Lesson 2: Approaches to Curriculum Designing

Curriculum development produces curriculum designs.

Development can be articulated as a series of steps, such as:
 Define educational purposes
 Construct activities/experiences that can meet these purposes
 Organize activities/experiences
 Evaluate whether purposes have been met
Designs can be articulated or described as an arrangement of curricular "elements" or
"components," such as:
 "aim"
 "rationale"
 "audience"
 "objectives"
 etc.

Curriculum Designs

1. Subject-Centered Design-
 focuses on the content of curriculum corresponding mostly
 Corresponds mostly to the textbook, written for a specific subject
 Henry Morrison and William Harris as firm believers of this design
 Schools divide school hours to different subject areas; the Philippines likewise divides
curricula through subjects in different levels
 Schools that use this design aim for excellence in the subject matter content

Examples are:
 Subject design- advantageous because it is easy to deliver with available books and
support instructional materials commercially available. In the Philippine educational
system, the number of subjects in the elementary is fewer than in the secondary
level. In college, subjects differ in the degree or programs being pursued. .A
disadvantage of this design is that learning is so compartmentalized, stressing so
much content and forgetting about the students’ natural tendencies, interests and
experiences.

 Discipline design- related to the subject design but while subject designs center only
in the cluster of content, discipline design focuses on academic disciplines. This
design is often used in college, but not in elementary or secondary.

 Correlation design- comes from the core, correlated curriculum design that links
separate subject designs in order to reduce fragmentation. Subjects are related to
one another but each subject maintains its identity.

 Broad field design/interdisciplinary- a variation of the subject-centered design.

This was made to prevent the compartmentalization of subjects and integrate the
contents that are related to each other. This is also known as the holistic curriculum
Lesson 2: Approaches to Curriculum Designing

2. Learner-Centered Design-
The learner is the center of the educative process, strongly emphasized in the elementary
level but secondary and tertiary levels have been included and considered as needing in
learner-centered designs.
Examples are:
 Child –centered design- attributed to John Dewey, Pestalozzi and Froebel, this
design is anchored on the needs and interests of the child. The learner is not a
passive individual but as one who engages with his/her environment. One learns by
doing. Learners actively create, construct meanings and understanding as viewed by
constructivists. Learners interact with the teachers and the environment, thus there
is a collaborative effort on both sides to plan lessons, select content and do activities
together.
 Experience-centered designs- similar to the child-centered design; believes that
interests and needs of learners cannot be pre-planned. Instead, the experience of
learners become the starting point of curriculum. Learners are made to choose from
various activities that the teacher provides Multiple Intelligence theory blends well
with the experience-centered curriculum
3. Problem-Centered Design-
 Draws on social problems, needs, interests and abilities of learners.
 Various problems are given emphasis- those that center on life situations,
contemporary life problems, areas of living and many others.
 Content must be based on the needs, concerns and abilities of the students.
Examples are:
 Life situation design- contents are organized in ways that allow students to clearly
view problem areas. It uses the past and present experiences of learners as a means
of analyzing basic areas of living. The connection of subject matter to real life
situations increases the relevance of the curriculum
 Core design-centers on general education and the problems are based on common
human activities. The central focus of the core design includes common needs,
problems, concerns of the learners. Popularized by Faunce and Bossing in 1959,
they present ways on how to proceed following a core design of a curriculum as
follows:
 The problem is either selected by either the teacher or the learner
 A group consensus is made to identify the important problems and interest of the
class
 Problems are selected on the basis of developed criteria for selection
 The problem is clearly stated and defined.
 Areas of study are decided, including dividing the class by individual or group
interests.
 Needed information is listed and discussed.
 Resources for obtaining information are listed and discussed
 Information is obtained and organized.
 Information is analyzed and interpreted.
Lesson 2: Approaches to Curriculum Designing

 Tentative solutions are stated and tested.

