Running Head: CURRICULUM DESIGN 1

Curriculum Design (Subject-centered Curriculum)

Reflection/Summary

Criselda Chub

THE UNIVERSITY OF BELIZE

Dr. Pricilla Brown

Date: 16th November, 2019

Running Head: CURRICULUM DESIGN 2

SUBJECT-CENTERED CURRICULUM

Subject-centered curriculum is one of the many curriculum models use in curriculum

planning. I find it very interesting how this model is designed around a particular subject or

discipline. There are more advantages of using this model as it is commonly used at primary and

secondary schools. Most of us as adults are quite familiar with this model. For me it becomes the

easiest way of acquiring knowledge for my students. Some advantages listed by (Gonzalez,

2016) are: it is easier for the teachers to do, widely accepted by parents since they have gone

through the same system, its simple to complex organization makes it easier to administer,

intellectual development is achieved in a child’s thinking, it provides security for both teacher

and student, it assumes a logically sound framework for the organization of the subject,

evaluation is very easy, and finally it is useful for specialization in any branch of knowledge.

As (Stutt, 2018) stated is not student-centered, and the model is less concerned with

individual learning styles compared to other forms of curriculum design. Even though this may

not seem favorable to the modern way of teaching that would be less student engagement and

motivation and may eventually seem to cause students fall behind. This model has shown that

it’s functional because student learn foundational knowledge from the curriculum in each area of

study. An example of a subject-centered curriculum is the spiral curriculum. It works to

continuously reinforce the fundamentals of concept, to ingrain in the students’ knowledge base,

and to prevent losing students who aren’t ready for the new lesson (Edupedia , 2018).
Running Head: CURRICULUM DESIGN 3

Moreover, the primary instructional tool is textbook. Therefore, it becomes easier for

teachers to do as resources are readily available, its framework of content is structured as

teachers select and organize the content before it is presented to the students and hence

evaluation is derived from the content of the textbook that students would easily absorb and

memorized. Some activities used in learning would be talking, listening, writing and reading.

Henry C Morrison, William T Harris and I are subject centered believers. As for my school, it

divides school hours by subjects such as Math, English, Information Technology and so on.

Therefore, when students are in fourth form they take CXC that aims for excellence in the

subject content.

I believe this model harmonizes teacher-centered classrooms because teachers teach how

the scholars of the subject or discipline convey the particular knowledge written in books.

Student learning would be achieve regardless of the limited amount of time teachers have in the

classroom; having complimentary books increase independent learning. Ideally, this model

would be effective in public schools as the ratio of student to teacher are outnumbered.

Nevertheless, this model may be old but is still applicable in todays’ changing society. It had

been instilled in us that knowing is done by reading and comprehending the content given to us

by the teacher from textbooks or any other empirical evidence. This is one of the reason I believe

that as scholars complete their research and write books it is important for students to reference

their own research writing. Truth derived from others by method of research and development.

Knowledge is also seen as transferring from the old generation to the new one. There is a

predetermined uniform standard of knowledge (Gonzalez, 2016). Hence to move to a higher area

of study the students must pass an exam that would give them credibility to do so and to achieve

excellence for their future careers.

Running Head: CURRICULUM DESIGN 4

References

Edupedia . (2018, June 10). WHAT IS SUBJECT-CENTERED CURRICULUM? Retrieved from

www.theedadvocate.org: https://www.theedadvocate.org/edupedia/content/what-is-

subject-centered-curriculum/

Gonzalez, G. (2016, November 26). Subject Centered Curriculum. Retrieved November 16,

2019, from prezi.com: https://prezi.com/f1xll-kfolf8/subject-centered-curriculum/

Stutt, A. (2018, October 25). Curriculum Development and The 3 Models Explained. Retrieved

November 16, 2019, from https://tophat.com: https://tophat.com/blog/curriculum-

development-models-design/