CURRICULUM

DEVELOPMENT
CURRICULUM
Curriculum is a total guided learning experience designed
to facilitate learner's learning for establishing quality
relationship between what is learnt and what operates
outside the school.

The curriculum includes the aims, objectives, teaching

content, teaching strategies, assessment methods and
other components of learning and teaching in classrooms.

Curriculum is a comprehensive overview of what students

should learn, how they will learn it, what role the
instructor is playing and the framework in which learning
and teaching will take place.
Curriculum Development is defined
as planned, purposeful, progressive
and systematic process in order to
create positive improvements in the
educational system.
The development of an effective curriculum is a

• Multi-step

• Ongoing

• Cyclical Process.

The process progresses from evaluating the existing

program, to implementing a new program and back to
evaluating the revised program.
Foundations are the forces that influence the minds of the
curriculum developers. It affects the content and structure of the
curriculum.

The curriculum reflects the society and culture of a country and it

is the desire of a society that their children should learn the habits,
ideas, attitudes and skills of the adult society and culture and
educational institutions are the proper way to impart these skills.
The duty of teacher and school is to discipline the young children
of the society and provide them with a set of experiences in the
form of curriculum. The needs, knowledge and information of the
society provides foundation in the formation of curriculum
 Major Foundations of
Curriculum

Philosoph Psychologi Sociologic

ical cal al
Foundatio Foundatio Foundatio
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Educators, curriculum makers and teachers have espoused a
philosophy or philosophies that are deemed necessary for
planning, implementing, and evaluating a school curriculum. The
philosophy that they have embraced will help them define the
purpose of the school, the important subjects to be taught, the
kind of learning students must have and how they can acquire
them, the instructional materials, methods and strategies to be
used, and how students will be evaluated.

Philosophy offers solutions to problems by helping the

administrators, curriculum planners, and teachers make sound
decisions. A person’s philosophy reflects his/her life experiences,
social and economic background, common beliefs, and education.
Idealism Realism

Four Educational
Philosophies

Pragmatism
Existentialism
Idealism is a philosophical approach that gives importance to the
"ideas". According to Idealism, ideas are the only true reality, the only
thing worth knowing.

Plato, father of Idealism believed that there are two worlds

(knowledge). The first is the spiritual or mental world, which is eternal,
permanent, orderly, regular, and universal, (Aprioric Knowledge).
There is also the world of appearance, the world experienced through
sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound, that is changing, imperfect, and
disorderly, (Postprioric Knowledge.

In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each

individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve
society.
 While developing curriculum, idealists give more importance to thoughts,
feelings, ideas and values rather than to the child and his activities. They firmly
hold that curriculum should be concerned with the whole humanity and its
experiences. Since the main aim of education according to the philosophy of
idealism is to preserve and advance the culture of human race, so subjects like
Religion, Ethics, philosophy, History, Literature etc should be provided in the
curriculum. Healthy mind is found in healthy body only. So health, hygiene,
games and sports should also find an important place in the curriculum.

• Idealism assigns a special role to the teacher. It considers teacher as a

spiritual guide for the child. He sets the environment in which education takes
place. He carries the child from darkness to light. He is to guide the student
towards utmost possible perfection. An idealist teacher is a philosopher, friend
and guide. According to Froebel, the school is a garden, the teacher is a
cautious gardener and the child is a tender plant. The plant can grow, no
doubt, without help but the good gardener sees that the plant grows to the
finest possible perfection. Through teacher’s guidance the child can make his
natural development into a process leading to perfection and beauty.
Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through

• lecture

• discussion

• Socratic dialogue (a method of teaching that uses

questioning to help students discover and clarify
knowledge)

• Introspection

• Intuition and Insight

These methods are used to bring to consciousness the

forms or concepts which are latent in the mind of the child.
Aristotle is credited with the development of realism.
Realism is about viewing the world in terms of what a
person experiences through their senses. This is almost
the opposite of idealism and it focuses on the mind.
Realist focus on experiencing things through
experiences.

Realism is not based upon perception of the individuals

but is an objective reality based on reason and science.

Realism represents a theory that particular things exist

independently of our perception.
Aims of Realist Education:
• Preparation for a Good life.

• Preparation for a Real Life of the Material World.

• Development of Physical and Mental Powers.

• Development of Senses.

• Imparting Vocational Knowledge and Skill.

• Development of Character.

• Enabling the Child to Adjust with the Environment.

