The course of deeds and experience through which children grow to become an adult is known as curriculum, it encompasses the entire scope of formative deeds and experiences occurring in and out of school. Curriculum matters mainly because of its potential impacts on students. The fundamental purpose of curriculum development is to ensure that a student receives integrated, coherent learning experiences that contribute towards their personal, academic and professional learning and development.

1. ST JOHN’S UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA
FACULTY OF HUMANITY AND EDUCATION
EDUCATION DEPERTIMENT
DEGREE PROGRAM : BSc EDUCATION
COURSE NAME : PRINCIPLES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
AND TEACHING
COURSE CODE : CT 204
DONE BY;
S/N NAME REG NO SIGNATURE
ASANGALWISYE DEO 2018/0139
Question:
If you apply Benjamin’s idea (in the saber tooth curriculum) to our secondary school curriculum
in the year 2015 towards a middle economy country
a) What major issue would you pose on the purpose of secondary education? (four points)
b) What changes in the secondary school curriculum would you suggest in the attainment of
this goal? (four points)

2. 1
The course of deeds and experience through which children grow to become an adult is known as
curriculum, it encompasses the entire scope of formative deeds and experiences occurring in and
out of school. Curriculum matters mainly because of its potential impacts on students. The
fundamental purpose of curriculum development is to insure that a student receives integrated,
coherent learning experiences that contribute towards their personal, academic and professional
learning and development. Therefore the design and development of curriculum for courses,
topics, and major and minor sequences of topics, should focus on how the educational experience
contribute to student’s development of the graduate qualities.
Curriculum should be planned, designed and developed in such a way to help a student to be
able to tackle different problems and issues happening inside and outside of the school
environment. This includes both experiences which a student can learn from the school like
communication skills, computer skills, language and social skills and experiences which a
student obtains from his or her home’s environment. This will help students to be more
competent in solving different personal and societal problems, embedded with skills which will
help to them to employ themselves instead of waiting for employment opportunities from the
government. (Boydston, 1976)
From the Benjamin’s ideas on the saber tooth curriculum it is shown that during ancient time
there was a man named as new fist hammer or just new fist who was a man of action “doer” who
had dreams and goals and through establishing his curriculum he was able to fulfill or to live his
dreams. New fist’s dream was to help his tribe to have a better life by getting the children do
things that will give the society enough food, shelter, clothing, and security when the children
became grownup and thus the society could have more meat to eat, more skins to keep them
warm, better caves in which to sleep, and less danger from the striped death with the curving
teeth that walks these trails by night. To achieve all of these he therefore established his
curriculum which had mainly three subjects with the first one being fish grabbing with the bare
hands, the second one was woolly horse clubbing and finally, driving away the saber‐tooth tigers
with fire, since the children liked to learn. It was more fun for them to engage in these Purposeful
activities than to play with colored stones. And therefore the society had plenty food to eat, safe
shelter and warm clothes obtained from the animal skins. But conditions changed, and life which
had once been so safe and happy in the cave‐realm valley became insecure and disturbing. This
was due to the fact that the great glacier came from neighboring mountain range to the north

3. 2
from year to year and become closer to the valley and therefore dirt and gravel which the glacier
had collected on its long journey were dropped into the creek. The water grew muddy and make
not seen at all and it was not possible to catch fishes with bare hand. The fish could not be seen
in the muddy water. For some years more over the fish in this creek had been getting timid, agile
and intelligent. The wooly horses also migrated from the valley and the antelopes which came
with the glacier were hard to catch also, all tigers died with pneumonia and they were replaced
by glacial bears which were more dangerous and did not scare fire. Later hunger came in the
whole society. Fortunately, the presence of new fist breed men who were willing to think and do
things came up with the new ways of catching fish by using nets, catching antelope by bending
the spring young tree and they killed bears by digging pits in their trails. Adapting to these new
way of lives, the society were able to have adequate amount of food, their caves were much
secured and plenty animal skins for warmth even more than before. Therefore the society lived
happily once again and these new activities of net making and operating, snare setting, and pit
digging were indispensable to modern existence, and they were to be taught in school (Benjamin,
1939)
Therefore, by applying Benjamin’s ideas (in the saber tooth curriculum) to our secondary school
curriculum in the year of 2025, so as it meet the needs of a middle economy country, the major
issue I would pose on the purpose of secondary education are as follows.
The purpose of secondary education should aim on providing knowledge, developing skills,
attitudes, values essential to personal development and necessary for living in and contributing to
a developing and changing society. The purpose of the secondary education should focus on
imparting useful knowledge, values and skills to the students which will finally help them to
develop their creativity towards creation of different goods and services which will finally help
to boost up our economic system and thus the development in our country will be smoothly
attained, just like the way the New fist society managed to live happily with plenty food, animal
skin and maximum security just because the useful knowledge prior to the needs of the society
were taught to the students and the students enjoyed learning (Benjamin, 1939)
It should also promote and, intensify knowledge, identification with and love for the nation and
the people to which the student belongs. Patriotism is the one among the best factor for
development to take place in our country; it involves a person’s love to his or her nation,

