Module The Teacher and The School

Curriculum
 Chapter 1 Curriculum Essentials: The teacher and the
School Curriculum
Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of discussion, the students will be able to:

 Discuss the different curricula that exist in the schools

 Analyse the significance of curriculum and curriculum development in the
teacher’s classroom
 Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist in the
classroom and school.

Lesson 1.1. The Curricula in School

Introduction:

Have you read “The Sabre-Tooth Curriculum by Harold Benjamin (1939)?”Take some
time to read it and find out what curriculum is all about during those times.

Start here and enjoy reading.

A man by name of New –Fist-Hammer –Maker knew how to do things his

community needed to have done, and he had the energy and the will to go ahead and
do them. By virtue of these characteristics, he was an educated man. New-First was also
a thinker. Then as now, there were few lengths to which men would not go to avoid the
labour and pain of though. . . . New-First got to the point where he became strongly
dissatisfied with the accustomed ways of his tribe .He began to catch glimpses of ways
in which life might be made better for himself and his group .By virtue of his
development, he became a dangerous man….

New-First thought about how he could harness the children’s play to better the life of
the community. He considered what adults do for survival and introduced these
activities to children in a deliberate and formal way. These included catching fish with
bare hands, clubbing little woolly horses, and chasing away-sabre-tooth-tiger-with-fire
.These then became the curriculum and community began to prosper-with plenty of
food, hides for attire and protection from threat. “It is supposed that all would have
gone well forever with this good educational system, if conditions of life in that
community remained forever the same.” But conditions changed.

The glacier began to melt and community could no longer see the fish to catch with
their bare hands, and only most agile and clever fish remained which his from the
people. The woolly horses were ambitious and decided to leave the region .The tigers
got pneumonia and most died. The few remaining tigers left. In their place, fierce bears
arrived who would not be chased by fire. The community was in trouble.

One day, in desperation, someone made a net from willow twigs and found a new way
to catch fish-and the supply was even more plentiful than before. The community also
derived a system of traps in the path to snare the bears. Attempts to change education
system to include these new techniques however encountered “stern opposition.”

These are also activities we need to know. Why can’t the schools teach them? But most
of the tribe particularly the wise old men who controlled the school, smiled indulgently
at his suggestion. “That wouldn’t be education….It would be mere training” .We don’t
teach fish grabbing to catch fish, we teach it develop a generalized agility which can
never be duplicated by mere training . . . and so on.

“If you had any education yourself, you would know that the essence of true education
is timelessness. It is something that endures through changing conditions like a solid
rock standing squarely and firmly in the middle of a raging torent”

The story was written in 1939. Curriculum then, was seen as a tradition of organized
knowledge taught in schools of the 19th century. Two centuries later, the concept of a
curriculum has broadened to include several modes of thoughts or experiences.

Formal, non-formal or informal education do not exist without a curriculum.

Classrooms will be empty with no curriculum .Teachers will have nothing to do, if there
is no curriculum .Curriculum is at the heart of the teaching profession. Every teacher is
guided by some sort of curriculum in the classroom and in schools.

In our current Philippine educational system, different schools are established in

different educational levels which have corresponding recommended curricula. The
educational levels are:

1. Basic Education. This level Includes Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 6for elementary;
and for secondary, grade 7 to Grade 10, for the junior High School, and Grade 11 and 12
and for the Senior High School. Each of the levels has its specific recommended
curriculum. The new basic education levels are provided in the K to 12 Enhanced
Curriculum of 2013 of the Department of Education.

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2. Technical Vocational Education. This is post-secondary technical vocational
educational and training taken care of Technical Education and skills Development
Authority (TESDA). For the TechVoch track in SHS of DepEd, DepEd and TESDA work in
close coordination.

Content Focus In
whatever levels of schooling and in various types of learning environment, several
curricula exist. Let us find out how Allan Glatthorn (2000) as mentioned in Bilbao, et al
(2008) classified these:

Types of Curricula Simultaneously Operating in the Schools

Are you aware that in every classroom, there are several types of Curricula operating
at the same time? Let us study each one.

1. Recommended Curriculum. Almost all curricula found in our schools are

recommended. For Basic Education, these are recommended by the Department of
Education (DepEd), for Higher Education, by the commission on Higher Education
(CHED) and for vocational education by TESDA. These three government agencies
oversee and regulate Philippine education. The recommendations come in the form of
memoranda or policies, standards and guidelines. Other professional organizations or
intentional bodies like UNESCO also recommend curricula in schools.

2. Written Curriculum. This includes documents based on the recommended

curriculum. They come in the form of course of study, syllabi, modules, books or
instructional guides among others. A packet of this written curriculum is the teacher’s
lesson plan. The most recent written curriculum is the K to 12 for Philippine Basic
education.

