The Teacher and The Community, School Culture and 2PROF ED 11

Organizational Leadership

MODULE

4 CURRICULUM DESIGN AND

ORGANIZATION

Introduction

Upon reading the previous modules, we then

wonder, how one contemplaes education, curriculum,
and curriculum designs and its organization when it is
infuenced by countless fields of knowing and feeling. It
is a fact that people draw fro their experiences, lived
histories, values, belief systems, social interactions, and
their imaginations.
How do we choose from among various ideas od
education, curriculum? What are the sources to be
considered and how to organize them? There is no
simple answer. Educational thinkers and doers must
consider diversity.

learning outcomes
? Essential questions

At the end of the module, pre-service tachers What are the sources of curriculum
should be able to: design?
Discuss the sources of curriculum What is the difference between
design. horizontal and vertical organizations
Identify the differences between of curriculum design?
horizontal and vertical organizations Is there a unique curriculum design?
of curriculum design. Is it important to have a unique
Explain the common qualities of curriculum design? Why?
curriculum design. How will you differentiate the 3 types
Differentiate the following types of of curriculum design?
curriculum designs: Subject- Which of the 3 do you preferred the
centered, Learner-centered, and most? Why?
Problem-centered designs.

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Lecture and discussion

Topic 1
Sources of Curriculum Design

Curriculum designers must clear up their philosophical, social, and political viewpoints for society
and the individual learner – tese biewpoints are commonly called curriculum’s sources. American
educator David Ferrerro stated, educational action (curriculum design) begins with recognizing one’s
beliefs and values, which influences what one considers worth knowing and teaching. If we neglect
philosophical, social, and political questions, we design curriculum with limited or confused rationales.

Four foundations of curriculum design were stated by Ronald Doll, these are: science, society,
eternal truths, and divine will. These curriculum sources identified by Dewey and Bode and popularized
by Tyler are knowledge, society, and the learner partially overlap with one another.

Science as a Source

Some curriculum leaders depend on the scientific method when designeing curriculum. They
value the observable, quantifiable elements and prioritized problem solving. Their design highlight
learning how to learn.
Most of their argument of thinking processes is founded on cognitive psychology. Promoted
problem-solving procedures suggest our valuing of science and organization of knowledge. Most
educators belive that curriculum should prioritize the teaching of thinking startegies. With knowledge
explosion in our time, the only endless journey seems to be the procedures by which we process
knowledge.

SOciety as a Source

Curriculum designers believe that school is a vehicle for development of society and stress. Its
curriculum ideas should come from the exploration of the social situation. They also consider the
present and future characteristics of society. Here in our country, fighting poverty is an ongoing goal.
School must recognize that they are part and parcel of the design to serve the interest of the
community and society as a whole. Curriculum desiners should not disregard social multiplicity, ethnic
groups, and social classes. Said multiciplicity increasingly manifest as the Philippines is accepting more
foreign students and immigrant groups coming from the Asian region. Curriculum design must then be
managed within social, economic, and political contexts. The big challenge then is to respond to
students’ unique needs and the particular demands of multiplicity of socialgroups while letting students

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achieve, understanding of the common culture and attain common, agreed competencies. Definetly the
search for common curriculum assumes that there is something general and universal for all to know
and experience.
The need for collaboration among devirse individuals and groups must be realized
curriculum designers to have an effective outcome. People from differend backgrounds and cultures
are demanding a voice regarding how education is organized and experienced. In our time, society is
currently a powerful influence on curriculum design. As noted by Arthur Ellis, no curriculum or
curriculum design can be considered or created apart from the people who make up our evolving
society.

Moral Doctrine as a Source

Some curriculum designers look into the past for guidance in their present work on the
appropriate content of curriculum. These designers stress what they regard as lasting truths advanced
by the great thinkers of the past. Their emphasis is on the content and labels some subjects as more
influential than others.
The Bible or other religious documents are references of some who believe that curriculum
design should be based on it. This view, was common in our schools during the Spanish period. While
today, it has lesser influence in pubic schools in the country, primarily because of the separation of
church and state written in our constitution. Moreover, many private and parochial schools still support
this up to now.
Dwayn Huebner stated that education can address spirituality without bringing in religion. He
further argued that, to have spirit is to be in touch with life’s forces or energies. Being in touch with spirit
allows one to see the essences of reality and to generate new ways of viewing knowledge, new
relationships among people, and new ways of perceiving one’s existence.
While for James Moffet, spirituality fosters mindfulness, attentiveness, awareness of the outside
world, and self-awareness. Spiritual individuals develop empathy and insight. Curriculum designers
who draw on spirituality reach a fuller understanding than those who rely only on science. Spiritual
individuals develop empathy and compassion. They consider and promote the welfare of others. They
wecome differing viewpoints. Spiritual curriculum designers ask questions about the nature of the world,
the purpose of life, and what it means to be human and knowleadgeable.
William Pinar remarks that viewing curriculum as religious test may allow for a blending of truth,
faith knowledge, ethics, thought, and action. He thinks that faith, ethics, and action need more ephasis.

