Kotebe University of Education

College of Educational Sciences

Department of Curriculum & Instructional Studies
Course Contents
Unit One: Introductory Remarks on the Term Curriculum
and Related Issue
1.1 Definition of Curriculum: Broad Definitions and Specific
Definitions
Definition of Curriculum
Like many of the academic subjects, the word curriculum comes from a Latin word “currere”
meaning “race course”, and traditionally, the school’s curriculum has represented something like
that to most people. Indeed until quite recently even the most knowledgeable professional
educators regarded curriculum as the relatively standardized ground covered by students in their
race towards the finishing line to get certificate, diploma or degree. It should not be a surprise,
then to find that many current concepts of the curriculum are firmly grounded in the notion that
curriculum is a race course of subject matters to be mastered. Although curriculum specialists
have, in the interest of clarity, attempted to limit the meaning of curriculum, disagreement still
exists with respect to what constitutes legitimate definition of the word. Within the twentieth
century, the curriculum of schools and of colleges has been defined in several ways.
Generally, the various definitions of the term curriculum can be categorized in to three as
follows:
Broad Definitions
The board definitions are open to many interpretations. In other words, one definition of the word
curriculum contains different specific concepts.
Ralph Tyler (1949): All of the learning of students which are planned and directed by the school
to attain its educational goals.
D. K. Wheeler (1967): By curriculum we mean the planned experiences offered to the learner
under the guidance of the school.
Lewis (1981): Define curriculum as a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities for persons
to be educated. Learning opportunity implies a planned and controlled relationship between

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pupils, teacher, materials, equipment and the environment, in which it is hoped that desired
learning will take place.
Shilbeck (1984): The learning experiences of students, in so far as they are expressed or
anticipated in goals and objectives, plans and designs for learning and the implementation of
these plans and designs in school environments.
Glatthorn (1987): the curriculum is the plan made for guiding learning in schools, usually
represented in retrievable documents of several levels of generally, and the actualization of those
plans in the classroom, as experienced by the learners and as recorded by an observer; those
experiences take place in a learning environment which also influences what is learned.

Specific Definitions

The specific definitions imply activities, which are measurable and observable. Examples:
Curriculum is an outline of a course of study (Print, 1987). Curriculum is a set of subjects
(Marsh, 2001).
Curriculum is a school timetable.
Definitions Based on the Role Placed on Schools
Curriculum could also be defined based on the roles of schools as prescribed by society or
educators. Here below are two of the many definitions:
Subject Center: Consider the role of schools as “Promoting students’ intellectual capacity”.
Thus curriculum is defined as “the collection of subjects offered to students to train the
intellectual capacity”.
Experience Center: consider curriculum as a means to make students shape a new social order
and lead life in it, which involves everything that cover the planning process and the instructional
objectives.
Curriculum from Constructivist Point of View: Constructivist view on curriculum differs from
the definitions given above. The constructivist movement in recent cognitive psychology has
reemphasized the active role students’ play in acquiring knowledge and the social construction of
knowledge has been an important principle in socio-cultural theory. Knowledge-acquisition is
active and strategic, focused on many factors, including problems of understanding, diversity of
expertise, learning styles, thinking styles, and interests. Curriculum, according to constructive
view, is taken as ‘enacted’ between students and teachers, and collaboration and reflection in a
‘community of inquiry. The results of these programs seem promising in that they lead to an
increasing growth in knowledge, a higher degree of critical thinking, greater reading and writing
skills, as well as improved skills in argumentation. With competing forces such as a push for

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basics in the curriculum, higher standards for achievement, and the value placed on the more
robust understanding facilitated by constructivism, deciding who should select instructional
objectives becomes difficult. From a constructivist perspective, learners should be heavily
involved (in fact with their teacher assistance) in determining objectives, learning opportunities,
and evaluation procedures.
Most educators agree that Curriculum refers to the means and materials with which students will
interact for the purpose of achieving identified educational outcomes. In fact, curriculum is a
means of communicating the essential principles and features of an educational proposal that
includes the goals, broad contents, methods and evaluation mechanisms in such a form that it is
open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice.
The scope of Curriculum
Curriculum Scope denotes to the question what learning content, learning experience, methods,
etc. should be included to and excluded from the curriculum. Curriculum is delimited to the
knowledge of curriculum development, curriculum planning and curriculum design. Here below
is brief definition of the three domains of curriculum as a subject:
Curriculum Development:- concerned with how curriculum evolved, implemented, evaluated
and what various people, process and procedures are involved in the construction of the
curriculum.
Curriculum Planning: - is a process of making the curriculum materials after identified
objectives, selecting contents and learning experiences, instructional materials and developing
evaluation mechanisms.
Curriculum Design: - refers to the way one conceptualizes a curriculum arranges its major
components to provide direction and guidance in developing the curriculum.
Curriculum as a Discipline
• What is a discipline?