Realist Curriculum:

Realists wanted to include those subjects and activities which would prepare the children for
actual day to day living. They gave primary place to nature, science and vocational subjects
whereas secondary place to Arts, literature, biography, philosophy, psychology and morality.
They also laid stress upon the teaching of mother- tongue as the foundation of all
development, which is necessary for reading, writing and social interaction but not for literary
purposes.
Realist Method of Teaching:
• Emphasis on critical reasoning through observation.

• Mastery of facts: Recitation, experimentation, demonstration, drills, exercises.

• Education should proceed from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract.

• Enhanced learning through direct and indirect experiences: field trips, lectures,
films, tv, audio-visual aids, computer technology and library.

• Children should be given positive rewards.

Role of a Teacher:

Under the realistic school, the teacher must be a scholar and his duty is to guide the
children towards the hard core realities of life. He must expose them to the problems
of life and the world around. The teacher should have full knowledge of the content
and needs of the children. The teacher should also inspire the child to undertake
close observation and experimentation for finding out new facts and principles .
The term Pragmatism derives its origin from a
Greek word meaning to do, to make, to accomplish.

For pragmatists, only those things that are

experienced or observed are real. The focus of
pragmatism is on the reality of experience. Unlike
the Realists, Pragmatists believe that reality is
constantly changing and that we learn best through
applying our experiences and thoughts to
problems, as they arise.
• To pragmatism the aim of education is to provide dynamic
direction and guidance to the child according to his natural
interests, aptitudes and capacities in the field of academic
activities that he grows up and develops more and is endowed
with capacities to confront the ever changing problems and
challenges of modern life successfully achieving a happier, a
better and a richer life. For this education should develop such a
dynamic, flexible and adaptable mind which is always
resourceful and enterprising and is able to create new values for
an unknown future.

• The curriculum must grow out of child’s interests, experiences,

impulses and needs. The curriculum must be child-centred.
Pragmatists stressed that school subjects should be woven
around the child’s activities. The curriculum should be flexible,
useful, experimental and life related.
Methods of Teaching:

• Learning by doing

• Collective approach

• Integrated approach

• Individual approach

Role of Teacher:

• The teacher works as friend, philosopher and guide to the students

• He should have the capacity to know the interests of the students.

• He should understand the conditions and situation of changing society.

• He puts forth problems for the students to be solved according to their interests.

• He also creates situations to develop social interests, attitudes and habits for
welfare of the society.
 Existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the
meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal
responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out
who and what they are throughout life as they make choices
based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. It emphasizes
individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that
humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational
decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. The main
identifiable common proposition is that existence precedes
essence. By this, existentialism states that man exists and in that
existence man defines himself and the world in his own
subjectivity, and wanders between choice, freedom, and
existential angst.
Methods of Education:

Progressive schools are what existentialists espouse. Children are individuals. No

two children are alike, therefore they are going to learn differently. Education
should accommodate these needs and students should be encouraged to do
things because they want to do them. According to Cramer and Ozman "There
should be freedom of choice, spontaneous play, open expression of feelings, and
student participation in the democratic control over community life in the school."
There should be diversity in the curriculum and in the manner in which things are
taught. Teachers should treat students humanely, as people, not objects. A
relationship should be developed between the student and the teacher in order to
promote the goals of education. Existentialist believe that the authority/control
method of teaching tends to prohibit the attainment of knowledge.

Role of Learners:
• The role of the learner is to feely choose what subject/s they want to study as
long as they are interested in it.

• To define their own essence or meaning of life.

Curriculum:
• An Existentialist curriculum will consist of experiences and
subjects that lend themselves to philosophical dialogue and acts
of choice making, because the choice is personal and
subjective.

• Composed of fine arts, drama, creative expression, literature

and philosophy.

• Vocational education is seen more as a means of teaching

students about themselves and their potentials than that of
earning a livelihood.

• The curriculum should include self-expressing activities,

experimentation and methods and media that illustrate
emotional feelings and insight.
Students Government Officials

Parents Pressure Groups

Educators Professional
Organizations
Research Community
Governing Bodies
Community Members

Business Community
 "No two persons are exactly alike"

Major Theories of Learning

COGNITIVISM
BEHAVIORISM
Which deals with
Which views the
various aspects of learners in
stimulus- response relationship with
and reinforcement the total
scheme
environment
 BEHAVIORISM
• Behaviorism gives importance to the explicit behavior by
conditioning the mind.

• Studies conditioning, modifying or shaping behavior through

reinforcement and rewards.

• Behaviorism in curriculum includes careful analyzing and

sequencing of the learners' needs and behaviors.

