An Introduction to the concepts of Curriculum Development

1. Dr.R.RAMNATH
DepatmentofEducation
AlagappaUniversity
Karaikudi
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPTS

2. Curriculum
 (1) a plan for the education of learners
 (2) a field of study
 Substantive (subject matters) & syntactical
(process) structures
- Zais

3. Curriculum
 A school, or a course, or a classroom can be
conceived of as a series of planned events
that are intended to have educational
consequences for one or more students.
- Eisner

4. Curriculum
 “ the tool in the hands of an artist to
mould his material, according to his ideals
in his studio”.
 In this definition,
artist is the teacher,
material is the student
ideals are objectives and
studio is the educational institute.
- Cunningham,

5. Origin & Development
 1890’s-1900s
 Harvard’s 1893
report (electives,
college prep, prac.
subjects)
 1895 – Herbart
Society founded
(National Society for
the Study of
Education)
 Herbartian
movement (Late
nineteenth century)
 (Johann Friedrich
Herbart), German
philosopher
 Systematic attention
to selection & org. of
subject matter

6. Origin & Development
 1900s
 The Curriculum - First book – Franklin Bobbitt
(1918)
 Curriculum Construction – W.W. Charters
(1923)
 1920s – 30s
 Denver & St. Louis initiate curriculum prog /
revision
 Dept. of C & I at Teacher College

7. Curriculum As
 a program of studies
 a content
 a planned learning experiences
 an experiences ‘had’ under the auspices
of the school
 a structured series of intended learning
outcomes

8. Aspects of Curriculum
 Curriculum Foundations (Philosophy, culture, indiv.)
 Curriculum Design (element of curriculum)
 Curriculum Construction (decision-making process)
 Curriculum Development (How will it proceed / by
whom)

9. Aspects of Curriculum
 Curriculum Implementation (construction &
develop.)
 Curriculum Engineering (making it functional
in schools)
 Curriculum Improvement vs. Change
(change is harder)

10. Notion
 Planned sequence of
 (1) what students have to learn,
 (2) how students acquire that learning,
and
 (3) how students’ learning to be verified.

11. Overall Picture
 A curriculum plan can look frightening.
 However, remember it’s a bundle of lesson plan.
 It includes your name, school name, standards,
objectives, assessments , and learning activities.
 It’s still a plan, it’s just an overarching plan for the
entire grade level.

12. The terminology
 An umbrella term denoting the totality of the
learning experience of children and young
people in school.
 Considering the curriculum would thus
include the questions of what, how and why
of instruction and assessment (evaluation).

13. Process
 The subject matter taught to students
 A course of study, or a systematic
arrangement of courses
 The planned educational experiences
offered by a school
13

14. Process
 The experiences that students do have under
the guidance of the school
 The process that teachers go through in
selecting and organizing learning
experiences for their students

15. Curriculum : Concepts

16. Curriculum is...
 Write your response...
 Share response what you have written

17. Curriculum is...
 Share your responses by discussing them
with others
 Explore the similarities/differences that
exist between statements?

18. :
Curriculum is [Oliva (2009)]
 That which is taught in schools
 A set of subjects
 Content
 A program of studies

19. Curriculum is [Oliva (2009)]
 A set of materials
 A sequence of courses
 A set of performance objectives
 A course of study

20. Curriculum is [Oliva (2009)]
 Everything that goes on in the school, including
extra-class activities, guidance and interpersonal
relations
 That which is taught both inside and outside of
school directed by the school
 Everything that is planned by school personnel
 A series of experiences undergone by learners in
school
 That which an individual learner experiences as a

21. Views - Grundy (1998)
 A syllabus view of
curriculum
 Product
 A pedagogical view of
curriculum
 Process

22. The syllabus view
Pollard & Triggs (1997)
 The official curriculum
 The observed curriculum
 The curriculum-as-experienced
 The hidden curriculum
The pedagogical

23. A pedagogical view
Process = actions and interactions

24. Your view
on curriculum ?

25. The Official Curriculum
 “A planned course of study”
 Explicitly stated programme of learning
 States intended curriculum content
 Structures sequence and progression,
framing content and course activities

26. The Observed Curriculum
• What can be seen as taking place
• May be different from intended official
curriculum

27. Curriculum-as-Experienced
• The parts of the curriculum (official and
hidden) that actually connect meaningfully
with students
• Arguably only this aspect which has
educational impact – rest is often forgotten!

