Curriculum Design

Chapter 6 – Monday, March 6th, 2017

The following are Broad Areas of Focus:

“Myths” about education’s purposes

What influences people’s perceptions of

education’s purposes

The Major components of curriculum design

Some sources of curriculum design

Broad Areas of Focus Cont’d

Defining curriculum design

Horizontal and Vertical organizations of curriculum design

– Understanding why its necessary to comprehend

Design Dimension Considerations

Representative Curriculum Designs

The Myths, According to David Orr

Education-the right curriculum and curriculum design-can

eliminate ignorance

Education and well-designed curricula can supply all the

knowledge needed to manage society and the earth

Educational curricula are increasing human goodness.

Which means well-designed curricula in still wisdom

The primary purpose of education is to enable students to

be upwardly mobile and economically successful

Major Factors that Influence People’s

Perceptions of the Purposes of Education

Myriad realms of knowing and feeling

Experiences

Lived histories

Values

Belief systems

Social Interactions

Imaginations

Major Components of Curriculum Design

OBJECTIVES

CONTENT

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

EVALUATION

Questions suggested by the Components

What should be done?

What subject matter should be included?

What instructional strategies, resources and activities should be employed?

What methods and instruments should be used to appraise the results of the curriculum?

Note!

Curriculum design include Philosophical,

theoretical as well as practical issues

Curriculum design is the parent of

instructional design.

A curriculum results from a blend of

curriculum design and instructional design.

Sources of Curriculum Design

A blend by Doll, Dewey, Bode and Tyler:

Science as a Source: containing observable, quantifiable elements; Problem solving is prioritized; the design emphasizes learning how to learn

Sources of Curriculum Cont’d

Society as a Source: The upheld thought is that school is an agent of society and therefore should draw its curriculum ideas from analysis of its social situation.

Schools must realize that they are part of and designed to serve the interests of their local community and diverse larger society.

Social diversity include multiple cultures, ethnic groups and social classes

Arthur Ellis posited:

“No curriculum or curriculum

design can be considered or

created apart from the people

who make up our evolving

society.”

The Sources of Curriculum Design Cont’d

Moral Doctrine as a Source: Curriculum designers

who draw on spirituality teach a fuller

understanding than those wo rely only on Science.

Spiritual Individuals develop empathy and

compassion.

Note: Spiritual curriculum designers ask questions

about the nature of the world, the purpose of

life, and what it means to be human and

knowledgeable.

William Pinar commented:

“… Viewing curriculum as religious text may allow for blending of truth, faith, knowledge, ethics, thought, and action.” He claimed that faith, ethics and action need more emphasis.

Dottin and/or Thomas: Can you indicate to us how successful it has been to blend

faith into your content material?

Sources of Curriculum Design Cont’d

Knowledge as a Source: Where knowledge is placed at the center of curriculum design, it is viewed as being a discipline, having a particular structure and a particular method or methods

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING CONTRAST:

Physics – Discipline (Unique structure and process)

Environmental Education – Undisciplined (Contents borrowed from various disciplines and adapted to a special focus

Sources of Curriculum Design Cont’d

The Learner as a Source: For progressive curricularists, humanistic educators, and many engaged in postmodern dialogue, the learner should be the primary source of curriculum design

Learner-focused curriculum design emphasizes students’ knowledge.

All sources of curriculum design seek to empower students and foster their individual uniqueness.

Organizations of Curriculum Designs

The two basic organizational dimensions:

1. Horizontal organization blends curriculum

elements – eg. By combining History,

Anthropology and Sociology contents to

create a “Contemporary Studies” course or

by combining Math and Science content.

Organizations of Curriculum Designs Cont’d

2. Vertical organization refers to the sequencing of

curriculum elements. Eg. Placing “the family” in

first grade Social Studies and “the community” in

second grade Social Studies.

Nb: What is frequently used is where the same

topics are addressed in different grades but in

increasing detail and at increasingly higher levels of

difficulty.