Knowledge as a Source

According to some, knowledge is the primary source of curriculum and Herbert Spencer
positioned knowledge within the framework of curriculum, when he askes, “what knowledge is most
worth?”
Placing knowledge at the center of curriculum design recognize that knowledge is perhaps a
discipline, having the specific structure and methods by which scholars stretch out its boundaries.
Knowledge that does not have a unique content is an undisciplined one; as an alternative, its content
is shaped according to an investigation’s focus. An example, mathematics subjects as a discipline have
a distinctive conseptual structure and require a distinctive process. While in contrast, social science
subjects ar undisciplined in that its contents are represented by various disciplines and modified to a
special focus.

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Knowledge is exploding exponentially, therefore this is the challenge for those who agree that
knowledge as the primary source of currcuar design. While the said knowledge explosion is ongoing,
the time for engaging students with the curriculum is not increasing. A requirement of 180 school days
session is stil the requirement of most schools. Spencer’s question is now even more everwhelming.
Not only must we reconsider” what knowledge is of most worth?” but we must conceive the following
queries: “For whom is this knowledge of value?” “Is there any knowledgethat must be possessed by
the majority?” “What intellectual skilss must be taught to enable common and uncommon knowledge
to be utilized for individual and social good?”

The Learner as a Source

Others consider that curriculu should stem from our knowledge of students: we must know how
they learn, from attitudes, create interests, and develop values. Fro progressive curricular leaders,
humanistics educators, and many curricular workers involved in postmodern dialogue, the learner
should be the primary surce of curriculum change.
Said curricular leaders tend to draw heavily on psychological foundation, especially how minds
creat meaning. Lots of cognitive research has supported curriculum designers with ways to improve
educational activities that aid perceiving, thinking, and learning. Microbiological research on the brain
had much significance for educators in the final years of the 1900s. We learned that the anatomy of
child’s brain is heavily influenced by the educational environment, and that the quantity and quality of
experiences physically affect the brain’s development.
The learner-ficused curriculum design highlights students’ knowledge. Individuals build rather
than simply obtain knowledge, and they do in specific ways with special specific assumptions. To
answer a question, they may use the same words, but their deep comprehension of the material is
entirely different. The learner as a source of curriculum design, overlaps with methods that focus on
knowledge or science, in that the science-based method highlights how individuals process information.
Obviously, all sources of curriculum design overlap to a certain degree. Learner-based curriculum
design seeks to inspire students and promotes their individual uniqueness.

Topic 2
Conceptual Framework: Horizontal and Vertical Organization

In curriculum design, the organization of curriculum’s components have two basic organizational
dimensions:

1 Horizontal organization
 Blends curriculum elements – for example, by combing world history, geography and
political science content to create a “Contemporary World Issues” course or by combing
English and Business content.

2 Vertical organization
 Sequences the curriculum elements – for example, ranking “the Philippine History” in grade
7 social studies and “Asian History” in grade 8 social studies

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Often, curricula are structured so that the same topics are tackled in different grades, but in
increasing items and at increasingly higher levels of difficulty. For example, in the first grade the
mathematical concept is introduced and then revised in the succeeding year in the curriculum.

Points to consider When contemplating curriculum design

Curriculum design refects the curriculum architecture. Here are some usefyl points to consider
in “thinking” an effective curriculum design:

 Reflect on your philosophical educational, and curriculum assumptions with regard to the goals
of the school (or a school district)
 Consider your student’s needs and aspirations
 Consider the various design components to be implemented
 Sketch out the various design components to be implemented
 Cross check your “selected” design components (objectives, content, learning experiences,
and evaluation approaches) against the school mission
 Share your curriculum design with a colleague

Source: Adapted from Ornstein and Hunkins 2009,

Curriculum, Foundations, Principles and Issues

While design decisions are necessary, in most schools, curricular designs obtain little attention.
Seldom circular worker does little “designing” other than to suggest content that manifest their
philosophical and political viewpoints, which commonly are not carefully planned. Some educators
recognize how socio-economic, political and cultural factors shape their choices about horizontal and
vertical organization. Though an increasing number of curricular wokers consider that design reveals
multiplicity of voices, meaning, and points of view.

Topic 3
Curriculum Design QualIties

No curriculum design is really unique. Instead, all designs have some qualities in common with
other designs. It is the combination of features that makes each design unique. Examples of features
are the following:

Scope

Curriculum scope refers to the breadth and depth of curriculum content --- at any level or at Ny
given time. From Ralph Tyler’s book of In Basic Principles of Curriculum Instruction, it refers to scope
as good as consisting of all the contents, topics, learning experie, and organizing threads comrprising
the educationa plan. While, John Goolad and Zhisin Su reiterated this which refers to the curriculum’s

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dorizontal dimension. All the types of educational experiences constructed to involve students in
learning are part of the scope.
A curriculum whose scope civers only months or weeks usually is structured in units. Units are
divided ubt lesson plans, which usually structure the information and activities into a period of hours or
minutes. This can continue over a year or more.
Educators who are deciding on curriculum content and its degree of detail, are consisidering the
curriculum’s scope. In our present time, knowledge explosion has made dealing with curriculum scope
almost overwhelming. A few teachers respond to xcontent overload by disregarding certain content
areas or omitting new content topics. Some make an effort to interrelate certain topics to construct
curriculum themes.
To view the curriculum scope, we must consider the learnings in cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor domains. We need to decide what will be included and in what detail within each domain
must be given an emphasis.

