PATTERNS OF CURRICULUM ORGANIZATION Curriculum Planning and Development

What is a curriculum?
Curriculum refers to the knowledge and skills that learners are expected to learn. It includes the
subjects where the learners need to study and the competencies they need to have before graduation.
It includes in its scope all of the experiences pupils may have while under the direction or
supervision of the school, or all of those for which the school is responsible. It includes extra-classroom
activities, such as Play Days, excursions, club work, and so on, as well as classroom activities.
What is curriculum organization?
 Curriculum organization is the process of selecting curriculum elements from the subject, the
current social life and the students’ experience, then designing the selected curriculum elements
appropriately so that they can form the curriculum structure and type.
 In a narrow sense, curriculum organization is the process to change the content into student’s
learning experiences intentionally, and make learning experiences sequential, integral, and
successive after curriculum ideology has been determined, curriculum goal has been set, and
curriculum content has been selected.
 It is a systematic arrangement of content and educational learning experiences.
 It focuses on the structure and form of curriculum.
What are the patterns of curriculum organization?
A curriculum can be organized either horizontally
or vertically. Horizontal organization means, that the
direction of the curriculum elements is sideways. For
example, the subject Social Studies moves horizontally
along history, geography, civics, and culture. Taking
contents in Mathematics and relating these to Science
is also an example of horizontal curriculum design. On
the other hand, using a vertical arrangement or
sequence of curricular elements follows a vertical
design. For example in Social Studies content, putting
the “family” ahead of the topic “community” is vertical
articulations or in Science the bigger topic on “living
things” comes ahead of topics on “plants” and “animals”.
Traditional Curriculum Pattern or
Subject-Centered
 Conventional and orthodox views about the school curriculum
 Focuses on the content of the curriculum
1. Subject Curriculum
 the oldest and so far the most familiar for teachers, parents, and other laymen
 the school subjects constitute the bases for organizing the school experiences of the learners
 various subjects are offered based on their logical relationship so as to meet the multifarious
needs of the child
2. Discipline Curriculum
 Focuses on academic disciplines (specific knowledge learned through a method which the
scholars use to study a specific content of their fields)
3. Correlation Curriculum
 articulates and establishes relationships between two or more subjects on the basis of a topic
or a theme

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Urdaneta City University, Pangasinan

 teaching similar topics in two or more subjects simultaneously in an effort to help students
gain a better understanding of the topic
 example: Organic and Inorganic Chemistry are used to reinforce each other, English and
Social Studies, Science and Mathematics
4. Broad-Fields Curriculum or Interdisciplinary/Holistic
 draws around themes and integration
 combines several specific areas into larger fields
 example: Political Science, History, Geography, and Sociology are combined to become
Social Science
Integrative Curriculum Pattern or Learner-Centered
 The learner is center of the educative process
 Eliminates school subject division
 Aims to foster integration of the learner to his socio-cultural milieu
 Learner-centered and socially oriented
1. Child-Centered Curriculum
 organizes the learning experiences and content around the life of the child
 one learns by doing
 learning is a product of the child’s interaction with the environment
2. Experience-Centered Curriculum
 places emphasis on the immediate interest and needs of the child and not on the anticipated
needs
 the learners are given the opportunity to choose an activity based on their area of interest
 application of multiple intelligence
3. Humanistic Curriculum
 the development of self is the ultimate objective of learning
 cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains are interconnected
 it stresses the development of positive self-concept and interpersonal skills
United Program or Problem-Centered Curriculum Pattern
 Common sense point of view in the curriculum organization
 Draws on social problems, needs, interest, and abilities of the learners
 A balance between the direct teaching of the subject skills and unified learning experiences
based on the needs, concerns, and problems which are life-centered
 Learning should be organized based on persistent life situations as well as on the basis of
organized body of knowledge when needed
1. Life-Situations Curriculum
 contents are organized in ways that allow students to clearly view problem areas clearly
 it uses the past and the present experiences of learners as a means to analyse the basic
areas of living
 the connection of subject matter to real situations increases the relevance of the curriculum
2. Core Curriculum or Area-of-Living/Social Function
 it centers on general education and the problems are based on common human activities
 learning are organized on the basis of major functions of social life or aspects of living
 intended to enable the learner to study the problems that demand personal and social
action

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Urdaneta City University, Pangasinan

Thank you for bestowing your time. God bless!

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Urdaneta City University, Pangasinan