THEORIES OF

CURRICULUM DESIGN
MED201 CURRICULUM THEORY AND PRACTICE

MELODY B. GREGORIO
What is Curriculum Design?
• Curriculum design is a very important part of creating a contextually
relevant and responsive teaching and learning environment for both
lecturers and students. The curriculum contains the knowledge, skills
and competencies that students need to master in order to move to
the next level in their studies, and academic lecturers and tutors who
are tasked with teaching this curriculum is up to date, relevant,
interesting and stimulating for students.

( John Biggs, et al.)

What is Curriculum Design?
• Curriculum design is the deliberate organization of curriculum within
a course or class. When teachers design their curriculum, they
identify:
1. What will be done.
2. Who will do it.
3. When, as well as what the objective of each course.

(Karen Schweitzer)
PURPOSE OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
• To improve students learning.
• To make sure that learning goals are aligned and complement each
other from one stage to the next.
CURRICULUM DESIGN
• In designing curriculum, we must:
1. Consider philosophical and learning theory
2. Determine if:
a. Our decision is parallel with the basic belief concerning people
b. What and how they should learn
c. How they should use their acquired knowledge.
What are the parts of curriculum design?
• Curriculum design is basically concerned with the nature and arrangement
of the four basic curriculum parts. These four components generally
suggest to the curriculum maker four questions:
1. OBJECTIVES - What is to be included?
2. METHODS OR ORGANIZATION - What instructional strategies, resources
and activities will be employed?
3. SUBJECT MATTER - What subject matter is to be included?
4. EVALUATION - What methods and instruments will be used to appraise
the result of the curriculum?
(Monterozo, 2000)
Four components of curriculum design and
their correlation:
Curriculum design draws from:
1. LEARNING THEORY
- describes how students receive,
process and retain knowledge during
learning. Cognitive, emotional and
environmental influences, as well as
prior experiences, all play a part in how
understanding, or a world view, is
acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.
 Curriculum design draws from:
2. SOCIAL THEORY
- Social theory is a theory of learning
process and social behavior which
proposes that new behaviors can be
acquired by observing and imitating
others. It staes that learning is a cognitive
process that takes place in social context
and can occur purely through observation
or direct instruction, even in the absence
of motor reproduction or direct
reinforcement.
 Curriculum design draws from:
3. KNOWLEDGE THEORY
The theory of knowledge is
concerned with understanding
what it means to “know”. Rather
than study a particular subject.
Theory of knowledge looks to
pursue more conceptual ideas of
what it takes to acquire knowledge
and how to apply that to real-
world scenarios.
 Curriculum design draws from:

4. POLITICAL THEORY
Political theory is the study of political ideas and values like justice,
power and democracy that we use to describe, understand and assess
political prctices and institutions.
SOURCES OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
1. SCIENCE as a source
a. Contains only observable, quantifiable
elements
b. Priority: Problem solving and Thinking
strategies
c. Emphasis: learning how to learn
d. Why?: knowledge increase so rapidly,
the only constant seems to be the
procedures by which we process
knowledge thus, “learning how to learn”
SOURCES OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
2. SOCIETY as a source
a. Draw ideas from analysis of the social
situation
b. Operates within social, economic and
political contexts
c. Priority: Address students’ unique
needs, diverse social group
d. Emphasis: collaboration among diverse
individuals and groups
e. Why: School is an agent of society; we
must consider current and future
society.
SOURCES OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
3. MORAL as a source
a. Considering the relationship between
knowledge and people’s spirituality
b. Guided by a religious texts
c. Priority: Questions about the nature of the
world, the purpose of life, what it means to
the human and knowledgeable
d. Emphasis: Develop emphaty and
compassion, consider and promote welfare
of others, welcome different viewpoints
e. Why: Allow for a blending of truth, faith,
knowledge, thought and action.
 SOURCES OF CURRICULUM DESIGN

4. KNOWLEDGE as a source
a. The primary source of curriculum.
b. “What knowledge is of most worth?”
c. Priority: Rethink…
1. What knowledge is of most worth?
2. For whom is this knowledge of value?
3. Is there any knowledge that must be possessed by the majority.
4. What intellectual skills must be taught?
d. Knowledge is exploding exponentially
e. Why?: knowledge should be a discipline, have a particular structure and
methods.
 SOURCES OF CURRICULUM DESIGN
5. LEARNER as a source
a. Curriculum derived from our knowledge of students: HOW? They learn,
form attitudes, generate interest and develop values.
b. Priority: Seeks to empower students and foster their individual uniqueness.
c. Emphasis: Draw ideas from psychological foundations, especially how minds
create meaning.
d. Why?: Every learner is unique,
educational environment physically
affect brain development.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF
CURRICULUM DESIGN
• VERTICAL ORGANIZATION
- Vertical organization refers to the sequencing of curriculum elements,
organizing the same topics in different grades but higher level of
difficulty.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF
CURRICULUM DESIGN
• HORIZONTAL ORGANIZATION
- Horizontal organization blends curriculum elements ( like Math,
Science and English into one course)
DESIGN DIMENSION CONSIDERATION
1. SCOPE – A curriculum’s breath and depth of content. Scope is all the
types of educational experiences created to engage students in
learning. A curriculum’s scope can be a year or more.

2. SEQUENCE – How does content and experiences build on what

came before.

3. CONTINUITY – the vertical repetition of curriculum components.

DESIGN DIMENSION CONSIDERATION
4. INTEGRATION – Refers to linking the knowledge and experiences of
the curriculum to the students knowledge-base.

5. ARTICULATION – Refers to interrelatedness of various aspects of the

curriculum (teaching-across-the-curriculum)

6. BALANCE – Where curricularists strive to give appropriate weight to

each aspect of the design. In a balance curriculum, students can acquire
and use knowledge in ways that advance their personal, social and
intellectual goals.
GUIDELINES FOR CURRICULUM
DESIGN
• Create a curriculum design committee.
• Create a schedule meetings to make curriculum design decisions.
• Gather data about educational issues and suggested solutions.
• Process data on available curriculum designs, compare cost, scheduling,
students characteristics and academic strengths, learning environments,
whether community accepts the design.
• Schedule time for reflection on the design.
• Schedule time for revision of the design.
• Explain the design to educational colleagues, community members and
students.
ACTIVITY:
Please answer the question below, send your answer to sir Joey
Zamora’s email address.

1. Do you think the K to 12 Basic Education Program would be

successful in producing a globally competitive graduates? Justify your
answer.