Monthly Archives: June 2014

Curriculum Development: The Beginning

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The Technical Approach to curriculum development started with the work of Franklin Bobbitt and Werrett Charters in the early 20th century. These two men laid the foundation upon which Ralph Tyler would develop the quintessential curriculum development model in the middle part of the 20th century. Bobbitt and Charters were some of the first to see curriculum as something that could be developed scientifically.

Bobbitt believed that a general plan of the curriculum could happen through analyzing the various task of the curriculum. From these different tasks, came the objectives of the curriculum. For example, in an English class, one activity is developing paragraphs. Therefore, writing paragraphs should be one objective that is a part of the larger English curriculum.  The evidence of a well-written paragraph was an indication that the student had achieved the objective.

Bobbitt did not stop at analyzing task at this level. He developed hundreds of objectives for many different aspects of life. Many complain that he was too scientific in his quest to develop clear objectives for so many behaviors. Bobbitt was trying to capture as much of the human experience as possible in his development of so many objectives. By doing so, students would be better prepared for the world

Charters developed a simple four step process for developing curriculum.

  1. Select objectives
  2. Divide objectives into activities
  3. Place activities and and objectives into units
  4. Collect evidence of achievement

Charters believe that objectives were derived scientifically for practical use.  Successful completion of an objective was through providing observable evidence. This simple four step process would influence one of Charters greatest students, Ralph Tyler.

Each of these men were a product of their era. The age of modernism was a time in which people believed that science could solve the woes of the world. This mindset heavily influenced Bobbitt and Charters desire for creating a scientific curriculum. The work that they did is still felt in classrooms today.

Curriculum Development: Overview

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Curriculum development is the steps and procedures that are taken by individuals to enact changes to what is taught in a learning environment. This is different from curriculum design which is how a person views the subject or concept of curriculum. First, a person needs to design or conceive the curriculum in their mind. Second, they use an existing development model to actually create the curriculum.

There are many different processes or models of developing curriculum.  The various models are often put into two broad categories, which are the scientific and non-scientific approaches. Under each are several different models that meet different purposes.

The scientific approaches to developing curriculum get their name from being precise, detailed oriented, based on rational thinking, and rigid in structure. Common models that fall under this approach include Tyler model, Taba model, and the Backward-Design model. All of these models have goals and objectives that are measurable in that they can be observed. This emphasis on providing evidence is a hallmark of scientific approaches and is derived from an empirical worldview.

The non-scientific approaches focus on the subjective, aesthetic, and personal aspects of learning. Curriculum development models under this approach stress learner over evidence needed to prove the attainment of scientific objectives. Learning is a holistic experience that cannot be fragmented into discrete parts scientifically.  This approach is derived from post-modern/existentialist thinking with the focus on the individual rather than the masses as in the scientific approach.

Most teachers are unfamiliar with non-scientific approaches to curriculum development because education today is focused on research-based scientific practices. One model under the non-scientific approach is the Deliberation model.

Which approach to consider and what model to use depends always on the goals of the institution and the needs of the student.

Curriculum Design: Correlation Design

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Correlation design is similar to broad-field design in that it is focused on integration. The difference is that correlation design combines only two subjects while broad-field will combine several subjects.  In many ways, one could say that correlation design is a simplistic version of broad-field design.

Some examples of correlation design include biochemistry, which is the combining of biology and chemistry. Other examples include social psychology, which is sociology and psychology; bio-statistics, which is biology and statistics; and music technology, which focuses on music and its use through technology.  Generally, correlation design is found at the university level where students need expertise in specific subjects.

The advantages of correlation design are that it fills in the gaps within curriculum of two subjects that are related. The two subjects are combined in innovative ways and the students are able to see the connections between the two of them.

The disadvantages are that few teachers have enough expertise in the two subjects to successful correlate them in a curriculum. In addition, few teachers have the time to collaborate with their peers on a project such as this.  Despite these issues, correlation design is an option for teachers interested in creating a unique curriculum for the needs of their students.

Types of Curriculum Design: Broad-Fields

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Broad-fields design is in response to one of the major weaknesses of subject-centered design. Recall, that one concern with subject-centered design was a lack of integration. In other words, subject-centered design is considered by many to be too compartmentalized. The students do not see the connections between subjects. This lead to a curriculum design that was interdisciplinary in its approach

To deal with this fragmentation of knowledge, broad-field designers try to collapse subjects with similar content into a larger umbrella subject. Two of the best examples from would be Social Studies and Language Arts.

