CURRICULUM

INNOVATION
REPORTER: ELAINE A. PELIGRIN
• In general, innovation may be a new object, new idea,
ideal practice, the process by which a new object idea, or
practice comes to be adopted by an individual group or
organization (Ivarsh & Willis, 2007).

• It may also mean the planned application of ends or

means, new to the adopting educational system, and
intended to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of
the system (Henderson, 1985).
 •Curriculum innovations are new knowledge
about curriculum, new curriculum theories,
outstanding curricular practices, new curriculum,
or new curriculum designs that are sometimes
developed out of a research in education or
other studies from other disciplines and
academic fields.
• Oftentimes, curriculum innovation is associated with
curriculum change. A term in curriculum studies
which means any changes in the curriculum that is
either planned or unplanned.

• Curriculum innovations, therefore, are positive

changes or improvements that are happening in the
education system particularly in the area of
curriculum.
 • Michael Fullan (1989) identified four core changes in
educational context that shape the definition of curriculum
innovation. These core changes in schools include:

1. some forms of regrouping or new grouping (structure);

2. new curriculum materials;
3. changes in some aspects of teaching practices (new
activities, skills, behavior); and
4. change in beliefs or understandings vis-à-vis curriculum
and learning.
• Curriculum innovations may focus on the classroom or
school level, or they could be changes specific to a
particular discipline.

• In this book, curriculum innovations are clustered into

several ideas that continue to shape curriculum and
education systems in general.
A. Standard- based Curriculum
• A standards-based curriculum is designed based on content
standards as explicated by experts in the field (Glatthorn et al.,
1998).
• Curriculum standards include general statements of knowledge,
skills, and attitudes that students should learn and master as a
result of schooling (Marzano, 1996; Glatthorn et al., 1998).
• They are statements of what students should know and be able
to do. Standards generally include three different aspects:
knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
A. Standard- based Curriculum
• 1. Knowledge or Content Standards describe what students
should know. These include themes or conceptual strands that
should be nurtured throughout the students' education.

• 2. Skills Standards include thinking and process skills and

strategies that students should acquire.

• 3. Dispositions are attitudes and values that should be

developed and nurtured in students.
A. Standard- based Curriculum
• Curriculum standards are different from competencies.
Standards are broader while competencies are more specific
and prescriptive in terms of the scope of knowledge, skills,
and values that students should learn.

• Curriculum standards provide more creativity and freedom

for educators to explore various learning opportunities and
better forms of assessing students' achievement (Morrison,
2006).
A. Standard- based Curriculum
• In a standards-based curriculum, these curriculum
standards serve as bases for designing the content of
a curriculum.
• As a curriculum innovation, it gave birth to the
development of core curriculum and state standards.
In the Philippines, for example, curriculum standards
are useful in developing and organizing the
curriculum for K-12.
A. Standard- based Curriculum
• A standards-based curriculum involves teachers in the
process of curriculum planning and design.

• A standards-based curriculum empowers the teachers

to take an active role in planning for the
implementation of the curriculum standards
prescribed by the government.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
• A multicultural curriculum aims to promote cultural literacy
and cultural understanding.
• Schools use different strategies and approaches to develop
cultural literacy and promote cultural understanding.
• Usually, this is done through cultural awareness activities by
knowing the different costumes, songs, literatures, foods,
and introducing them to different historical places of
different countries as part of daily lessons.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
• However, cultural awareness alone is not sufficient to
develop cultural understanding.

• All material culture has a context and a story to share.

Hence, there is a need for a more realistic or concrete
program that will enable the learners and teachers to
experience and understand these aspects of culture in
the classroom.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
• Banks (1994) identified five dimensions that schools could
adopt when trying to implement multicultural curriculum.
• These dimensions are very useful in developing cultural
literacy and in promoting cultural understanding in schools:

1. Content Integration - deals with the extent to which teachers

use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups
to illustrate key concepts, principles, generalizations, and
theories in their subject area or discipline.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
2. The Knowledge Construction Process
- consists of methods, activities, and questions teachers use to
help students to understand, investigate, and determine how
implicit cultural assumptions, frames of reference, perspectives,
and biases within a discipline influence the ways in which
knowledge is constructed.

