NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND

SELECTION OF COURSE IN
THE CURRICULUM
(ANDRES&FRANCISCO,
1989)
What should have been done?
The first important step in determining what
the curriculum should be for a given
population is to diagnose its needs.
• Diagnosis is an essential part of curriculum development in order to attune
it with the needs of the times and of learners, and to help determine which
objectives to stress.
• Diagnosis should be a continuous part of on-going curriculum and teaching.
• The continuous need to accommodate different types of learners and to
introduce new materials or a new emphasis demands that these
adjustments be made according to diagnostic checks on what the learners
know and can understand, what skills they have, or what mental processes
they have mastered.
• Diagnostic evidence is also needed to gear plans and expectations to the
upper limits of potentiality.
Needs Assessment (English&Kaufman,
1975)
• It is a process of defining the desired end or outcome, product,
or result of a given sequence of curriculum development.
• It is a process of making specific, in some intelligible manner,
what schooling should be about and how it can be assessed.
• Needs assessment is not by itself a curricular innovation, it is a
method for determining if innovation is necessary and or
desirable.
• It is an empirical process for defining the outcomes of education,
and as such it is then a set of criteria by which curricula may be
developed and compared.
Beginning of the SHS
There should be:
 Diagnosis of the learners
 Diagnosis of social needs
 Diagnosis of achievement
 Diagnosis of values
 Diagnosis of school facilities and
resources of the community
 Diagnosis of curriculum
problems
2014
 Implementation of the SHS
Curriculum approved by DepEd
 Subjects are based from GE and
followed the number of units
required for core, applied and
culminating subjects
Diagnosis of Learners
• The curriculum should be
developed to enhance the
desirable uniqueness of
individuals.
• It should be organized in terms of
the learners’ interest, ability, and
activities.
• The learner should be made the
starting point, the center.
• The nature of the learner must
be made the science of learning.
We must…
Know a great deal about the learners’ Know the differences…
status in the attainment of educational
objectives and their abilities

 Cultural backgrounds  Mental system

 Motivational patterns  Approaches to problem solving
 Content of their social learning  Functioning of their intelligence
 Interest span
 particular meanings they bring to  Social maturity
school
Their particular approach to  Enthusiasm
learning tasks  Creative urges
Expectations they have of
themselves and of others  Areas of conscious interest
Reasons why diagnosis of the learners is an
important determinant of the curriculum
• The maximum development of each individual, within the
framework of the common welfare is the essence of schooling
• A person is truly educated only as he develops to the fullest
extent possible his unique talents and capacities
• The welfare and advancement of the social group depend on the
maximum development of the human potentialities of each
member comprising the group
• The nature of our nation in years to come depends on the skills,
insights, knowledge, and character of the individuals who will
comprise that society
• The motivational syndrome of the individual himself –
his drives, his needs, his perceptions, his self-concepts,
his expectations, and his aspirations – constitutes one of
the primary bases for the selection and development of
learning experiences
• The program of the school and the learning experiences
selected for pupils at all levels must be adapted to the
maturity, capacities, and abilities of the learner
• Evaluation of the pupil’s growth and development and
the extent of his attainment of the behavioral goals of
education must take account of his own capacities
Diagnosis of Social Needs
• Since the school is established by a society to serve its
needs, the content of the curriculum should deal with
the nature, background, and needs of that society.
• The organization of the curriculum should be based on
the conditions, problems, and needs of society, and on
the real concerns, problems and interest of the learners.
• It should also be concerned with the improvement of
living and learning conditions in the school and in the
society.
Reasons behind the importance of societal
diagnosis as a determinant of the curriculum
are the following:
• Teachers and curriculum leaders themselves are participants in
the society and usually have been thoroughly educated in the
culture of the group for whom they plan a school program
• The school inculcates the values, ideals, beliefs, traditions and
mores of the social group
• The school educates its pupils to live in a particular society at a
particular time in its group life
• The culture shapes learners’ development and personality, and
determines their educational needs
•Curriculum planning and teaching should
take account of the social as well as the
innate aspects of pupil motivation
•The relative importance of the knowledge
and concepts to be learned by the young is
culturally determined
Other things which curriculum planners and
curriculum developers should know about
what society are the following:
• The fundamental beliefs, values, and moral principles of the
people
• The mores, traditions, expectations, and value patterns of
the citizens of a school community
• The philosophy, points of view, and recommendations on
education of pertinent professional, civic, and patriotic
organizations, and of leading authorities and officials in the
field of education
• Social, economic, and political conditions
• The home and family situation of the learners
•Legal mandates, requirements of superior
agencies, and admission requirements of
colleges, universities, and other post-
secondary educational institutions
•The psychology and sociology of cultural
change
Diagnosis of achievement
• Diagnosis of achievement is determining how well
students have achieved important educational
objectives. The scope of the objectives determines the
scope of this diagnosis. It may include such matters as
what concepts and information students have mastered,
what patterns of thinking they find easy of difficult,
what maturity in attitudes and feelings they possess,
which skills they can or can not use, and what their
interests are.
Diagnosis of values
• Because of the wealth of the materials and the
limited time available, curriculum developers
must select the subject-matter most valuable for
the particular learners they are considering.
• Subject –matter of relative value rather than
preparatory value should be taken into
consideration in curriculum development.
Diagnosis of school facilities and
resources of the community
• The curriculum must be alive and dynamic, adapted to
the circumstances and experiences of the learners.
• The activities in the curriculum should be indigenous to
the community.
• Information regarding the recreational facilities, health
conditions, occupations, and the physical features of the
community will also prove valuable in the determination
of the school program and activities.
Diagnosis of curriculum problems
• Curriculum developers must also find out the
causes of underachievement, the difficulties
encountered in teaching, or the evident failure of
the curriculum to reach a considerable portion of
the learners.
• Suggested procedure: problem identification,
problem analysis, formulation of hypotheses and
gathering of data; and experimenting with action.
Tools for Diagnosis of Curricular Needs
• There are many tools for making diagnosis of curricular needs.
• One is the open-ended classroom interview which consists of
asking the class questions designed to elicit the meaning certain
things have for them, what they are familiar with, or descriptions
of experiences they have had which can be used to interpret
their background and their feelings toward or understanding of
certain phenomena or concepts.
• Other informal diagnostic devices are open-ended questions and
themes, unfinished stories and incidents, records of discussions,
records of reading and writing, observation and recording of
performance, special assignments and exercises, sociometric
tests, surveys, diaries and diagnostic programs.
 SELECTION AND
ORGANIZATION OF
COURSE/CONTENT
• The selection and organization of the content and learning experiences of a
curriculum involve criteria other than objectives, such as their validity and
significance, the making of proper distinctions between the various levels
of content, and decisions about the level of development at which to
introduce it.
• It involves, furthermore, consideration of continuities and sequences in
learning and of variations in the capacity to learn.
• Curriculum organization is the systematic arrangement of content and
educational learning experiences for the effective employment of human
and material resources for the attainment of educational objectives.
• The design or curriculum organization is determined largely by the
increased knowledge of how learning takes place, the characteristics and
needs of the learners as they grow and develop, information about the
ideals of culture, social needs and problems, and statement of objectives of
education.
• The learning experiences should be selected and
organized so as to fit into a larger whole and contribute
to the development of those behavior traits that are
desired.
• In the process of organizing the learning experiences
there is a need for unified and well-balanced activities
and experiences as well proper scope and sequence. The
task of selecting and organizing learning experiences
involves more than applying certain principles of
learning.
• It involves ideas about such matters as strategies of
concept attainment and sequences in information of
attitudes and sensitivities. To the extent that learning
activities are used to implement some objectives, the
planning of learning experiences becomes a part of a
major strategy of curriculum building instead of being
relegated to incidental decisions made by the teacher at
the moment of teaching.
• Problems such as how to translate the content to be
learned into appropriate learning experiences and how
to project learning experiences that accommodate
variations in ability to learn, in motivation, and in mental
systems must be faced here.
• Curriculum organization refers to the structure
and form of the curriculum. To the extent that the
curriculum organization contributes to the
effective implementation of the activities, and
experiences needed to serve the objectives of the
school, to that extent is the curriculum
organization desirable.
Types of Curriculum Organization

