This document summarizes different theories of curriculum. It discusses four main groups identified by Herbert Kliebard: mental disciplinarians/humanists who believe in developing reasoning; social efficiency educators who aimed to design curriculum to optimize students' social roles; developmentalist/child study theorists who focused on students' developmental stages; and social meliorists who saw education as tool for social reform. It also outlines John Dewey's progressive curriculum theory and the social efficiency ideology of early 20th century theorists like Bobbitt and Thorndike. Finally, it discusses the importance of culturally diverse curriculum that represents minority students.

1. Curriculum
Theory

2. Is an academic discipline
devoted to examining and
shaping educational curricula.
CT includes both the historical
analysis of curriculum and ways
of viewing current educational
curriculum and policy decisions.

3. Herbert Kliebard
Discusses four curriculum groups
that he calls humanist (or mental
disciplinarians), social
efficiency, developmentalist (or
child study), and social meliorists.

4. Michael Stephen Schiro
Labels the philosophies of these
groups the scholar academic
ideology, social efficiency
ideology, learner-centered
ideology, and social reconstruction
ideology.

5. Mental Discilinarians and
Humanists
Believe in all students abilities to
develop mental reasoning and that
education was not intended for social
reform in itself but for the systematic
development of reasoning power.

6. Social Meliorism
Believe that education is a tool to
reform society and create change of the
better.
This socialization of goal was based
on the power of the individual’s
intelligence, and the ability to improve
on intelligence through education.

7. An individual’s future was not
predetermined by gender
, race, socio-economic
status, heredity or any other factors.
Some critics contend that this
group has goals that are difficult to
measure and a product that has slow
results.

8. John Dewey’s Curriculum Theory
Felt that the curriculum should
ultimately produce students who would
be able to deal effectively with the
modern world. Therefore, curriculum
should not be presented as finished
abstractions, but should include the
child’s preconceptions and should
incorporate how the child views his or her
own world.

9. Dewey uses four instincts, or
impulses, to describe how to
characterize children’s behavior. The
four instincts according to Dewey are
social constructive, expressive, and
artistic.

10. Curriculum should build an orderly
sense of the world where the child
lives. Dewy hoped to use accomplish
this goal was to combine subject
areas and materials. By doing
this, Dewy made connections
between subject and the child’s life.

11. Social efficiency
Educators

12. Aiming to design a curriculum that
would optimize the “Social Utility” of
each individual in a society.
- Theorists
Ross, Bobbitt, Gilberth, Taylor and
Thorndike

13. Using Education as an efficiency
tool the society could be controlled.
Student could be scientifically
evaluated (such as I.Q Test)
Educated towards their predicted
role in society.

14. Efficiency of factories which could
simultaneously produce able factory
workers.
Emphasis or testing and
separating student based on the
result of that testing.

15. Culturally and
Ethnically Diverse
Curriculum

16. Important elemenet in te neative
scoolin experience s of minority
student because a traditional
curriculum d0es not adequetely
represent tier theory.
- Suleiman ( 2001)
- Taylor and Whittaker (2003)

17. Prepare academics and teacers to
developt curriculum that support
ethics and hcultural diversity tat
focuses on understanding te learner
and te developin curricula and
practice that is consistent and
thoughtful.
- Gay ( 2001)
- Villeas and Lucas (2003)
- Jabbar and Hardaker (2012)

18. Developmentalism

19. Development of children’s
emotional and behavioral qualities.
Using the characteristics of
children and youth as the source of
the curriculum.