate than the mere theory. Students are expected to
have the skills to be an active contributor to their community. Students should know
about what they have learned and how learning can benefit them in the future. With a
good curriculum the expectations
can increase the number of students that match our expectation.