Tyler's Four Questions and Four Steps Curriculum Development

Dewey's Curriculum "Plan"

"Unless experience is so conceived that the result is a plan for deciding upon subject-matter, upon
methods instruction and discipline, and upon material equipment and social organization of the
school, it is wholly in the air"

The Twelve Components of the Oliva Model

 According to Tyler, curriculum development has to begin with answering the following four
questions:

1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

2. What educational experiences can be provided that will likely attain these purposes?

3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?

4. How can we determine whether the purposes are being attained?

 The first phase in planning is to formulate tentative educational objectives through analysis of
information collected from the following three sources:

1. Student-interest and needs- information collected through interviews, questionnaires, test results
and teacher observations etc.

2. Society-analysis of aspects of community and greater societal needs

3. Subject-information about the subject or discipline itself

 Dewey's educational plan consists of two parts that are mutually dependent.

1. The first part is to find theoretical answers to the problem of education.

2. The second part is to formulate steps to test the theoretical answers resulting from the first part.

 The process of formulating the steps to find the answer to the problem of education in part one
will result in the development of another problem.
 These two steps are circular and the process reflects Dewey's philosophy of curriculum
development.

 Peter F. Oliva's curriculum development model is deductive and involves twelve components in
two phases: curriculum development and instructional.
 The twelve components are:
I. Establishment of educational aims and beliefs- societal and general students' needs are stated

II. Analysis of needs of the local community, students from the school and each subject area are
performed

III. Establishment of curriculum goals (general expectations of the process)

IV. Establishment of curriculum objectives (specific criteria and measurable achievement results)

V. Establish organization and implementation of the curriculum

VI. Establishment of instructional goals

VII. Establishment of instructional objectives

VIII. Selection of instructional strategies

IX. (Part A) Commence selection of evaluation methods for measuring students achievements

 Dewey believed the ultimate problem in education is to provide experiences that are balanced
between "social ends and means" and "individual traits" of the child.
 The initial step of formulating a curriculum should not be goal setting rather it should be an
examination of the relationship between the child and subject.
 To him a curriculum should be borne out of the child's "own social activities" and not school
subjects nor current whims and needs.
 Dewey's ideal curriculum is a flexible process in which the child is an active participant and the
educator guides and directs the child through carefully selected and organized socially relevant
experiences.
 Dewey's model is not prescriptive nor linear like the other three designs presented. Dewey's
model provides a very flexible, loosely constructed theoretical and philosophical framework
that guides how best to educate a child.

X. Implementation of instructional strategies

IX. (Part B) Finalize selection of evaluation methods for both measuring student achievements and
critiquing instructional effectiveness

XI. Implementation of instructional efficacy evaluation and adjustment of instructional components

XII. Evaluation of curriculum efficacy and adjustment of curriculum components

 Component IX is in two parts ( A and B) which is performed before and after component X
respectively.
 Components I to V and VII are considered curriculum planning phases
 Components V to XI are considered instructional phases
  Oliva's design is the most comprehensive and detailed in its coverage of curricular planning
compared to the others being presented. It is also more versatile in that the two phases could
be planned in isolation or in tandem.

 The tentative objectives are then refined and developed through the use of two screens:
philosophical and psychological resulting in the final versions of educational objectives.
 In the third phase of the process, educational experiences are then selected and organized
guided by the final objectives. According to Tyler, educational experiences should:

1. Help develop thinking skills

2. Help develop responsible social attitudes

3. Helpful in creating interest

4. Help develop research skills

 The final phase of Tyler's curriculum development is evaluation of the curriculum's

effectiveness in fulfilling the established educational objectives.
 Discussion of Tyler's model seldom progress beyond the four rationale questions and the three
sources to formulate objectives. This could be due to the intuitiveness that the process of
answering them produces as the answers guide the user in what actions are needed in order
to fulfill those answers.

The Dewey Model

The Tyler Model
The Oliva Model
The Taba Model
Taba's Five Step Curriculum Model
2. Installation of test units in classrooms to evaluate the effectiveness of unit in actual classrooms
with real students.

3. Revise and adjust elements of unit resulting from evaluation from previous phase.

4. Curriculum planners create framework and state rationale for the unit.

5. Implement the finalized unit into all classrooms. Workshops should be used to ensure a smooth
transition.

 Taba and Dewey's curriculum models are similar in that they emphasize understanding the
child as the most important element in planning of a curriculum.

 Taba's suggestion for curriculum planning distinguishes itself by being the only inductive model
of the four being presented. Planning begins with specific lessons and then merges together
into a curriculum.
  Taba also suggested a bottom up direction for curriculum design, where teachers guide the
planning instead of administrators.
 Her model consist of five phases, with eight stages for the first phase:

1. Teachers produce pilot learning units for each grade or subject:

a. Perform analysis of students' needs

b. Out of results of the above analysis formulate objectives

c. Selection of content

d. Organization of content

e. Selection of educational activities

f. Organization of educational activities

g. Selection of evaluation methods

h. Determine adherence to scope and sequence

Four Models of Curriculum Development