HPGD1103

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
TUTORIAL 6
Curriculum Design

DR.KALIDASS MACHAPPAN
Curriculum Design
OBJECTIVES:

1. Define what is curriculum design

2. Explain the principles of content organisation

3. Compare subject matter-centred, learner-centred and

problem-centred curriculum design models
CURRICULUM DESIGN
'Prevention is Better than Cure'

Adopting the curriculum infusion approach, educators

have designed lesson plans to include prevention
issues in the regular curriculum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcC8CGjg14s
 Shape

Curriculum
Design OR

Configuration
 INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS CURRICULUM DESIGN?

Curriculum design is deciding about the "shape" or

"configuration" of a curriculum plan.

It involves selection of content in line with the goals and

objectives of the curriculum.

Curriculum design is also referred to as 'curriculum organisation’

Designing the curriculum involves the task of organising or

arranging the four components; namely, objectives, subject
matter, teaching-learning experiences and evaluation procedures
into a cohesive and comprehensive plan.
 Will focus on two main aspects of curriculum design, namely :

 selection and organisation of content (or subject matter)

for learners

 selection and organisation of learning experiences

(or activities)
What content or subject matter is to be included?

What learning activities should be planned for learners?

What teaching-learning or instructional strategies

should be used?
What educational resources should be used in
the teaching-leaning situations?
content or subject matter

learning activities

teaching-learning or instructional strategies

educational resources
 Selection and organisation of content

It involves selection of content in line with the

goals and objectives of the curriculum. The
selected content will have to be arranged in a form
that will help teacher in choosing and organizing
appropriate learning experiences for the
classroom.
 Selection and organisation of
learning experiences

It is defined as deliberately planned experienced in seleceted

situations,where students actively participate,interact,and
which result in the changes of behaviour in the students.
 What is Content?

The content is another term for knowledge consisting

of a collection of facts, concepts, generalisations,
principles and theories.

The content selected is aimed towards helping

students understand knowledge that may be new to
them but is already known by scholars and
practitioners in the field.

From this body of knowledge or discipline, content is

selected for educational purposes and organised
according to the cognitive level of learners.
How Should Students Learn Content?

Content should be prescribed and transmitted to

learners (behaviourism) while others feel that
content should be constructed by learners
(constructivism) based on their experiences.

Content is not just something told to students but

rather something that students personally
construct.
 Cognitive psychologists refer to:

 Content as declarative knowledge or what students

should know (the facts, concepts and principles of
a body of knowledge)

 process as procedural knowledge or what should

be able to do (the procedures, thinking skills and
methods of inquiry embedded in any body of
knowledge).
 Declarative knowledge refer to:

Declarative knowledge is an awareness

or understanding of facts. It can be
expressed through spoken and written
language using declarative sentences
and can thus be acquired through verbal
communication.
 Procedural knowledge refer to:

In cognitive psychology, procedural knowledge

is the knowledge exercised in the
accomplishment of a task, and thus includes
knowledge which, unlike declarative knowledge,
cannot be easily articulated by the individual,
since it is typically subconscious (or tacit).
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

Significance Utility

Content
Validity Learnability

Feasibility
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

 Significance: learner- centred designs think of significance in

terms of the needs and interests of the learner.

 A problem-centred design would regard the problems and issues

in society as significant

 Taba (1962) further argues that we should not just select content
based on the cognitive aspects of learners, but also on their
affective dimensions.
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

Utility: usefulness of content

 If subscribe to the subject-centred design, then it is believe that the content

learned from the various subject areas will be useful in the workplace.

 If subscribe to the learner-centred design, then it will take into consideration the
needs and interests of learners which will enable them to realise their potential
to function effectively in the workplace.

 if subscribe to the problem-centred design, then it believe that learning about

societal issues will enable students to apply directly what they have learned to
their daily lives and the world of work.
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

Validity:

 Validity refers to whether the information passed on to students is

authentic and obtained from credible sources.

 Content needs to be checked to determine its accuracy and

constantly updated.
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

Learnability:

 The content selected for a particular age group might be too

difficult and teachers need more time but insufficient time is
allotted.

