M.BADIEI
MEd. Curriculum and Instruction

 Curriculum design focuses on the efforts by which
the curriculum is built or designed, especially in
laying out the parts that are in the planning
curriculum.
 The term curriculum design, which sometimes is
called curriculum organization refers to the
arrangement of the components of a curriculum to
become an entity of its own in solving an important
matter or issue.
 The type of design selected by the teacher is
dependant on the curriculum approach and the
teacher’s philosophy.

 Philosophical and learning theories need to be
determined if the design decisions are in line
with our basic beliefs
 Concerning people, what and how they should
learn, and how they should use their acquired
knowledge

1. Education serves to socialize students to
be functioning members of society or good
citizens.
 Do we create or select a design that
addresses current needs and behaviors or
design templates that allow for imagined
possible and quickly forming futures

2. What knowledge is of most worth? (Plato’s
academic idea)
 How we select and organize knowledge and
content in curriculum development
 What should be selected to foster students
to become literate and thinking individuals
 Need careful reflection of how our
selected design and educational materials
facilitate symbol processes in knowledge
developed

3. The basic maturing of the individual,
specifically growth of the mind (Rousseau’s
development idea)
 what optimal stages for learning or
experiencing diverse realms of knowledge
 Variety of ways in which individuals
process knowledge to gain literacy
 Thus, learner development needs to be
considered when designing a curriculum

 Being your own person
 Developing your individuality
 Emphasizing the need to participate in a
society of equals
 Important questions: How do we choose
among the many views?, How do we process
the 3 basic questions? and Finally, how do we
deal with the main question of what is the
purpose of education and the curriculum?

In designing a curriculum or program, one needs
to ask the following questions;
• What are the aims, goals and objectives to be
achieved in the curriculum or program?
• What are the contents to be presented to
students?
• Which learning experiences are appropriate to
be included or what students’ activities can be
implemented?
• What would be the best assessment used?

(1) the goals, aims and objectives
(2) content,
(3) learning experience and
(4) assessment approach.
 The nature of how each of these components is
organized in planning a curriculum is known
as curriculum design.

 Most curriculum design would contain all four
components, but with a different emphasis.
 Content would be the major emphasis
 Schools sometimes design a curriculum that
emphasizes on objective and assessment.
 Others may focus on students’ learning
experiences or activities.

 In the world of education, curriculum
designers need to know several curriculum
design models that are commonly used, in line
with the problem at hand. To name a few:
 Ornstein & Hunkins (2013)): most are based on
these three designs:-
i. Subject-centered design
ii. Problem-centered design
iii. Learner-centered design

 Most popular and widely used. Knowledge and
content are integral parts of the curriculum
 It covers:
i. Subject design,
ii. Discipline design,
iii. A broad field design,
iv. A correlation design
v. Process design

 The oldest and best known school design to
teachers and laymen.
 It corresponds to textbook treatment and teachers’
training as subject specialists
 Curriculum organized according to how
knowledge has developed in various subject areas
 Rests on the assumptions that subjects are best
outlined in textbooks
 With the explosion of information resulted in
specialization of subjects that made it complex
 Easy to deliver because complimentary textbooks
and support materials are commercially available

 Focuses on academic discipline
 Emphasizes on science, mathematics, English,
History and other disciplines
 Fosters teachers teaching for intelligence
 Encourages students to see each discipline’s basic
logic or structure
 Thus allowing for better understanding of content
and the knowledge on how it can be applied.
 Students need to adapt to the curriculum rather
than the other way around

 The attempt of integrating content that fit together
logically; a) social studies cover subjects like
geography, economics, political science,
anthropology and other social sciences area, b)
language arts consists of subjects like linguistics,
grammar, literature, composition, spelling etc, c)
General science: biology, chemistry, physics
 A change from traditional subject patterns and
very widespread within the K-12 curriculum
 The term “holistic curriculum” came about as well
as integrated thematic units

 Attempts to identify ways in which subjects
can be related yet maintain their separate
identities
 Examples; English literature and history,
science and mathematics: the subjects are
related but it has its own identity
 Innovation comes in when subjects are
combined; for example literature is combined
with art that depicts similar content