• According to Oliva (1982), a discipline has the following characteristics:

– A discipline should have an organized set of theoretical principles.

– A discipline encompasses a body of knowledge and skills pertinent to that discipline.

– A discipline has its theoreticians and its practitioners.

• Can curriculum be considered as a discipline?

• The field of curriculum has its set of principles

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 – In curriculum planning, principles such as educational philosophy, curriculum goals and
learning objectives are applied in developing programs
– In curriculum design, the principles of scope, sequence and balance are used in the
organization of content to be taught.
• The field of curriculum has its own body of knowledge and skills

• Much of it drawn from other disciplines

– In the selection of content, curriculum has relied on the principles, knowledge and skills
from psychology, philosophy and sociology.
– In the organization of content, curriculum has drawn from the fields of management and
organizational theory.
– In the implementation of curriculum, various ideas from systems theory, organizational
behavior and communication theory have been used to enhance effectiveness.
• The field of curriculum has its list of theoreticians and practitioners

• They include curriculum planners, professors of curriculum, curriculum developers and

so forth who are termed as curriculum specialists.
• The specialist:

–Is well-informed about how students learn, how teachers react to change and obstacles to
improvement.
– Generates new knowledge by recombining existing programs, adapting approaches and
constructing new curriculum.

1.2. Foundations of Curriculum

Curriculum foundations may be defined as those basic forces that influence and shape the minds of
curriculum developers and hence the content and structure of the subsequent curriculum. The literature in
the area of curriculum generally distinguishes five categories of sources of curriculum foundations-
namely philosophical foundation, Psychological Foundation, Sociological foundation, Science and
Technology foundation, and Historical foundation. The three sources of curriculum foundations constitute
together the principal areas of influence on curriculum developers in their consideration of curriculum.
These influences affect developers’ ways of thinking about curricula and, in the process, produce
conception of curricula. At some later time developers express these conceptions, both explicitly and
implicitly, when devising curricula. Let us now examine these curriculum foundations in a little more
depth to provide some sense of perspective to the influence of each foundation up on the process of
curriculum development.

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1. Philosophical Foundation
Philosophy and philosophical assumptions are basic to all curriculum foundations as they are concerned
with making sense of what we encounter in our lives. How curriculum developers and implementers
perceive the world, and hence education, may be determined by posing the following three philosophical
questions. These are:
What are real? Ontology: the inquiry into what is real as opposed to what is appearance, either conceived
as that which the methods of science presuppose, or that with which the methods of science are
concerned; the inquiry into the first principles of nature; the study of the most fundamental
generalizations as to what exists.
What is good? Axiology: the inquiry into the nature, criteria, and metaphysical status of value.
Although the term "axiology" is not widely used outside of philosophy, the problems of axiology include
(1) how values are experienced, (2) the kinds of value, (3) the standards of value, and (4) in what sense
values can be said to exist. Axiology then is the subject area which tries to answer problems like these:
How are values related to interest, desire, will, experience, and means-to-end? How do different kinds of
value interrelate?
Can the distinction between intrinsic and instrumental values be maintained? Are values ultimately
rationally or objectively based?
What is the difference between a matter of fact and a matter of value?
There are two main subdivisions of axiology: ethics and aesthetics. Ethics involves the theoretical study
of the moral valuation of human action not just concerned with the study of principles of conduct.
Aesthetics involves the conceptual problems associated with describing the relationships among our
feelings and senses with respect to the experience of art and nature.
What is true? Epistemology: the inquiry into what knowledge is, what can be known, and what lies
beyond our understanding; the investigation into the origin, structure, methods, and validity of
justification and knowledge; the study of the interrelation of reason, truth, and experience.
Individuals will perceive and answer these questions in different ways and hence individual philosophies
emerge. In turn, differing philosophies will affect how individuals perceive and relate to the curriculum.
Educational Philosophies
Within the epistemological frame that focuses on the nature of knowledge and we come to know there
are four major educational philosophies, each related to one or more of the general or world
philosophies. These educational philosophical approaches are currently used in classrooms all over the
world. They are Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. These educational
philosophies focus heavily on WHAT we should teach the curriculum aspect.