 Teachers will end up rushing through the material and some

students left behind not understanding the content.
 How Should Content be Selected?

Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content:

Feasibility:

 Educators who select content have to take into consideration the

constraints of time, expertise of staff, funding and other
educational resources that schools might face when implementing
the curriculum.

 Content selection has to be considered within the context of

existing reality of economics and the role of the government.
 PRINCIPLES OF CONTENT ORGANISATION

The following principles have been proposed when deciding on content organisation
(Sowell, 2000; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1998):

1. Scope

• Scope refers to both the breadth and depth of content and includes all
topics, learning experiences and organising threads found in the
curriculum plan.

• Scope not only refers to cognitive learning but also affective learning,
and some would argue spiritual learning (Goodland & Zhixin Su, 1992)
 PRINCIPLES OF CONTENT ORGANISATION

The following principles have been proposed when deciding on content organisation
(Sowell, 2000; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1998):

2. Sequence

• Refers to the organisation of content and the extent to which it fosters cumulative and
continuous learning (referred to as vertical relationship among sections of the curriculum).

• The sequence of content and experiences should be based on the logic of the subject matter and
the way in which individuals learn.

 Simple to complex
 Spiral
 Prerequisites
 Whole to part
 Vertical organization
 Horizontal organisation
 1.Vertical organisation

This simply means that content and skills are arranged

so that they build on one another; that they align with the
general sequence of cognitive development. They
indicate what students have learned and what they will
learn later.
 2.Horizontal organisation

It involves how skills and content that are taught

during one level or one period of time relate to
another.
 3.Integration

 Integration is the bringing together of the concepts, skills and values of

different subject areas to reinforce each other.
 Information from different subject areas are brought together in such a
way to present the learner with a unified picture of knowledge.

Examples of the integrated curriculum include science-technology-society

and reading across the curriculum.
 4. Continuity

 It ensures that ideas, themes and skills are repeated as the

learner progresses through the grades.

 Students may not grasp certain concepts and skills in one experience and
have to be presented again before they become clear.

 Continuity ensures the reappearance of certain major ideas at different grade

levels at increased depth and complexity over the length of the curriculum.
 5.Case Study:The Integrated Curriculum

 The integrated curriculum is receiving much attention even though it is not

necessarily a new way of looking at teaching and learning.

 The expanding body of knowledge, concerns about curriculum relevancy, lack of

connection among subjects and the need for future workers to have the ability to
draw from many fields in solving problems has been cited as reasons for a
moving towards an integrated curriculum.
 SELECTION OF LEARNING EXPERIENCES

What are Learning Experiences?

 While content is the "meat" of the curriculum plan, we can consider

learning experiences planned for the students as the "heart" of the plan
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 1998).

 Learning experiences is the instructional component of the curriculum

providing for the interaction between teacher, student and the content.

 Learning experiences, designed for the purpose of achieving the goals

and objectives of the curriculum plan.
 What are Learning Experiences?

 While content is the "meat" of the curriculum plan, we can consider

learning experiences planned for the students as the "heart" of the plan
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 1998).

 Learning experiences is the instructional component of the curriculum

providing for the interaction between teacher, student and the content.

 Learning experiences, designed for the purpose of achieving the goals

and objectives of the curriculum plan.
 Types of teaching methods

inquiry method
discovery approach
lecture method
small group discussion
role-playing
fieldwork
Learning activities are opportunities for students to
question, clarify, create and apply knowledge.
Examples of learning activities are answering questions,
solving problems, journal writing, viewing videos, doing
experiments, playing games and so forth.
Learning experiences (teaching methods and learning
activities) are selected to translate the goals and
objectives of the curriculum plan.

The most important criterion for the selection of learning

experiences is to ensure that there is alignment between
objectives, content and learning experiences.

Learning experiences should foster cognitive, affective,

psychomotor and spiritual development of the learner.
 CURRICULUM DESIGNS

Most curriculum designs can be grouped into the following

three basic designs

 Subject-Centred Designs
 Learner-Centre Designs
 Problem-Centred Designs
 Subject-Centred Designs

Most popular and widely used curriculum design.

