What is Curriculum?

A variety of definitions
But I don’t
work in a
classroom,
what does
curriculum
have to do
with me?
 What is a curriculum? What is a program?
• A set of materials
• A sequence of courses/projects
• A set of performance objectives
• A course of study
• That which is taught in school/org
• Content
• Everything that goes on within the school/org including extra-class
activities, guidance, and interpersonal relationships
• Everything that is planned by school/org personnel
• A series of experiences undergone by learners in school/org
• That which an individual learner experiences as a result of schooling/org
participation

How do the two differ? How are they the same?

According to Google.com define: program,
Programs are:
• a system of projects or services intended to meet a public need;
"he proposed an elaborate program of public works"; "working
mothers rely on the day care program”
• course of study: an integrated course of academic studies; "he was
admitted to a new program at the university"
• (computer science) a sequence of instructions that a computer can
interpret and execute; "the program required several hundred lines
of code”
More definitions of program….
• A program or programme (in management) has at
least two senses: 1) A collection of projects that are
directed toward a common goal, e.g., the NASA
space program; 2) A broad framework of goals to be
achieved, serving as a basis to define and plan
specific projects, e.g. the EU's SAPARD Programme.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_(management)
• Generally defined as an organized set of activities
directed toward a common purpose or goal,
undertaken or proposed by an agency in order to carry
out its responsibilities. In practice, however, the term
program has many uses and is used to describe an
agency's mission, programs, functions, activities,
services, projects, and processes.
data2.itc.nps.gov/budget2/glossary.htm
Curriculum is:
Albert Oliver…
Curriculum is an educational program with four basic
elements
1. The program of studies
2. The program of experiences
3. The program of services
4. The hidden curriculum

Robert Gagne…
Curriculum encompasses
1. Subject matter (content)
2. Statement of ends (end objectives)
3. The sequencing of content
4. Preassessment of entry skills
Hass… the curriculum is all of the experiences that
individual learners have in a program of education
whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related
specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a
framework of theory and research or past and present
professional practice.

Kerr… All the learning which is planned and guided

by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or
individually, inside or outside the school.
How does curriculum/program apply to:
• The university (athletics, student services, etc.)
• Business/Industry Training
• Other settings

How do you define curriculum/program in

your preferred setting?
 But wait,
there are other types of curriculum.
What are they?
 Curriculum Definitions

Curriculum Planning VS Planned Curriculum

(what’s the difference???)

• Core curriculum • Tested curriculum

• Written curriculum • Experienced
curriculum
• Planned curriculum
• Hidden curriculum
• Taught curriculum
• Learned curriculum
• Supported curriculum

How do these terms apply to programs?

 Glatthorn’s Four Curriculums

Basic Enrichment
Structured Mastery Team Planned
Nonstructured Organic Student Determined

Thought question...
What types of curriculum do you value most? Why?
What does your organization advocate?

How do these terms apply to programs?

Now for a bit of history vis-à-vis
curriculum and schools ….

http://clarke.cmich.edu/schoolhouse/clark6.jpg
 How did schooling in the US evolve?
How has that shaped the curriculum?
How has that shaped educational access?
•1600’s Pre-US…. Historically, in England, there was a two tiered educational system. For
the wealthy a tutorial system existed with classical training. For the poor, an
apprenticeship system. Politically it was believed that the great body of the people were to
obey and not to govern, and that the social status of unborn generations was already fixed.
This was the tradition brought to the colonies.1
•Massachusetts Laws of 1647, Deluder Satan Act, ….
Ordered that every township… after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty
householders,… shall… appoint one within their town to teach all children as shall resort
to him to read and write. It is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the
number of one hundred families… they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof
being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university. 2
Note: This Act recognizes the importance of education but did not require
attendance by all students nor was it necessarily paid for with public funds.
•1776 – Thomas Jefferson, in a report to the Virginia legislature, called for a public school
system. Its purpose was to develop an intelligent citizenry and to provide educational
opportunities that guarantee each individual the chance for optimal development. It was
turned down.3
Elementary Schools
• The graded elementary school with eight levels was established in 1818. 4
• Until the 1840s -- The education system was highly localized and available only to
wealthy people. 4
• By 1850, 45% of children attended school and direct tax support for elementary
education was a generally accepted practice. 5
• Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance laws in 1852, followed
by New York in 1853. 6
• By 1918 all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary
school. 6
• In the South public schools were much slower to emerge.
“With agriculture as the mainstay of the Southern colonists and with the large
plantations in great measure self-sustaining communities, the planters soon became
economically independent. The reciprocity of needs and services, so essential to the
development of community enterprises, was not widely known. With the industrial
system of the South resting on the institution of slavery, political power was for the
most part in the hands of the planters, sharp social distinctions were inevitable, and
the South naturally became aristocratic. This condition tended to retard the growth
of a strong middle class, with which free public-school systems always originate. …
delayed also the [belief that] education as [is] a vital community interest.” 7
• While the concept of public education gained momentum and popularity, what was
to be taught in schools and who would attend them was heavily debated starting in
the 1820’s. The question was: Would there be “a common (public) school system
with a common curriculum for rich or poor alike or a special system for poor
children”? 8
• The concern was “that the free schools might degenerate into, as Carter put it,
‘mechanized seminaries,’ such as those seen in Europe, for educating the poor, while
private institutions would provide an improved curriculum for the well-to-do
(1824b, p. 20)” 8
• Arguing against such divisions were Ward (1883, Dynamic Sociology), Parker
(1894, Talks on Pedagogics), and Dewey (1910, Democracy and Education).
According to Ward, “unless the curriculum fostered the development of intelligence,
education could not be a means of social reform” 9
• Parker built on this thought writing that “more important even than the formalized
curriculum was the social power of the school to break down the clannishness and
prejudices of people from all parts of the world who were learning together in
school” 10
• Dewey echoes these ideas saying “educational opportunity is shared knowledge and
concerns, and progress is achieved through breaking the class barriers to sharing.
Thus, the problem was one of learning together as well as what is to be learned” 11