Sequence

Curriculum sequence is concerned with the order of topics overtime. For example, in biology
subject, studentsmight study the cell and then the tissue, organs, and systems. With this concern over
a period of time, curriculum sequence is called a vertical diemension.
A standing argument whether the sequence of content and experiences should be establishes
on the reason of the subject matter or the way individuals process knowledge. Those claiming for
sequence founded on psychological principles draw on research on human growth, development, and
learning. Piaget’s research provided a framework for sequencing content and experiences (or activities)
and for connecting expectations to students’ cognitive levels. Most schools consider students’ stages
of thinking in planning curriculum objectives, content, and experiences by grade level. Therefore, the
curriculum is sequenced based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Curriculum designers are also shaped by current research on brain development. It explained
that experiences within the educational environment greatly influence the individual’s brain. It is then
that we need to develop curricular experiences that maximize students brain development. As
explained in many psychological development textbooks infant’s brain has more synaptic connections
or links between neurons than an adult’s brain. From ages 2 to 12, these connections strengthen but
decrease in number. Only the hardiest denrites (the parts of the nerve cell that accept messages)
become part of the adult brain. Therefore, it is important that education give careful thought to the
contents and experiences that are stated on the educational program.
Curriculum workers are faced with sequencing the content which are taken from some fairly well
accepted learning princples. Othanel Smith, William Stanby and Harlan Shores in1973, introduced four
principles:

1 Simple to complex learning

 Indicates that content to optimally organize in a sequence preceding from simple
subordinate components to complex components highlighting interrelationships among
coponents
 Optimal learning results when individuals are presented with easy (often concrete) content
and then with more difficult (often abstract) content

2 Prerequisite learning
 Similar to part-to-whole learning
 Works on the assumption that bits of information must be grasped before other bits can be
comprehended
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3 Whole-to-part learning
 Receives support from cognitive psychologists
 Cognitive psychologists have urged that the curriculum be arranged so that the content or
experience is first presented in an overview that provides students with a general idea of
the information or situation

4 Chronological learning
 Refers to content whose sequence reflects the times of real world occurences
 History, political science, and world events frequently are organized chronologically

While in 1976, Gerald Posner and Kenneth Strike provided the field of curriculum with four types
of sequencing. Their views were:

1 Concept-related method
 Draws heavily on the structure of knowledge
 Focuses on concepts’ interrelationships rather than on knowledge of the concrete

2 Inquiry-related method
 Topics are sequenced to reflect the steps of scholarly investigations
 Incorporated by instructional designers into what they call case-based reasoning, which
was developed to maximize computers’ capabilities
 Computer would apply previous learning to new situations
 Similarly, people advance their knowledge br processing and organizing new experiences
for later use
 If people fail to use acquired information, they must recognize a failure in reasoning or a
deficiency in knowledge

3 Learner-related sequence
 Individuals learn through experiencing content and activities

4 Ultilization-related learning
 Focuses on how people who use knowledge or engage in a particular activity in the world
that actually proceed through the activity

Continuity

Continuity refers to “smoothness” or absence of disruption in the curriculum over time. A

curriculum might have good sequence but might also have disruptions. Curriculum would lack
continuity. It is mostly manifested in Jerome Bruner’s notion of the “spiral curriculum.” Bruner cited that
the curriculum should be organized according to the interrelationships among the basic ideas and
structures of each major discipline. For student to understand these ideas and structures,”they should
be developed and redeveloped in a spiral fashion”, in increasing depth and breath as students advance
throught the school program.

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Integration

Linking all types of knowledge and experiences contained within the curriculum plan is known
as Integration. Basically, it links all of the curriculum’s pieces so that students understand knowledge
as united rather than fragmented. The horizontal relationships among topucs and themes from all
knowledge domains is the emphasis integration. It is not simply a design dimenson, but also a way of
thinking about schools’ commitment, curriculumources, and the nature and uses of knowledge.
Hilda Taba, in year 1960s, cited out that the curriculum was disjoined, fragmented, segemented,
and detached from reality. She mentioned that a curriculum that presents information only in bits and
pieces prevents students from seeing knowledge as unified.

Articulations

Articulations refers to the smooth flow of the curriculum on both vertical and horizontal
dimensons, it is the ways in which curriculum components occurring later in a program’s sequence
relate to those occurring earlier. For example, a teacher might design a statistics course so that it relates
statistics concepts to key consepts presented in financial literacy course. Vertical articulation usually
suggests that sequencing of cotent from one grade level to another. Said articulation guarantees that
students obtain the needed preparation for coursework. Horizontal articulation (other called
correlation) usually is the association among simultaneous elements, as when curriculum designers
create relationships between eight-grade mathematics and eight grade-grade social studies.
To engage horizontal articulations, curriculum workers seek to combine contents in one portion
of the educational program with contents similar to rationality or subject matter. For example, curricular
worker might relate statistics and scientific thinking. Most of the present emphasis on integrating the
currciculum design is difficult to achieve, only few schools have created procedures by which
interconnections among subjects are clearly stated.