 A report is presented to the class on an individual or group basis.
 Conclusions are evaluated.
 New avenues of exploration toward further problem solving are examined,
Dimensions of Curriculum Design
1. Scope-Tyler in Ornstein(2004) defines scope as all the content, topics, learning experiences and
organizing threads comprising the educational plan.
 Does not only refer to the cognitive content but also to the affective and psychomotor content.
 Refers to the coverage of the curriculum
 Provides boundaries in curriculum as it applies to the different educational levels.
 Curriculum is time-bound, hence the appropriate scope should be provided so that the curricular
coverage should not be too much nor too minimal.
 Other considerations in determining scope: time, diversity and maturity of learners, complexity of
content and level of education
 Scope of curriculum can be divided into chunks called units, sub-units, chapters or subchapters.
 Division of the content may use the deductive principle from the whole to the parts which will
have a cascading arrangement or the inductive arrangement from examples to generalization.
2. Sequence- provides continuous and cumulative learning, a vertical relationship among elements
of the curriculum.
Smith, Stanley and Shore (1957) introduced 4 principles for sequence:
a. Simple to complex learning- content and experiences are organized from simple to
complex, from concrete to abstract, from easy to difficult. This principle is based on
developmental theories of learning and cognition.
b. Prerequisite learning- there are fundamental things to be learned ahead. Like addition
before multiplication in mathematics or letters before words, words before phrases and
phrases before sentences.
c. Whole to part learning- This principle has a relation to Gestalt
- the overview before the specific content or topics. The meaning can very well be
understood if everything will be taken as a whole.
d. Chronological Learning- the order of events is made as a basis of sequencing the
content and the experiences. This principle is closely allied to history, political science or world
events. Time is a factor to be considered. The sequence can be arranged from the most recent
to
the distant past or vice versa

Posner and Rudnitsky (1994) presented five major principles for organizing content
into units which can also be applied to a curriculum:
a. World-related sequence- What relationships exist among people, objects or events of the
world. How can contents and experiences be arranged so that they will be consistent with
the world?
1. Space-closest to farthest, bottom to top, east to west. Teach the parts of the plant from
the roots to the stem to the leaves and flowers and fruits.
2. Time- similar to the chronological principle
3. Physical Attributes- refers to the physical characteristics of the phenomena such as age,
Lesson 2: Approaches to Curriculum Designing

shape, size, brightness, and others.

b. Concept-related sequence- reflects the organization of the conceptual world, how ideas
are related together in a logical manner
1. Class relations- class concept refers to the group or set of things that share common
practices. Teaching the characteristics of the class ahead of the characteristics of the
member of the class.
2. Propositional relations- a proposition is a statement that asserts something. Sequence is
arranged so that evidence is presented ahead before the proposition.
c. Inquiry-related sequence- based on the scientific method of inquiry, on the process of
generating, discovering and verifying knowledge, content and experiences sequenced
logically and methodically.
d. Learning-related sequence- based on the psychology of learning and how people learn
1. empirical pre-requisites- sequence is primarily based on empirical studies where the pre-
requisite is required before learning the next level
2. Familiarity- prior learning is important in sequence. What is familiar should be taken up
first before the unfamiliar.
3. Difficulty- easy content is taken ahead than the difficult one.
4. Interest- Contents and experiences that stimulate interest are those that are novel.
These can arouse the curiosity of the learner.
3. Continuity - vertical repetition and recurring appearances of the content provide continuity in
the curriculum.
- This process enables the learner to strengthen the permanency of learning and
development of skills.
- Bruner calls this the “spiral curriculum” where the content is organized according to the
interrelationship between the structure of the basic ideas of a major discipline.
- For learners to develop the ideas, these have to be developed and redeveloped in a spiral
fashion
- in increasing depth and breadth as the learners advance
4. Integration- “Everything is integrated and interconnected. Life is a series of emerging themes”
- Organization is drawn fro the world themes from real life concerns.
- Subject matter content or disciplined content lines are erased and isolation is eliminated.
5. Articulation – this can be done either horizontally or vertically.
- In vertical articulation, contents are arranged from level to level or grade to grade
- Horizontal articulation happens when the association among or between elements that
happen at the same time.
6. Balance –equitable assignment of content, time, experiences and other elements
- requires continuous fine tuning and review for its effectiveness and relevance