Jayson Vargas

2nd Year BEED

Title: Lesson 2 – Approaches to School Curriculum

Activity 1.
1. Curriculum as a Content or Body of Knowledge It is quite common for traditionalists to
equate a curriculum to a topic outline, subject matter, or concepts to be included in the syllabus
or books. For example, a primary school mathematics curriculum consists of topics on addition,
multiplication, subtraction, division, distance, weight and many more. Another example is in
secondary school science that involves the study of biological science, physical science,
environmental science and earth science. Textbooks tend to begin with biological science such
are plants and animals; physical science with the physical elements, force and motion; earth
science with the layers of the earth and environmental science with the interaction of the
biological and physical science and earth’s phenomena, climate, vegetation followed by
economic activities such as agriculture, mining, industries, urbanization and so forth.
2. Curriculum as a process The interaction among teachers, students and content. Curriculum as
a process is seen as a scheme about the practice of teaching. As a process, then, it links from the
content. To teachers the process is very critical.
3. Curriculum as a Product Is a student who is equipped with the Knowledge, skills, and values
to function effectively and efficiently.
Activity 2.
a. Topical Approach – A topic is a comprehensive collection of materials of a specific topic of the
particular subject. It is also known as a topic approach. This although gives mastery over the topic. This
approach is organized around themes, topics and units of the content.
b. Concept approach – It is choosing and defining content of a certain discipline to be taught through the
use of big and pervasive ideas It is using the content as a means of leading the students to discover the
laws and principles or generalizations that govern a particular subject or discipline.
c. Thematic approach – is the way of teaching and learning where many areas of the curriculum are
connected together and integrated within a theme thematic approach to instruction is a powerful tool for
integrating the curriculum and eliminating isolated and reductionist nature of teaching it allows learning
to be more natural than then fragmented nature of the school activities. Here the students are actively
involved and they learn more skills through thematic learning cognitive skills such as reading, thinking,
memorizing and writing are put in the context of a real life situation under the broad aim to allow for
creative exploration.
d. Module approach – is an emerging trend educational thinking that shifts traditional method of
instruction to an outcome-based learning paradigm. Modularization is based on the principle of dividing
the curriculum into small discrete modules or units that are independent, nonsequential, and typically
short in duration.

Activity 3.
a. Significance - Content should contribute to ideas, concepts, principles and
generalization that should attain the overall purpose of the curriculum. It is significant if
content becomes the means of developing cognitive, affective or psychomotor skills of the
learner. As education is a way of preserving culture, content will be significant when this will
address the cultural context of the learners.
 b. Validity - The authenticity of the subject matter forms its validity. Knowledge becomes
obsolete with the fast changing times. Thus, there is a need for validity check and verification
at a regular interval, because content which may be valid in its original form may not
continue to be valid in the current times.
c. Utility - Usefulness of the content in the curriculum is relative to the learners who are going
to use these. Utility can be relative to time. It may have been useful in the past, but may not
be useful now or in the future. Questions like: Will I use this in my future job? Will it add
meaning to my life as a lifelong learner? Or will the subject matter be useful in solving
current concerns?
d. Learnability - The complexity of the content should be within the range of experiences of
the learners. This is based on the psychological principles of learning. Appropriate
organization of content standards and sequencing of contents are two basic
principles that would influence learnability.
e. Feasibility - Means the full implementation of the subject matter. It should consider the
school's real situation, the government, and society in general. Students must learn within the
allowable time and the use of resources available. Do not give them a topic that is impossible
to finish.
f. Interest - is when students identify their interests and use those interests to drive and lead
learning experiences. The purpose of designing learning experiences around interests is to
encourage an intrinsic motivation to learn and inspire a passion for learning.

Activity 4. The content is curriculum which most often are facts, concepts and principles can be easily
memorized by the learners. How can the teacher make these concepts relevant to the students daily life?
Explain.
-By making their lessons more relevant to students’ lives and experiences, he/she can engage and help them.
Provide space in their lessons to: Celebrate culture and have students teach others about their culture. Allow
students to share their stories and value their experiences: Students need a voice. Whether during discussion or
in written form, having students relate their own perceptions and experiences to the current topic is a great way
to provide relevance. In my classes, as in many of yours, students are supposed to read before coming to class.

Activity 5.
a. Balance - means that the curriculum is fairly distributed in deep and breath of the particular learning
area or discipline. The elementary curriculum is really fairly distributed. Though the number of
competencies is not equal in every quarter but this doesn’t mean that they are not fairly distributed
because the competencies are actually budgeted base on the number of days of teaching per topic which
would fit in to the number of days per grading period.
b. Articulation - means the smooth connection of the subject matters. The subject matters in the elementary
curriculum are really connected. The former is connected with the latter. That is why in the learning
process, review is encouraged to really establish and deepen the connection of the subject matters to
make it more meaningful to the children.
c. Sequence - this is the logical arrangement of the subject matters. Based on observation and experience,
the subject matters are logically arranged from easy to difficult, basic to complex. Topics in other
learning areas, like HEKASI, Science and Math, are actually arranged from where the students can find
a closer connection to their selves and experience so that they can easily relate to it.
d. Integration - this is the horizontal connections in subject areas. Well, this is actually encouraged. The
fact is that there are subject matters that can be integrated in other subject area. Like the integration of
values in all subject areas, the integration of Science and Math concepts in teaching English; and
HEKASI and MSEP concepts in teaching Filipino.
 e. Continuity - refers to the constant repetition, review and reinforcement of learning. Meaning, a lesson
should not stop after an evaluation. It has to be repeated through review and reinforcement. Thus, this is
the principle in the elementary curriculum. We even targeted that the learning in school should be
applicable and applied to the daily life.
Activity 6. Differentiate the 3 terms
1. Methods - is a target plan or set of orderly procedures that are based on a credible approach. It
reveals what needs to be done in a systematic way and how to focus on achieving those goals.
Method is the way to do.
2. Strategy - refers to the wisdom in selecting teaching approach, teaching method, techniques and
activities in order to achieve teaching objectives. Strategy is the plan to do
3. Technique - is a precise strategy, concrete trick or a tested and trusted tip that’s designed to help
you reach your goals. It could be in form of an exercise or just any activity that you have to do to
complete your mission.

Activity 7. Explain the acronym and give at least 2 behavioral objectives.

Acronym of SMART:
1. S – specific
2. M – measurable
3. A – achievable
4. R – relevant
5. T – time based
2 behavioral objectives:
1. Timely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date. The purpose is to
create urgency.
2. Specific: Well defined, clear, and unambiguous.

Analysis:
1. Why is it very important for a teacher to consider content, process and the product in formulating
lesson objects? Explain.
-To teach all students according to today’s standards, teachers need to understand subject matter deeply
and flexibly so they can help students create useful cognitive maps, relate one idea to another, and
address misconceptions. Teachers need to see how ideas connect across fields and to everyday life.
2. The lesson/content for every subject are usually prepared by curriculum writers considering
important principles. Should the teacher skip some lessons objectives? Why? Why not?
-No, teacher should not skip some lessons objectives because this is important in teaching. We all know
that lesson objectives provide students with a clear purpose on which to focus their learning efforts.
inform your selection of instructional content and activities. guide your testing and assessment
strategies. Because of lesson objectives it also help to clarify, organize and prioritize learning. They help
you and your students evaluate progress and encourage them to take responsibility for their learning.