Balance

In designing a curriculum, educators attempt to provided necessary weight to each part of the
design. Therefore, in a balance curriculum, students must obtain and use knowledge in ways that
progress their personal, social, and intellectual goals.
Doll states that achieving balance is difficult because we are striving to localize and individualize
the curriculum while trying to maintain a common content. Having a balanced curriculum while trying to
maintain a common content. Having a balanced curriculum involves constant modification as well as
balance in one’s philosophy and psychology of learning.

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Guidelines for Curriculum Design

The following statements identify some steps that can be taken in designing a curriculum.
These statements, drawn from observations of school practice, are applicable to whatever design
is selected.

 Create a curriculum design committee comprising teachers, parents, community members,

administrators, and, if appropriate, students.
 Create a schedule for meetings to make curriculum-design decisions.
 Gather data about educational issues and suggested solutions.
 Process data on available curriculum designs, and compare design with regard to advantages
and disadvantages such as cost, scheduling, class size, student population characteristics,
students’ academic strengths, adequacy of learning environments, and match with existing
curricula. Also assess whether the community is likely to accept the design.
 Schedule time for reflection on the design
 Schedule time for revision of the design
 Explain the design to educational colleagues, community members, and if appropriate,
students

Source: Adapted from Ornstein and Hunkins 2009,

Curriculum, Foundations, Principles and Issue

Topic 4
Types of Curriculum Designs

The curriculum components can be arranged in various ways. But, inspite all the discussion
about postmodern beliefs of knowledge and making curricula for social awareness and freedom, most
curriculum designs are interpretations or versions of three basic designs. They are: (1) Subject-
centered design, (2) Learner-centered designs, and (3) Problem-centered designs. Each category
comprises several examples as cited in the chart below.

Subject-centered design Learner-centered designs Problem-centered designs

 Subject design  Child-centered design  Life Situation design

 Discipline design  Experience- centered  Social problem/
 Broad field design design reconstructionist design
 Correlation design  Romantic/radical design
 Process design  Humanistic design

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Subject-centered design

Among the curriculum designs, the most popular and widely used is the subject centered
designs. Its knowledge and content are well accepted as integral parts of the curriculum and it has the
most classifications. Concepts dominant to a culture are mostly emphasized than weak ones. Content
is central to schooling in our culture, thus, we have many concepts to interpret for our society.

1 Subject Design
 Oldest and best-known school design to both to teachers and laypeople
 Henry Morrison was the early spokesperson for the subject curriculum
o the superintended of public instruction in New Hampshire and later joined the
niversity of Chicago
o claimed that the subject matter curriculum aimed most to literacy, and therefore
should be the focus of the elementary curriculum
o cited that such design permitted secondary students to create interest and
competencies inspecific subject areas
o assumed that different courses should be offered to meet students’ needs
 In the mid-1930s, Robert Hutchins indicated which sibjects such a curriculum design
would comprise a school
1. Language and its uses (reading, writing, grammar, literature)
2. Mathematics
3. Sciences
4. History
5. Foreign Languages
 Curriculum is organized according to how essential knowledge has developed in various
subject area in the subject matter design
 Supporters of this design uphold the importance of verbal activities, claiming that
knowledge and ideas are best communated and stored in verbal form.
o Introduces students to fundamental knowledge of society
o Easy to present because complementary textbooks and support materials are
commercially availbale
 Opponents challenge that the subject design blocks program individualization and
deemphasizes the learner.
o Claims that this design disempowers students by not allowing them to choose
the content most meaningful for them

2 Discipline Design
 Acquired popularity during the 1950s and reached its peak during the mid 1960s
 Contents’ inherent organization is the basis of this design
 Proponents of this design like Arthur King and John Brownell, point out that a discipline is
specific knowledge that has the following important characteristics:
o community of persons
o expression of human imagination
o domanin
o tradition
o mode of inquiry
o conceptual structure
o specialized language
o heritage of literature
o network of communications
o valuative and affective stance
o instructive community
 emphasizes science, mathematics, English, history, and some other disciplines

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 Followers of this discipline design emphasize understanding the conceptual structures

and processes of the disciplines
 In discipline design, students experience the disciplines so that they can understand and
theorize
 For this design, Burner states, “Getting to know something is an adventure in how to
account for a great many things that you encounter in as simple and elegent a way as
possible.”
o Stated that any subjects can be taught in some effectively honest form to any
child at any stage of development”
o Maintained that students can comprehend any subject’s fundamental principles
at almost any age
 Encourages students to see each discpline’s basic logic or structure – the main
relationships in concepts, and principles – what Josepg Schwab called the “substantive
structure” and Philip Phenix called “realms of meaning”
 Believers of this discipline states that this is suitable for all students going into college or
not
 Gives student opportunities to learn knowledge needed for effective living
 Our society which is now information age demands literate individuals with necessary
skills to function effectively
 Critized for it assumes that students must adjust to the curriculum rather than the other
way around and for its underlying belief that all students have a common or similar
learning style

