The Teacher and The School Curriculum
Lesson 8: Foundations of Curriculum
I. Historical Foundations
These are the chronological development of curriculum along a timeline:
- He started the curriculum development movement (called no to punishment to learn).
- Curriculum is a science that emphasizes students’ needs.
- Curriculum prepares learners for adult life.
- Objectives and activities should group together when tasks are clarified.
Franklin Bobbitt viewed curriculum as a scientific process of organizing clear objectives and activities around students’ needs, with the ultimate goal of preparing them for the responsibilities of adult life. In essence, he launched the curriculum development movement by stressing efficiency, clarity, and real-life relevance in education.
- Education as a means of shaping the person and society through critical reflections and “conscientization.”
- Teachers use questioning and problem posing approach to raise students’ consciousness.
- Emphasis on questioning problem posing and critical thinking.
Paulo Freire saw education as a practice of freedom, where learners develop critical consciousness (“conscientization”) through reflection and dialogue. Instead of passively receiving knowledge, students engage in questioning and problem-posing with teachers to transform both themselves and society.
- Curriculum organized around needs of society and the students.
- Reduce student conformity in classroom.
- Constant need for school improvement.
- Emphasis on active learning and critical thinking.
- Involvement of students in planning, curriculum content and instructional activities.
- Need to align content with standards.
John Goodlad believed curriculum should balance the needs of society with those of students, encouraging active learning, critical thinking, and student participation in planning. He emphasized reducing conformity, continuously improving schools, and aligning content with educational standards to make learning more meaningful and democratic.
- Broaden the conception of curriculum to enrich the practice.
- Understand the nature of the educational experience.
- Curriculum involves multiple disciplines.
- Curriculum should be studied from a historical, racial, gendered, phenomenological, postmodern, theological and international perspectives.
William Pinar reconceptualized curriculum as more than just a plan of study, it is a lived educational experience that must be examined through multiple lenses (historical, racial, gendered, phenomenological, postmodern, theological, and international). His work broadened curriculum theory to include diverse disciplines and perspectives, enriching both its practice and its understanding.
- He created the 10 Axioms for Curriculum Designers.
- Axioms are principles that practitioners as curriculum designers can use as guidelines or a frame of reference.
| 10 Axioms | |
|---|---|
| 1. Curriculum change is inevitable, necessary, and desirable. | Societal development and knowledge revolution come so fast and require new curriculum designs. |
| 2. Curriculum is the product of its time. | Curriculum is timeless which means it responds to changes that come from current social forces, educational reforms, etc. |
| 3. Curriculum changes made earlier can exist concurrently with newer curriculum changes. | Curriculum development changes co-exist and overlap. |
| 4. Curriculum change depends on the people who will implement the change. | It is best that teachers design and own the changes. |
| 5. Curriculum change is a cooperative group activity. | Group decisions in some aspects of curriculum development are suggested. Consultations with stakeholders, when possible, will add a sense of ownership. |
| 6. Curriculum development is a decision-making process made from choices of alternatives. | A curriculum developer/designer must decide what content to teach and what method or strategies to use. |
| 7. Curriculum development is an ongoing process. | As the needs of the learners change, as society changes, and as new knowledge and technology appear, the curriculum must change. |
| 8. Curriculum development is more effective if it is a comprehensive process rather than a piecemeal. | A curriculum designs must be based on careful planning, intended outcomes clearly established. |
| 9. Curriculum development is more effective when it follows a systematic process. | A curriculum design should always be SMART. |
| 10. Curriculum development starts from where the curriculum is. | An existing design is a good starting point for any teacher who plans to enhance and enrich a curriculum. |
Peter Oliva is known for formulating the 10 Axioms for Curriculum Designers, which serve as guiding principles or reference points for practitioners in planning and improving curriculum. These axioms stress that curriculum is dynamic, reflects its time, requires cooperative effort, and must balance theory with practice to remain relevant and effective.
