Child or Learner-Centered Approach This approach to curriculum design is based on the underlying philosophy that the child is the center of the educational process. ... Problem-Centered Approach This approach is based on a curriculum design that assumes that in the process of living, children experience problems.

1. Approaches to
Curriculum Designing
Glyn B. Vertudazo
Ph.D. – Educational Management
LaSalle University – Ozamiz City

2. Desired Learning Outcomes:
• Define curriculum design
• Identify some familiar curriculum designs and approaches to the designs
• Analyze the approaches in the light of how these are applied in the school
setting

3. Curriculum Design
• Curriculum design refers to the arrangement of the elements of a
curriculum
The four elements:
• Aims, goals, objectives
• Subject matter or content
• Learning activities
• Evaluation

4. Curriculum Design
Models

5. Subject - Centered Design
• focuses on the content of the curriculum
• corresponds mostly to the textbook because it is usually
written based on specific subject or course
• school hours are allocated to different school subjects

6. Subject - Centered Design
Yes!
A school day is divided into class period, a school year into
quarters or semesters.
Schools using this design aim for excellence in the specific subject
discipline content .
Is this practiced in the Philippines?

7. Examples of Subject-Centered Curriculum:
1. Subject design -oldest and most familiar design
-centers on the cluster of content
Disadvantages:
• learning is so compartmentalized
• It stresses so much the content that it forgets about
students’ natural tendencies, interest and experiences.
• Teachers becomes dispenser of knowledge, learners are
empty vessel
• Traditional approach to teaching-learning process
Advantages:
• easy to deliver
• Textbook are commercially available
• Teachers are familiar with the format

8. Examples of Subject-Centered Curriculum:
2. Discipline design
-focuses on academic disciplines
-often used in college but not in the secondary
and elementary
Discipline refers to specific knowledge learned
through a method which the scholars used to
study a specific content of the fields.
So from the subject centered curriculum, curriculum moves higher to a
discipline when the students are more mature and are already moving
towards their career path or disciplines.

9. Examples of Subject-Centered Curriculum:
3. Correlation design
-coming from a core
-links separate subject designs to reduce fragmentation
-subjects are related to one another and still maintain their identity
Example:
English literature and social studies correlate well in elementary
Mathematics and science
Literature and MAPEH
To use, teachers should
come together and plan
their lessons
cooperatively.

10. Examples of Subject-Centered Curriculum:
4. Broad field design/interdisciplinary
- a variation of the subject-centered design
- made to cure the compartmentalization of the separate subjects and integrate the content
that are related to one another
- sometimes called holistic curriculum
Example:
geography
economics
political science
anthropology
sociology
history
Social
Studies
grammar
literature
linguistics
spelling
composition
Language
Arts

11. Subject - Centered Design
• Students in history should learn the subject matter like historians, students in
biology should learn how biologist learn, and so with students in
mathematics should learn how mathematicians learn.
• The discipline design model of curriculum is often used in college
• Discipline becomes the degree program.

12. Learner - Centered Design
The learner is the center of the educative process.

13. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
1. Child – centered design
It is anchored on the needs and interests of the child.
The learner is not considered as a passive individual but as one who engages with
his/her environment. One learns by doing. Learners actively create, construct
meanings and understanding.
(John Dewey, Rouseau, Pestallozi and Froebel )

14. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
1. Child – centered design
Learners interact with the teachers and the environment. Thus, there is a
collaborative effort on both sides to plan lessons, select content, and do
activities together.
Learning is a product of the child’s interaction with the environment.
(John Dewey, Rouseau, Pestallozi and Froebel )

15. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
2. Experience-Centered design
The focus remains to the child.
It believes that the interests and needs of learners cannot be pre-planned.
Experiences of the learners become the starting point of the curriculum.

16. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
2. Experience-Centered design
Thus the school environment is left open and free.
Learners are made to choose from various activities that the teacher provides.
The learners are empowered to shape their own learning from the different
opportunities given by the teacher.

17. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
2. Experience-Centered design
In a school, different learning centers are found, time is flexible and children
are free to make options.
Activities revolve around different emphasis such as touching, feeling, imagining,
constructing, relating and others.
The emergence of Multiple Intelligence Theory blends well with this design.

18. Examples of Learner-Centered Curriculum:
3. Humanistic design
• The development of self is the ultimate objective of leaning.
• It stresses the whole person and the integration of thinking, feeling and
doing.
• It considers the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains to be
interconnected and must be addressed in the curriculum.
• It stresses the development of positive self-concept and interpersonal
skills.

19. Learner - Centered Design
Advantages Disadvantages
It gives power to the learners: they are identified as the experts
in knowing what they need to know.
Teachers may also find it difficult to strike an acceptable balance
among the competing needs and interests of students.
The constructivist element of this approach honors the social
and cultural context of the learner.
It often relies on the teacher's ability to create or select materials
appropriate to learners' expressed needs.
This requires skill on the part of the teacher, as well as time and
resources: at a minimum, texts brought in from real life
It creates a direct link between in-class work and learners' need
for literacy outside the classroom.