3. Prejudice Reduction - describes the characteristics of students'

attitudes and strategies that can be used to help them develop
more democratic attitudes and values.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
4. Equity Pedagogy -exists when teachers modify their teaching
in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of students
from diverse racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender groups.

5. An Empowering School Culture and Social Structure

-involves the restructuring of the culture and organization of the
school so the students from diverse racial, ethnic, and gender
groups will experience quality.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
Bennett (1999) proposed a multicultural curriculum focusing on six goals:

(1) develop multiple historical perspectives;

(2) strengthen cultural consciousness;
(3) strengthen intercultural competence;
(4) combat racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and
discrimination;
(5) increase awareness of the state of the planet and global dynamics; and
(6) build social action skills.
C. Indigenous Curriculum
• The idea of an indigenous curriculum - was a product of a
vision to make curriculum relevant and responsive to the
needs and context of indigenous people.

• It links the curriculum with the society's culture and history.

It values the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge
systems of the people to the existing curriculum.
 C. Indigenous Curriculum
• The Author's earlier studies on indigenous curriculum provided a framework
for linking indigenous knowledge with the curriculum and provided several
dimensions that serve as a framework for the development of an indigenous
curriculum:

1. Construct knowledge so that young children understand how experiences,

personal views, and other peoples' ideas influence the development of
scientific concepts and scientific knowledge.

2. Use instructional strategies that promote academic success for children of

different cultures.
 C. Indigenous Curriculum

3. Integrate contents and activities that reflect the learners'

culture, history, traditions, and indigenous knowledge in the
curriculum.

4. Utilize community's cultural, material, and human

resources in the development and implementation of the
curriculum.
 C. Indigenous Curriculum
• Specifically, indigenous curriculum may consider using and
implementing the following strategies at the school level:

1. Integrating contents and activities that reflect the learners' culture,

history, traditions, and indigenous knowledge in the curriculum

2. Using the local language as the medium of instruction for several

subjects like Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, Music,
Values Education, and Home Economics and Livelihood Education
 C. Indigenous Curriculum

3. Involving community folks and local teachers in the development

of the curriculum

4. Developing local instructional materials and learning outside the

classroom by utilizing various community resources that are available
for conducting observations and investigations

5. Using instructional strategies that are relevant to indigenous

learning system
 C. Indigenous Curriculum
• As a form of innovation, an indigenous curriculum is founded on the way of
life, traditions, worldview, culture, and spirituality of the people, and is a
pathway of education that recognizes wisdom embedded in indigenous
knowledge.
• This indigenous knowledge is very influential to the development of young
children. It is embedded in their daily life since the time they were born. They
grow up into a social and cultural setting family, community, social class,
language, and religion.
• An indigenous curriculum, therefore, is a noble way of responding to the
needs of indigenous people. In an indigenous curriculum, the first frame of
reference for developing a curriculum must be the community, its
environment, its history, and its people (Pawilen, 2006, 2013).
D. Brain-based Curriculum
• Prominent advocates in brain-based education, Caine
and Caine (1997) considered curriculum and
instruction from a brain-based approach.
• They begin with brain-mind learning principles
derived from brain research findings and apply these
principles in the classroom and in designing a
curriculum.
D. Brain-based Curriculum
• These principles are:

1. The brain is a whole system and includes physiology, emotions,

imagination, and predisposition. These must all be considered as a
whole.

2. The brain develops in relationship to interactions with the

environment and with others.

3. A quality of being human is the search for personal meaning.

D. Brain-based Curriculum
4. People create meaning through perceiving certain patterns of
understanding.

5. Emotions are critical to the patterns people perceive.

6. The brain processes information into both parts and wholes at

the same time.

7. Learning includes both focused attention and peripheral input.

D. Brain-based Curriculum
8. Learning is both unconscious and conscious.

9. Information (meaningful and fragmented) is organized

differently in memory.