- Like Bobbit, he posited that curriculum is science and emphasizes students’ needs.
- Objectives and activities should match. Subject matter or content relates to objectives.
Werret Charters, like Bobbitt, treated curriculum as a science grounded in students’ needs, stressing that objectives, activities, and subject matter must all align. His approach highlighted the importance of matching content with clearly defined goals to make learning purposeful and systematic.
- Curricula are purposeful activities which are child centered.
- The purpose of the curriculum is child development and growth.
- He introduced this project method where teacher and student plan the activities.
- Curriculum develops social relationships and small group instruction.
William Kilpatrick viewed curriculum as a set of purposeful, child-centered activities designed to foster growth and development. He introduced the Project Method, where teachers and students plan activities together, emphasizing real-life tasks, social relationships, and collaborative learning in small groups.
- Curriculum should develop the whole child.
- With the statement of objectives and related learning activities, curriculum should produce outcomes.
- Emphasized social studies and suggested that the teacher plans curriculum in advance.
Harold Rugg believed curriculum should develop the whole child, not just academic skills, by linking clear objectives with related learning activities to produce meaningful outcomes. He emphasized social studies as central and advocated for teachers to plan curriculum in advance to guide learning effectively.
- Curriculum is organized around social functions of themes organized knowledge and learner’s interest.
- Curriculum, instruction and learning are interrelated.
- Curriculum is a set of experiences. Subject matter is developed around social functions and learners’ interests.
Hollis Caswell emphasized that curriculum is not just subject matter but a set of meaningful experiences organized around social functions, themes, and learners’ interests. He highlighted that curriculum, instruction, and learning are inseparable, with content developed to connect social purposes and student engagement.
- Curriculum is a science and an extension of schools’ philosophy. It is based on students’ needs and interests.
- Curriculum is always related to instruction. Subject matter is organized in terms of knowledge, skills, and values.
- The process emphasizes problem solving. Curriculum aims to educate generalists and not specialists.
Ralph Tyler, known for the Tyler Rationale, saw curriculum as a scientific, systematic process rooted in a school’s philosophy and students’ needs. He emphasized aligning objectives, instruction, and evaluation, organizing subject matter into knowledge, skills, and values to promote problem solving and prepare learners as well-rounded generalists rather than narrow specialists.
- She contributed to the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of concepts development and critical thinking in social studies curriculum.
- She helped lay the foundation for diverse student population.
Hilda Taba emphasized that teachers should play a central role in designing curriculum, starting from diagnosing learners’ needs and building upward. She advanced concept development and critical thinking in social studies, while also shaping approaches that address the needs of diverse student populations.
- He described how curriculum change is a cooperative endeavor.
- Teachers and curriculum specialist constitute the professional core of planners.
- Significant improvement is achieved through group activity.
Peter Oliva emphasized that curriculum change is a cooperative process, where teachers and curriculum specialists form the professional core of planners. He believed that meaningful improvement happens through group effort, highlighting collaboration as the key to effective curriculum development.
II. Sociological Foundations
- Issues from society including groups and institutions in the culture and their contribution to education
- Society as a source of change
- Schools as agents of change
- Knowledge as an agent of change
- Considered two fundamental elements - schools and civil society - to be major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality.
John Dewey saw schools and civil society as interconnected forces that must be reconstructed to nurture democracy, experimental intelligence, and pluralism. He championed experiential, problem-centered learning where education equips learners to actively engage with real-life issues and contribute to social reform.
- Wrote the book Future Shock.
- Believed that knowledge should prepare student for the future.
Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, argued that education must equip learners to adapt to rapid change by preparing them to “learn, unlearn, and relearn” for the future. He saw knowledge not as static facts but as a tool to help students thrive in an ever-evolving world.
Foundations of Curriculum Quiz: click here
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With God’s grace, you’ll surely pass the upcoming board exam! 🙏