 Cooperative teaching would be required;
proper planning on how team teaching could
be implemented.
 Not enough time to prepare such collaboration
since they have self contained classes
 Most class schedules do not allow a block of
time sufficient for students to meaningfully
study correlated subjects
 Thus, not widely accepted

 Focus on teaching for intelligence and on the
development of intellectual character
 Emphasizes procedures that enable students to
analyze reality and create frameworks by which to
arrange derived knowledge
 Students learn process of knowledge acquisition
in order to reach some degree of consensus
 Encourages students to unravel the processes by
which they investigate and reach conclusions.
 Most dynamic design and may meld with designs
identified as learner-centered design

Identified as:-
i. Child-centered design
ii. Experience-centered designs
iii. Romantic/radical designs
iv. Humanistic design
 Found more frequently at the elementary
school level where teacher stresses on the
whole child
 At secondary level emphasis is more on
subject-centered design

 Students must be active in their learning
environment and learning should not be
separated from students’ lives, needs and
interest
 Requires careful observation of students and
faith that they can articulate those needs and
interests and must have EDUCATIONAL
Values
 Must have classroom opportunities to explore,
firsthand, physical, social, emotional, and
logical knowledge

 Children attain self realization through social
participation; they voiced the principle of learning
by doing
 The instructional approach must be free, drawing
on the child’s innate tendency to become engaged
in interesting things
 Curriculum organized around human impulses:
the impulse to socialize, construct, inquire,
question, experiment, and express or create
artistically
 Teachers and students participate in planning
allowing them empowerment

 Heavily emphasize the learners’ interest, creativity and
self direction
 Teacher creates a stimulating learning environment
where students can explore, come into direct contact
with knowledge, and observe others’ learning and
action. Learning is a social activity
 Students in optimal school environments are self
motivated; educator’s role is to provide opportunities,
not to mandate certain actions
 Students are empowered to shape their own learning
within the context furnished by teachers

 Schools organized themselves, their curriculum
and their students from people’s careful planning
and intent
 It reflects and address the desire of those in power
 Organized to foster students’ belief in and desire
for a common culture that does not actually exist
and to promote intolerance of difference
 Individuals must learn to critique knowledge and
that learning is reflective and it does not externally
imposed by someone in power

 Teachers are “awareness makers”
 They expose, offer, encourage, stimulate,
challenge, create awe and wonder, and nurture
inquisitiveness
 Students should be challenged in their
learning, should have adventures in total
learning in cognitive, physical, emotional and
spiritual realms since EDUCATION is an
ADVENTURE

 There is a relationship between learning and
feeling
 Educators must permit students to feel, value and
grow
 Abraham Maslow’s concept of self-actualization
has influenced this approach
 8 characteristics of a self actualized person:
1. Accepting of self, others and nature
2. Spontaneous, simple and natural

3. Problem oriented
4. Open to experiences beyond the ordinary
5. Empathetic and sympathetic towards the less
fortunate
6. Sophisticated in interpersonal relations
7. Favoring democratic decision making
8. Possessing a philosophical sense of humor
 Maslow stated that process of self actualization
begins when they are students, and will only self
actualized when they are 40 years or more.

 Carl Roger - another major humanistic force
 He advocates self directed learning, where
students draw on their own resources to improve
self understanding and guide their own behavior
 Educators should provide environment that
encourages genuineness, empathy, and self
respect for self and others
 Resulting in a fully functioning people
 Knowledge is relevant to problem solving
 Rogers posits that “Mistakes are accepted as part
of learning process”

 Humanistic educators realize that COGNITIVE,
AFFECTIVE, and PSYCHOMOTOR domains are
interconnected and curricula should address these
domains
 Social and spiritual domains are added on to
humanistic design
 Some stresses on intuition, creative thinking, and a
holistic perception of reality
 James Moffat added spirituality and morality, not
just knowledge and power

