Eastern Mindoro College

BONGABONG, ORIENTAL MINDORO

Tel. No.(043)-283-5479; email_1945 @ yahoo.com
COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

NAME: COURSE:

DATE: THE TEACHER & THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM ROOM:

CONTACT NO. INSTRUCTOR: MR. MAGTIBAY

EMAIL ADD: RATING:

CHAPTER 1: CURRICULUM ESSENTIALS

MODULE 1: THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
LESSON 1.2: THE TEACHER AS A CURRICULARIST
WEEK 2 , 3 HOURS
I. FOCUS:
In this module, challenge yourself to:
• Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist in the classroom and
school
II. INTRODUCTION: What specific roles do teachers play as a curricularist? Should they do these
roles?
This lesson will bring all of you to an enhanced understanding and realization of the
multifaceted roles of the teacher which relate to the curriculum. Let us find out!

III. STRATEGIES
A. ACTIVITY: TURN UP YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Look at the words inside the box. Read each one of them. Which one describes the teacher as a
curricularist? Circle the word.

Facilitating Frustrating
Exciting Planning
Knowing

Growing Evaluating
Growing
Initiating Innovating

Broadening Building Rewarding Believing

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 THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Are you aware that the teacher’s role in school is very complex?
Teachers do a series of interrelated actions about curriculum, instruction, assessment, evaluation, teaching
and learning. A classroom teacher is involved with curriculum continuously all day. But very seldom has a
teacher been described as curricularist.

Curricularist in the past, are referred only to those who developed curriculum theories. According to
the study conducted by Sandra Hayes (1991) the most influential curricularist in America include John
Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba and Franklin Bobbit. You will learn more of them in the later part of the
module.

B. ANALYSIS/ABSTRACTION AND GENERALIZATION

GEAR UP YOUR MIND!

Highlights:
➢ LESSON 1.2: THE TEACHER AS A CURRICULARIST

In this lesson, we will start using the word curricularist to describe a professional who is a
curriculum specialist (Hayes, 1991; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Hewitt, 2006). A person who is
involved in curriculum knowing, writing, planning, implementing, evaluating, innovating, and initiating
may be designated as curricularist. A TEACHER’S role is broader and inclusive of other functions
and so a teacher is a curricularist.

So that does a TEACHER do to deserve the label curricularist? Let us look at the different
roles of the teacher in the classroom and in the school. The classroom is the first place of curricular
engagement. The first school experience sets the tone to understand the meaning of schooling
through the interactions of learners and teachers that will lead to learning. Hence, curriculum is at the
heart of schooling.

Let us describe the teacher as a curricularist.

The teacher as a curricularist ……

1. knows the curriculum. Learning begins with knowing. The teacher as a learner starts
knowing about the curriculum, the subject matter or the content. As a teacher, one has to
master what are included in the curriculum. It is acquiring academic knowledge both formal
(disciplines, logic) or informal (derived from experiences, vicarious, and unintended). It is the
mastery of the subject matter. (KNOWER)

2. writes the curriculum. A classroom teacher takes record of knowledge concepts, subject
matter or content. These need to be written or preserved. The teacher writes books, modules,
laboratory manuals, instructional guides, and reference materials in paper or electronic
media as a curriculum writer or reviewer. (WRITER)

3. plans the curriculum. A good curriculum has to be planned. It is the role of the teacher to
make a yearly, monthly or daily plan of the curriculum. This will serve as a guide in the
implementation of the curriculum. The teacher takes into considerations several factors in
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planning a curriculum. These factors include the learners, the support material, time, subject
matter or content, the desired outcomes, the context of the learners among others. By doing
this, the teacher becomes a curriculum planner. (PLANNER)

4. initiates the curriculum. In cases where the curriculum is recommended to the schools
from DepEd, CHED, TESDA, UNESCO, UNICEF or other educational agencies for
improvement of quality education, the teacher is obliged to implement it. Implementation of
a new curriculum requires the open mindedness of the teacher, and the full belief that the
curriculum will enhance learning. There will be many constraints and difficulties in doing
things first or leading, however, a transformative teacher will never hesitate to try something
novel and relevant. (INITIATOR)

5. innovates the curriculum. Creativity and innovative are hallmarks of an excellent teacher.
A curriculum is always dynamic; hence it keeps on changing. From the content, strategies,
ways of doing, blocks of time, ways of evaluating, kinds of student and skills of teachers, one
cannot find a single eternal curriculum that would perpetually fit. A good teacher, therefore,
innovates the curriculum and thus becomes a curriculum innovator. (INNOVATOR)

6. implements the curriculum. The curriculum that remains recommended or written will
never serve its purpose. Somebody has to implement it. As mentioned previously, at the
heart of schooling is the curriculum. It is this role where the teacher becomes the curriculum
plan. The teacher is at the height of an engagement with the learners, with support materials
in order to achieve the desired outcome. It is where teaching, guiding, facilitating skills of the
teacher as a science and as an art will be observed. It is here, where all the elements of the
curriculum will come into play. The success of a recommended, well written and planned
curriculum depends on the implementation. (IMPLEMENTOR)

7. evaluates the curriculum. How can one determine if the desired learning outcomes have
been achieved? Is the curriculum working? Does it bring the desired results? What do
outcomes reveal? Are the learners achieving? Are there some practices that should be
modified? Should the curriculum be modified, terminated or continued? These are some few
questions that need the help of a curriculum evaluator. That person is the teacher.
(EVALUATOR)
The seven different roles are those which a responsible teacher does in the classroom
everyday! Doing this multi-faceted work qualifies a teacher to be curricularist.