3 Broad-Fields Design
 Also known to others as the interdisciplinary design
 Another type of subject-centered design
 Designers of this discipline tried to give students a comprehensive understanding of all
the content areas.
 Educators made an effort to integrate content that match together soundly
o Fused subjects in social studies like: History, sociology, anthropology, political
science, economics and geography
o Biology, chemistry and physics were fit into general science
o Linguistics, grammar, literature, and spelling were carved into language arts
 The unique feature of broad-fields design was stimulated in the Spuntik era, and Broudy
and his colleagues suggested that the entire curriculum be organized into these
categories
1. Symbolics of information (English, foreign languages, and mathemetics)
2. Basic sciences (general science, biology, physics, and chemistry)
3. Developmental studies (evolution of cosmos, of social institutions, and
human culture)
4. Exemplers (modes of aesthetic address typical problems)
5. “Moral problems” that would address typical social problems
 Focuses on the curriculum webs, connections among related themes or concepts
 It is the most active in the future, because it allows the hybrid forms of content and
knowledge in the curriculum and for the student participation in structuring knowledge

4 Correlation Design
 Some innovative curriculum leaders begain searching their way not to create a broad-
fields design and recognize there are times when separate subjects require connection to
avoid fragmentation or division of its curricular design
 Halfway between separate subjects and total content integration, was born the correlation
design which attempts to identify ways in which subjects can be linked yet maintain their
own identities
 Most frequently correlated subjects are English literature and history at the secondary
level and language arts and social studiesn at the eemntary level
 Upon studying a historical perios, students read novels related to the same period in their
English class

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 Mathematics courses and science are frequently correlated, a good example of this is a
chemistry subject which may have a unit in math that deals with the mathematics required
to conduct an expereiment.
 At present, few teachers use this design because it compels them to plan their lessons
cooperatively.

5 Process Design
 Consideration is often given to the procedures and processes by which individuals
achieve knowledge
 Proponets of the disciple design advise students to learn process, while other educators
are proposing curricular designs that emphasize the learning of genral procedures
applicable to all disciplines. Curricula for teaching critical tingking demonstrates the
procedural design
 Focus on the student as meaning maker
 Stresses procedures that allow students to analyze reality and construct framworks
different from the way the world appears to the casual viewer
 Reveals a modern orientation, the process of knowledge acquisition which needs to be
learned by the students, for them to reach a certain degree of consensus
 Jean Francois Lytard and other people claimed that we must be involved in a process not
to reach unanimity but to search for variability.
 Post modern process design highlights statements and beliefs that are open to argument,
designs are organized so that students can repeatedly review their understanding
 Bruner and other call this continual review hermeneutic compostion
 The challenge of this design is to analyze the validity of one’s conclusions, determine the
“rightness” of one’s interpretation of a text or cintent realm by reference not to observe
reality but to other interpretations of scholars
 In postmodern process-design, it motivates students to unravel the processes by which
they examine and reach conclusions
 Highlights the role of language in building as well as signifying reality

Learner-Centered Designs

All curricular leaders desire to develop a curricula signifificant to students. With this, those
educators in the early 1990s stated that students are the program’s emphasis. Progressive proponents
have come to be calles learner-centered designs. These designs are realized more often at the
elementary level than in the secondary. In elementary schools, teachers manage to highlight the whole
child. While in the secondary level, the stress is more on subject-centeres design, mainly because of
the influence of textbooks and the collges and universities ar which the discipline is a foremost for the
currciculum.

1 Child-centered Design
 Proponents of this design believe that students must be enthusiastic in their learning
environments and that learning should not be detached from students’ lives which
ismostly in the paradigm of the subject-centered design
 Centered on students’ lives, needs, and interests
 For Arthur Ellis, he said
o “attending to students’ needs and interest requires careful observation of
students and faith that they can articulate those nees and interests. Also, woung
studnets’ interests must have educational value”
 In the book of Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009,

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o People with this view consider knowledge as an outgrowth of personal

experience. People use knowledge to advance their goals and construct it from
their interactions with their world
o Learners actively construct their own understanding. Learning is not the passive
reception of information from an authority
o Students have classroom opportunities to explore firsthand physica, social,
emotional, and logical knowledge.
 John Locke, noted that individulas construct bodies of knowledge from a foundation of
simple ideas derived from their experiences
 Immanuel Kant postulated that aspects of our knowledge result from our cognitive actions;
we construct our universe to have certain properties
 Rousseau believed that children should be taught within the context of their natural
environment, not in artificial one like a classroom. Teaching must suit a child’s
developmental level
 Advocates of this design draw on the thinking of some other pedadogical giants like
o Henrish Pestalozzi and Frierich Froebel, who claimed that children would
achieve self-realization through social participation, which they expressed as
the principle of learning by doing
o Francis Parker disputed that effective education did not call for strict discipline.
Instead, attaining the child’s innate tendency to become involved in exciting
things is in the institutional approach that is somewhat free. He set the
foundations for this design
 This is mostly employed in our schools today.
 Jon Goodland and Zhixun Su describe that this design is often found to contradict a view
of curriculum as primarily content-driven. With these, some curriculum leaders attemot ti
have more educators accept child-centered design by way of negotiated curriculum, which
consists of student-teacher educations concerning what content will address what
interests

