Nature of Curriculum Development

 Is a process creates educational

experiences to meet the intentions of
planners(Wiles and Bondi, 1998), which
include total development of learners and
their being able to live well in a
democratic society
 A synthesis of process in designing a
program of experiences for the student and
for which the school accepts responsibility
 Involves the process/phases of curriculum
planning, design and organization,
implementation, evaluation, and change
and/or improvement.
Basic tasks of Curriculum Development:
1. Identifies purpose;
2. Set of goals and objectives;
3. Assigns curriculum content;
4. Focuses on critical needs of learners;
5. Delivers the program;
6. Evaluates the curriculum;
7. Makes decisions and retains, revises or changes the
curriculum
Stakeholders in Curriculum
Development
• May be categorized as community-based,
whose influence on the curriculum is at
societal and institutional levels; or school-
based, whose contributions to the
curriculum are either on the institutional
level, instructional level, or experiential
level
Community-based stakeholders

1. parents and guardians of students,

2. government officials and groups,
3. lawmakers, professional groups or
specialists in several disciplines,
4. business and industry groups, civic groups,
5. local governing or school boards, and
6. textbook publisher
School-Based stakeholders include
1. school staff
2. school administrators,
3. resource specialists,
4. counselors,
5. social workers,
6. health-care providers;
7. teachers and
8. students
Specific role of different stakeholders in
curriculum development

1. Community-at-large:
a. often dictates the purposes, goals, and
content of school curricula;
b. recommend direction and changes in
the curriculum (e.g. professional groups,
civic groups, business and
industry)
2. Law-makers/government officials:
a. authorize school budget;
b. enact legislation to effect
curriculum change or
improvement;
c. issue guidelines in designing and
implementing curriculum
proposals
3. Governing/school boards:
a. either make important decision on, or
oversee/manage school operation;
b. conduct public hearings to either
inform or solicit information on
curriculum matters;
c. authorize school expenditure for
curriculum development,
implementation and evaluation as needed in
the distinct or school; consider and
adopt .
4. Parents/Guardians:
a. support and participate in parent-school
organizations where priorities for
the curriculum are often set
(instructional
materials, learning experiences to
provide etc.)
5. Publishers:
a. support development of instructional
materials based on the curriculum
developed;
b. helped in the implementation of
curriculum
6. Teachers:
a. establish direction and implementation
of a particular program; select content to
be emphasized;
b. help prepared the scope and sequence
of a program;
c. attend to pedagogical concerns such
that they may modify the curriculum to
suit the needs of the learners;
d. help in evaluating the effectiveness of
curriculum
7. Learners:
a. the primary stakeholders of the
curriculum, whose needs and
abilities are the basis of
curriculum content selection and
b. whose achievement level measure
the effectiveness of the
curriculum
Approaches to Curriculum
Development
Technical approach
– Considered as the traditional way of developing
curricula; which heavily relies on curriculum
knowledge from non-teachers; not concerned
about the context in which it will be used
– Use these procedures:
• A committee of non-teaching staff
(administrators curriculum, specialists and
consultants, and sometimes, teachers and
community members) develops or revises a
curriculum, and decides what the intended
learning outcomes should be
 • Teachers implement the curriculum in their
teaching situation, assuming major
responsibilities in school-based approaches to
attain learning outcomes
• Observable evidence is gathered during
instruction and the results of this become the
basis for potential changes
– In this approach, curriculum functions are
separated, but related to, instructional functions
– Curriculum processes are rational and
systematic
Non-Technical Approach
• Relies heavily on teachers as the major
source of curriculum knowledge because
they know their students and teaching
contexts
• Curricula using this approach do not
initially have intended learning outcomes
because what students are expected to
learn is not easily predicted
• Teachers in this approach enact, rather
than implement, the curriculum, which
means that the teachers are involved in
both development of curriculum and
fitting the curriculum to specific
context
• Follows these procedures:
– Planner-teacher identifies a general area
for study
– Teachers gives the initial shared
experience and the teachers, and
provides additional input and closure
• Shows the curriculum functions are not
easily distinguishable from instructional
function
Most Influential Models of Curriculum
Development
 1. Hilda Taba’s Inverted Model of
Curriculum
Development includes the following steps:
1. Diagnosing Needs
2. Formulating specific objectives
3. Selecting content
4. Organizing content
5. Selecting and Organizing activities
6. Evaluating lessons and units
2. Ralph Tyler’s End- Means Model
which follows these steps:
 Determining the school’s and teacher’s
philosophy
 Identifying educational purposes
 Selecting and organizing content
 Evaluation
 Tyler suggest that all curriculum
development phases must consider three
important elements:
1. learners
2. society
3. subject matter
Linking Curriculum with instruction