28. Hidden Curriculum
 All that is learnt that is not a designated
as part of official curriculum
 What is “picked up” e.g. role of teacher/learner,
status, attitudes towards learning
 Implicit, embedded in taken-for-granted procedures
and materials
 May be unrecognised and often unexamined
 Can have profound effect on students’ self image
and attitudes to education/other social groups

29. Curriculum Studies
Curriculum
Studies –
how is it
organised as
an academic
field of
study?
FOCUS

30. Analysis
Orientations
What
purpose
does it
serve?
Development
How is it
designed?
Operations
What teaching
methods are
used?
What
skills/concepts
are being
taught?
Outcomes
What have
students been
taught?
What has
resulted from
individuals
curricula
experiences?
Intended
Curricula
What is to be
taught?
What standards
are to be
achieved?
EvaluationCongruence

31. Curriculum: A Field of Study
 As a field of study in education - about 100
years
Education
as a
Traditional Practice
Rich in
history
Education
as a
Managed Practice
Rich in
contemporary knowledge

32.  Rich in history
 Educational Philosophy
 Locating teaching in a great tradition
 Progressive education movement
 Rich in contemporary knowledge
 Educational psychology
 Locating teaching in a realm of
science
 Child development
Socrates
Rousseau
Dewey

33. Curriculum purposes
 Statements of what the curriculum is
intended to achieve. These include narrowly
defined outcomes or objectives, and more
broadly defined aims or goals.

34. Curriculum framework
 The documents that outline the structure of
the curriculum and its purposes.
 The content to be taught – the what of the
curriculum.

35. Curriculum provision
 The systems and structures established
in schools to organise teaching,
 For example timetabling. This is the how
of the curriculum.

36. Pedagogy
 The how of the curriculum.
 The teaching strategies and learning
activities planned to achieve the aims
and fulfil the planned framework.

37. Types
 1. Overt, explicit, or written curriculum
 Is simply that which is written as part of formal
instruction of schooling experiences.
 It may refer to a curriculum document, texts, films,
and supportive teaching materials that are overtly
chosen to support the intentional instructional
agenda of a school.

38. 2. Societal curriculum (or social curricula)
 Cortes (1981), defines this curriculum as:…[the]
massive, ongoing, informal curriculum of family,
peer groups, neighborhoods, churches,
organizations, occupations, mass media, and
other socializing forces that “educate” all of us
throughout our lives.
 This type of curricula can now be expanded to
include the powerful effects of social media
(YouTube; Facebook; Twitter; Pinterest, etc) and how
it actively helps create new perspectives, and can
help shape both individual and public opinion.

39. 3. The hidden or covert
curriculum
 That which is implied by the very structure and
nature of schools, much of what revolves around
daily or established routines.
 Longstreet and Shane (1993) offer a commonly
accepted definition for this term – the “hidden
curriculum,” which refers to the kinds of learnings
children derive from the very nature and
organizational design of the public school, as well as
from the behaviors and attitudes of teachers and
administrators…. ”

40. 4. The null curriculum
 Eisner (1985, 1994) first described and defined
aspects of this curriculum. He states: There is
something of a paradox involved in writing about a
curriculum that does not exist.
 Yet, if we are concerned with the consequences of
school programs and the role of curriculum in
shaping those consequences, then it seems to me
that we are well advised to consider not
only the explicit and implicit curricula of
schools but also what schools do not teach.

41. 5. Phantom curriculum
 The messages prevalent in and through
exposure to any type of media.
 These components and messages play a
major part in the enculturation of
students into the predominant meta-
culture, or in acculturating students
into narrower or generational subcultures.

42. 6. Concomitant curriculum
 What is taught, or emphasized at home, or
those experiences that are part of a family’s
experiences, or related experiences
sanctioned by the family.
 This type of curriculum may be received at
church, in the context of religious
expression, lessons on values, ethics or
morals, moulded behaviours, or social
experiences based on the family’s
preferences.

43. 7. Rhetorical curriculum
 Elements from the rhetorical curriculum are
comprised from ideas offered by policymakers,
school officials, administrators, or politicians.
 This curriculum may also come from those
professionals involved in concept formation and
content changes; or from those educational
initiatives resulting from decisions based on
national and state reports, public speeches, or from
texts critiquing outdated educational practices.
 The rhetorical curriculum may also come from the

44. 8. The Formal Curriculum [in-use]
 The formal curriculum (written or overt) comprises
those things in textbooks, and content and concepts
in the district curriculum guides. However, those
“formal” elements are frequently not taught.
 The curriculum-in-use is the actual curriculum
that is delivered and presented by each
teacher.

45. 9. Received curriculum
 Those things that students actually take out
of classrooms; those concepts and content
that are truly learned and remembered.

46. 10. The internal curriculum
 Processes, content, knowledge combined with
the experiences and realities of the learner to
create new knowledge.
 While educators should be aware of this curriculum,
they have little control over the internal curriculum
since it is unique to each student.
 Educators can explore this curricula by using
instructional assessments like “exit slips,”
reflective exercises, or debriefing discussions to
see what students really remember from a lesson.
 It is often very enlightening and surprising to find out

47. 11. The electronic curriculum
 Those lessons learned through searching the Internet for
information, or through using e-forms of communication.
(Wilson, 2004)
 This type of curriculum may be either formal or informal, and
inherent lessons may be overt or covert, good or bad, correct or
incorrect depending on ones’ views. Students who use the
Internet on a regular basis, both for recreational purposes (as in
blogs, wikis, chatrooms, listserves, through instant messenger,
on-line conversations, or through personal e-mails and sites like
Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube) and for personal online research
and information gathering are bombarded with all types of
media and messages.
 Much of this information may be factually correct,
informative, or even entertaining or inspirational.