2 Experience-centered Design
 Closely look like child-centered design but in this design, children’s needs and interests
cannot be planned for all children.
 The view that a curriculum cannot be predetermined, that the whole thing must be
prepared “on the spot” as a teacher responds to each child, makes experience-centered
design almost hopeless to implement. It disregards the huge amount of information
accessible about children’s growth and development-cognitive, affective, emotional, and
social.
 Supporters of child or experience-centered curriculum seriously highlight the learners’
interest, creativity, and self-direction
 Teacher’s role is to build an inspiring learning environment in which students can explore,
come into direct contact with knowledge, and observe others; learning and actions
 Dewey commented that children’s impulsive power, their demand for self-expression,
cannot be suppressed
o Interest was purposeful
o He wrote that education should commence with the experience learners already
possessed when they entered school
o Expereince was essentially the starting point for all further learning
o He stated that children exist in a personal world of experiences and their
interests are personal concerns, rather than bodies of knowledge and their
attendant facts, concepts, generalizations, and theories
o He never supported building children’s interests in their curriculum or placing
children in the role of curriculum makers
o Pointed out, “The easy thing is to seize upon something in the nature of the
child’s experiences as fluid and dynamic. Hence, the curriculum would
frequently change to focus on students’ needs
o He was satisfied that the subjects studied in the curriculum are formalized
learning originated from children’s experiences. The content is methodically
planned as a result of careful consideration

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 Endorsers of experience-centered curriculum design have confidence in each student’s

uniqueness and skill
o They trust that an open, free school environment will motivate all students to
shine.
o Educators’ role is to give opportunities, not to command certain actions.
o Thomas Armstrong expresses creating a friendly classroom environment, one
that radiates a joyful atmosphere and capitalizes on students’ natural character
to learn.
 Students are authorized to shape their own learning within the context provided by the
teacher

3 Romantic (Radical) Design

 In recent times, crusaders who support radical school modification have highlighted
learner-centered design
o They follow Rosusseau’s position on the value of attending to the nature of
individuals and Pestalozzi’s philosophy that individuals can find their true selves
by looking to their own nature
 Normally, the radicals reflect current society as corrupt, suppressive and, and powerless
to remedy itself
o For them, schools are using their curricula to indoctrine and then control
students rather than to educate and liberate them
o They express that curricula are organized to foster in students a belief in and
desire for a common culture that does not actually exist but merely promote
prejudice
 Present day radicals were influenced by Freire’s teaching
o He belived that education should inform the masses about their oppression,
provoke them to feel dissatisfied with their condition, and give them the skills
necessary for correcting the identified injustices
 Jurgen Hebermas theory emphasized that education’s goal is liberation of awereness,
skills, and attitudes that people find necessary to take control of their lives
o This means that, educated people do not follow social rules without reflection
o Roberyoung commented that the theme of liberation dates back to Roman
period and was also voiced by many Enlightnment philosophers
o Students must take accountability for education themselves and demand
freedom
 Curricular leaders that support radical views consider that individulas must learn ways of
involvement in an analysis of knowledge.
o Learning is reflective, it is not externally inflicted by someone in power
o Knowledge does not reside in a unit plan or sourse syllabus
 Explained by Ornstein and Hunkins in their Curriculum, Foundations, Principles and
Issues
o The biggest difference between mainstream educators and radicals is that
radicals view society as deeply flawed and belive 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.

4 Humanistic Design
 This design gained prominence in the 1960s and ‘70s. But as early as the 1920s and ‘30s
this design appeared as part of progressive philosophy and te whole-child movement in
psychology.
o After World War II, humanistic design linked to existentialism in educationa
philosophy
 This new psychological orientation stressed
o that human action was more than a reaction to stimulus,
o that meaning was more important than methods,
o that the emphasis of consideration should be on the subjective rather than
methods
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o that the emphasis of consideration should be on the subjective rather than