 Curriculum and Instruction, as has been

shown earlier, are inextricably related to each
other since the basis for instruction is the
curriculum and that curriculum has been
developed primarily to be taught to learners in
school, as terms, they are often used
interchangeably
 The process involved in curriculum
development are similarly the ones followed in
the process of instruction, although they may
vary in degree, extent, focus; or functions:
planning, organization, implementation,
evaluation, and based on the evaluation results,
changes and modification are subsequently
made
 Curriculum and instruction can be taken as
separate, but interrelated, entities – this
means that although curricular functions are
separate from those for instruction, the effects
of decisions in one entity affect decisions in
the other (Johnson)
Models of instruction that show the
relatedness between curriculum and
instruction
Goal-Oriented Instructional Model
(PRODED-ERP)

Pre-assessment Statement instruction

of learners’ of
needs objectives

Reteach
Remediate or Evaluation
reinforce?
Move to next lesson
 Wiles and Bondi’s Model
-review of curriculum
guide
-judge success of -state/select -Assess student
strategies objective ability
-make planning -organize content by -determine
adjustments time relevance
-Match outcomes to 1. -revise objective if
expectations needed

-Select assessment -Consider

devices Methodology
-Check evidences of -Review present
student growth knowledge base
-Implement
instructional
strategies
-Make appropriate
correction
 Phases/ Processes in
Curriculum Development
Curriculum Planning

–Situation Analysis
»Points to the need to examine the nature of
the situation, or learning context, to justify
the selection of objectives and learning
experiences
Curriculum Organization and Design

 Involves the “form” design, pattern, or simply

the arrangement of elements of curriculum
used; based on one dominant source of
curriculum content
 Includes selection of content/subject
matter/competencies/learning activities, grade
placement, time allotment, and sequence of
content/activities
Answers such questions as:
1. What is to be done?;
2. What subject matter is to be included? ;
3. What instructional strategies, resources and
activities will be employed?
4. What methods and instruments will be used to
appraise the results of the curriculum?
 Selection of content of
 Answer the question “What knowledge is
most worth?”
 Content is the subject matter of teaching-
learning process; includes knowledge, skills,
concepts, attitudes, and values, and
significant only insofar as it is transmitted to
the student in some way (method)
Criteria for selecting content
 Validity- whether content is authentic and can
achieve stated objective
 Significance- whether content is fundamental
to the subject in question; whether selected
content allows for breadth and depth of
treatment (flexibility)
 Interest: whether content is easily learnable
 Consistency with social realities: whether
content represents most useful orientation
 Integration: brings to a close relationship all
concepts, skills and values contained in the
curriculum
 Utility: whether content is helpful to student
in coping with real life
 Scope: breadth of the curriculum at a given
time; refers to the range of important ideas
and concepts included
 Continuity and sequence : involved in the
vertical organization of the curriculum;
refers to recurrence and repetition of content
and depth with a skill or content building on
the preceding ones
Elements of curriculum content
 Sequence- may be form simple to
complex, whole to part, chronological,
concrete to abstract, from part to whole,
close to remote, expository order based on
perquisite learnings
 Integration- horizontal relationship (e.g.
Math- Science) or vertical integration
  Focus- determining which content items are
more important to cover excessive number
of facts may hinder coverage of main ideas;
appropriate relationship between facts and
ideas has to be determined
 Grade placement
 Allocation of content to definite grade
capable of learning
 Factors to consider: child’s ability, difficulty
of item, importance of content, maturation,
mental age, experiential, background
(KUASH)
 Time allotment
 Specification of definite time for
subject/course; amount of time given to a
subject
 Factors to consider: importance of subject;
child’s ability; grade level average number
of days/hours
 Sequence of
 Putting content into an order of succession
for an orderly and productive learning
 Curriculum Implementation
 A process by which curricula are used in
schools; this is the instructional phase of
curriculum development process
 Includes knowing the
 Scope and complexity of curricular changes
 How curriculum content is disseminated
 Professional development
 Identification of resources requirement
 Requires planning and managing the major
operations that occur in using the curriculum
in the classroom 
Curriculum Evaluation
 The process of delineating, obtaining and
providing useful information for judging
decision alternatives (PDK, 1971)
 Refers to the formal determination of the
quality, effectiveness, or value of a
curriculum(Stufflebeam, 1991)
 Involves value judgment about the
curriculum
Consist of process and product assessment
1. Process evaluation- used to 1. provide
information about the extent to which plans
for curriculum implementation are executed
and the wise use of resources; and
2. provide assistance
2. Product evaluation- used in gathering,
interpreting and appraising curricular
attainments, as often as necessary, to
determine how well the curriculum meets the
needs of the students it is intended to serve
Procedures of curriculum evaluation:
1. Focusing
2. Preparing
3. Implementing
4. Analyzing
5. Reporting
Criteria to observe in the curriculum
evaluation
1. Consistency with objectives
2. Comprehensive scopes
3. Sufficient diagnostic values
4. Validity
5. Unity of evaluative judgment
6. continuity
Why evaluate the Curriculum?
1. Meet demands that current educational reforms
have made;
2. Provide direction, security and feedbacks to all
concerned;
3. determine appropriate and available resources,
activities, content, methods
4. whether curriculum has coherence, balance
articulation, etc. in order to meet curriculum
goals/objectives
 What curriculum qualities to evaluate:
1. mission statement (philosophy) ;
2. Sequence (order);
3. Continuity (without disruptions);
4. Scope (depth/variety of content);
5. Articulation (how parts fit);
6. Balance (quantitative and qualitative aspects of contents);
7. coherence (relationships among different components)
  