Social studies is the umbrella term for a mixture of economics, geography, history, sociology, and political science. Language Arts is the umbrella subject for grammar, literature, composition, and linguistics.  The subjects that were combined have much in common and it was not a huge leap to merge them.  For example, composition and spelling have much in common and they need each other as do history and political science.

Broad-field design is most common at the K-12 level and every teacher has encountered this design. One concern with this design is depth. By combining so many subjects, the students get a shallow amount of knowledge in comparison to the deeper content of a single-subject.  Despite this drawback, the principle to remember is that the needs of the students is what determines the appropriateness of the design.

Types of Curriculum Design: Subject Centered

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Curriculum design is about how a person envision what a curriculum should be. There are several standard models of curriculum design. One of the most prominent is the subject-centered design.

The subject-centered designer divides the curriculum into nice and neat subjects such as math, science, history, literature, etc. This structuring of the disciplines is for practical reasons. It organizes the curriculum into basic concepts that are combined based on what they have in common. The essential knowledge of each area is gathered together to be taught to students.

Where the division of the curriculum stops depends on its purpose. Any expert in education knows that subjects overlap and the division is often arbitrary. In addition, every subject can be further divided into smaller parts. For example, English can be broken down into writing, reading, speech, grammar, and more.

A major criticism of this design is the lack of integration or horizontal articulation.  The learning is compartmentalized and the students often never see the connections across subjects. In addition, the subject-centered design does not take into account the needs and interest of the students.  The textbook is made by experts in the field who already know what knowledge and even experiences a child requires.

Despite this, the subject design is by far the most popular approach. It is easy to do and practical. It’s appropriateness needs to be left to the educator who is trying to help their students.

Articulation and Curriculum

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Articulation is closely related to sequence, which was discussed in an earlier post. Sequencing in curriculum is about determining the order of concepts within a grade and subject. However, articulation is sequencing across grade levels and or across subjects.

For example, for a math curriculum, the teacher of basic algebra may towards the end of the school year begin to touch on some concepts related to geometry. The geometry teacher of the next school year may begin with some of the more advanced algebra concepts from last year before moving into geometry material. This is an example of vertical articulation in that one subject, math, is being aligned across different grade levels so that there is a smooth transition from algebra to geometry.

Articulation can also happen within a grade but across different subjects. For example, it is common for science and math classes to cover many of the same material but with a different application.  A chemistry class might require students to take algebra 2 at the same time or a physics class may require concurrent enrollment in calculus.  This is an example of horizontal articulation because it is happening across subjects rather than between grades.

A more practical example would by the use of thematic multidisciplinary units, which are more common at the elementary level. There is a theme, such as justice, which is covered in several subjects such as social studies and English. The students examine the theme from multiple perspectives with the goal of deepening their understanding of the theme.  Another term for horizontal articulation is integration.

Articulation is not easy to do. However, there are times when it is appropriate or can break the monotony of the learning process for students.  When to use this depends on the philosophy and goals of the school and needs of the students.

Continuity and Curriculum

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Another consideration of curriculum design is continuity. Continuity is the repetition of important concepts within the curriculum vertical or over time.  For example, if developing critical thinking is important in a curriculum than this concept will appear throughout the curriculum at a gradual higher and higher level of complexity. This ensures that the students develop mastery of the important concept or idea.

One simple way to look at continuity is the idea of repeat and expand. A teacher shares an idea one way. In the future, they return to the idea and add another layer of complexity to it. This process is repeated over and over again until the entire concept is explained to the students.

The person who has developed the idea of continuity to its highest levels is probably Jerome Bruner. He is widely known for the development of the spiral curriculum in which ideas are developed and redeveloped over the course of a curriculum. Burner is famous for this because he was one of the first to document and explain this technique.

Teachers need to be aware of how they will approach continuity. Some ideas need to be addressed more than once. It is up to the curriculum designer to know when this is necessary.

Sequence and Curriculum

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A question to consider when designing curriculum is the following…

  1. In what order should I present the information?

This question is answered through thinking about the sequence of the curriculum. The sequence is the order in which the information is presented to the student. How to sequence the curriculum depends on the development of the students cognitively. There are four common sequencing approaches in curriculum design, simple-to-complex, prerequisite learning, whole-to-part learning, and chronological learning.

Simple-to-complex learning is self explanatory. The curriculum is designed in such a way that simpler concepts are presented before more complex ones. Many math curriculums use this sequencing approach.

