The document explores the meaning and development of curriculum, emphasizing its role in student education and societal needs. It discusses various types of curricula and outlines philosophical, sociological, and psychological foundations relevant to curriculum design, alongside models for effective curriculum development. Additionally, it highlights the importance of a flexible approach to meet diverse learner needs and societal expectations.

1. SUBMITTED BY:
PRACHI CHAUDHARY
M.ED SEM-2
CURRICULUM
STUDIES

2. Meaning of Curriculum
 The curriculum word is of Latin language. It means
‘race course’ and in education it means ‘work field of
students’ or ‘race course of students’. The word
course means curriculum and race refers to students
experiences and activities.
 Curriculum is the instructional and the educative
programe by following which the pupils achieve their
goals, ideals and aspirations of life.
 It is curriculum through which the general aims of a
school education receive concrete expression.

3. Definitions of Curriculum
 According to B. Rudyand and H. Henry
“ Curriculum in its broadest sense includes the
complete school environment, involving all the
course, activities, reading and associations furnished
to the pupils in school.”
 According to Cunninghous
“ It (curriculum) is a tool in the hands of the artist
(teacher) to mould his material (pupil) according to
his ideal (objective) in his studio (school).”

4. Curriculum Development
 Curriculum development is defined as planned, a
purposeful, progressive, and systematic process to
create positive improvements in the educational
system.
 Curriculum development is not only about the
school, the learners, and the teachers. It is also about
the development of society in general.
 It is defined as the process of selecting, organizing,
executing, and evaluating learning experiences on
the basis of the needs, abilities and interests of the
learners and the nature of the society or community.

5. Curriculum Development Process
 The development of an effective curriculum guide is a
multi-step, ongoing and cyclical process. The process
progresses from evaluating the existing program, to
designing an improved program, to implementing a new
program and back to evaluating the revised program.
 Components of an Effective Curriculum
Development Process
A. Planning:
1. Convening a Curriculum Development Committee
2. Identifying Key Issues and Trends in the Specific
Content Area
3. Assessing Needs and Issues

6. B. Articulating and Developing:
4. Articulating a K-12 Program Philosophy
5. Defining K-12 Program, Grade-Level and Course Goals
6. Developing and Sequencing of Grade-Level and Course
Objectives
7. Identifying Resource Materials to Assist with Program
Implementation
8. Developing and/or Identifying Assessment Items and
Instruments to Measure Student Progress
C. Implementing:
9. Putting the New Program into Practice

7. D. Evaluating:
10. Updating the Program
11. Determining the Success of the Program

8. Types of Curriculum
 There are various types of curriculum that can be
developed:
1. Subject centered or teacher centered curriculum
2. Learner centered curriculum
3. Task centered or activity centered curriculum
4. Objective centered curriculum
5. Correlated curriculum
6. Core curriculum
7. Integrated curriculum

9.  Subject centered curriculum- This model focuses on
the content of the curriculum. The subject centered
design corresponds mostly to the textbook written for the
specific subject
 Learner centered curriculum- curriculum is
constructed based on the needs, interest, purposes and
abilities of the learners. The curriculum is also built upon
the learner’s knowledge, skills, learning and potentials.
 Task centered curriculum- we arrange various
activities in order to teach content in a sequence to
achieve the desired objectives. We follow the principle of
using 3H i.e. head, heart and hand.

10.  Objective centered curriculum- it is based on
Bloom’s evaluation approach. Objectives are written
in behavioral terms and are used as yardstick against
which the evaluation is done and performance is
measured.
 Co-related curriculum- different subjects of
school are taught in correlation with each other. It is
difficult to design this type of curriculum. The
content of different subjects should have same level
of students comprehension.

11.  Core curriculum- this type of curriculum is
divided into two types of courses. One is core subject
and the other is optional. Core subjects are
compulsory for all whereas students choose few
optional subjects.
 Integrated curriculum- in this type there is
integration at different levels i.e. different subjects,
classroom with real life. common purpose of
education should be served.

12. Philosophical foundations of Curriculum
Idealism
 Plato, Hegel and Fredrick Frobel advocates the idealist
philosophy.
 Idealism emphasis that moral and spiritual reality is the
chief explanation of the world.
 Importance is given to Truth and values.
 Brain is the pool of ideas. We have all ideas in our brain and
we extract ideas from brain and apply in the situations.
 Teacher’s task is to bring that hidden knowledge to
consciousness.
 According to idealists order and pattern of a subject matter
should be related to ideas and concepts.