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therefore, patriotism should be emphasized in our secondary schools this will help to bring
development in our country and thus attain the middle economy this is simply because, with
patriotism there will be peace, favorable environmental conditions and thus the people will work
hard for their country, similarly to New fist society where by, with the love to his society and
being patriotic, New fist worked to create a batter, developing society where every person in the
society managed to satisfy his or her basic needs (Benjamin,1939 )
The purpose of secondary education toward attainment of the middle economy should provide
learning experiences which increase a secondary student’s awareness and responsiveness to the
changes in the society. The life and development process is not static but dynamic that means
they change with respect to time, therefore increasing secondary students awareness so that they
may be able to cope up or adopt with the new changes occurring in our country, for example,
students can be aware on self-employment after graduating due to the fact that the employment
opportunities are very scarce, this can also viewed from the saber tooth curriculum where by the
individual adopted new way of obtaining food (net making and operating snare setting ) and
protection against bears by digging pits on their trails which finally enabled them to obtain
plenty food and have maximum security from bears (Benjamin, 1939).
It should also focus on discover and enhancement of different aptitudes and interests of students
in order to equip them with skills for productive achievement. During learning process the
interest of each student should be considered accordingly, students should choose and learn
subjects basing on their own interest, this will help boost our economy development and attain
middle economy due to the fact that, personal interest matters a lot as individual tend work to his
or her best level and this can also be portrayed from saber tooth curriculum, where by it is shown
that child (students) like to learn, and when they learn according to their interest they become
more creative and productive (Benjamin, 1939)
The following are the changes which I suggest to be made in 2025 curriculum so as to attain
middle economy in our country.
Firstly, the curriculum to be made in 2025 should be Significant in content or subject matter. Its
significance will contribute to basic ideas, concepts, principles and generalizations to achieve the
overall aim of the curriculum; also it will develop the cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills
of the learners, the development is more focused and rampant, enhanced through a proper

5. 4
curriculum. Without an effective and significant curriculum, a student would not be able to
understand or meet the challenges of the society. (Bilbao, 2008)
It should also base on the interest of the student. Student’s interest in schooling is the key
criterion for a learner centered curriculum, whereby a learner himself or herself chooses what to
learn or not to learn just according to his or her interest. A learner will value the content if it is
meaningful to him/her. Students’ interests should be adjusted taking into consideration maturity,
prior experiences, educational and social value of their interest among others (Ainley, 1998)
Also, the 2025 curriculum should help to promote Self-sufficiency. To help learners attain
maximum self-sufficiency in the most economical manner is the main guiding principle of
subject matter or content selection. Although the economy of learning implies less teaching
effort and less use of educational resources, students gain more results. They can cope up with
the learning outcomes effectively. This criterion means that students should be given a chance to
experiment, observe, and do field study. This system allows them to learn independently. With
this principle in mind, I suggest that for a high school curriculum or preparatory year, there
should be a one-day independent learning activity each week. However, this should be carefully
planned by the teacher. When the students return, they should present outputs from the activity
(Bilbao, 2008)
The curriculum to be made in our country in 2025 should have validity. Validity refers to the
authenticity of the subject matter or content selected. It has to be sure that the topics are not
obsolete. For example, do not include typewriting as a skill to be learned by college students. It
should be about the computer or Information Technology (IT). Thus, there is a need to check
regularly the subject matter or contents of the curriculum, and replace it if necessary. Modern
curriculum experts are after current trends, relevance and authenticity of the curriculum;
otherwise, the school or the country becomes obsolete. (Bilbao, 2008)
Lastly, our country economic development depend much on the youth, and among of them are
the secondary school students, therefore, the secondary education curriculum should be designed
in such a way to meet the needs of each student in a school basing on their needs, interest and the
societies in which they come from and this will help to promote development in our country as
students will be able to solve different problems occurring in their societies

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REFERENCES
Ainley, M. D. (1998). Interest in learning in the disposition of curiosity in secondary students:
Investigating process and context. In L J. , Germany: Institute for Science Education
at the University of Kiel.
Benjamin, H. (1939). The Saber-Tooth Curriculum (Classic Edition). Published by
McGraw-Hill Education
Bilbao, P. P., Lucido, P. I., Iringan, T. C., Javier, R. B., (2008). Curriculum development. Quezon City,
QC: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.
Boydston, J. A. (Ed.), (1976). The Middle Works Of John Dewey, (vol 1-15), Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press.