Prerequisite learning is a form of sequencing in which certain knowledge must come before more advance knowledge. It is similar to simple-to-complex learning but the sequencing of the prerequisite knowledge does not matter as long as all of it is addressed before the more complex knowledge. Many college majors have prerequisites that must be taken before other classes. Many times, the order in which these classes are taken does not matter as long as all of them are taken before a more advanced class.

Whole-to-part learning provides students with an overview of the subject before going into specific details. This is a deductive approach in contrast to the inductive approach of simple-to-complex learning. Sometimes foreign languages are taught whole-to-part in that instead of starting with grammar, a teacher will dive right into sentences to get the students using the language in a natural way.

Lastly, chronological learning is when the curriculum is sequenced by the order they concepts happened historically. Naturally, history is a subject that often uses a sequencing that is chronological.

The type of sequencing to use depends on the goals and purpose of the curriculum. Most subjects can be taught using any of these forms of sequencing. It is the needs of the students that determine what may be the most appropriate option.

Scope of the Curriculum

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When designing curriculum, there are certain considerations to keep in mind. In this post, we will look at the following question.

  1. How wide and deep should the curriculum be?

How wide and deep should the curriculum be? This first question relates to the scope of a curriculum. The scope is breadth and depth of a curriculum. Some curriculum are broad, in that they have many different ideas and subjects discussed, while not being very deep because nothing is discussed in detail. An example of this would be any kind of music or art appreciation class.  There are many topics that are discussed in a shallow way. This is because the goal of the course is often exposure to unfamiliar content rather than mastery of it. Other classes are much more narrow in focus but concepts are dealt with in great detail.

One example of this would be an upper division education class such as classroom management. This class is highly focused on one particular aspect of teaching.  The students have learned the fundamentals and now need deeper knowledge of this one facet of teaching. The scope of a curriculum is determined by the goals of the designer. Do the students need more breadth or depth? What do they need to know for the future? Scope addresses these concerns. One cannot say a curriculum is too broad or narrow unless it does not match the needs of the students and or the goals of the institution. In other words, scope can only be inappropriate in comparison to the goals and needs of the stakeholders.

Curriculum Design Sources

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The sources of curriculum design are the same as a person’s philosophy. How a person views the world and the experiences they have had impacts how they design and conceptualize curriculum. There are many sources of curriculum design and among them includes science, morals, learner, knowledge, and society.

Some see curriculum design as a scientific process and they focus on quantifying the elements of the curriculum. This group often focus on thinking strategies and elements of cognitive psychology.

In contrast to this group, other see morals as a source of curriculum. Morals are often derived from what people consider to be spiritual authorities such as the Bible. For this source, lasting truth and inequality in regards to the value of different subjects is part of adhering to this source.

The learner is another source. The student is where the curriculum comes from. This source influences curriculum design by stressing student-centered learning and activities. Students are not passive objects but active individuals who participate in their learning.  The student interacts with the curriculum rather than is feed the curriculum.

The opposite of the student as a source would be knowledge as the source. This is subject centered view in which a teacher needs to decide what knowledge is most valuable.  Knowledge should be structured as a discipline with clear boundaries. As such, interdisciplinary approach do not work with this view.

Society as a source believes that curriculum design should include collaboration. Designers should not ignore the diversity of human life as seen in culture, ethnicity and social class. The curriculum should imbibe this and meet the needs of each student.

Few people are in one camp. Usually, people draw from several different sources as they design curriculum.

Curriculum Design

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The design of curriculum is about determining how the parts of a curriculum interact and interrelate.  Design is about how a teacher conceives or thinks about the curriculum. This is in contrast to curriculum development which is the step-by-step process of developing what was first thought of as a design in the mind of the teacher.

There are four basic parts to a curriculum that is addressed when designing. These parts are the objectives, content, learning experiences, and evaluation. How these parts interact is what curriculum design is about.

The four components of curriculum design can also be thought of as four questions that need to be answered when designing curriculum. These questions are…

  1. What should the students do? (Objectives)
  2. What subjects should be included? (Content)
  3. What instructional strategies should be used? (learning experiences)
  4. How should we appraise the curriculum? (Evaluation)

These are the big four questions in curriculum design. Everyone will answer these questions differently because we all have different experiences and philosophies.  There is no right or wrong way to design curriculum but rather the goal is to have a well thought out conception of the curriculum that will serve the needs of the students.

