Lesson 2.

The Teacher as a Curricularist

Lesson Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

1. (C) Identify and discuss the many roles of a teacher as a curricularist.

2. (A) Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist in the
classroom and school.
3. (P)

Motivation/Prompting Questions

What specific roles do teacher play as a curricularist? Should they do these roles?

This lesson will bring all of you to an enhanced understanding and realization of the
multifaceted roles of teacher which relate to the curriculum. Let’s find out!

Look at the words inside the box. Read each one of them. Which one describes the
teacher as a curricularist? Circle the word.

Exciting Facilitating Planning Frustrating

Knowing

Growing Growing Evaluating

Initiating Innovating

Broadening Building Rewarding Believing

Recommending Showing Copying

Are you aware that the teacher’s role in the school is very complex? Teachers do a series
of interrelated actions about the curriculum, instruction, assessment, evaluation, teaching and
learning. A classroom teacher is involved with curriculum continuously all day. But very seldom
has a teacher been described as a “curricularist”.
 Curricularist in the past, are referred only to those who developed curriculum theories.
According to the study conducted by Sandra Hayes (1991), the most influential curricularist in
America include John Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba, and Franklin Bobbit. You will learn
more of them in the later part of the module

Discussion

In this lesson, we will start using the word curricularist to describe a professional who is
a curriculum specialist (Hayes, 1991; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Hewitt, 2006). A person who is
involved in curriculum knowing, writing, planning, implementing, evaluating, innovating, and
initiating may be designated as curricularist. A teacher’s role is broader and inclusive of other
functions and so a teacher is a curricularist.

So what does a teacher do to desrve the label curricularist? Let us examine at the different
roles of a teacher in the classroom and in the school. The classroom is the first place of curricular
engagement. The first school experience sets the tone to understand the meaning of schooling
through the interactions of learners and teachers that will lead to learning. Hence, curriculum is
the heart of schooling/learning.

Let’s describe the teacher as a curricularist. The teacher as a curricularist…..

1. Knows the curriculum. Learning begins with knowing. The teacher as a learner
starts with knowing about the curriculum, the subject matter or the content. As a
teacher, one has to master what are included in the curriculum. It is acquiring
academic knowledge both formal (disciplines, logic) or informal (derived from
experiences, vicarious, and unintended). It is the mastery of the subject matter.
(Knower)

2. Writes the curriculum. A classroom teacher takes record of knowledge concepts,

subject matter or content. These need to be written or preserved. The teacher writes
books, modules, laboratory manuals, instructional guides, and reference materials in
paper or electronic media as a curriculum writer or reviewer. (Writer)

3. Plans the curriculum. A good curriculum has to be planned. It is the role of the
teacher to make a yearly, monthly or daily plan of the curriculum. This will serve as
a guide in the implementation of the curriculum. The teacher takes into consideration
several factors in planning a curriculum. These factors include the learners, the
support material, time, subject matter or content, the desired outcomes, the context of
the learners among others. By doing this, the teacher becomes a curriculum planner.
(Planner)

4. Initiates the curriculum. In cases where the curriculum is recommended to the

schools from DepEd, CHEd, TESDA, UNESCO, UNICEF or other educational
agencies for improvement of quality education, the teacher is obliged to implement.
Implementation of a new curriculum requires the open mindedness of the teacher, and
the full belief that the curriculum will enhance learning. There will be many
 constraints and difficulties in doing things first or leading, however, a transformative
teacher will never hesitate to try something novel and relevant. (Initiator)

5. Innovates the curriculum. Creativity and innovation are hallmarks of an excellent

teacher. A curriculum is always dynamic; hence it keeps on changing. From the
content, strategies, ways of doing, blocks of time, ways of evaluating, kinds of
students and skills of teachers, one cannot find a single eternal curriculum that would
perpetually fit. A good teacher, therefore, innovates the curriculum and thus becomes
a curriculum innovator. (Innovator)

6. Implements the curriculum. The curriculum that remains recommended or written

will never serve its purpose. Somebody has to implement it. As mentioned
previously, at the heart of schooling is the curriculum. It is this role where the teacher
becomes the curriculum implementer. An implementer gives life to the curriculum
plan. The teacher is at the height of an engagement with the learners with support
materials in order to achieve the desired outcomes. It is where teaching, guiding,
facilitating skills of the teacher is expected to the highest level. It is here where
teaching as a science and as art will be observed. It is here where all the elements of
the curriculum will come into play. The success of a recommended, well written and
planned curriculum depends on the implementation. (Implementer)

7. Evaluates the curriculum. How can one determine if the desired learning outcomes
have been achieved? Is the curriculum working? Does it bring the desired results?
What do outcomes reveal? Are the learners achieving? Are there some practices that
should be modified? Should the curriculum be modified, terminated or continued?
These are some few questions that need the help of a curriculum evaluator. That
person is the teacher. (Evaluator)

The seven (7) different roles are those which is responsible teacher does in the classroom
every day! Doing these multi-faceted work qualifies a teacher to be a curricularist.

To be a teacher is to be a curricularist even if a teacher may not equal the likes of John
Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba, or Franklin Bobbit. As a curricularist, a teacher will be
knowing, writing, implementing, innovating, initiating, and evaluating the curriculum in the
school and classrooms just like the role models and advocates in the curriculum and curriculum
development who have shown the way.
Activity 1. Simple Survey

Have you done a survey before? In this activity, gather information direct from teachers
to find out what curriculum activities they are involved in.