13.  Idealist considers classics to be the ideal subject matter
because curriculum can be fixed and will not vary with
the time.
 According to idealist, knowledge comes from studying
the external ideas and universal truth is found in arts.
 In idealist curriculum more importance is given to
abstract subjects like mathematics, physics, music, art
and less importance is given to subjects like natural
and physical sciences.
 Language is also an important subject because it is
necessary for communication.

14. Realism
 Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Pestalozzi and Harry
Broudy are the leading realists.
 According to realist, students come to know the
world through their senses.
 Views world in terms of physical objects.
 Realist focus on experiencing things. Students learn
better through experiments based on their senses.
 Realist stresses that curriculum consists of organized
subject matter, content and knowledge that classifies
objects.
 Realist emphasizes the subject matter of the physical
world, particularly science and mathematics.

15.  Realist view subject matter experts as the source of
authority.
 According to realist, reality and truth emanates from
both science and arts.

16. Pragmatism
 Pragmatism refers as experimentalism.
 Pragmatists believe that reality is constantly
changing and that we learn best through applying
our experiences and thoughts to problems.
 Learning occurs as a person engages in problem
solving.
 Teaching is more exploratory than explanatory i.e.
teaching methods like problem solving,
experimenting, and projects should be used.
 According to pragmatists teaching method is more
important than subject matter.

17. Existentialism
 People face number of choice making situations, some
choices are minor and others are major or important.
 Choices are individual’s decision. A person creates
his/her own definition and in doing so makes his/her
essence.
 Existentialism free learners to choose what to study.
Students are exposed to a wide range of options from
which they choose their interest areas.
 Education is about freedom of choice and taking
responsibility of the effects of his/her choices.
 Subjects like literature, drama, film making, art and so
on are important because they portray the human
condition.

18. Sociological foundations of Curriculum
 The society influences the school curriculum.
 Curriculum should be constructed according to the
needs, requirements and conditions of the society.
 Curriculum should prepare students for the world of
tomorrow by providing them the knowledge and
values they need to make wise decisions.
 Curriculum should be constructed in accordance
with the needs, requirements, conditions and
aspirations of society so that qualities of sociability
and citizenship are inculcated in each child.

19.  Representative groups for setting educational
priority:
1. Students- students are mature and responsible enough
to provide their inputs in curriculum construction.
2. Parents- parents input is also important as to know
what they expect from school and what aspiration does
they have because they are the one who provide the
students and the taxes(money).
3. Educators- teachers, supervisors and administrators
have the major responsibility in the curriculum
development as they are the one who is going to follow
that curriculum.

20. 4. Research Community- the role of researchers is
to provide information about the latest trend and
issues in curriculum development.
5. Community members- community members are
parents of the children and others members of the
society. They have the responsibility to provide their
input in school matters at different levels.
6. Business Community- they are stakeholders of
the school because of their economic and political
influences. They are part of school in terms of human
capital, technology and industrial output.

21. 7. Government Officials- they are also the important
part of schools because education and politics go hand in
hand and political parties have a great influence on the
curriculum development process.
8. Pressure groups- these are the people who try to
influence the public policy in the interest of a particular
cause. It includes religious groups, NGOs,
environmentalists etc.
9. Professional organizations- the input of the
professional organizations is important in terms of
obtaining support from the educational establishment.
Their agenda is to see that how educational aims benefits
their memberships, professional roles and
responsibilities warrant what is good for schools.

22. 10. Governing bodies- representatives from
government and legislative groups should be
included in this process because they have the power
to change, modify, and bring necessary changes in
the curriculum.
 Curriculum should contain language, arithmetic,
health education, general science and other subjects
to enable children to earn livelihood.

23. Psychological foundations of curriculum
 Psychological foundation emphasizes that ‘education
is for the child and not that child for education.’ in
other words, child is the centre of educational
process.
 Child develops through various stages. There are
individual differences of interests, needs, capabilities
and abilities among children.
 Curriculum should be flexible to meet the individual
needs of the children and allow each children to
develop along his natural part and progress at his
own speed. For this, curriculum should include
games , sports, and creative activities.

24.  There are 2 schools of thought under psychological
foundation of curriculum:
1. Behaviorism- learning is considered as habit
formation and teaching is regarded as arranging
learning experiences in such as way as to promote
desirable behavior.
A curriculum, according to behaviorists should be:
 remediation, skills acquisition, considerations of basic
or advanced learning
 appropriate instructional materials and media to suit
the learner’s abilities that shape behavior through
tasks, activities, close supervision of activities and
positive reinforcement.

25.  Cognitivism- focus their attention on how
individuals process information and how the
monitor and manage thinking. For the cognitive
theorists, learning constitutes a logical method for
organizing and interpreting learning. Learning is
rooted in the tradition of subject matter where
teachers use a lot of problem and thinking skills in
teaching learning. These are exemplified by practices
like reflective thinking, creative thinking, intuitive
thinking, discovery learning.

