Nature, Concepts and Purposes of Curriculum This summary presents the approaches to the curriculum which reflects the views of schools and societies. It will also tell about the view of how social, theoretical and practical issues are utilized in the curriculum. A curriculum approach demonstrates the perspectives on curriculum development, as well as the roles of the learner, the teacher, and the curriculum specialist. It also includes the goals and objectives of the curriculum. It examines the elements and some approaches to the curriculum in this lesson. COMPONENT 1- Curriculum Aims, Goals And Objectives A formal curriculum is embedded in a formal institution called schools. Schools are established institutions which are either run by the government or by the private sector. The Philippine educational system is divided in three educational levels: primary, secondary and tertiary levels. AIMS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Provide basic education that is essential to the development of learners characteristics. As the society keeps on changing, learners should be expose or have an engagement in learning experiences in order for them to have a broader view about the society. Further, it aims to promote learners to be a patriotic citizens. AIMS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Shall continue the functions of the elementary education and expanding the gaining skills that varies to the ability, interest or aptitude of the learners. Aims of Secondary Education focuses on developing the learners skills and allowing them to explore themselves on what they really want in the future and their interest that will equipped and prepare them for tertiary schooling. AIMS OF TERTIARY EDUCATION • Trains learners to be strategic, skillful and competent in their courses because once they graduate, they are equipped to their skills in developing our nation or to raise the standard of living. • Students immerse themselves to discovering everything there is to know. They are learning something new that gives information and knowledge about a modern problem that seeks to apply pre-existing information to real world given that the society is keeps on changing. Each school therefore should be guided by its vision, mission, and goals and its curricula should revolve around these. Goals - There is an institution to accomplished the goal, vision and mission. Benjamin Bloom and his associates classified three big domains of objectives. Each domain is composed of specific skills, attitudes and values which are presented in hierarchy or levels. A. Cognitive Domain (Bloom et al 1956) – domain of thought process includes: 1. Knowledge 2. Comprehension 3. Application 4. Analysis 5. Synthesis 6. Evaluation B. Affective Domain – (Krathwohl, 1964) – domain of valuing, attitude and appreciation includes: 1. Receiving 2. Responding 3. Valuing 4. Organization 5. Characterization C. Psychomotor Domain – (Simpson, 1972) – domain of the use of psychomotor attributes includes: 1. Perception 2. Set 3. Guided response 4. Mechanism 5. Complex overt responses 6. Adaptation 7. Origination COMPONENT 2 – Curriculum Content or Subject Matter Content is more than simply information to be learned in school. It is another term for knowledge. Compilation of facts, concepts generalization principles and theories. Subject areas in basic or general education: future Communication Arts – include macro skills and effective use of language. Mission - how to reach or make into realization the vision Mathematics – includes numerical computational skills. Logic and reasoning. Vision - How school envision/picture out the and Science – includes all branches of natural sciences, exploration and discovery of natural phenomena. Integration – The horizontal connections are needed in subject areas that are similar so that learning will be related to one another. Social Studies – deals with human behavior, includes history, anthropology, psychology Continuity – Learning requires a continuing application of the new knowledge, skills, attitudes or values so that these will be used in daily living. Music – includes basic music theory, singing, playing musical instruments. Physical Education – includes health management and physical fitness, wise use of leisure. Vocational Education – skills and competences required on the labor market, crafts and design. Here are some criteria which can be utilized in the selection of subject matter content or knowledge for the curriculum. 1. Self-sufficiency – According to Scheffler (1970) the prime guiding principle for content selection is helping the learners to attain maximum self-sufficiency in learning but in the most economical manner. Economy means less teaching effort and educational resources, but students gain more results. 2. Significance – When content or subject matter will contribute to basic ideas, concepts, principles, and generalization to achieve the overall aim of the curriculum, then it is significant. 3. Validity – The authenticity of the subject matter selected is its validity. 4. Interest - A learner will value the content if it is meaningful to him or her. 5. Utility – Usefulness of the content or subject matter may be relative to the learner who is going to use it. 6. Learnability – Subject matter in the curriculum should be within the range of the experiences of the learners. 