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Perennialism
For Perennialists, the aim of education is to ensure that students acquire understandings about the great
ideas of Western civilization. These ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus
is to teach ideas that are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the
natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change. Teaching these unchanging
principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation
of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on
attaining cultural literacy, stressing students' growth in enduring disciplines. The higher
accomplishments of humankind are emphasized in the great works of literature and art, the laws or
principles of science.
Essentialism
Essentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in
a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this conservative perspective is on intellectual and moral
standards that schools should teach. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and
academic rigor. Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennialism,
Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may change. Schooling should be practical,
preparing students to become valuable members of society. It should focus on facts-the objective reality
out there--and "the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically.
Schools should not try to set or influence policies. Students should be taught hard work, respect for
authority, and discipline. Teachers are to help students keep their non-productive instincts in check, such
as aggression or mindlessness. This approach was in reaction to Progressivism approaches prevalent in
the 1920s and 1930s.
Progressivism
Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the
teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation.
Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not
passive. The learners are a problem solvers and thinkers who make meaning through their individual
experience in the physical and cultural context. Effective teachers provide experiences so that students
can learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions. The scientific
method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically
and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know. The Progressive education
philosophy was established in America from the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s. John Dewey was its
foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens

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through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers
with students, student-selected topics are all aspects of progressivism. Books are tools, rather than
authority.
Reconstruction / Critical Theory
Social Reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the addressing of social questions and a quest
to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum
that highlights social reform as the aim of education. Critical theorists, like social reconstructionists,
believe that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
For social reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on student experience and taking
social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and
inequality. Strategies for dealing with controversial issues (particularly in social studies and literature),
inquiry, dialogue, and multiple perspectives are the focus. Community-based learning and bringing the
world into the classroom are also strategies.
Information Processing
Information processing theorists focus on the mind and how it works to explain how learning occurs.
The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body of knowledge and how it is attended to,
received in the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from memory. This model is derived from
analogies between how the brain works and computer processing. Information processing theorists focus
on the individual rather than the social aspects of thinking and learning. The mind is a symbolic
processor that stores information in schema or hierarchically arranged structures.
Rationalism
Rationalism view reason as the chief source and test of knowledge or any view appealing to reason as a
source of knowledge or justification. More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory
in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive. Rationalists believe
reality has an intrinsically logical structure. Because of this, rationalists argue that certain truths exist
and that the intellect can directly grasp these truths. That is to say, rationalists assert that certain rational
principles exist in logic, mathematics, ethics, and metaphysics that are so fundamentally true that
denying them causes one to fall into contradiction. Rationalists have such a high confidence in reason
that proof and physical evidence are unnecessary to ascertain truth – in other words, "there are
significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience".
The Rationalists have claimed that the ultimate starting point for all knowledge is not the senses but
reason. They maintain that without prior categories and principles supplied by reason, we couldn’t
organize and interpret our sense experience in any way. Rationalists argue that there is innate

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knowledge; they differ in that they choose different objects of innate knowledge. Rationalists see the
curriculum as subject matter of symbol and idea.
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.
One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism and
skepticism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory experience,
in the formation of ideas, over the notion of innate ideas or traditions. Empiricists may argue however
that traditions (or customs) arise due to relations of previous sense experiences.
Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments.
It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypothesis and theories must be tested against
observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.
Empiricism, often used by natural scientists, asserts that "knowledge is based on experience" and that
"knowledge is tentative and probabilistic, subject to continued revision and falsification." One of the
epistemological tenets is that sensory experience creates knowledge. The scientific method, including
experiments and validated measurement tools, guides empirical research. The Empiricists believe that
there is no such thing as innate knowledge, and that instead knowledge is derived from experience
(either sensed via the five senses or reasoned via the brain or mind). Empiricists view the curriculum as a
subject matter of the physical world.
Both empiricists and rationalists view the learner as recipient of information. However, for rationalists,
the teacher is source of ideas, facts and information whereas for the empiricists the teacher is the
demonstrator of process. The method of teaching for rationalists is more of drilling, lecturing and
subject-based. For the empiricists, the method of teaching is lecturing too and more teacher-centered.
Behaviorism
Behaviorist theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in the environment and that
the type of person and actions desired can be the product of design. In other words, behavior is
determined by others, rather than by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality
and information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying
aftereffects. Repetition of a meaningful connection results in learning. If the student is ready for the
connection, learning is enhanced; if not, learning is inhibited. Motivation to learn is the satisfying
aftereffect, or reinforcement.
Behaviorism is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific information and observation, rather than
subjective or metaphysical realities. Behaviorists search for laws that govern human behavior, like
scientists who look for patterns in empirical events. Change in behavior must be observable; internal
thought processes are not considered.

