Approaches to

School Curriculum
Desired Learning Outcome
 Describe the approaches to school curriculum.
 Explain by examples how the approaches clarify
the definition of curriculum.
 Reflect on how the three aproaches interralate
each other.
Three ways of Approaching the
Curriculum

Curriculum as a Content
 Curriculum as a Process
 Curriculum as a Product
Curriculum as a Content
 Curriculum as a Content or Body
Language
 Focus will be the body of knowledge to be transmited to
students using appropriate teaching method.
 The likelihood of teaching will be limited to acquisition of
facts, concepts, and princples of the subject matter. However,
the content can also be taken as a means to an end.
 Ways of presenting the content in
curriculum
 Topical Approach- much content is based on knowledge
and experiences are included.
 Concept approach- fewer topics in cluster among major
and sub-concepts and their interactions with relatedness
emphasized.
 Thematic Approach- combination of concepts that
develop conceptual structures.
 Modular Approach- leads to complete units of instruction.
 Criteria in Selection of Content
(Scheffer, 1970 in BIlbao, et al 2009)
a. Significance
b. Validity
c. Utility
d. Learnability
e. Feasibility
f. Interest
 Significance

Content should contribute to the ideas, concepts,

principles, and generalization that should attain the
overall purpose of the curriculum.
 Content becomes the means of developing
cognitive, affective, or psychomotorskills of learners.
 Validity

Authencity of the subject matter forms its

validity.
 There is a need of validity check and
verification at a regular interval, because
content may not continue to be valid.
 Utility

 Usefulness of the content in the curriculum

is relative to the learners who are going to
use this.
 Learnability

 The complexity of the content must be

within the range of learners.
 Feasibility

 Can the subject be learned within the time allowed,

resources available, expertise of teachers and the nature
of learners?
 Are the contents of learning which can learned beyond
formal teaching-learning engagement?
 Are the opportunities to learn these?
 Interest

 Will the learners take interest in the content?

 What value will the contents have in present and future
life of the learners?
 Interest is one of the driving forces for the students lean
better?
 Guide in Selection of the Content in the
Curriculum
 Commonly used in daily life.
 Appropriate to the maturity levels and abilities of the
learners.
 Valuable in meeting the needs and competencies of the
future career.
 Related to other subject fields or discipline for
complementation and integration.
 Important in transfer of learning to other discipline.
Basic Principles of Curriculum
Content
a. Balance- content should be fairly distributed in depth and breadth.
b. Articulation- As the content complexities progresses with the
education levels bridging should be provided.
c. Sequencing- the logical arrangement of the content refers to the
sequence or order.
d. Integration- content in the curriculum does not stand alone or in
isolation. It has relatedness to other content.
e. Continuity- curriculum should continuously flow as it was before, to
where it is now, and where it will be in the future.
Curriculum as a Process
 Curriculum as a Process

 Curriculum happens in the classroom as the questions asked by

the teacher and learning activities engage in the student.
 The process of teaching and learning process becomes the central
concern of teaching to emphasize critical thinking, thinking means
making heads-on, hands on doing and many others.
 There are ways of teaching, ways of managing the content,
guiding learning, methods of teaching and learning and strategies
of teaching or delivery modes.
 Guiding Principle when Approach
Process
 Curriculum process in the form of teaching methods or strategies
are means to achieve the end.
 There is no single best process in method.
 Curriculum should stimulate the learners desire to develop
cognitive, affective, psychomotor domain in each individual.
 In choice of methods, learning and teaching styles should be
considered.
 Every method or process should result to learning outcomes
which can be described as cognitive, affective and psychomotor.
 Flexibilty in the use of the process or methods should be
considered.
 Both teaching and learning are the two important
processes in the implemenation of the curriculum.
Curriculum as a Product
 Curriculum as a
Product
 Central to the approach is the
formulation of behavioral objectives
stated as intended learning outcomes.
 These learned or achieved learning
outcomes are demonstrated by the
person who has meaningful experiences
in the curriculum. All these result in
planning, content, and processes in the
curriculum.
Thank you for listening!!!