3. Taught curriculum. From what has been written or planned, the curriculum has
to be implemented or taught. The teacher and the learners will put life to the written
curriculum. The skill of the teacher to facilitate learning based on the written curriculum
with the aid of instructional materials and facilities will be necessary. The taught
curriculum will depend largely on the teaching style of the teacher and the learning style
of the learners.

4. Supported Curriculum. This is describe as support materials that the teacher

needs to make learning and teaching meaningful. These include print materials like
books, charts, posters, worksheets, or non-print materials like power point

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presentation, movies, slide, models, realias, mock-ups and other electronic illustrations.
Supported curriculum also includes facilities where learning occurs outside or inside the
four-walled building. These include the playground, science laboratory, audio-visual
rooms, zoo, museum, market or plaza. These are the places where authentic learning
through direct experiences occur.

5. Assessed Curriculum. Taught and supported curricula have to be evaluated to

find out if the teacher has succeeded or not in facilitating leaning. In the process of
teaching and at the end of every lesson or teaching episode, an assessment is made. It
can either be assessment for leaning, assessment as learning or assessment of learning.
If the process is to find the progress of learning, then the assessed curriculum is for
mastered, then it is assessment of learning. Either way, such curriculum is assessed
curriculum.

6. Learned Curriculum. How do we know if the student has learned? We always believe
that if a student changed behaviour, he/she has learned. For example, from a non-
reader to a reader or from not knowing to knowing or from being disobedient to being
obedient. The positive outcome of teaching is an indicator of learning. These are
measured by tools in assessment, which can indicate the cognitive, effective and
psychomotor outcomes. Learned curriculum will also demonstrate higher order and
critical thinking and lifelong skills.

7. Hidden/Implicit Curriculum. This curriculum is deliberately planned, but has a great

impact on the behaviour of the learner. Peer influence, school environment, media,
parental pressures societal changes, cultural practices, natural calamities, are some
factors that create the hidden curriculum. Teachers should be sensitive and aware of
this hidden curriculum. Teachers must have good foresight to include these in the
written curriculum, in order to bring to the surface what are hidden.

However, in every teacher’s classroom, not all these curricula may be present at
one time. Many of them are deliberately planned, like the recommended, written,
taught, supported, assessed, and learned curricula. However, a hidden curriculum is
implied, and a teacher may or may not be able to predict its influence on learning. All of
these have significant role on the life of the teacher as a facilitator of learning and have
Direct implication to learners.

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Lesson 1.2 the Teacher as a Curricularist

Introduction:
Are you aware that the teacher’s role in school is very complex? Teachers do a
series of interrelated actions about curriculum, instruction, assessment, evaluation,
teaching and learning. A classroom teacher is involved with curriculum all day. But very
seldom has a teacher been describe as Curricularist.

Curricularists in the past, are referred only those who develop 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.

Content Focus

In this lesson, we will using the word curricularist describe a professional who is
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 deserve the level curricularist? Let us look at the
different roles of the teacher in the classroom and in the school. The classroom is the
first place 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 at the heart of schooling.

Let us 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 of the
content. As a teacher, one has to master what are included in the curriculum.
It is acquiring 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)

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 2. Writes the curriculum. A classroom teacher takes record of knowledge
concepts, subject matter or content. hence need to be written or preserved.
The teacher writes books, modules, laboratory manuals, instructional guides,
and references 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 o 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, TESDSA, UNESO< UNICEF or other
educational agencies for improvement of quality education, the teacher is
obligated to implement it. 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 constrains and difficulties in doing
things first or leading, however, a transformative teacher will never hesitate
to try something novel and revelant. (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, way 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, therefor,
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 schooling is the curriculum. It is this role
where the teacher becomes the curriculum implementor. An implementor
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 outcome. It is where teaching, guiding, facilitating skills of the

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 teacher are expected to the highest level. It is here where teaching as a
science and as an art will be observed. It is here, where all the elements of
the curriculum will come. In to play. The success of a recommended, well
written and planned curriculum depends on the implementation.
(IMPLEMENTOR)
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, terminated or continued?
These are some few questions that need the help of a curriculum evaluator.
That person is the teacher. (EVALUATOR)

The seven different roles are those which a responsible teacher does in the
classroom everyday! 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 curriculum and
curriculum development who have shown the way.

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( Prof Ed 322a) Name: ____________________________________________
Activity 1.1a Program/Year: ____________Date Submitted: ___________

Activity: Think and Reflect

Does the sabre-tooth curriculum still exist at present?
a. Discuss the Sabre-tooth Curriculum in schools
Give example of your evidence

b. Describe the kind of curriculum that exists as described in the article.

c. What does the author mean, when he said “A curriculum should be

timeless?” Explain.

d. What is the difference between education and training?

Prof Ed 322a)
Activity 1.2a

Direction: Conduct a somple survey regarding the experences of the teachers in the
following:

1. Conduct of School Activities

2. Summer Break

3. Start of Class

4. Brigada Eskwela

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