objective nature of human existence, and
o that there is an association between learning and feeling
 From this framework, the Assiciation for Supervision and Curriculum Development
(ASCD) published its 1962 yearbook, Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming.
o The book characterized a new emphasis for education, an approach to
curricular design and instructional delivery that would allow individuals to
become fully functioning persons
 Feeling, Valuing and the Art of Growing are highlighted in the affective dimensions of
humanistic education design and further stressed human potential. Educators must allow
students to feel, value, and grow.
 Abraham Maslow’s view pf self-actualization was heavily influenced by humanistic design.
Maslow enumerated the characteristics of a self-actualized person
1. Accepting of self, others, and nature
2. Spontaneous, simple, and natural
3. Problem-oriented
4. Open to experiences beyond the ordinary
5. Empathetic and sympathetic toward the less fortunate
6. Sophisticated in interpersonal relations
7. Favoring democtratic decision making
8. Possessing a philosophical sense of humor
o He stressed that people do not self-actualize until they are 40 or older, but the
process starts when they are students
o Various educators overlook this detail and think that their humanistic design will
have students achieve self-actualization as a finish product
 In Carll Roger’s effort
o He stated that self-directed learning wherein students draw on their own
resources to develop self-understanding and guide their own behavior
o Educators should plan an environment that inspire genuineness, empathy, and
respect for self and others
o Students will naturally improve fully functioning people as affirmed by Rogers
 Confluence idea became a part of humanistic education in the 1970s
o stresses participation
o highlights power sharing, negotiation, and joint responsibility
o gives emphasis to the whole person and the integration of thinking, feeling, and
acting
o Subject matter’s revelance to students’ needs and lives is their focus
 Humanistic education realizes that the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains are
interrelated and that a curriculum should address these dimensions
o Certain humanistic edcators added the social and spiritual domain in their
curricula while others produce curricula that prioritize the uniqueness of the
human personality but also the superiority of individuality
o For Phenix, such a curriculum shows reality as a “single interconnected whole,
and with it is a complete account of any entity that would require the
comprehension of every other entity
 James Moffet suggests that a curriculum that emphasizes spirituality enables students to
enter “on a personal spiritual path unique to each that nevertheless entails joining
increasingly expansive memberships of humanity and nature”.
o Cautions that society must foster morality and spirituality, not just knowledge
and power.
o Transcendent education is hope, creativity, awareness doubt and faith, wonder,
awe, and reverence
 For humanists, education should address pleasure and desire such as aesthetic pleasure
o Emphasizing natural and human-created beuty, humanistic curriculum designs
allow students to experience learning with emotion, imagination, and wonder
o Curricular content should elicit as well as thought. It should address not only
the conceptual structures of knowledge but also its implications
o The curriculum design should allow students to formulate a perceived individual
and social good, and encourage them to participate in a community

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 Even humanistic curricular design has great qualities, they also share many of the
weaknesses like the learner-centered design
o For them teachers must have a great skill and competence in dealing with
individuals
o They require teachers to have a complete change of midset because they value
the social, emotional, and spiritual areas more than the intellectual area.
o More often, available educational materials are not suitable
 Here are some of the criticisms of humanistic design
1. It fails to adequately consider the consequences for learners
2. Its stress on human uniqueness conflicts with its stresses on activities
that all students experience
3. It overemphasizes the individual, ignoring society’s needs
4. Some critics accuse, that humanistic design does not incorporate insight
from behaviorism and cognitive developmental theory

The Curriculum Matrix

In designing a curriculum, keep in mind the various levels at which we can consider the
curriculum’s content components. The following list of curriculum dimensions should assist in
considering content in-depth

1. Consider the content’s intellectual dimension. This is perhaps the curriculum’s most
commony thought of dimension. The content selected should stimulate students’ intellectual
developments
2. Consider the content’s emotional dimension. We know much less about this dimension,
but we are obtaining a better understanding of it as the affective domain of knowledge
3. Consider the content’s social dimension. The content selected should contribute to
students’ social developments and stress human relations
4. Consider the content’s physical dimensions. Commonly referred to as the psychomotor
domain of knowledge. Content should be selected to develop physical skills and allow
students to become more physically self-aware.
5. Consider the contents aesthetic dimension. People have an aesthetic dimension, yet we
currently have little knowledge of aesthetics’ place in education.
6. Consider the content’s transcendent or spiritual dimension. Which most public schools
almost totally exclude from consideration. We tend to confuse this dimension with formal
religion. This content dimension does not directly relate to the rational. However, we need to
have content that causes students to reflect on the nature of their humanness and helps them
transcend their current levels of knowledge and action.

Source: Adapted from Ornstein and Hunkins 2009,

Curriculum, Foundations, Principles and Issue

Problem-centered designs

This third major type of curriculum design concentrates on real-life problems of individuals and
society which is based on social issues. Problem-centered curriculum designs are planned to
strengthen cultural traditions and address unmet needs of the community and society.
This design places the individual within a social setting, but its main difference from learner-
centered design is that they plan before the students’ arrival (while they can then be adjusted to
students’ concerns, and situations)
In the problem-centered design its curricular organization depends in large part on the nature of
the problems to be reviewed while, its content often extends beyond subject boundaries. Students’

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needs, concerns and abilities must also be addressed. This two-fold stress on both content and
learners’ development differentiate problem-cetered design from the other major types of curriculum
design.
Various types of problem-centered design differ in the level to which they emphasis social needs
as opposed to individual needs. Like, 1) some of them focus on persistent life situations; 2) others
center on contemporary social problems; 3) some address areas of living; 4) others are concerned with
reconstructing society