•Traditional Curriculum Patterns

•Integrative Curriculum Patterns
•Unified Program
Traditional
Subject curriculum
 School subjects constitute
the basis for organizing the
school experiences of
learners
 Multiplicity of subjects
 Little regard for the
concerns of the learner
 Memorization of the text as
the dominant method
 Logical systems of
knowledge arrangement
Correlated curriculum
 Establishes relationships
between two or more
subjects on the basis of a
topic or theme
 Teaching similar topics in
two or more subjects
simultaneously in an effort
to help students gain a
better understanding of
such topics
Broadfields curriculum
 Essentially an effort to
overcome the
compartmentalization and
atomization of the curriculum
by combining several specific
areas into larger fields
 As a rule it involves five to six
curriculum subjects.
Integrative Curriculum
• It entirely eliminates school subject division and broad fields of
subject matter and organizes the learning experiences and the
work of the school around the learners’ needs, interests,
abilities, major functions of social life, and normal activities of
learners.
• It aims to foster integration of the learner.
• It is learner-centered as well as socially oriented.
• It is called “integrative” because the end it seeks is the
integration of the individual both within himself and with his
environment.
• It represents a conscious response to the need of harmony and
unity where frustration, insecurity, and unhappiness prevail.
• An integrated behavior, which is the end of this kind of
curriculum, means that the organism acts with unity and with
mutually helpful support of all its parts in the achievement of a
purpose.
• The concept applies to physical, emotional, and intellectual
aspects of behavior.
• There is integration of learning when the process of unifying
experiences in order to make them contribute effectively to the
formation of an integrated personality occurs.
• The Integrative Curriculum is a pattern or organizing learning
experiences to promote integration.
Integrative Curriculum
Learner-Centered Experience Core

 Organizes its  Places emphasis on the  Learning experiences are organized on

learning experiences immediate felt interests and felt the basis of major functions of social life
and content around needs of the learner and not on or aspects of living
normal child the anticipated needs and  Intended to serve the general education
activities such as interest needs of the learner in a manner not
exploring, listening,  Cooperative planning with the possible through the traditional subject
story telling, playing, learner curriculum
singing, and  Steps: learners choose, confers  Type 1 is based on the common
constructing with the teacher, exploration, problems, needs, and interests of the
 It is focused on the fuses his experiences and learners within a framework of societal
learner as the center activities & exhibit and explain problem areas
of activities in the clearly the results of his  Type 2: based upon teacher-student
school experience planned activities without reference to
any formal structure
Unified program
• According to William Ragan, there should be a
balance between extremes in educational theory
and educational practice.
• This is what he called “common sense point of
view” in curriculum organization.
• He contended that there should be a balance
between the direct teaching of subject skills and
unified learning experiences based on problems
which are life-centered.
• There should be a logical as well as a
psychological organization of learning
experiences.
• Learning should be organized in terms of
persistent life situations as well as on the basis of
organized body of knowledge when this is
needed.