10. Learning is developmental.

D. Brain-based Curriculum
11. The brain makes an optimal number of connections
in a supportive but challenging environment; however,
when there are perceptions of threat, the brain may
inhibit learning.

12. Every brain is unique in its organization.

D. Brain-based Curriculum
• Another advocate of brain-based education, Resnick
(1987), theorized that learners learn more if they are
given several ways to look at a problem and if they are
asked to give more than one way of solving it.
• Caine and Caine (1991) also cited studies showing that
the brain learns best when it works to solve problems or
accomplishes specific tasks instead of merely absorbing
isolated bits of information and that the brain's primary
function is to seek patterns in new learning.
D. Brain-based Curriculum
• In addition, Sylwester (1995) pointed out that
classrooms in the future may focus more on drawing
out existing abilities rather than on precisely measuring
one's success with imposed skills, encouraging the
personal construction of categories rather than
imposed categorical systems, and emphasizing the
individual, personal solutions of an environmental
challenge over the efficient group manipulation of the
symbols that merely represent the solution.
D. Brain-based Curriculum
• Brain-based education has some direct implications in
the development of curriculum. It postulates that brains
do not exist in isolation.
• The brain exists in bodies, which in turn exist in a
culture; the culture in which one happens to live
becomes an important determinant of the brain's
structure and organization (Gardner, 2000). This offers
an immense possibility for including social concerns and
cultural matters in the curriculum.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• Gifted Education Curriculum is designed to respond to the needs of a
growing number of gifted learners and to develop gifted potentials. There
are several examples of gifted curriculum models presented as follows:
• 1. Schoolwide Enrichment Model

• The Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) (Renzulli & Reis, 2009, 1997) is
widely implemented as an enrichment program used with academically
gifted and talented students and a magnet theme/enrichment approach
for all schools interested in high- end learning and developing the
strengths and talents of all students (Davis, Rimm, and Siegle, 2011). The
major goal of the SEM is the application of gifted education pedagogy to
total school improvement.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• The SEM provides enriched learning experiences and higher learning
standards for all the children through three goals:
• (1) developing talents in all children,
• (2) providing a broad range of advanced-level enrichment experiences for all
students, and
• (3) providing advanced follow-up opportunities for young people based on
their strengths and interests.
• The SEM focuses on enrichment for all students through high levels of
engagement and the use of enjoyable and challenging learning experiences
that are constructed around students' interests, learning styles, and preferred
modes of expression.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• 2. Parallel Curriculum Model

• The Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM) evolved from a National Association

for Gifted Children curriculum in 1998. A group of scholars (Tomlinson,
Kaplan, Renzulli, Purcell, Leppien, & Burns) collaboratively developed this
model.
• It is based on the premise that every learner is somewhere on a path
toward expertise in a content area.
• It promotes a curriculum model for developing the abilities of all students
and extending the abilities of students who perform at advanced levels
E. Gifted Education Curriculum

• The PCM offers four curriculum parallels that incorporate

the element of ascending intellectual demand to help
teachers determine current student performance levels and
develop intellectual challenges to move learners along a
continuum toward expertise (Tomlinson et al., 2002).
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• The four curriculum parallels in this model are:
a. Core Curriculum focuses on the nature of knowledge that is
embedded in the discipline. This includes the core concepts, skills, and
values that are unique for each discipline.

b. Curriculum of Connection focuses on the integration or

interconnectedness of knowledge across different disciplines.

c. Curriculum of Practice involves the application of knowledge to

different real-life situations and the methodology of a practitioner.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• d. Curriculum of Identity fits the learner's values and goals
and those that characterize practicing professionals.

