This document discusses spiral curriculum and its key principles. It begins with an introduction to curriculum and discusses different approaches like concentric and spiral. It then explains the spiral curriculum in detail, noting that it involves revisiting topics with increasing complexity over multiple years. Key advocates like Jerome Bruner are discussed and his cognitive stages of learning. Empirical research on spiral curriculum is summarized as showing positive outcomes when implemented as a whole system and for reinforcing certain skills. The conclusion restates that spiral curriculum incorporates approaches shown to improve learning.

1. Spiral curriculum
Submitted to:
Linimol .k .s
Lecturer in p.s
Submitted by:
Sreekala. T
Phy. Science
Reg.no:13383022
Submitted on: 01/09/2014
Index

2. sl.no. content Page no.
1 introduction 3-4
2 curriculum 4-6
3 Principles of curriculum 6
4 Concentric and spiral
approaches
6-8
5 Spiral curriculum 8-13
6 Images showing spiral
curriculum
13-16
7
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION

3. Jerome Bruner
“We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught
effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any
stage of development”
‘Curriculum’ is a word with many commonly accepted meanings. We have seen that
science is taught to pupils as its would help to realize certain values and aims by which
they could become better individuals. But such goals cannot be reached through a
vacuum. We require some appropriate medium through which the anticipated change
as could be brought about. Every science teacher has to get a clear and thorough

4. knowledge about the importance, meaning, scope and nature of a good science
curriculum together with the principles for its development and transaction.
A). Curriculum – A conceptual Analysis
Curriculum is the back born of the whole educational process. Without curriculum, we
cannot conceive any educational Endeavour. School curriculum of a country, like its
constitution reflects the ethos of that country.
a. The concept of curriculum
The term curriculum is derived from the Latin word ‘Curriculum for a course of
study may be conceived as the totality of experiences a pupils is exposed to
within the boundaries of the school and outside while under going that course,
with a view to achieve the anticipated educational goals.
b. Definition of Curriculum
Curriculum has been defined by different persons in different ways. They are as
follows.
1. Munroe defines curriculum:-
“Curriculum embodies all the experiences which are utilized by the school to
attain the aims of education”
2. Curriculum defined by Arthur Cunningham as; “Curriculum is a tool in the hands
of an artist (teacher)to mould his materials (pupils) according to his ideals
(objectives)in this studio (School)”.
3. Curriculum is defined by H.L. Laswll as;
Curriculum is made up of everything that surrounds the learner in all this working
hours.
c. Curriculum and Syllabus
Curriculum s not merely syllabus, because the latter is only verbal, book oriented
and theoretical, while the former is not. What is prescribed in the syllabus, the
curriculum encompasses various kinds of curricular and co curricular activities
as well as the various aspects are transacted.
d. Curriculum and education

5. Curriculum is intimately related with all aspects of education. Education is a
developmental process and it geared to a goal curriculum is the input as well as
the medium that provides with the goal oriented direction to that process. This
plan considers four important components. Namely;
1. The objectives
2. The content or learning material
3. Teaching – learning strategies and activities (transaction)
4. Evaluation
e. Function served by a Curriculum
A Curriculum is said to have the following major functions to realize:-
1. Synthesis of the subjects of study and life.
2. Acquisition and strengthening of knowledge.
3. Complete development
4. Development of democratic values.
5. Satisfaction of the educand’s needs
6. Realization of values
7. Harmony between individual and Society
8. Creation of suitable environment.
f. Foundations of Curriculum Development
Any curriculum, if it is said to serve the purpose for which it is constructed must
be based on sound foundations. They are;
1. Philosophical foundations.
2. Sociological foundations.
3. Psychological foundations.
g. Types of Curricula
Various educational systems have been introduced in the concept and nature of
their curricula too. Based on these new types of curricula also have emerged.
Some of the major types are;
1. Traditional or subject – centered

6. 2. Activity centered
3. Child centered
4. Experience Centered
5. Undifferentiated curriculum
B. Principles of curriculum Development
Educationists have laid down certain general principles for developing curriculum.
Some of gives below.
1. The principles of child centered
2. The principle of community centeredness
3. The principle of Activity centeredness
4. The principle of integration
5. Forward looking principle
6. Conservative Principle
7. Renewal Principle
8. Creative Principle
9. Motivation Principle
10. Maturity Principle
11. The Principle of preparation for life
12. The principle of Elasticity and Flexibility
13. The principle of Comprehensiveness
14. The principle of Balance
15. The principle of Utility
In short, curriculum should be well-balanced, properly guided, fairly broad based and
appropriately designed for meeting the needs of child on the one hand and those of the
society on the other.
In short, curriculum should be well-balanced, properly gridded, fairly broad based and
appropriately designed for meeting the needs of the child on the one hand and those of
the society on the other.
Concentric and Spiral approaches