Constructivism & Curriculum

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For some people, there is confusion over constructivism. For starters, constructivism is not considered a theory by many educators. Rather, constructivism is a philosophy that addresses the nature of knowledge and learning.

Constructivist see knowledge as always changing and being developed by the learner and is built upon the work of Piaget, Vygotsky, and even Dewey. In this philosophy, the learner develops knowledge by building upon what they already know. The learner is actively involved in their learning as they interact with their environment and with other people.  In behaviorism, it is an external force that acts upon the learner but in constructivism, it is the learner who is acting upon the external environment. The student transforms the knowledge as the internalize it.

A curriculum that is heavily influenced by the philosophy of constructivism has students who are actively engaged in learning in a social environment. This includes such strategies as project-based learning, cooperative learning, and opportunities for problem-solving. For many, including opportunities for reflecting on learning experiences helps students to build knowledge is another aspect of constructivism.

Cognitive Psychology & Curriculum

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Cognitive psychology is about how people learn and organize knowledge. The focus of cognitive psychologist is on the structure of the mind and the two types of memories, short-term and long-term memory.

There are many prominent educators who leaned toward cognitive psychology in their view of teaching. Montessori believed that struggling students lack intellectual stimulation. Piaget created a framework for cognitive development. More modern examples include Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences.

Whenever teachers adjust the curriculum to the intellectual development of the students this is due in part to the work of cognitive psychology. The most famous and practical example of this would be Bruner’s spiral curriculum. Students are exposed to the same themes and ideas but at varying levels of complexity over time. This sequencing of the curriculum is based in part on the intellectual capacities of the students.  Bruner’s work serves as an example of employing cognitive principles in curriculum development.

Connectionism

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Connectionism is considered by many to be the foundation upon which behaviorism is based. Edward Thorndike is the developer of this concept of behavioral psychology. Thorndike, through conducting some of the first experimental research in the learning process, states that learning is the strengthening of the relationship between a stimulus and a response. A classic example of this is Thorndike’s experiments with animals. The animals were placed inside a puzzle box with a door that they had to learn to open. If they opened it they received a reward of food. The animals developed a connection between the lever for the door (stimulus) and the reward for opening it (the response).

This idea of connectionism came into curriculum as well. In many ways, behavioral objectives that are found in curriculum to this day can be traced to Thorndike’s influence.  The students perform the objective until they reach mastery. While they are repeating the behavior, the feedback they receive serves as an approximate response to the stimulus. With the growth in knowledge since the days of Thorndike, we have learned that behavior is not everything and that what happens inside the mind is important as well. Today there is more of an emphasis on cognitive approaches to learning. Despite this behavior is still has a major role in curriculum

Progressivism & Curriculum

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Progressivism is derived from the older philosophy of pragmatism. It grew out of the larger progressivist movement of the earlier 20th century in the United States.

Believers of progressivism believe that since reality is always changing truth is relative and not absolute. There is no reason to focus on a fixed, established body of knowledge. This is in contrast to perennialism and essentialism.  Supporters of progressivism also are against a transmission style of teaching where the student passively receives information from a teacher, which is also known as rote learning. Instead, students should be involved in problem-solving and the use of the scientific method. This active forms of learning engaged students and prepare them for the real world

John Dewey was probably one of the biggest supporters of progressivism. He believed that a curriculum should be interdisciplinary. This allows students to make connections between subjects rather than learn in isolation. He also stressed the role of democracy in the classroom. Students and teachers need to plan what will be learned together. This was radical at the time and still highly uncommon in the 21st century.

In many ways, progressivists were the first to champion student-centered learning. However, one criticism of this movement was that it was too student-centered and neglected the subject matter. With time, progressivism splinter into several radical groups and eventually its influence in education declined considerably.

Essentialism & Curriculum

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Essentialism is another prominent educational philosophy. This philosophy is grounded in idealism and realism of the ancient Greeks. The heart of essentialism is the the “essentials” which includes the 3Rs.

A major difference between essentialism and perennialism is essentialism is focused on what is necessary foundational knowledge that students currently need. Perennialism’s curriculum tends to be unchanging since it is focused on absolute truth.

The arts are not a major component of existentialism since art is not deemed necessary. Instead, there is an emphasis on mastering skills and presenting a subject-centered curriculum to students who are not consulted about what they want to learn. The teacher is the center of the learning and the student is to respect the authority of the teacher.

More on essentialism and the role of the teacher can be found here