Ask at least fifteen (15) elementary and fifteen (15) high school teachers from different
schools in your area and are currently teaching either in public or private school to be your
respondents in this short survey. With the use of the Teacher Survey Tool below, conduct a
survey in your own convenient time.

After the survey, consolidate the data of the 30 teachers in the matrix found and report
the result to the whole class.

The Teacher as a Curricularist Survey Tool

Name of Teacher____________________________________________________________
School____________________________________
Grade/Year Level Assignment__________________
Years of Teaching _________________
Degree Obtained______________________________________

General Direction:

Tick the best answer (Yes or No) that will best correspond to your self-assessment of the subject
being asked about.

As a school teacher, Rank

1. I master the subject matter that I have to

teach. ______YES_____ ______NO_____
_

2. I implement what I have planned for my

teaching ______YES_____ ______NO_____
_

3. I monitor and assess if my students are

learning ______YES_____ ______NO______
_
 4. I modify my activity to suit my learners in
my classroom ______YES_____ ______NO______
_

5. I lead the implementation of a new

curriculum in my school. ______YES_____ ______NO______
_

6. I write instructional materials based on the

recommended school curriculum. ______YES_____ ______NO______
_

7. I look for other ways of doing to improve

teaching and learning in my classroom. ______YES_____ ______NO______
_

The Teacher as a Curricularist Survey Tool

Name of Teacher____________________________________________________________
School____________________________________
Grade/Year Level Assignment__________________
Years of Teaching _________________
Degree Obtained______________________________________

General Direction:
Tick the best answer (Yes or No) that will best correspond to your self-assessment of the
subject being asked about.

As a school teacher, Rank

1. I master the subject matter that I have

to teach. Yes No

2. I implement what I have planned for

my teaching Yes No

3. I monitor and assess if my students are

learning Yes No
 4. I modify my activity to suit my learners
in my classroom Yes No

5. I lead the implementation of a new

curriculum in my school. Yes No

6. I write instructional materials based on

the recommended school curriculum. Yes No

7. I look for other ways of doing to

improve teaching and learning in my Yes No
classroom.

Activity 2. Self-Checking

Instructions: Identify in the blanks provided who am I as a curricularist based on the cases
presented.

I am a Teacher! Who am I as a Curricularist?

Case 1. I have a good idea on how to make my learners pay attention to the lesson. I will
use the new idea and find out if it will work. Who am I as a curricularist?
_____Knower_____________

Case 2. DepEd sent the standard, competencies and guidelines in teaching the Mother
Tongue in Grade 1 in our school. I will study and use it in the coming school year. Who am I as
a curricularist? ____________________

Case 3. There is so much to do in one school day. I seem not able to do all, but I have to
accomplish something for my learners. I have made a daily activity plan to guide me. Who am I
as a curricularist? _______Planner_________

Case 4. I need a poem to celebrate the World Teachers’ Day. I composed one to be used
in my class in Literature. Who am I as a curricularist? ________Writer____________

Case 5. My class is composed of learners from different home background and culture. I
cannot use a “one-size-fits all strategy” in teaching so I can respond to the diverse background.
In my readings, I discovered that there are ways of teaching. I tried one myself and it worked.
Who am I as a curricularist? _______Innovator___________
 Case 6. Knowledge is limitless. What I learned in college is not enough I need to know
more, so I enrolled in the graduate school to advance my learning. Who am I as a curricularist?
_______Evaluator__________

Case 7. At the end of the year, my performance as a teacher is reflected in the school
performance of my students. So I need to provide a monitoring tool to measure how they are
progressing. The result will inform me how I will address my learners’ weakness and enhance
their strengths. Who am I as a curricularist? ________Evaluator_________________

Case 8. I am teaching in a very far away barangay with no electricity yet. Many of the
instructional aids for teaching sent to our school are films and video tapes which need power. I
cannot use them, but the lessons are very important. So I thought of making an alternative
activity. I took my class to the river and waterfall instead of doing the lesson. Who am I as a
curricularist?_______Implementor____

Case 9. My principal asked me to attend a write shop to make the lesson exemplars in
the teaching of science in Grade 7. In the workshop, I used my experiences as a science teacher
for ten years, and my knowledge of the subject matter. At the end of the three days, I was able to
produce lesson exemplars which I am proud of. Who am I as a curricularist?
________Initiator________

Case 10. In grade 7 to grade 10 of the K to 12 Enhanced Curriculum, science as a subject

is presented, taught and learned in a spiral manner. This is part of the DepEd implementing
guidelines of the curriculum. I am a Biology major, and I have insufficient knowledge about the
other areas of science such as Physics and Earth Science. Because of this dilemma, I have to
request the principal that we have team teaching. Which role of the curricularist, am I trying to
portray? ______Initiator________

Activity 3. Self-Reflect

Choose one (1) from the cases presented above. Reflect on the case you have chosen.

From the cases presented above, I choose case 3 (there is so much to do in one school
day. I seem not able to do all, but I have to accomplish something for my learners. I have made a
daily activity plan to guide me).