Have these debates been solved today?

John Franklin Bobbitt
• 1918 (wrote first textbook on curriculum)
• Belief: Curriculum is an arena for social engineering.
• Assumption: “Scientific” experts are qualified and justified in designing
curricula based on expert knowledge of what qualities are desirable in
adult members of society and it can be know what experiences would
produce those qualities. Thus, curriculum is defined as the experiences
that someone ought to have in order to become the kind of adult they
ought to become. Curriculum is an ideal rather than reality of what will
actually happen.

Do you agree with Bobbitt?

How do his writings influence curriculum today?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum
Secondary Schools
• 1635 -- Boston Latin School, the first publicly
supported secondary school in the US. 12
• 1751 -- Benjamin Franklin’s American Academy,
Philadelphia, a new kind of secondary school to
serve the demand for skilled workers. 12
• 1892 – NEA Committee of 10
Purpose of American high schools debated http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/06mar/images/wein2.jpg

College preparatory OR a people’s school offering a range of practical courses? 13

• Establishment of a standard curriculum and liberalizing the high school by offering
alternatives to the Latin and Greek classic curricula. 13
• Goal of high school was to prepare all students to do well in life, contributing to their
own well-being and society’s good, and to prepare some students for college. 13
• From 1900 to 1996 the percentage of teenagers who graduated from high school
increased from about 6 percent to about 85 percent. 14
• In the 1920s and 30s, “progressive education” was the word of the day; the focus then
shifted to intellectual discipline and curriculum development projects in the later
decades. 14

Have these debates been solved today?

Post Secondary Schools
• 1636 – Harvard University established 15
• 20th century participation in higher or postsecondary education in the United States
increased tremendously. At the beginning of the century about 2 percent of
Americans from the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in a college. Near the end of the
century more than 60 percent of this age group, or over 14 million students, were
enrolled in about 3500 four-year and two-year colleges. 16
• We will discuss post secondary schools more in subsequent classes…

References
1. Knight, 1922, p. 21
2. Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007, p. 81-82. • Harvard University. http://www.harvard.edu/harvard-glance
3. Tanner and Tanner, p. 4 • Knight, E.W. (1922). Public education in the South. Chicago: Ginn
4. Thattai
and Company.
5. Pulliam & Van Patten, 2007, p. 140 • Pulliam, J. D. & Van Patten, J. J. (2007). History of education in
6. Thattai
America, 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
7. Knight, 1922, p. 26 • Tanner, D. & Tanner, L. (2007). Curriculum development: Theory
8. Tanner & Tanner, 2007, p. 7
into practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
9. Tanner & Tanner, 2007, p. 56 • Thattai, D. (n.d.) A history of public education in the United States.
10. Tanner & Tanner, 2007, p. 58
http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-
11. Tanner & Tanner, 2007, p. 57
11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html
12. Thattai • Weidner, L. The N.E.A. Committee of Ten.
13. Weidner
http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/neacom10.html
14. Thattai
15. Harvard University
16. Thattai
Bonus Section ---
Review if you wish, we will
not be discussing this in class
unless you ask questions.