 Problems are approached with flexibility and
intelligence; they work cooperatively but do not
need approval of others
 Humanistic curriculum designs allow students to
experience learning with emotion, imagination
and wonder
 Should not address only the conceptual structures
of knowledge but also its implication
 The design should allow students to formulate a
perceived individual and social good and
encourage them to participate in a community

1. Teachers must have great skills and competencies
in dealing with individuals
2. Teachers require a complete change of mindset
because they value the social, emotional and
spiritual realms above the intellectual realm
3. Available educational materials are often not
appropriate
4. It fails to consider consequences for learners
5. It overemphasizes the individual, ignoring the
society’s needs

 Considers real-life problems of individuals and
society
 Intended to reinforce cultural traditions and
address unmet needs of community and society
 Based on social issues
 Placed the individual within a social setting and
are planned before the students’ arrival
 Depends largely on the nature of problems to be
studied
 Content must address students’ needs, concerns
and abilities

 Three assumptions are fundamental to life-
situation design:
1. dealing with persistent life situation is crucial to a
society’s successful functioning, and it makes
educational sense to organize a curriculum around
them.
2. Students see the relevance of content if it is
organized around aspects of community life
3. Having students study social or life situations will
directly involve them in improving society

 Focus on problem solving procedures; content is
organized in ways that allow students to clearly view
problem area
 This design uses learners past and present experiences
to get them to analyze the basic aspects of living; needs
and interests of learners are the sole basis for content
and experience selection
 This design integrates subject matter; it encourages
students to learn and apply problem solving
procedures. Subject matter and real life situations
linked together increases curriculum relevance

 Some critics said that this design does not expose
students to their cultural heritage and it tends to
indoctrinate youth to accept existing conditions
and thus perpetuates social status quo
 Teachers may lack adequate preparation to mount
life situations curriculum
 Textbooks and other teaching materials inhibit the
implementation of this design
 Teachers are not comfortable with life situations
design because it departs too much from their
training

 This design emphasizes the development of
society.
 Curriculum designers are interested in finding
the relationship between the curriculum with
the development of society socially, politically
and economically.
 They believe that curriculum is made possible
through a change in society that will ultimately
create a better society

 Harold Ruggs believed that schools should
engage children in critical analysis of society in
order to improve it.
 Theodore Brameld also believed that schools
should help students develop into social beings
dedicated to the common good
 Primarily, it is to engage students in critical
analysis of the local, national, and international
community in order to address humanity’s
problems

 Curriculum design is a complex activity
conceptually and in its implementation
 The complexity is fueled by numerous
educational visions
 Curriculum is designed so as to optimize
student learning and satisfy a cacophony of
community voices, from local to international
 It must be carefully considered so that the
curriculum imparts essential understandings,
attitudes and skills

 When designing a curriculum one needs to
decide the wide range of interacting elements
 These elements should be considered together
and not as a series of agenda items
 Choices about aims affect methods on
assessment
 Availability of resources may support or
preclude methods of learning
 Practicalities of time and place may dictate the
mode of instruction

 Views of different stakeholder have major
impact
 Students are important but their needs must fit
with demands of employers
 Everyone in the team must share a common
understanding of the curricula pressure
 Everyone needs to negotiate about the locus of
control
 Educational thinkers must ponder multiplicity

Key questions Aspects
1 What knowledge, skills and attitudes will the students
aim to develop?
Leaning outcomes; general skills; comptences; personal
attributes
2 What is the content of the programme? General and
specific, types of knowledge, stakeholder needs
General and specific; types of knowledge; stakeholders
needs
3
What is the teaching/learning methodology?
Content; learning styles; teaching methods; delivery
modes
4
What is the assessment strategy?
Diagnostic; formative; summative; peer; self; group;
method
5
How will the students be supported? Tutors; mentors; peers; managers
6
How will the tutors be supported? Training; networking; organisational culture
7
What are the resource implications? Books; computers; time; money; learning; environment
8
How will the programme be managed?
Recruitment; infastructure; funding; partnerships;
records systems
9
How will the programme be evaluated? Quality assurance; stakeholders