7. The whole curriculum is spread over a number of years. A general treatment of almost
all the topics are attempted at the beginning and its is developed in successive years
according to the mental development of the pupils. In the beginning of the course, the
whole aspect is given to pupils in a simplified way. In the next year more and more
details of its parts are added. It follows the maxims of teaching, such as from whole to
part, simple to complex, easy to difficult, etc. Among educationists of modern times,
Burner is the main exponent of this approach as he thinks that discovery learning is
possible only if this approach is maintained. Some times this approach is referred to as
concentric approach. But the term spiral approach is preferred to the other. The term
spiral gives the additional implication that while attempting gradation the linkage too is
taken care of and the continuity of the topic concerned is never broken. “while
conceiving it as concentric only the widening of the scope is indicated but the linkage is
not taken care of.
4. Traditional or Subject centered
5. Activity – Centered
6. Child Centered
7. Experience Centered
8. Undifferentiated Curriculum
C. Principles of curriculum Development
Educationists have laid down certain general principles for developing curriculum.
Some basic principles for developing curriculum are given below:-
1. The principles of child centeredness
2. The principle of community centeredness
3. The principles of Activity centeredness
4. The principles of integration
5. Forward looking principle
6. Conservative principle
7. Renewal principle
8. Motivation principle
9. Maturity principle

8. 10. Maturity principle
11. The principle of preparation for life
12. The principle of Elasticity and Flexibility
13. The principle of Comprehensiveness
14. The principle of balance
15. The principle of utility
The Spiral Curriculum
The Spiral Curriculum is predicated on cognitive theory advanced by Jerome
Bruner(1960), who wrote.”We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught
in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development”(p.33). In
other words, even the most complex material, if properly structured and presented, can
be understood by very young children.
Burner hypothesized human cognition occurred in three relatively discreet stages.
Enactive, or actually manipulating and interacting with objects; Iconic, or the
manipulation of representation of the actual objects or phenomena. The picture to the
left show how these stages would look if used to teach students about finding books in
the library, and provides an example of a rudimentary “Spiral Curriculum”. Key features
of the spiral curriculum based on Burner’s work are:
 The student revisits a topic, theme or subject several times throughout their school
career.
 The complexity of the topic or theme increases with each revisit.
 New learning has a relationship with old learning and is put in context with the old
information.
The benefits ascribed to the Spiral Curriculum by its advocates are:
 The information is reinforced and solidified each time the student revisits the subject
matter.
 The spiral curriculum also allows a logical progression from simplistic ideas to
complicated ideas.
 Students are encouraged to apply the early knowledge to later course objectives.

9. This image by Norman Herr shows how the spiral curriculum used in China for teaching
science contrasts with “layered” curriculum common in the U.S.
In Chinese schools, students revisit each of the basic sciences each year of their
secondary school experience. This argues Herr, is the reason that their performance is
so strong when compared with American students who study one subject per year.
Empirical Outcomes
Unfortunately, although the theoretical underpinnings of the spiral curriculum are sound
and sensible, there is relatively little empirical evidence of its overall effectiveness.
However, individual studies of specific curriculum manifestations of the spiral curriculum
do reveal that it has positive outcomes, especially for the teaching skills, such as
reading, writing or technical skills. Because the spiral curriculum is often interwoven with
other inquiry- based and constructivist learning approaches, it is often quite difficult to
assess the effects of the curriculum, rather than the delivery of that curriculum.
In essence, this body of research literature related to the spiral curriculum can be
summarized as follows:
 Interactive, concrete, manipulative instructional approaches can be used in the early
grades to introduce very sophisticated topics in almost any subjects, although math and
science provide the greatest amount of evidence of this approach.
 Activating prior knowledge, or building new learning on prior learning, produces good
learning gains for almost all students, regardless of age or developmental level.
 When viewed as a feature of a national system of education (eg: China or Taiwan) the
use of spiral curriculum appears to produce very solid results.
The Bottom Line
Although there is no clear empirical evidence of the effects of the spiral
curriculum on student learning, features of that curriculum have been linked to improve
learning outcomes. In addition, the spiral curriculum incorporates many research based