7. Feasibility – Content should be considered within the context of the existing reality in schools, in society and government. In organizing or putting together the different learning contents Palma, 1992 suggested the following principles: balance, articulation, sequence, integration and continuity. Balance – curriculum content should be fairly distributed in depth and breadth of the particular learning area or discipline. Articulation – When each level of subject matter is smoothly connected to the next, glaring gaps and wasteful overlaps in the subject matter will be avoided. Sequence – is the logical arrangement of the subject matter. COMPONENT 3 - Curriculum Experiences Teaching strategies convert the written curriculum into instruction. Both teacher and the learner take action to facilitate learning. The actions are based on planned objectives, the subject matter to be taken and the support materials to be used. Whatever methods the teacher utilizes to implement the curriculum, there will be some guide for selection and use. Here are some of them. 1. teaching methods are means to achieve the end they are used to translate the objectives into actions. 2. There is no single best teaching method, its effectiveness will depend on the learning objectives, the learners and skill of the teacher. 3. Teaching methods should stimulate the learners desire to develop the cognitive, affective, psychomotor, social and spiritual domain of the individual. 4. In the choice of the teaching method, learning styles of the students should be consider. 5. Every method should be lead to the development of the learning outcome on the three domains: Cognitive, affective and psychomotor. 6. Flexibility should be a consideration in the use of teaching method. Component 4 – Curriculum Evaluation PROCESS OF CURRICULUM EVALUATION According to Worthen and Sanders 1987 all curricula to be effective must have the elements of evaluation. Curriculum evaluation here may refer to the formal determination of the quality, effectiveness or value of the program, process, product of the curriculum. Tuckman 1985 defines evaluation as a meeting the goals and matching them with the intended outcomes. STUFFLEBEAM’S CIPP MODEL CIPP MODELS - the process is continuous and it is very important to curriculum manager like principals, supervisors, department head, deans and even teachers. The CIPP model can be taken as a whole, or each component taken separately. It is a long and continuous process. Context- refers to the environment of curriculum. The real situation where curriculum is operating is it’s context. Simply put context evaluation refers to situation analysis. Input - refers to the ingredients of the curriculum which includes the goals, instructional strategies, the learners, the teachers, the contents and all the materials needed. • Behavioral approach which was started with the idea of Frederick Taylor - He aimed to achieve efficiency. Process - the ways and means of how the curriculum has been implemented. This component of the CIPP looks into the entire operation of the curriculum. MANAGERIAL APPROACH – became the dominant curriculum approach in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Product - indicates if the curriculum accomplishes it’s goals. It will determine to what extent the curriculum objectives has been achieve. • The general manager - sets the policies, and priorities, planning and organizing the curriculum and instruction. PROCESS OF CURRICULUM EVALUATION 1. Focus on one particular component of the curriculum - Will it be the subject area, the grade level, the course, or the degree program. Specify the objectives of evaluation. 2. Collect or gather the information Information is made up of data related regarding the objective of evaluation. 3. Organize the information - This step will require coding, organizing, storing and retrieving data for interpretation. 4. Analyze Information - an appropriate way of analyzing will be utilized. 5. Report The Information - the result of evaluation should be reported to specific audiences. Reporting can be done formally in conferences with stakeholders, or informally through roundtable discussions and conversations. 6. Recycle the information - this is for continuous feedback modification and adjustments to be made. There are 4 curriculum approach in the curriculum that may use one or more approaches in planning, implementing, and evaluating the curriculum. These are behavioral approach, managerial approach, system approach, and humanistic approach. BEHAVIORAL APPROACH to curriculum is usually based on a blueprint. When we say blue print in the curriculum it is serves as a basic outline to get your learners on track and stay there as they fulfill their training objectives. • In the blueprint, goals and objectives are specified, and also the contents and activities are arranged in order to match with the learning objectives. • The learning outcomes are must be evaluated in terms of goals and objectives set at the beginning. • The principal – is the curriculum leader. • School administrators – less concerned about the content than about organization and implementation. • Curriculum managers – they administer the resources and restructure the schools. In the SYSTEMS APPROACH to curriculum, the part of the total school district or school are examined in terms of how they relate to each other. The organizational chart of School represent a systems approach. It shows the line-staff relationship of school personnel and how decisions are made. There are 4 main foundation in educational settings: A.)Input B.) Process C.) Output D.) Feedback The HUMANISTIC APPROACH is rooted in the progressive philosophy and child centered movement. The humanistic approach considers the formal and planned curriculum and the informal you hidden curriculum. It considers the whole child and believes that in the curriculum the total development of the individual is the prime consideration. The lesser at the center of the curriculum. (Conclusion) Therefore, the learning objectives and skills that will be introduced, developed, and mastered at each grade level are specified in a well-designed curriculum framework. Students relate new information to what they already know. Each curricular approach is important because it ensures that learning and teaching are consistent and that students can leave a lesson with the same skills they learned, regardless of whether they were taught by a topic specialist or a teacher who is still learning themselves.