EXISTENTIALIST

CURRICULUM
Arranged by:
Vrizka Nuria Arsita 11200140000026
Julyesvicka Gita Darmahatari 11200140000021
Dita Amelia Wahda Nurazizah 11200140000026
 Existentialist curriculum
Alfie Kohn Maxine Greene Elliot Eisner

Curriculum for Existential Curriculum Artistic Existentialism

Personal Choice

Background on
Existentialist Curriculum Existentialist Curriculum and
the Commonplaces
Conclusion:
Strengths and Weaknesses of
Existentialist Curriculum
 Alfie Kohn and Curriculum
for Personal Choice

"Kohn’s existentialism aims at political engagement",

Curriculum making is about surrounding

students with interesting possibilities, not
producing a plan for what they must learn or
who they should become.
What personal choice according to

Teachers must not have a prescribed curriculum.

Kohn's perspective eradicates the authority of teachers
by placing them on the same level as students.
Kohn bolsters his personal choice viewpoint with an
implicit view of human nature that is positive and
social.
Teachers must not have a prescribed curriculum.
 Eradicating the authority of teachers by
placing them on the same level as students.
 Kohn bolsters his personal choice viewpoint with an
implicit view of human nature that is positive and social.
 Maxine Greene and
Existential Curriculum

Greene’s stresses psychological transformation.

What students learn is much less important
than their becoming autonomous, self-
sustaining actors who are in charge of their
own lives.
Maxine Greene and Existential Curriculum

Personal freedom
 Elliot Eisner and Artistic
Existentialism
Viewpoint
Despite his admiration for science, Eisner contends that the
fine arts are the wealthiest means of understanding the
human condition.
He views teachers and curriculum makers as directors of
learning experiences who attempt to by offering them
meaningful experiences that connect with students on a
deeply personal level.

Concept Belief
“forms of According to Eisner, all knowledge comes from
representation.” experience and all advancement with the five senses.
 Eisher's idea
“Forms of representation are the devices that humans use to make
public conceptions that are privately held.”
We engage in the form of representation anytime we take a piece of
knowledge and share it with other people.

Opinion
According to Eisner, a successful curriculum should engage talented students
in dance, poetry, music, and other fine arts

The existentialist aspect of Eisner’s

“Education ought to help the young learn how to create their own meanings through
these forms (of representation). Schools cannot accomplish these aims unless the
curriculum they provide offers students opportunities to become, for want of a better
term, multiliterate.”
The idea that students "create their own meanings" is one of the characteristics of an
existentialist perspective.
Eisner’s views fit best within the existentialist tradition
for three reasons:

Teachers are not successful unless they make a

personal connection with students.

Curriculum makers must learn to adapt the

curriculum to individual students.

Rejects the objectivity that serves as the foundation

for a systematic view.
 Background on Existentialist
Curriculum:

G. Stanley Hall and Developmental

Curriculum
The idea of Hall that the curriculum should be adapted to

learners’ developmental stages. His purpose to determine the

“contents of children’s minds,”

William Heard Kilpatrick and Project-Based

Curriculum
The idea of Kilpatrick's “project-based learning” in elementary
and secondary schools. His purpose is to neglect the subject
matter.
 G. Stanley Hall and Developmental
Curriculum
Hall believed that teachers and curriculum developers could
apply this knowledge to differentiate curricula for specific
students after identifying the interests that individuals
possessed at the various stages of their development.

Kilpatrick and Project-Based
William Heard
Curriculum
According to Kilpatrick, projects that engage students directly—
those that appeal to their physical, emotional, mental, social, and
five senses—are the most effective for teaching.
For example, use a theme like learning about apples. Teachers will
have students read a book about apples, taste apples, visit an apple
orchard, make applesauce, perhaps bob for apples, and finally,
bake an apple pie.
 G. Stanley Hall and Developmental Curriculum
Hall says, “If children are pressed to answer questions somewhat beyond their ken,
they often reply confusedly and at random.”
That means teachers should begin their lessons with students’ interests, which is a
significant contribution to the curriculum field by existentialist thinkers.

