Republic of the Philippines
State Universities and Colleges
Guimaras State College
Buenavista, Guimaras
Graduate School
Passi City Extension
PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF
CURRICULUM
Curriculum Development
Ed. 222
Criza Mae D. Castor
Benito Cava
Rosita P. Palec
Jenelyn M. Bonite
Reporters
The Major Foundations of Curriculum
Philosophical Psychological
Foundations Foundations
CURRICULUM
Social Historical/ Cultural
Foundations Foundations
By providing a basis for understanding the teaching/
learning process, educational psychology deals with how people
learn. It emphasizes the need to recognize diversity among
learners. It also seeks answers as to how a curriculum be
organized in order to achieve students’ learning at the optimum
level, and as to what amount of information they can absorb in
learning the various contents of the curriculum.
What is Psychology?
Is the scientific study of mental functions and behaviour
including: perception, cognition, behaviour, emotion, personality
and interpersonal relationships
What is Foundation?
It is basis upon which something stands or is supported.
What is Curriculum?
It is interpreted to mean all the organized activities,
courses and experiences which a student have under the direction
of the school whether in classroom or not.
3 Major Psychological Theories
• Behaviourist
• Cognitive
• Humanist
I: BEHAVIORIST PSYCHOLOGY
-focuses on stimulus responses and reinforces.
-studies conditioning, modifying, or shaping behaviour
through reinforcement and rewards.
- is a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in
individuals observable behaviours.
-Education in the 20th century was dominated by behaviourism.
The mastery of the subject matter is given more emphasis. So,
learning is organized in a step-by-step process. The use of
drills and repetition are common.
1.) EDWARD THORNDIKE
Connectionism
- Defined learning as a connection or association of an
increasing number of habits.
3 Laws of Learning
1. Law of Readiness
2. Law of Exercise
3. Law of Effect
2.) IVAN PAVLOV
He is the Father of Classical Conditioning
He is best known for his experiment with salivating of
dog.
Learning is the result of an association formed between
stimulus and a response.
Unconditioned stimuli are gradually removed, and the
neutral stimuli elicit the same reflex.
Believed the key to learning is early years of life to
train them what you want them to become.
3.) JAMES WATSON
Emphasized that learning was observable or measurable,
not cognitive.
Believed the key to learning was in conditioning a child
from an early age based on Pavlov’s methods.
Nurture vs. Nature
Watson’s theories strengthened the argument for the
influence of experiences as opposed to genetics.
4.) B. F SKINNER
Operant Conditioning
The theory of Skinner is based upon on the idea that
learning is a function of change in overt behaviour.
Reinforcement
is something that happens after a behaviour or event that
strengthens or increases behaviour likely to occur again
• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
II: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
- focus their attention on how individuals process
information and how the monitor and manage thinking.
- focus on the mind or an attempt to show how information is
received, assimilated, stored and recalled.
- Studies developmental stages, understanding, multiple forms
of intelligence, problem solving, critical thinking and
creativity.
- Cognitive theorists focus on how individuals process
information, monitor and manage their thinking.
- Development of problem-solving and thinking skills and
popularize the use of reflective thinking, creative
thinking, intuitive thinking, discovery learning, among
others.
1.) JEAN PIAGET
Stages for Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
Keys to Learning
Assimilation – incorporation of new experience
Accommodation- learning modification and adaptation
Equilibration- balance between previous and later learning
2.) LEV VYGOTSKY
The Zone of Proximal Development
- distance between a student’s performance with help and
performance independently.
Language, counting systems, art, mechanical drawings, and
mnemonic techniques are all “tools” used by humans to
organize.
3.) ROBERT GAGNE
Psychologist and educator
Known for contribution to cognitive learning Hierarchies
Gagne’s five Major categories of learning outcomes
1. Intellectual skills- or knowing how to categorize and used
symbols.
2. Information's skills- knowing what knowledge about facts,
dates and names
3. Cognitive strategies of learning skills
4. Motor skills
5. Attitudes, feelings, and emotions through experiences
4.) HOWARD GARDNER
There are eight Multiple Intelligences; linguistic, logico-
mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/ kinaesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.
Humans have several different ways of processing information and
these ways are relatively independent of one another.
III: HUMANISM PSYCHOLOGY
-concerned with how learners can develop their human
potential.
- Focuses on the whole child, their social, psychological,
and cognitive development.
- Studies focus on human need, attitudes, feelings and self-
awareness.
1.) ABRAHAM MASLOW
- Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are motivated to
achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence
over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival,
and this will be the first thing that motivates our
behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is
what motivates us, and so on.
Self actualization
Self –esteem
Love and belongingness
Safety
physiological
2.) CARL ROGERS
- Known on his Nondirective and Therapeutic Learning
- He established counselling procedures and methods for
facilitating learning
- Children's perceptions, which are highly individualistic,
influence their learning and behaviour in class.
- He believed that curriculum in concerned with process, not
product; personal needs, not subject matter, psychological
meaning, not cognitive scores.
Summary:
In summary, psychology has a great influence in the
curriculum. Learners are not machines and the mind is not a
computer. Humans are biological beings affected by their biology
and their cultures. The psychological foundations will help
curriculum makers in nurturing a more advanced, more
comprehensive and complete human learning.
References:
Bilbao, P.2008. Curriculum Development. Quezon City: Lorimar
Publishing, Inc.
Bilbao, P.2015. Curriculum Development for Teachers. Quezon City.
Lorimar Publishing, Inc.
https://simplyeducate.me/2015/01/09/4-major-foundations-of-
curriculum-and-their-importance-in-education/