48. Levels
The curriculum operates (or is made) in different ways at different
levels:
 Supra – transnational ideas about
education
 Macro – national level policy intentions
 Meso – policy guidance (LEA)
 Micro – school-level curricular practices
 Nano – classroom interactions

49. Basic
Concepts

50. Curriculum resources:
 Resources that schools provide to teachers can also
have a significant affect on curriculum.
 For example, if a district or school purchases a
certain set of textbooks and requires teachers to
use them, those textbooks will inevitably influence
what gets taught and how teachers teach.

51.  Curriculum standardization
 States, districts, and schools may also try to improve
teaching quality and effectiveness by requiring, or
simply encouraging, teachers to use either a
standardized curriculum or common processes for
developing curriculum.
 While the strategies used to promote more
standardized curricula can vary widely from state to
state or school to school, the general goal is to
increase teaching quality through greater
curricular consistency.

52. Curriculum scripting
 Often called “scripted curriculum,” the scripting of
curriculum is the most prescriptive form of
standardized, prepackaged curriculum, since it
typically requires teachers to not only follow a particular
sequence of prepared lessons, but to actually read
aloud from a teaching script in class.
 While not every teacher will be a naturally excellent
teacher, the reasoning goes, all teachers can at least be
given a high-quality curriculum script to follow.
 Scripted curricula tend to be most common in districts
and schools that face significant challenges attracting and
retaining experienced or qualified teachers, such as
larger urban schools in high-poverty communities

53. Curriculum alignment
 Schools may try to improve curriculum quality
by bringing teaching activities and course
expectations into “alignment” with learning
standards and other school courses—a practice
sometimes called “curriculum mapping.”
 The basic idea is to create a more consistent
and coherent academic program by making sure
that teachers teach the most important content
and eliminate learning gaps that may exist

54. Integration/cross curricular instruction
 Incorporating content from other subjects to reinforce and
promote the connectedness of material (life is not organized into
separate subjects).
 Physical educators are being required to integrate more math and
particularly reading/writing into class due to scores on state exams.

 What are some examples for integrating the following subjects into PE
(don’t peak at the next slide)?
 Language Arts –
 Social Studies –
 Math –
 Science –
 Music –
 Art –
 Other subjects –

55. Approaches to Curriculum
Planning

56. 1.Top Down
Decide on the exit outcomes for education
program and then design down by creating lower-level
outcomes for each course (if applicable), each unit, and
every lesson plan (stated as objectives). the outcomes
are created for each level down, the program or
instructional practices are also created.
After the program has been designed, it is
“delivered up” meaning educators start teaching the
lesson plans whose objectives lead towards the unit
outcomes which then help fulfill the program
outcomes. This entire approach is known as “design

57. 2. Bottom Up
 Lesson plans are created and then linked
together to form units. The units may be linked
together into seasons, categories (net games,
invasion games, etc) or some other organizational
scheme. In some cases, there is no organizational
scheme and units are delivered randomly.
 Generally, this approach is less organized, less
efficient in terms of managing available instructional
days, and results in less student learning.
Unfortunately, this approach is somewhat common
but due to its limitations, it should be avoided.
Really, this approach does not represent or build a
curriculum.

58. 3. Understanding by Design
(UbD)
 Focuses on teaching for understanding,
particularly linking concepts across the
curriculum. Utilizes backwards design where
educators examine outcomes in order to design
instruction and assessments (similar to top-down).

59. 4. Standards based
 Relies on clear, measurable
standards stating what students should
know and be able to do.
 The curriculum and all related instruction and
assessments are aligned with the standards.
 Generally emphasizes assessment more than the
other approaches
 Units may be organized around standards but this is
not common
 Currently this is the favoured approach, it has
many similarities to top-down.

60.  5. Curriculum Map (or &
learning Map)
 Graphical and sequential organization
of the curriculum.
 Examples – online in wiki based
education
 Possible column headings in a curriculum
map:
 Class of activity (team, indiv, adventure),
standards, seasons, types of games (invasion,
net, tag), domains (P, C, A), dates, activities,
equipment, assessments.

61. Significant curriculum problems
 The nature of knowledge
 The nature of knowing
 The domain & limits of curriculum
 The translation of curriculum principles &
theories into educational practice

62. Concerns throughout the
curriculum. movement
 Relationship between general goals &
objectives for guiding teachers
 Sequence or continuity of curriculum
 Balance in the curriculum

63. Thank You
rrnathedu@gmail.com
rrnathedn@yahoo.co.in