Example, Ladies?

Design Dimension Considerations

Scope – breath and depth of content. Scope

includes all the types of educational experiences

created to engage students in learning.

Note: When considering learning scope, we need

to bear in mind learning’s cognitive (knowing,

perceiving), affective (dealing with values and

attitudes – spiritual) and psychomotor (dealing

with motor skills and coordination) domains.

Design Dimensions Considerations Cont’d

Sequence – Curricularists must decide how

content and experiences can build on what

came before.

Various psychologists have influenced the

approaches to sequencing.

B.O. Smith, W. Stanley and H. Shores

posited the following four principles

Continued…

Simple-to-complex Learning – From simple (often concrete) to more

difficult (often abstract)

Prerequisite Learning – Works on the assumption that bits of info must

be grasped before other bits can be comprehended

Whole-to-part Learning – Cognitive psychologists support that the

content or experience be first presented in an overview/general idea

Chronological Learning – Reflects the times of real-world occurrences.

Eg. History, Political Science and World Events

Continued…

Continuity – This is a vertical repetition of curriculum. So, even as suggested by

Tyler, this means that over time the same kinds of skills will be brought into

continuing operations.

This practice ensures that students will revisit crucial concepts and skills.

For instance, one learns to think deeply by having myriad experiences in

which thinking and questioning are enriched.

Continuity is most evident in Jerome Bruner’s notion of the “Spiral

Curriculum”.

Continuing Considerations in Design

Dimensions

Integration – Linking all types of knowledge and experiences contained within the curriculum plan.

Integration emphasizes horizontal relationships among topics and themes from all knowledge domains.

Integration is also a way of thinking about school’s purposes, curriculum’s sources and the nature and use of knowledge

In the 1960s, Hilda Taba noted that a curriculum that presents info only in bits and pieces prevents students from seeing knowledge as unified.

Postmodernism, Constructionism and Post structuralism have all advance the idea

Continued …

Articulation – This refers to the vertical and

horizontal (sometimes called correlation)

interrelatedness of various aspects of the

curriculum. Bearing in mind vertical has to do with

the sequencing of content from one grade to

another, while horizontal refers to the association

among simultaneous elements

This practice is considered difficult to achieve.

Why so? Please relate to your neighbour!

Continued ...

Balance – When designing a curriculum, educators strive to

give appropriate weight to each aspect of design.

In a balanced curriculum, students can acquire and use

knowledge in ways that advance their personal, social and

intellectual goals.

Nb: Keeping the curriculum balanced requires continuous

fine-tuning as well as balance in one’s philosophy and

psychology of learning.

Representative Curriculum Designs

Most curriculum designs are modifications and/or interpretations of the following

basic designs:

1. Subject-Centered Designs - Eg. Subject, Discipline, Broad Field, Correlation

and Process Designs

2. Learner-Centered Designs – Eg. Child-centered, experience-centered,

romantic/radical and humanistic designs

3. Problem-Centered Designs – Eg. Life situations and Reconstructionist designs

Subject-Centered Designs

Note: These designs are the most popular and widely used

Knowledge and content are well accepted as integral parts of the curriculum

Subject-centered designs have the most classifications

Subject Design – The oldest and best known school design.

It corresponds to text-book treatment and teachers’ training as subject

specialists

Emphasized because of the continued stress on school standards and

accountability

Dewey thought that the learners role was downplayed

Continued …

Discipline Design – This appeared after World War 11 and evolved from the separate-subject design. Reigned mainly during the1950s-1960s era

Emphasis is on content, as with Subject Design.

This specifies its focus on the academic disciplines

Arthur King and John Brownell were proponents of this design – They stressed understanding the conceptual structures and processes of the disciplines (May be the most essential difference between Discipline and Subject designs)

This designed may be criticized for causing schools to ignore vast amount of information that cannot be classified as disciplined knowledge. Such knowledge – dealing with aesthetics, humanism, personal social living and vocational education is difficult to categorize as a discipline and may be left out in the cold.