1 Life-Situations Design
 This curriculum design can be traced back to the nineteenth century and Herbert
Spencer’s writings on a curriculum for complete living.
o He stressed activities that (1) Sustain life, (2) Enhance life, (3) Aid in rearing
children, (4) Maintain the individual’s social and political realtions, and (5)
Enhace leisure, tasks, and feelings
 Three rules are fundamental to life-situations design:
1. Dealing with perisistent life situations is crucial to a society’s successful
functioning, and it makes educational sense to organize a curriculum around
them;
2. Students will see the relevance of content of it is organized around aspects of
community life;
3. Having students study social or life situations will directly involve them in
improving society.
 The strength of this design is its focus on problem-solving procedures.
o Process and content are successfully integrated into curricular experience
o Some opponents resist that the students do not learn much suvject matter.
Nevertheless, proponents affirm that life-situations design draws heavily
traditional content.
o The uniqueness of the design is that the content is organized in ways that allow
students to clearly view problem areas.
 Additional strength is that it uses learners’ past and present experiences to get them to
examine the basic aspects of living
o In this regard, the design considerably differs from experience differs from
experience-centered design, in which learners’ felt needs and interests are the
sole basis for content and experience selection while the life-situations design
takes students’ existing concerns, as well as society’s pressing problems, as a
starting point.
o It integrates subject matter, cutting across separate subjects and centering on
related categories of social life
o It motivates students to learn and apply problem-solving procedures
o Connectingsubject matter to real situations increases the curriculum’s
relevance
 Opponents of this design believe that life-situations design does not sufficiently expose
students to their cultural heritages.
o It tends to train youth to accept existing conditions and thus preserve the social
status quo.
o However, if students are educated to be critical of their social situations, they
will intelegently assess, rather than blindly follow the status quo
o They resist that teachers lack sufficient preparation to mount life situation
surriculum
o Others claim that textbooks and other teaching materials prevent the
implementation of such a curriculum
o Hence, many teachers have difficulty with life-situations design because it
differs too much from their training

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2 Reconstructionist Design
 Educators who support this design feel that the curriculum should promote social action
aimed at reconstructing society; it should promote society’s social, political, and economic
development
o Educators want to emphasize social justice to its curricula
 The features of this design first appeared in the 1920s and 1930s
 It was George Counts who considered society to be totally recognized to promote the
common good
o For him, the times required a new social order, and schools should play a major
role in such redesign
o He presented some of his thinking in a speech entitled “dare progressive
Education be Progressive?”
o He challenged the Progressive Education Association to broaden its thinking
beyond the current social structure and accused its members of advocating ony
curricula that perpetuated middle-class dominance and priviledges
 Harold Rugg also belived that schools should engage children in critical analysis of society
in order to improve it
o He criticized child-centered schools, opposing that their laissez-faire approach
to curriculum development produced a confusion of disjoined curriculum and
rarely involved a careful review of a child’s educational program
 Theodore Brameld, who advocated reconstructionism well into the 1950s, claimed that
reconstructionsts were committed to facilitating the emergence of a new culture
o He believed that times required a new social order, existing society displayed
decay, poverty, crime, racial conflict, unemployment, political oppression, and
the destruction of the environment.
o He stated that schools should help students develop into social beings
dedicated to the common good
 The major purpose of the social reconstructionist curriculum is to involve students in
critical examination of the local, national, and internation community in order to address
humanity’s problems.
o Careful consideration is given to the political practices of business and
government groups and their impact on the workforce
o Therefore, it encourages curriculum changes in industrial and political systems

Assessment

Activity 1

Study the five sources of curriculum design. Explain one source of curriculum design that
needs to be given an emphasis in our time and why?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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Activity 2

1. Define horizontal and vertical organization.

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

2. Complete the example of conceptual framework in horizontal and vertical organization

 Horizontal Organization
Subject: Math and ___________________________________________________
English and _________________________________________________
Social Studies and ___________________________________________
 Vertical Organization
Subject: Math ______________________________________________________
English ____________________________________________________
Social Studies _______________________________________________
Activity 3

A. Enumerate the distictive features of the following curriculum design qualities.

Qualities Distinctive Features

1. Scope

2. Sequence

3. Continuity

4. Integration

5. Articulation

6. Balance

Flexible learning activity/Assignment

Complete the matrix of the different types of curriculum designs below.

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From the table below, give examples of the types of curriculum design and their curricular
emphasis, strengths and weaknesses.

Types of Curriculum
Curricular Emhasis Strengths Weaknesses
Design

Subject-centered
Designs

Learner-centered
Designs

Problem-centered
Designs

ReferenceS / RELATED READINGS

Bilbao, Purita P.; Dayagbil, Filomena T.; Corpuz, Brenda B. 2015. Curriculum Development For
Teachers. Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Reyes, Emerita; Dizon, Erlinda; Villena, Danilo K. 2015. Curriculum Development. Adriana Publishing
Co., Inc. Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philipines.

Bilbao, Purita P. et.al. 2008. Curriculum Development. Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Cubao, Quezon City,
Metro Manila, Philippines.

Calderon, Jose P. 2004. Curriculum and Curriculum Development. Educational Publiching House.
United Nations Avenue, Ermita, Manila, Philippines.

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