26. Technical -Scientific Approach
 It views curriculum development as something similar to
engineering.
 It is the scientific method which involves a logical step by
step procedure for problem solving.
 According to this approach, curriculum development is
highly objective, universal and logical.
 Reality can be defined and represented in symbolic form.
 Aims of education can be stated precisely and addressed
in a linear form.
 The procedure is guided by well defined objectives which
are formulated based on the analysis of normative needs
as defined by development and other psychological
theories rather than individual needs and interests.

27. Tyler’s Model
 This model is most influential model in the field of
curriculum development.
 It is given by Tyler in 1949 in his book ‘Basic Principles of
Curriculum and Instruction.’
 The rationale for the model is how to construct a planned
curriculum.
 He discussed four basic principles of curriculum
development:
1. Purpose of the school- here purpose means
objectives. Curriculum planners should identify general
objectives by gathering information from the sources
and these sources are subject matter, learners and
society.

28. 2. Educational experiences related to purpose- after
identifying objectives, curriculum developers refine
these objectives through 2 screens- Philosophy of
school and psychology of learning. Tyler then discussed
how to select educational experiences that help in
attainment of objectives. Learning experiences had to
take into account with previous experiences and
perception that the learners bring to situation.
3. Organization of the experiences- order of the
experiences has to be systematic to produce maximum
output. Organizing elements like ideas, concepts,
values and skills should be woven as threads into
curriculum fabric. These can help in relating different
learning experiences of different subjects.

29.  4. Evaluation of the purpose- evaluation is
important in curriculum development. It is to find
out whether the learning experiences produced the
desired results or not. It was to determine whether
the programme is effective or not. It guide whether
the programme should be maintained or modified.

30. Aims and
objectives
Selection of
the content
Organization of
the content
Selection of
the learners
Organization of
the learner’s
experiences
Evaluation

31. Hilda Taba’s model
 Taba felt that the administrative model was really in
the wrong order. She improved Tyler’s model by
making a linear model.
 The curriculum should be designed by the users
(teachers) of the curriculum.
 She believed that teachers who teach or implement
the curriculum should participate in developing it.
 They should adopt an inductive approach to learning
i.e. from specific to general rather than the
traditional deductive approach, starting from the
general to the specific.

32.  Taba noted 7 major steps of her grass root model:
1. Diagnosis of needs- teachers identifies the needs of
the students for whom the curriculum is to be
developed.
2. Formulation of objectives- teacher specifies the
objectives by which the needs will be fulfilled.
3. Selection of content- objectives selected suggest the
subject matter or content of curriculum. Validity and
significance of the content chosen needed to be
determined.
4. Organization of content- arrange the content in a
particular sequence keeping in mind the maturity of the
learners, academic achievement, interests etc.

33. 5. Selection of learning experience- facilitate
interaction of learners with content through
appropriate instructional methodology.
6. Organization of learning activities- the
learning activities be organized in a sequence
depending both on content sequence and learner
characteristics.
7. Evaluation and means of evaluation- to assess
the achievement of the learning objectives,
evaluation procedures need to be derived.

34. Non-technical Non-scientific Approach
 It is subjective, personal, aesthetic, heuristic and
transactional.
 It stress on learner rather than output.
 Subject matter has importance only if students can find
meaning in it for himself/herself.
 Emphasize on activity-oriented approaches to teaching
and learning.
 This approach considers that the curriculum should
evolve rather than being planned precisely.
 This approach to curriculum development focus on
learner’s self perception of needs and preferences.
 Learners are involved in the curriculum planning
process.

35.  This approach is flexible and less structured without
pre determined objectives to guide the teaching-
learning process.
 The need and interest of the learners and society are
the priority.
 Teacher should provide pupils opportunities to
observe and discover and learn on their own.

36.  According to this approach, learners(students) know
themselves better than anyone else and they are
capable to identify the learning experiences that can
help them in proper growth and social development.
 Non-technical non- scientific approach focus on
learners needs and the subject matter.

37. Open classroom model
 The open classroom was based on an activity
curriculum in which the activities were often treated
as ends in themselves.
 The curriculum was not necessarily put into place for
any particular social rationale. The activity
curriculum also known as the activity movement has
had a long history in the century.
 The activity curriculum basically was a reaction to
the current practice of conducting much school
learning with only the teacher actively engaged and
the learner remaining passive and silent unless given
permission to move.

38.  Open classroom is an arena in which pupils can
make choices and pursue what interest them.
 Teachers find that the things that work best for him
are the unplanned ones that arise spontaneously
because of a student suggestion or sudden
perception