Explore the research paradigm

you most affiliate with and
then select a curriculum
development model. If you
agree with Bobbit you are
Technical-Scientific in nature,
if not, then naturalistic is
probably more your style.
Defining curriculum is one thing,
Developing curriculum is another….

Research paradigms, value systems, and

beliefs about the world in general will
influence the model of curriculum planning
you advocate.
Which “camp” do you most readily fall into?

OR
Applies scientific methods and principles to the
task of curriculum development.
Assumptions:
• Reality is definable
• The goals of education are knowable
• A linear, objective process will yield a useful
documents and high quality plans
--->
Deductive Process
• Top down
• Extensive administrator involvement
• Starts by examining broader questions/purposes
of education and societal needs before
addressing the classroom level
Key authors: Tyler, Hass, Hunkins, WIDS

--->
 Inductive Process
• Bottom up
• Curriculum development
by classroom teachers
• Starts by developing individual units
which will be assembled into a cohesive
program
Key author: Taba
 Tyler Model
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993,j p. 267-8; Wiles & Bondi, 1989, p. 10)

1. Define purpose of school

Identify instructional objectives
2. Relate educational experiences to school
purposes
3. Organize educational experiences
4. Evaluate purposes for
program effectiveness.
 Hass & Parkay Model
(Hass & Parkay, 1993, p. 294)

1. Identify context (gather data about intended

learners and the human, social, and
environmental variables within which learners
interact)
2. Determine objectives
Set goals
3. Select , Prepare, & Implement ---->
Strategies and Alternatives
4. Evaluate
 Hunkins Model
(Hass & Parkay, 1993, p. 329-32; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993, p. 207-73)

1. Curr. conceptualization and legitimization

• built on society’s values, beliefs,
knowledge bases, institutions, and artifacts
• complete front end analysis:
� ask philosophical questions
� debate purpose of schooling
� debate curriculum designs
� develop master curriculum plan
2. Curriculum diagnosis
• Identify reasons for human performance
deficiencies
• Translate needs into causes
• Generate goals, objectives, expected
learner outcomes
3. Content selection
• Identify criteria for content selection
(ie. economy, significance, validity,
interest, learnability, feasibility)
• Sequence content --->
4. Experiencs and material selection (by teacher)
• Determine methods, strategies, activities,
incentives, materials, nature of educational
environment
5. Implementation
• Pilot curriculum (assess curriculum not
students)
• Modify where necessary
• Full implementation
--->
6. Evaluation
• Determine if curriculum is
presented/taught as written and
recommended (supervision function)
• Furnish data so decisions can be made to
continue, modify or discontinue program
7. Maintenance
• Monitor and maintain
curriculum
 Taba Course Development Model
(Oliva, 1992, p. 160-2)

1. Produce pilot units (see next slide)

2. Test experimental units

3. Revise and consolidate units
4. Develop a framework
5. Install and disseminate new units
 Taba Pilot Unit Development Model
1. Diagnose needs - what are current gaps in
student learning
2. Formulate objectives
3. Select content
4. Organize content
5. Select learning experiences
6. Organize learning activites
7. Determine what to evaluate and ways and
means of evaluation
8. Check for balance and sequence
 Wisconsin Instructional Design System

1. Perform 2. Write 3. Analyze 4. Develop

needs/task Course Course Learning
analysis Competencies Competencies Objectives

8. Develop 6. Designate 5. Develop

7. Sequence
Course/goal Core Performance
Competencies
Description Abilities standards

9. Specify 10. Develop

Assessment Assessment/
Strategies Record Plan

14. Create 13. Layout 12. Develop 11. Design

A Class Learning/ Instructional Learning
Syllabus Lesson Plans Materials Activities
 Nontechnical-nonrational approach
Assumptions:
• Curriculum evolves as learners, teachers, and knowledge interact
• All goals of education cannot be predefined
• Content can only be tentatively selected
• Learning will be based on the creation of knowledge, especially
self-knowledge
• Curriculum development is highly political requiring
administrators and teachers to work together
Key author: Glatthorn (naturalistic model)
 Glatthorn Naturalistic Model
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993, p. 274; Glatthorn, 1987, p. 89+)

1. Assess the alternatives - evaluate current

approaches
2. Stake out the territory
• define course parameters
• define learning audience
• define learning activities
3. Develop a constituency
--->
4. Build the knowledge base
• identify content
• gather data on faculty skill and support
• gather data on student audience
5. Block the unit
• select unit topics
• write general objectives
6. Develop unit planning guide

--->
7. Plan quality learning experiences
• Select experiences not content to be learned
8. Develop course examination
• Tell how learning will be documented (not
test development)
9. Develop learning scenarios
10. Package the product