20. Problem - Centered Design
• draws on social problems, needs, interest and abilities of the learners
• organizes subject matter around a problem, real or hypothetical, that needs
to be solved
• Problem-centered curriculum is inherently engaging and authentic,
because the students have a real purpose to their inquiry - solving the
problem

21. Problem - Centered Design
Types of problems to be explored may include:
• Life situations involving real problems of practice
• Problems that revolve around life at a given school
• Problems selected from local issues
• Philosophical or moral problems

22. Examples of Problem-Centered Curriculum:
1. Life – situation design
A unique design that organizes contents in ways that allow students to clearly view
problem areas.
It uses the past and present experiences of learners as a means to analyze the basic areas
of living.
As a starting point, the pressing immediate problems of the society and the student’s existing
concerns are utilized.
Based on Herbert Spencer’s curriculum writing, his emphases were activities that sustain life, enhance
life, aid in rearing children, maintain the individual’s social and political relations and enhance
leisure, tasks and feelings.
The connection of subject matter to real situations increases the relevance of the curriculum.

23. Examples of Problem-Centered Curriculum:
2. Core problem design
It centers on general education and the problems are based on common human
activities.
The central focus of the core design includes common needs, problems,
concerns of the learners.

24. Approaches
to
Curriculum Design

25. Approaches to Curriculum Design
-based on the underlying philosophy that the child or the learner is the center
of the educational process
-curriculum is constructed based on:
✓ the needs, interest, purposes and abilities of the learners
✓ knowledge, skills, previous learnings and potential of the learners
Child- or Learner-Centered Approach

26. 1. Acknowledge and respect the fundamental rights of the child.
2. Make all activities revolve the overall development of the learner.
3. Consider the uniqueness of every learner in a multicultural classroom.
4. Consider using differentiated instruction or teaching.
5. Provide a motivating supportive learning environment for all the learner.
Child- or Learner-Centered Approach
Principles:

27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvzVAQkuSqU
Child- or Learner-Centered Learning: What, Why, and How?

28. Approaches to Curriculum Design
-anchored on a curriculum design which prescribes separate distinct subjects
for every educational level:
o basic education,
o higher education, or
o vocational-technical education
Subject -Centered Approach

29. 1. The primary focus is the subject matter.
2. The emphasis is on bits and pieces of information which may be detached from
life.
3. The subject matter serves as a means of identifying problems of living.
4. Learning means accumulation of content, or knowledge.
5. Teacher’s role is to dispense the content.
Subject - Centered Approach
Principles:

30. School Y aims to produce the best graduates in the school district.
Every learner must excel in all academic subjects to be on top of
every academic competition. The higher the level of cognitive
intelligence is, the better the learner. Hence, the focus of learning is
mastery of the subject matter in terms of content. Every student
is expected to be always on top in terms of mastery of discipline.
Memorization, and drill are important learning skills. The school
gives emphasis to intellectual development, and sets aside
emotional, psychomotor and even value development. Success
means mastery of the content.
Subject -Centered Learning Scenario

31. Approaches to Curriculum Design
-based on the design which assumes that in the process of living, children
experience problems. Thus, problem solving enables the learners to become
increasingly able to achieve complete or total development as individuals.
Problem -Centered Approach

32. 1. The learners are capable of directing and guiding themselves in resolving problems,
thus developing every learner to be independent.
2. The learners are prepared to assume their civic responsibilities through direct
participation in different activities.
3. The curriculum leads the learners in the recognition of concerns and problems in
seeking solutions. Learners are problem solvers themselves.
Problem - Centered Approach
Principles:

33. School Z believes that a learner should be trained to solve real life problems that
come about because of the needs, interests and abilities of the learners. Problems
persistent in life and society that affect daily living are also considered. Most of the
school activities revolve around finding solutions to problems like poverty, drug
problems, climate change, natural calamities and many more. Since the school is using a
problem-based design, the same approach is used. Case study and practical work are
the teaching strategies that are utilized. Problem-centered approach has become
popular in many schools.
Problem -Centered Learning Scenario

34. Self-check:
1. Only students who master the subject contents can succeed.
2. Students are encouraged to work together to find answers to their task.
3. No learner is left behind in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
4. School means survival of the fittest.
5. Teacher extends class because the children have not mastered the lesson.
6. Lesson deals with finding solution to everyday problem.
7. Differentiated instruction should be utilized for different ability groups.
8. Accumulation of knowledge is the primary importance in teaching.
9. Learning how to learn is observable among students.
10. Students are problem-finders and solution-givers.
Identify what kind of design and approaches are utilized in the following descriptions:

36. References:
Bilbao, P.P., Dayagbil, F. T. & Corpus, B. B. (2015). Curriculum Development for
Teachers. Lorimar Publishing, Inc., Quezon City, Metro Manila.
https://www.slideshare.net/chitaeahaURZ/approaches-to-curriculum-design-
15555262
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvzVAQkuSqU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbH7-Qa9xaU