• Rely on step-by-step structured methods for learning.

• Curriculum should be organized so students master the subject

matter.

• Key Theorists : Thorndike, Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, Bandura.

 COGNITIVISM
• Cognitivism gives importance to the Brain, with the help of
reflection and logical reasoning

• Focuses on how individuals process information

• Emphasis on Memory and on how to enhance learning.

• Learner is the key player.

• Cognitive approach constitutes a logical method for organizing and

interpreting learning.

• Students should not be afraid to ask, not be afraid of being wrong,

not afraid of not pleasing the teacher, and not afraid of taking risk
and playing with ideas.

• Key Theorists : Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Bloom's Taxanomy

Role of the Teacher in Behaviorism and
Cognitivism

The teacher should teach keeping in mind the

nature of the learners, pace of the learners
and their background and perspectives.

Teacher has to promote the learner's intrinsic

motivation so that the actual learning occurs.
Neary (2003) describes the technical-scientific model as the Product Model which
emphasises plans and intentions.

The curriculum developer prioritizes what the students will be learning from a
specific subject matter and the explicit goals and objectives the students must
achieve.

The focus is on knowledge acquisition and what knowledge is most important for the
students to gain.

The curriculum is structured in a step by step manner to optimize students’ learning

and to allow them to increase their output.

The curriculum is designed with a time frame when these goals and objectives are to
be achieved.

It is very teacher centric and focuses on content structured assessment tools.

Two of the early leading proponents of the technical-scientific approach to

curriculum development were Ralph Tyler and Hilda Tabaf
 The Tyler Model
Ralph Tyler, a well-known proponent of the
technical-scientific approach discussed four
basic principles in curriculum development in
his book Basic Principles of Curriculum and
Instruction published in 1949.

Tyler stated his curriculum rationale in terms of

four questions that, he argued, must be
answered in developing any curriculum and
plan of instructions.
 1. What educational purposes should the school seek to
attain?
Educational objectives originate from three
sources :
Subjec
Societ Learne t-
y rs maker
s
These tentative objectives from the three sources
are filtered through two screens :

Philosophy of the School Psychology of Learning

This results in a final set of educational objectives.

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

Learning Experiences

Previous
Experiences ➕ Learner's
Perception

The experiences were to be selected in the light

of what educators know about learning and
development.
 3. How can the educational experiences be
organized?

• Tyler emphasized that the ordering of experiences had to be

somewhat systematic so as to produce a maximum
cumulative effect.

• Organising elements such as ideas, concepts, values and

skills should be woven threads into the curriculum fabric.

• With the help of these key elements, the students could relate
different learning experiences among different subjects.

• Generally, we arrange educational experiences from the most

general to specific i.e., from the easiest to the hardest.
 4. How can we determine whether these purposes are
being attained?

Evaluation is the process of determining to

what extent the educational objectives are
being realized by the curriculum. Thus,
according to Tyler, curriculum evaluation is
the process of matching initial expectations in
the form of behavioural objectives with
outcomes achieved by the learner.
 The Taba Model
• Hilda Taba promotes the “Down-Top Model” or
Grass-Roots Approach.

• She believed that the curriculum should be

designed by the users of the programme i.e.,
the Teachers.

• She advocated that teachers take an inductive

approach to curriculum development-starting
with the specifics and building to a general
curriculum design.
Taba noted 7 major steps to her Grass-Root Model, in
which teachers would have major input :

1. Diagnosis of Needs

2. Formulation of Objectives

3. Selection of Content

4. Organisation of Content

5. Selection of learning experiences

6. Organisation of learning activities

7. Evaluation and means of evaluation

Curriculum Development is :

Transactio-
Subjective Personal Aesthetic Heuristic Logical
nal
This approach is student centered with the emphasis on the learners
rather than the output.

It has a holistic view of learning.

It takes the view that the formal assessments do not measure the
accomplishments of curriculum.

This approach considers that “not all the educational goals can be
known and the curriculum should evolve rather than be precisely
planned”.

It emphasizes on active rather than passive approach to learning.

Non-technical Non-scientific approach to curriculum development is a

process model that concentrates on activities and the effects of the
activities.

There is also a weighting on student choice and life and social

skills.
It is based on the "Activity Curriculum"

It did not supported the formal preparation of plans before the

learners arrival.

Teachers are actively engaged whereas the learners are

passive.

Herbert Kohl said that "pupils can make choices and pursue
what interests them".

The best thing that works for the students are the unplanned
and spontaneous ones because of their sudden perceptions.
Thank You!!