Subject-Centered Designs Cont’d

Broad-Fields Design (Also referred to as inter-disciplinary design) – Here

students are given a sweeping understanding off all content areas.

Integration of content that fit together logically. Eg. Biology, Chemistry and

Physics were integrated into General Science.]

The broad-fields design may be the most active in the future, allowing for

hybrid forms of content and knowledge in the curriculum and for student

participation in constructing knowledge.

One problem is breath at the expense of depth.

Comment/Question?

Continued ...

Correlation Design – Midway between separate subjects

and total content integration, this design attempts to

identify ways in which subjects can be related yet maintain

their separate identities

This is a problematic design for several reasons, primarily

as it will necessitate close collaboration between the

teachers of the different subject areas at Primary and

Secondary levels

Continued …

Process Design – Focuses on the student as the meaning maker.

These design emphasizes those procedures that enable students to

analyse reality and create frameworks by which to arrange derived

knowledge.

A postmodern process-design curriculum has students do more than

simply analyse their conclusions.

Process designs may be the most dynamic in the future.

Very likely that they will increasingly meld with designs identified as

learner centered.

Learner-Centered Designs

Advocated by progressives and more prevalent at the Primary School level.

Child-Centered Design – Design should be based on students’ lives, needs and

interests

This requires careful observation and faith that they can articulate those

needs and interest

Recognize that students’ interests have educational value.

Students must have classroom opportunities to explore first hand physical,

social emotional and logical knowledge. (I would add spiritual)

Teaching must suit a child’s developmental level

Having students negotiate the curriculum empowers them. It gives them

opportunities to construct their own curricula and learning.

Continued …

Experience-Centered Design – Closely resembles child-centered designs in that

children’s concerns are the basis for organizing children’s school world

The difference though is that children’s needs and interests cannot be

anticipated.

As a result, a curriculum framework cannot be planned for all children

You have “on the spot” reaction of teachers to each student

Those who subscribe to experience-centered curriculum design have faith in

each student’s uniqueness and ability

Note: Students are empowered to shape their own learning within the context

furnished by the teacher

Continued …

Romantic (Radical) Design – The curricularists of this design believe that

Individuals must learn ways of engaging in critique of knowledge;

Learning is reflective; it is not externally imposed by someone in

power;

Knowledge does not reside in a unit plan or course syllabus

Radicals view society as deeply flawed and believe that education

indoctrinates students to serve controlling groups

Curricula with a radical design address social and economic inequality

and injustice and foster respect for diversity. They are overtly

political!

Continued …

Humanistic Design – For humanists, education should

address pleasure and desire such as aesthetic pleasure

Humanistic curriculum designs allow students to

experience learning with emotion, imagination, and

wonder

Curricular content should elicit emotion as well as

thought.

Many pitfalls. One being is that its emphasis on human

uniqueness conflicts with its emphasis on activities that

all students experience.

Problem-Centered Designs

These focus on real-life problems of individuals and society.

Based on Social Needs.

Life-Situation Design – Strengths: Focus on problem-solving

procedures

It uses learners’ past and present experiences to analyse

the basic aspects of living

Untraditional

Continued ...

Reconstructionist Design – These educators want

curricular to advance social justice.

This design encourages industrial and political changes

Today, we hear about reconceptualists: they, like

reconstructionists, believe that the curriculum should

provide students with the learning requisite for altering

social, economic and political realities.

Concluding Points

Curriculum design is complex – both conceptually and in

its implementation

Designing curriculum requires a vision of education’s

meaning and purpose

Curriculum design must be carefully considered so that it

will impart essential concepts, attitudes and skills

Let’s examine the overview.

Thank You!!!Prepared and Presented by Desrie J.K. Richards (B.Sc.)