To be a teacher is to be a curricularist even if a teacher may not equal the likes of John
Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba, or Franklin Bobbit. As a curricularist, a teacher will be knowing,
writing, implementing, innovating, initiating and evaluating the curriculum in the schools and
classrooms just like the role models and advocates in curriculum and curriculum development who
have shown the way.

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 THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

APPLICATION 1. BOOST UP YOUR LEARNING!

Take Action
Activity 1: Let’s Do a Simple Survey

Have you done a survey before? In this activity you will gather information direct from teachers to
find out what curriculum activities they are involved in.

Here are the steps. Follow these.

Step 1- Form two groups in the class. Group A will survey elementary teachers, Group B will
survey secondary or high school teachers.

Step 2- Each group will look for at least 30 teachers coming from one or different schools and
are currently teaching either in the private or public schools.

Step 3- With the use of the Teacher Survey Tool below, conduct the survey during
your vacant periods.
The Teacher as a Curricularist Survey Tool
Name of Teacher: __________________________________________________

School ________________________________ Grade Level Assignment________________

No of Years Teaching: ___________________ Degree Graduated: _____________________

Circle YES or NO that will correspond to your self-assessment.
Then rank the items which you answered YES. Which activity do you do most of the time? What activity
do you do least of the time?

As a school teacher, Answer & Rank

1. I master the subject matter that I have to teach. Yes No
2. I implement what I have planned for my teaching. Yes No
3. I monitor and assess if my students are learning.
4. I modify my activity to suit my learners in my classroom. Yes No
5. I lead in the implementation of a new curriculum in my school. Yes No
6. I write instructional materials based on the recommended Yes No
School curriculum. Yes No
7. I look for other ways of doing to improve teaching and learning in my
Yes No
classroom.
8. I participate in community activities as a good citizen. Yes No
9. I disregard the needs of my learners and focus only in my lesson. Yes No
10. I teach my plan for the students to learn. Yes No

Step 4- Consolidate the data of 30 teachers in a matrix found in the Appendix 1.

Step 5- Make a Written Report of the result of your survey.
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Self-Check

I am a Teacher! Who Am I as a Curricularist?

Instructions: Identify on the blanks provided who am I as a Curricularist based on the cases
presented.

Case 1: I have a good idea on how to make my learners pay attention to the lesson. I will use the
new idea and find out if it will work.
______________________________

Case 2: DepEd sent the standards, competencies and guidelines in teaching the Mother Tongue
in Grade 1 in our school. I will study and use it in the coming school year.
______________________________

Case 3: There is so much to do in one school day. I seem not able to do all, but I have to
accomplish something for my learners. I have made a daily activity plan to guide me.
______________________________

Case 4: I need a poem to celebrate the World Teacher’s Day. I composed one to be used in my
class in Literature.
____________________________

Case 5: My class is composed of learners from different home background and culture. I cannot
use a “one-size-fits all strategy” in teaching so I can respond to the diverse background. In my
readings, I discovered that there are ways of teaching. I tried one myself and it worked.
___________________________

Case 6: Knowledge is limitless. What I learned in college is not enough. I need to know more, so
I enrolled in the graduate school to advance my learning. ________________________

Case 7: At the end of the year, my performance as a teacher is reflected in the school
performance of my students. So I need to provide a monitoring tool to measure how they are
progressing. The result will inform me how I will address my learners’ weakness and enhance their
strengths. ______________________________

Case 8: I am teaching in a very far away barangay with no electricity yet. Many of the
instructional aids for teaching sent to our school are films and video tapes which need power. I
cannot use them, but the lessons are very important. So I thought of making an alternative
activity. I took my class to the river and waterfall instead of doing the lesson.
______________________________
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Case 9: My principal asked me to attend a write shop to make the lessons exemplars in
the teaching of science in Grade 7. In the workshop, I used my experiences as a science teacher
for the years, and my knowledge of the subject matter. At the end of three days, I was able to
produce lesson exemplars which I am proud of. ______________________________

Case 10: From grade 7 to grade 10 of the K to 12 Enhanced Curriculum, science as subject
is presented, taught and learned in a spiral manner. This is part of the DepEd implementing
guidelines of the curriculum. I am Biology major, and I have insufficient knowledge about the
other areas of science such as Physics and Earth Science. Because of this dilemma, I have to
request the principal that we have team teaching. Which role of the curricularist, am I trying to
do?_____________________

Did you learn more from the case?

Self-Reflect

Choose one from Case 1 to 10 above. Reflect on the case you have chosen and write your
reflections on the box below.

Name: __________________________________________ Case No._____________

A. My Reflections on Case No________ (refer to cases 1 to 10 above)

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Prepared by:
MR. JAYMAR B. MAGTIBAY
Instructor

Enriching Minds of Champions