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Constructivism
Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or her own understandings of reality
through interaction with objects, events, and people in the environment, and reflecting on these
interactions. Early perceptual psychologists (Gestalt psychology) focused on the making of wholes from
bits and pieces of objects and events in the world, believing that meaning was the construction in the
brain of patterns from these pieces.
For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what the learner already knows.
Therefore, the learner's previous experiences determine what can be learned. Motivation to learn is
experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to restore
the equilibrium.
2. Sociological Foundation
It is hardly surprising that society and culture exert enormous influences on the formation of the school
curriculum. After all as it was society that devised schooling to ensure the survival of the cultural
heritage, we would expect to see an extensive influence of society and culture upon curriculum in
schools. Curriculum developers serve the function of translating traditional assumptions, ideas, values,
knowledge and attitudes into curriculum objectives, content, learning activities and evaluation of these
curriculum elements, sociological sources have their greatest impact on content. In acting this way
curriculum developers both transmit and reflect the culture of which they are part. Thus, it is not possible
to talk about a culture free curriculum. Rather, one should consider a curriculum as a situation where
judgments are made as to what aspects of culture are to be included and why.
Consequently, when developers devise curricula, the cultural background of those developers will
become evident in the content they select, the methods they include, the objectives they set and so forth.
Society and culture influence curriculum developers simply because they are members of a particular
society. When the process of curriculum development takes place, the cultural traits within developers
influence the very selection of objectives, contents, methods and evaluations that constitute the
curriculum they are devising. Alternatively, curriculum developers may be well aware of societal and
cultural influences and have the deliberate intention in mind of reproducing aspects of that culture in the
curriculum. The issue then becomes whether the curriculum should mirror society or it should become a
tool for change.
Above all, curriculum developers, whether at systematic, local or school level within educational
enterprise, should not forget that they are a product of their culture and that every decision that they
make will be culturally related.

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3. Psychological Foundation

The contribution of psychological sources to the foundation of curriculum is significant and growing.
Curriculum, therefore, can draw upon psychology, particularly educational objectives, student
characteristics, learning processes, teaching methods and evaluation procedures.

The study of psychology does not, at least for the moment, provide a source for content in a secondary
school curriculum. The curriculum workers’ opportunities to master the psychological field are limited,
but they definitely need to have general understanding based on psychological theory and research.

Mental Discipline and Curriculum

Mental discipline is a theory of learning, which was also known as faculty psychology. According to this
theory, the mind was made up of series of faculties, each of which was related to a particular function or
ability of the mind. This discipline was the prevailing theory during the long period when rote memory
was the primary learning process. Curriculum content was often chosen on the basis of how well it would
discipline and exercise the mind, rather than because of its value in the life of the student. The curriculum
designed to meet the needs of the philosophy, which supported the mental disciple theory of learning, was
often composed of subjects such as foreign languages and mathematics.

Connectionism and Curriculum

Connectionism is a theory of learning based on the connection of the various elements of the nervous
system in causing behavior. The curriculum dictated by connectionism has a great deal of drill and
repetition in it.

Behaviorism and Curriculum

Behaviorism developed along strictly scientific lines that are behavior was dealt with and explained in
terms of observable reactions. The curriculum implied by behaviorism differs little from that for
connectionism. Drill remained a prominent method of teaching but experiences selected here so as to
produce conditioned responses.

Gestalt Theory and Curriculum

The greatest contribution of the gestalt theorists was in the area of perception. Gestalt theory leads to the
development of a curriculum that offers the learner an opportunity to discover processes and

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relationships. Emphasis is placed upon perceiving a whole in order to understand the importance of a
specific Generalities and principles are emphasized in preference to isolated facts and meaningless drill.

4. Historical Foundation

Study of the history of the country, locality and the school system of the country is important while the
curriculum planning is in progress. This helps curriculum to be based on the socio-cultural and politico-
economic development of the country. Curriculum is created by people based on the circumstances and
beliefs during that period of time. The curriculum is reflective of the political ideologies, economic
systems, religious convictions and conceptions of knowledge at a particular point in time.

5. Scientific and Technological Foundation

Science and technology make things obsolete in a short period of time and it demands a high level of
efficiency from citizen as a must in every field. Innovations, mechanics, mere benefits, etc. are results of
science and technology, environmental pollution, degradation of resource, deterioration of human values,
the dissolving of religious sanctions, restructuring of political democracy, specializations, psychological
witness, etc. are the negative results of science and technological developments. The implications of
these to curriculum planning are that:
 The need for the inclusion of many things to be learned and culture to be transmitted
 Updating the curriculum to satisfy the increasing demand of skilled manpower
 The unlimited demands for intercultural exchange
 Securing knowledge about what is going on around the world and making it part of once
life.