Curriculum Improvement or Curriculum
change: involves the decisions to make as a
the evaluation results are utilized in full extent

Curriculum Improvement
 Refers to alteration of certain aspects of
curriculum without changing the fundamental
curriculum elements/ structures/ conception
Involves five levels of operation:
1.substitution (new series in place of current series);
2. alteration (additional instructional time for a
subject);
3.variation (adopting other school’s programs);
4.restructuring (organize teams of subjects
specialists, teachers and aids);
5.value orientation (some instructional routine
matters made part of computer-assisted instruction)
Curriculum changes
 Refers to the basic alliteration in the structure
and design of learning experiences based on
new conceptions, which may be at the school,
district or national level
Involves the following tasks:
1. Identification of a particular need to change;
may be based on evaluation
results, or initiative from concerned
individuals or groups
2. study of alternative and proposals for change
 3. selection of proposed change (either one subject only or
in one school only)
4. Pilot study design (try out)
5. Appraisal of data from pilot study, and the corresponding,
necessary modification if any
6. Continuous study by concerned staff through adequate in
service activities and help of any consultant
7. decision to adapt, adopt or reject
8. integration into school system
 
 
 Understanding by Design
Wiggins and McTighe

 Understanding by Design is a "framework for

designing curriculum units, performance
assessments, and instruction that lead your students
to deep understanding of the content you teach,"
 UbD expands on "six facets of understanding", which
include students being able to explain, interpret,
apply, have perspective, empathize, and have self-
knowledge about a given topic
 Backward design
 Understanding by Design relies on what Wiggins and McTighe
call "backward design" (also known as "backwards planning").
Teachers, according to UbD proponents, traditionally start
curriculum planning with activities and textbooks instead of
identifying classroom learning goals and planning towards that
goal. In backward design, the teacher starts with classroom
outcomes and then plans the curriculum, choosing activities and
materials that help determine student ability and foster student
learning
The backward design model is comprised of the following three
stages:
 I. Identify desired results
 II. Determine acceptable evidence
 III. Plan learning experiences and instruction
 The Six Facets of Understanding
When we truly understand we:
  can explain: provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of
phenomena, facts, and data
   can interpret: tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a
revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it
personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and
model
   can apply: effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts
   have perspective: see and hear points of view through critical eyes and
ears; see the big picture
   can empathize: find value in what others might find odd, alien, or
implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience
   have self-knowledge: perceive the personal style, prejudices,
projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own
understanding; we are aware of what we do not understand and why
understanding is so hard (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998)
 WHERE
The WHERE acronym is used to guide teachers on
where to focus their effort
 Where the work is headed and the purpose
 Hook students with engaging work that makes them
more eager to explore key ideas
 Explore the subject in depth and equip students with
required knowledge and skills to perform
successfully on final tasks.
 Rethink with students the big ideas; students
rehearse and revise their work
 Evaluate results and develop action plans through
self-assessment of results
 GRASPS
G – GOAL -> Your goal is to create a larger than life model
butterfly and write/illustrate a book with a fiction and
nonfiction section about your butterfly.
R – ROLE -> You are the teacher.  Your job is to teach the
preschoolers about butterflies.
A – AUDIENCE -> You WILL Invite the preschool class to
come to your classroom to learn about butterflies.
S – SITUATION -> Your challenge is to teach preschoolers
about butterflies by performing your book.
P – PRODUCT -> You will act out your book with your
butterfly model.
S – STANDARDS for SUCCESS -> Your book and
performance will be judged by you, your teacher, and two
of your peers using the student rubric.
 Planning Instruction:  Think
in terms of Three Orientations
to Teaching: 
 Transmission [one way communication such
as lecture and demonstration];
 Transaction [two-way communication such
as questioning and discussion];
 Transformation [learning by doing such as
work-experience, practicum, simulation, role-
playing].