Local and Global Trends Issues and Concerns in Curriculum
Basis for Curricular Improvements: Brief Background
1. Education for all.
2. Reorientation of Educational system. Learning to know, to do, to be, and to live together.
3. Increasing the role of scientific literacy and technological skills.
A. Emerging Trends in Education:
1. A shift in educational goals and objectives towards using educational systems to prepare
learners as functioning citizens of the Twenty -first century.
2. A move towards decentralizing various aspects/processes of curriculum development,
implementation and administration.
3. The national curriculum for basic education is being diversified precisely to meet the basic
learning needs of different groups in the population.
4. Emphasis on education programs that enhance science and technology literacy and are
introducing as much ICT in schools as they can support.
5. Emphasis on independent study or self-learning, and of inculcating in students the love and
desire to learn and the basic skills for learning.
6. Pedagogically, shifts have also been occur ring away from traditional approaches where
teachers are the major authority in knowledge construction and transmission.
7. Experimentation on various teaching-learning methods and approaches to attain a better
integration of the contents of the curriculum both within and across subject offerings.
8. There is an increasing awareness of the need to reorient teaching-learning processes and
outcomes away from earlier notions that education is primarily a means for preparing
students to take and pass school tests and national standard examinations.
“Curriculum renewal today requires educators and curriculum specialists to go beyond the
framework of a content- and competency- based curriculum.
Summary of Emerging Trends
“Educators and curriculum developers, too, must work to ensure the effective implementation of
new curricular reforms and innovations.”
A.K-12 Curriculum Concerns and Problems
What is K-12?
K-12 has kindergarten as base, to be followed by six years of elementary (Grades 1 to 6), four
years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10), and two years of senior high school (Grades 11 and
12).
Why K-12?
As of School Year 2009-2010, National Achievement Test (NAT) passing rates for Grade 6 and
4th year students are only 69 and 46 percent, respectively. In the Trends for International Math
and Sciences Study (TIMSS), the Philippines often placed fourth from last. “You are given ten
years to take in, to chew on, and to digest the lessons. There is no time for the children to savor
the knowledge they are receiving. You just keep feeding and feeding them.” -Pres. Aquino-
Is K to 12 sustainable?
The development of a better-educated society capable of pursuing productive employment,
entrepreneurship, or higher education disciplines.
How to fund the program?
To implement K to 12, it would need at least P363.29 billion in 2013; P361.17 billion in 2014;
P377.21 billion in 2015; P423.04 billion in 2016; and P443.55 billion in 2017.
Where will more, better trained teachers come from?
Teachers in Elementary and High School will need to go through some adjustments with the new
curriculum. Teachers will not get an additional workload for the K to 12 implementation, as the
Magna Cart for Public School Teachers provides that teachers should teach only up to six hours a
day.
Will K to 12 solve the country’s employment, development problems?
The goal, according to DepEd, is for a student who completes K to 12 to be “equipped with skills,
competencies, and recognized certificates equivalent to a two-year college degree.
B.UNESCO and UNICEF Global Concerns in the Curriculum
UNESCO- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNICEF- United Nations Children’s Fund
“Children have the right to an education, a quality education.”
Quality education includes:
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Learners who are healthy, well-nourished and ready to participate and learn, and supported
in learning by their families and communities;
Environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate
resources and facilities;
Content that is reflected in relevant curricula and materials for the acquisition of basic
skills, especially in the areas of literacy, numeracy and skills for life, and knowledge in
such areas as gender, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and peace.
Processes through which trained teachers use child-centered teaching approaches in wellmanaged classrooms and schools and skilful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce
disparities.
Outcomes that encompass knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are linked to national goals
for education and positive participation in society.
C. Global Concerns in the Curriculum
1. Quality Learners
A. Good Health and Nutrition
B. Early childhood psychosocial development experiences.
C. Regular attendance for learning.
D. Family support for learning
2. Quality Learning Environments
A. Physical Elements
a. Quality of school facilities
b. Interaction between school infrastructure and other quality dimensions.
c. Class size
B. Psychosocial elements
a. Peaceful, safe environments, especially for girls.
b. Teachers’ behaviors that affect safety.
c. Effective school discipline policies.
d. Inclusive environments.
e. Non-violence.
C. Service Delivery
a. Provision of health services.
3. Quality Content
A. Student-centered, non-discriminatory, standards-based curriculum structures. Curriculum should emphasize deep rather than broad coverage of important areas of
knowledge, authentic and contextualized problems of study, and problem-solving that
stresses skills development as well as knowledge acquisition.
B. Uniqueness of local and national content. - quality content should include several
pivotal areas. These include literacy, numeracy, life skills and peace education — as
well as science and social studies.
C. Literacy - Literacy, or the ability to read and write, is often considered one of the
primary goals of formal education.
D. Numeracy - Also known as „quantitative literacy‟, numeracy encompasses a range of
skills from basic arithmetic and logical reasoning to advanced mathematics and
interpretative communication skills (Steen, 1999).
E. Life Skills - are defined as “psycho-social and interpersonal skills used in every day
interactions…not specific to getting a job or earning an income”.
F. Peace Education - Peace education seeks to help students gain the ability to prevent
conflict, and to resolve conflict peacefully when it does arise.
G. Challenges in reaching large numbers of children with quality content.
a. Teachers often find curricular integration and inter-disciplinarily difficult,
especially when the teacher does not have a role in curriculum design;
b. Subjects that do not appear on important examinations are not always taken
seriously;
c. Social attitudes towards the subject may not be favorable, and cultural patterns
are difficult to change;
d. Ideas conceived in other regions of the world may not be adequately adapted
to the local context;
e. Political and economic instability can lead to discontinuity in policies and
programs, as well as teacher and administrator turnover
4. Quality Processes
A. Teachers
a. Professional learning for teachers.
b. Teacher competence and school efficiency.
c. Ongoing professional development.
d. Continuing support for student-centered learning.
e. Active, standards-based participation methods.
f. Teacher feedback mechanisms.
g. Teacher beliefs that all students can learn.
h. Teacher’s working conditions.
B. Supervision and Support
a. Administrative support and leadership.
b. Student access to languages used at school.
c. Using technologies to decrease rather than increase disparities.
d. Diversity of processes and facilities.
5. Quality Outcomes
A. Achievement in literacy and numeracy. - Academic achievement in general and
achievement in literacy and numeracy in particular represent key educational
outcomes.
B. Using formative assessment to improve achievement outcomes. - Testing information
tends to be used primarily as a screening device to decide who can continue to the next
grade of level rather than as a tool to help improve educational quality for individuals
and systems.
C. Outcomes sought by parents. - Parents tend to see academic achievement as closely
related to the opportunity for social promotion and employment. - These anticipated
outcomes tend to be highly valued by families: future employment possibilities that
result from education seem to be a primary factor in the demand for primary education
(Bergmann, 1996).
D. Experiential approaches to achieving desired outcomes. - schools can help build
social capital and create interconnecting links that promote quality affective and
behavioural outcomes for children (Bronfenbrenner, 1986).
E. Health outcomes. - Students should receive services to improve their health, such as
treatment for illness and infection and school feeding programs to improve nutrition,
as well as curricular content that increases their knowledge and affects their behaviour
related to health and hygiene.
F. F.Lifeskills and outcomes. - Psychosocial and interpersonal skills can be applied to
many contexts — HIV/AIDS prevention, drug abuse.