1.3. Teachers Role and the Major Curriculum Views

Teachers Role and the Major Curriculum Views

Most governments invest heavily in education as a proportion of their total budget since they tend
to see the educational process as a primary means of producing the sort of intelligent and skilled
workforce required to operate in this changing environment at all levels of the economy. And
formal education is led by well-designed curriculum which is expected to be implemented by
teachers. Therefore, curriculum and teachers have strong relationship. The role of the teacher in
relation to curriculum could be explained as follows:

1. Work as an instructional designer:

Teachers may have focused on the learners’ developmental, emotional and affective needs in their
teaching. They may have focused on learner critical thinking, problem-solving and collaborative
skills. So can you identify yourself in one or more of the scenarios described above? Research

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identified that teachers well-designed learning activities that foster language use in authentic and
real life settings, can support learner’s needs and facilitate deep learning.

2.Work as an intercultural practitioner (primarily for language and culture

teachers):
It is helpful for teachers to ask what culture is, how we detect the nuanced cultural difference in
teaching, and how we lead students cross the boundaries of difference cultures. The role of
teachers, as an intercultural practitioner, is first to analyze a culture, its concepts and keywords,
and then to introduce and explain them to learners by way of paraphrase or presenting the
affective behavior within a situation-oriented approach, and finally to step back and let learners
discover and interpret the meanings for themselves. (It is at this point that learners may show
their positive or negative feelings.) Teachers are now in a position to observe the extent of
learners’ understanding and agreement, and so may lead learners into an analytical comparison of
the two cultures.
3. Work with their colleagues to adapt the curricular standards to their own
teaching:
There are multiple standards for curriculum all over the world. How do we work effectively
under the mandated curriculum standards and test system? Researchers found that there are two
ways helpful for a teacher’s professional development under the mandated curriculum standards
and testing system: 1) careful study of the curriculum materials that were authoritatively,
specifically, and consistently structured; 2) and continuous and substantial participation in the
collaborative observations, discussions, and reflections on each other’s lesson development,
teaching, and lesson debriefing in schools.
4. Work as an effective room manager: Classroom management is not separated from
academic curriculum. A successfully designed and implemented curriculum cannot do without
effective classroom management strategies. Chinese researchers suggested teachers set explicit
rules, give punishment and award appropriately, give students some control in a limited range, set
up teacher’s authority via respect, develop mutual trust and positive relationships with students,
and communicate with the parents. You can find more resources on Gaining Ground and
appropriate these resources for your own use in the room management.
5. Work with parents and community in designing your schoolwork and homework:
classroom is not the only place that curriculum should be learn and mature to become adults. So
the schoolwork needs to be connected to what students can learn at home and make their learning
an integrated and consolidated daily experience. In that sense, homework needs to be considered
in our curricular design. And the parents’ involvement is vital for this process. Teachers need
work with parents and make use of varied and meaningful homework to help students engage in
goal-directed learning.
Here are some examples of how to involve parents in schoolwork and homework:

1. Objectives: explains the learning goals of the activity, if this is not clear from the title or letter.
2. Prewriting: gives the student space to plan a letter, essay, story, or poem by outlining,
brainstorming, listing, designing nets and webs, or by using other planning strategies.

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 3. First draft: gives the student space to write and edit. A student who needs more space may
add paper. Some teachers ask the student to write a final copy on other paper at home or at
school.
4. Interactions: guides the student to conduct a family survey or interview, talk with a family
partner about ideas or memories, read work aloud for reactions, edit work, practice a speech, or
conduct other interactions. Other assignments include exchanges focused on grammar,
vocabulary, reading, and other language arts skills.

1.4 The Need and Purposes of Knowledge and the Teacher

The knowledge of curriculum is important to make educational discussions and decisions at

different levels. Decision makers, officials and teachers need to know and share experiences in
order to provide quality, equity and relevant education for all.

There is a strong relationship between curriculum and instruction. This relationship between
curriculum and instruction could be explained in the following four different models.
Dualistic Model: This model views the relationship between curriculum and instruction as two
independent entities with very minor interaction.

Inter-locking Model: View the relationship between curriculum and instruction as highly
intertwined.

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Concentric Model: This model considers curriculum and instruction as system and sub- system
interchangeably.

Cyclical Model: this model considered the relationship between curriculum and instruction as
interdependent having significant impacts on each other.

Therefore, curriculum and instruction are related, interlocked and interdependent, which of course can be
studied and analyzed as separate entities. However, they cannot function in mutual isolation. Therefore,
teachers’ knowledge on curriculum will help them to implement the curriculum on the actual ground
effectively.

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