• The beauty of this model lies in its framework of helping the

learners to experience the nature of the disciplines rather
than just accumulating information.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• 3. Autonomous Learner Model

• Betts (2004) pointed out that curricular offerings typically fall

into three levels. Level I is a prescribed curriculum and
instruction that focuses on state standards Level II involves
differentiation of curriculum based on individual differences.
Level III features learner-differentiated options where
students are self-directed and teachers provide opportunities
for the learners to be in charge of their learning.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• The Autonomous Learner Model is divided into five major dimensions:

• a. Orientation acquaints students, teachers, and administrators with

the central concept in gifted education and the specifics of this model.
At this level, gifted students work together in doing self-understanding
exercises that will help them be familiarized with each other. The
students are expected to develop an Advanced Learning Plan as part
of their orientation experience that includes information about their
giftedness, various personal and academic needs, learning experiences
they might need, and other things that will help them succeed in
school.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• b. Individual Development focuses more clearly on
developing skills, concepts, and attitudes that promote
lifelong learning and self-directed learning.

• c. Enrichment Activities involve two kinds of differentiation

of curriculum, namely (1) differentiation of curriculum by the
teacher and (2) differentiation by the student. Students are
exposed to various activities to develop their passion for
learning.
E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• d. Seminars are designed to give each person in a small
group the opportunity to research a topic and present it in
seminar format to other people or to a group.

• e. In-depth Study is one in which students pursue areas of

interest in long- term individual or small group studies. The
students will decide what will be learned, the process of
doing it, the product, how content will be presented, and
how the entire learning process will be evaluated.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• 4. Integrated Curriculum Model

• This model is a popular way of organizing or designing different

kinds of curriculum. The Center for Gifted Education at the
College of William and Mary developed its curriculum based on
this model and has trained many teachers around the world in
using their curriculum materials (Davis et al., 2011).
• The model presented three dimensions based on the model of
VanTassel-Baska (1987) that guide the development of the
curriculum.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum

• a. Advanced Content Dimension meets the needs of gifted

students for acceleration by providing content earlier and
faster than same-age peers would normally receive it. Content
area experts and educators work collaboratively to develop the
content, and they align key topics, concepts, and habits of
mind within a domain to content area standards.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• b. Process/Product Dimension incorporates direct instruction
and embedded activities that promote higher-order thinking
skills and create opportunities for independent pursuit in areas
of student interest.
• c. Issues/Themes Dimension is where learning experiences are
organized. In doing so, students are able to develop deeper
ideas and philosophies that ultimately promote understanding
of the structure of knowledge learned.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• 5. Kids Academia Model

• Kids Academia is a program for young Japanese children ages 5-

8, which was developed by Dr. Manabu Sumida in 2010. The
program is designed to provide excellent science experiences for
gifted children in Japan. The kids who participated in the
program were rigorously selected using a checklist adopted from
the Gifted Behavior Checklist in Science for Primary Children.
Faustino, Hiwatig, and Sumida (2011) identified three major
phases that are followed in the development of the curriculum.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
a. Group Meeting and Brainstorming Activities. The teachers
and teaching assistants hold several meetings and
brainstorming activities to decide on the themes that will be
included in the program. A general orientation of the
program is also done during this phase.

b. Selection of Contents for Each Theme. The teachers and

teaching assistants carefully select the lessons and topics
that are included in the theme. A rigorous study of the topic
is done in this phase.
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
c. Designing Lessons. This phase includes the careful preparation of
lesson plans and other instructional materials needed for
implementing each lesson.

The activities for each lesson were selected based on the following
guidelines developed by Dr. Sumida:

• a. Stimulates the interest of the children

• b. Allows children to express their own ideas and findings

 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• c. Uses cheap and easy-to-find materials
• d. Teaches the correct use of scientific terms
• e. Uses simple laboratory equipment
• f. Allows individual or group activities
• g. Encourages socio-emotional development
• h. Connects to other subjects and to everyday life experiences
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• i. Includes topics related to family and community
• j. Uses materials connected to family and community
• k. Applies what children learned to their families and society

• In addition, the program adapted the Wheel of Scientific

Investigation and Reasoning as a guide for developing skills of
gifted children. This model was adopted
 E. Gifted Education Curriculum
• The Kids Academia Model is a form of curriculum innovation
that shows how experts in tertiary education could help
strengthen teaching and learning in basic education.
• It is a form of collaboration between the university, the home,
and the local school. It is a kind of partnership among
professors, parents, and basic education teachers. This model
is now reaping various awards in Japan.