Focussed on how best to present the knowledge,

skills and values of subjects to learners and five
approaches have been proposed:
 Academic Subject Design

 This design is based on the belief that humans are unique because of
their intellect and the quest for and acquisition of knowledge is to feed
this intellect.

 Since teaching is essentially a verbal activity (whether it be lecture,

recitation, group discussion) teachers find it easier to communicate the
ideas and knowledge of a subject presented in verbal form in textbooks.
 Discipline Design

 A discipline is a specific body of knowledge that has its

own methods of inquiry, has its specialised words and
terminology, has a tradition, has a collection of
literature and persons involved in the field as
theoreticians and practitioners.
 Broad Fields Design

 The broad fields design is also known as the interdisciplinary design.

 The main reason for this design arose from the concern that subjects
taught were too compartimentalised and fragmented.

For example, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography and

History were combined to form the social studies
 Correlation Design

 The correlation design model lies in between the academic design

model and the broad fields design.

Example:

Five different subject areas to be fused into one subject., then the
correlation design model might be an alternative
 Process Design

 Students learn the methods of inquiry used by experts in the respective

discipline
Example:
In studying anthropology, students will learn the various ethnographic
procedures used in the field.

In the process design curriculum students are also taught to be aware of

their thinking and to take action when necessary.
 Learner-Centred Designs

Emphasis was on the development of the whole child and this was most
evident in primary schools.
Child-Centred Design

o Learners should actively participate in the teaching-learning process.

o Focus is on the needs and interests of learners.

o Using this design teachers and students negotiate what if of interest to learners and what content is to be
included in the curriculum.

o The interests and experiences of the learner become subject-matter of the curriculum.

o Children are given the freedom to discover, first hand, by doing things for themselves rather that being
told how to do something.
 Radical Design

o Quite similar to the child- centred design

o Children should be educated towards the goal of social reform.

o A well-known proponent of the radical design was Paulo Freire who

opposed treating students as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge
by the teacher.

o Proposed the relationship between teacher and student be reciprocal,

that is, 'the teacher who learns and the learner who teaches'.
 Humanistic Design

o Proponents of the humanistic design based their arguments on the principles of humanistic
psychology.

o The curriculum should be designed to empower learners to be involved in the process of

realising their potential.

o One of the proponents of the humanistic curriculum design was Carl Rogers (1902-1987) who
argued that the aim of education is the facilitation of learning.

o Learners will be able to become fully functional persons, capable of intelligent choice, are critical
learners and able to approach problems situations with flexibility and work cooperatively with
others (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1998).
 Problem-Centred Designs

• The focus of this category of models is the problems faced by

society.

• The learner is placed in the social setting to address the

problem.

• It aims to prepare students with relevant knowledge and skills

to fit into society when they leave school.
 Life-centred situations

• Examples of such life situations are healthy living, use of

leisure time, ethical character, racial tolerance, citizenship
skills and so forth.

• Students will see direct relevance in studying such social

issues when they are related to their world.
 Core-design

 A variation of the life-centred situations design is the core-design model.

 The core problems are taught to all students in a block-time format

whereby two or more periods of class time is used.

 A problem solving approach is adopted in analysing social problems.

Students select a problem through consensus and work either
individually or in groups.

 Data is collected, analysed, interpreted and presented in class.

 Findings are evaluated and discussed.

 SUMMARY
 Curriculum design involves making decisions about the selection and organisation of content and
learning experiences in line with the goals and objectives of the curriculum.

 Content is usually selected from a body of knowledge or discipline for educational purposes and
organised to meet the cognitive level of learners.

 Content is selected based on significance, validity, feasibility, learnability and utility.

 The principles guiding content organisation are scope, sequence, integration and continuity.

 Content may be sequenced horizontally, vertically, chronologically, simple to complex, spirally and
whole to part.

 Most curriculum design models may be classified as either subject-centred models, learner-centred
models or problem-centred models.
THANK YOU