10. approaches from cognitive science that have been linked, individually, to improved
student performance as well.
Jerome Bruner
Jerome Bruner was born in USA and his influence on teaching has been important. He
was possibly the leading proponent of discovery approach in mathematical education
although he was not the inventor of the concept.
Bruner describes the general learning process in the following manner. First the child
finds in his manipulation of the materials regularities that correspond with intuitive
regularities it has already come to understand. According to Bruner the child finds some
sort of match between what it is doing in the outside world and some models or
templates that it has already grasped intellectually. For Bruner it is seldom something
outside the learner that is discovered. Instead, the discovery involves an internal
reorganization of previously known ideas in order to establish a better fit between those
ideas and regularities of an encounter to which the learner has had to accommodate.
His approach was characterized by three stages which he calls enactive, i9conic and
symbolic and are solidly based on the development psychology of Jean Piaget. The
first, the enactive level 9s where the child manipulate materials directly. Then he
proceeds to the iconic level, where he deals with mental images of objects but does not
manipulate then directly. At least he moves to the symbolic level, where he is strictly
manipulating symbols and no longer mental images or objects. The optimum learning
process should according to Bruner go through these stages.
1. Enactive mode. When dealing with the enactive mode, one is using some known
aspects of reality without using words or imagination. Therefore, it involves
representing the past events through making motor responses. It involves manly
in knowing how to do something; it involves series of actions that are right for
achieving some result eg. Driving a card, skiing, typing a knot.
2. Iconic Mode. This mode deals with the internal, were the knowledge is
characterized by a set of images that stand for the concept. The iconic
representation depends on visual or other sensory association and is principally

11. defined by perceptual organization and techniques for economically transforming
perceptions into meaning for the individual.
3. Symbolic mode. Through life one is always adding to the resources to the
symbolic mode of representation of thought. This representation is based upon
an abstract discretionary and flexible thought. It allows one to deal with what
might be and what might no, and is a major tool in reflective thinking. This mode
is illustrative of a person’s competence to consider propositions rather than
objects, to give ideas hierarchical structure and to consider alternative
possibilities in a combinatorial fashion.
The association of these ideas of manipulations of actual materials as part of
developmental model and the Socraterian notion of learning as internal
reorganization into a learning by discovery approach is the unique contribution of
Bruner.
In 1960, Bruner (then a professor of Harvard University) proposed a “spiral
curriculum” concept to facilitate structuring a curriculum around the great issues,
principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its
members (Bruner, 1960). The next decades many school system educators
attempted to implement this concept into their curriculum. Bruner (1975)
described the principles behind the spiral curriculum in the following way:
…”I was struck by the fact that successful efforts to teach highly structured
bodies of knowledge like mathematics, physical science, and even the field of
history often took the form of metaphoric spiral in which at some simple level a
set of ideas or operations were introduced in a rather intuitive way and, once
mastered in that spirit, were then revisited and reconstructed in a more formal or
operational way, then being connected with other knowledge, the mastery at this
stage then being carried one step higher to a new level of formal or operational
rigor and to a broader level of abstraction and comprehensiveness. The end
stage of this process was eventual mastery of the convexity and structure of
large body of knowledge”…(p.3-4)

12. It was in the 1980s, that a body of literature had accumulated in support of
individual components of a spiral curriculum model. Reigeluth and Stein (1983)
published the seminal work on “The Elaboration Theory of Instruction”. It prposes
that when structuring a course, it should be organized in a simple to complex
general to detailed, abstract to concrete manner. Another principle is that one
should follow learning prerequisite sequence, it is applied to individual lessons
within a course. In order for a student to develop from simple to more complex
lessons, certain prerequisite knowledge and skills must first be mastered. This
prerequisite sequencing provides linkages between each lesson as student
spirals upwards in a course of study. As new knowledge and skills are introduced
in a subsequent lessons, they reinforce what is already learnt and become
related to previously learned information. What the student gradually achieves is
a rich breadth and depth of information that is not normally developed in curricula
where each topic is discrete and disconnected from each other (Dowding T.J
1993).
Bruner suggested that cognitive process precede perception rather than the
other way around, that a person may not perceive an object until he or she has
recognized it. These cognitive theories of perception emphasize the role of
knowledge in how e interpret the world.
Howard Gardner (1987 p.6) defined cognitive science as “ a contemporary,
empirically based effort to answer long standing epistemological questions
particularly those concerned with the nature of knowledge, its components, its
sources, its development, and its deployment.” The theories of the constructivist
are originated from this school of thought.
The beginning of the 1950s and maintaining through the 1990s, educators drew
on rising insight of communications specialist, learning theories, and systems
engineers. The 1990s have been marked by the challenge of constructivism.
The Concentric and Spiral curriculum can be simply explain and view the
importance of these………………….

15. CONCLUSION
Spiral curriculum incorporates many research based approaches from
cognitive science that have been linked individually, to improve the
student’s performance as well.
REFERENCE
1. Amitkumar , 1995 , Teaching of physical science
, Anmol publications page no: 240-268
2. P.C. Bhatt ,2004 , Science process skills in
Teaching & Learning , Commonwealth
Publishers , page no: 192-196
3. Dr. S.K. Mangal & Shubhra Mangal , 2005,
Teaching of physical science , International
Publishing House , page no: 28-32