Project-Based Curriculum
William Heard Kilpatrick and
Kilpatrick writes, “It is what the self accepts and how thoroughly it accepts that counts.
Education becomes thus the process of helping the self to rebuild itself to ever higher
and finer levels by helping it to think and choose better than otherwise it would.”
“project” as the end or culmination of the curriculum. He argues not for an organized or
planned curriculum but for a classroom activity centered around projects that arise
from what students want to do.
 Existentialist Curriculum
and the Commonplaces
Teachers #1
The existentialist tradition has profoundly changed the traditional
concept of teaching and the role of the teacher. This existentialist refers
to the teacher as a "guide" who suggests what students want to learn;
even an existentialist view places the teacher in a secondary role for
students. So, the teacher can only have an indirect influence on his
students. In this case, they place more emphasis on curriculum designed
to meet the developmental needs of students. However, this second
aspect of existentialist thought places the learner above the teacher.
 Existentialist Curriculum
and the Commonplaces

Learners #2
The ancient declaration that "I teach children, not subjects" is a
common rhetorical device used by existentialists. That is,
students are things that must be considered from the beginning
to the end in making the curriculum. A good curriculum is
assumed to have a good influence on the psychology of students.
 Existentialist Curriculum
and the Commonplaces
Subject Matter #3
In existentialists, subject matter takes the final role in controlling the
curriculum. Existentialists redefine the nature and purpose of subject
matter which is no longer limited to academic-based subjects. Referring to
the existentialist view, life is the right subject matter for students to study,
and it is useful if life lessons help us overcome everyday problems.
Teachers and students should try to go beyond the boundaries of
traditional subject matter (particular subjects) by focusing on projects,
activities, and problems, which serve as the focal point of the curriculum.
The subject matter should not be seen as a goal but only as a source of
experience that students should use as they build their lives.
 Existentialist Curriculum
and the Commonplaces
Context #4
Curriculum Making #5 -1
By placing students at the top
Existentialists emphasize curriculum as
of the curriculum hierarchy,
a life experience, not as objectified subject
existentialists assume there
matter, or for moral good, or as job skills
will never be a school or
needed to do work. Existentialists take a
community context in which
psychoanalytic approach that sees life as a
one of the other commonplaces
big curriculum-making process. Making a
should be prioritized (all of
curriculum that does not explore the
which are important and must
internal desires of students cannot be
be implemented
called curriculum-making at all.
simultaneously).
 Existentialist Curriculum
and the Commonplaces
Curriculum Making #5-2
A more developmentally oriented approach to the existentialist
curriculum focuses on childhood growth and development stages. Making a
good curriculum is the process of distinguishing between subject matter and
skills so they are by students' instincts. The goal of creating an existentialist
curriculum is for teachers to connect with students on a personal level. The
student's personal desires are important, but what is more important is what
subject matter students will connect with at different times in their lives.
For example, when the student is interested in music, the subject matter that
the student will connect with is Seni Budaya.
 Conclusion: Strength of Existentialist Curriculum
Students will remember lessons well when they choose what they want to
learn, because without active choice on the part of students, no lesson can
succeed.

G. Stanley Hall, an existentialist argues that students go through several

stages of development and this is an important and successful thing to
consider. For example, planning a curriculum for second grade
elementary school students is not the same as designing a curriculum for
8 grade junior high school students.
Existentialists remind us that the purpose of school is much broader than
test scores or the accumulation of subject matter. For existentialists, the
end of education is personal growth, or self-actualization, which tests can
never achieve with paper and pencil.
 Conclusion: Weakness of Existentialist Curriculum
For example, if every student pursues their curriculum as existentialists
have hoped, then the idea of ​a curriculum serving as a foundation for
society is impossible.

Excessive emphasis on the individual needs of learners will also lead to

individualism. Basically, students (who are still a kid) also basically don't
know what they should learn. Therefore, adults (parents/teachers) are
responsible for introducing children to the knowledge, practices and
traditions they need to know in order for their community to continue to
thrive. Although children have a tendency towards goodness, because
humans are dynamic, students are fickle, and can even make mistakes.
In this case, the role of curriculum makers is to associate learners with
enduring knowledge that helps them cope with their changing tendencies.
 Conclusion: Weakness of Existentialist Curriculum
The main weakness of existentialism is its neglect of the usual subject matter. Its
extreme emphasis on the individual needs of learners leaves gap for organized
knowledge to be taught in an integrated manner. This rejection of subject matter
leads to a curriculum that disconnects students from their cultural heritage.
Most students in Indonesia, for example, are not interested in Indonesian,
mathematics or English, but that does not mean that teachers should not require
students to study these subjects. Failing to connect students with this knowledge will
harm students because they do not know the basic material that is very important
for their future lives.
Liberation of the curriculum becomes impossible if students are only taught to
pursue what their emotions command to study particular subjects.

Good curriculum makers can balance the positive and negative aspects of the
existentialist curriculum in curriculum application so that there is no inequality
during the learning process.
KAMU NANYA? KAMU BERTANYA-TANYA TENTANG
MATERI INI? KAMU TERCANDU-CANDU DENGAN
EXISTENTIALIST OF CURRICULUM?