THE TEACHER AND THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Module 04. Unit IV. Crafting the Curriculum:

(Elements of Curriculum and Curriculum Design Models)

I. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Familiarized with the contents of the components of curriculum and the
different approaches to curriculum designing.
2. Analysed some samples of the components of curriculum.
3. Made some samples of contents of the elements of Curriculum.
4. Described the learning content focus and learning experiences of the different
curriculum design models.

II. LEARNING CONTENTS/SUBJECT MATTER

A. ELEMENTS/COMPONENTS OF CURRICULUM

I. Curriculum Intent/Purpose. (Intended Curriculum)

This refers to the direction of what the curriculum workers wish to go and accomplish
as a result of participating in the curriculum development. It includes the aims, goals,
and objectives found in any curriculum document.

1.1. Aims. It is a broad statement of social or educational expectations. It includes

what is hoped to be achieved by the total curriculum.
(school, educational system).

1.2. Goals. It is more specific than the aims. Goals are general statement of what
concepts, skills, and values should be earned in the curriculum
(curricular/degree program).

1.3. Objectives. These are specific learning outcomes. It includes specific concepts,
skills, and values that should be learned by the students. Usually,
objectives are used in making decisions or planning about instruction.
(course and unit of study/topics)

Aims of the Philippine Education System based on the

Philippine Constitution of 1987

1. Inculcate patriotism and nationalism

2. Foster love of humanity
3. Promote respect for human rights
4. Appreciate the role of national heroes in the historical development of the
country
5. Teach the rights and duties of citizenship
6. Strengthen ethical and spiritual values
7. Develop moral character and personal discipline
8. Encourage critical and creative thinking
 9. Broaden scientific and technical knowledge and promote vocational efficiency

Goals of Preschool Education based on DECS Order 107, series 1989

1. To develop the child in all aspects (physical, social, moral, spiritual, emotional and
mental) so that he may be better prepared to adjust and cope with life situations
within the context of his experience.
2. To maximize the child’s potential through a variety of carefully selected and
meaningful experiences considering his interests and capabilities.
3. To develop the child in all aspects so that he becomes a self-propelling, thinking,
and contributing individual , able to demands for future life.

Aims of Elementary Education (Education Act of 1982) (DEPED)

1. Provide knowledge and develop skills, attitudes, values essential to personal
development and necessary for living in and contributing to a developing and
changing society.
2. Provide learning experiences which increase the child’s awareness of and
responsiveness to the changes in the society.
3. Promote and intensify knowledge, identification with and live for the nation and the
people to which he belongs.
4. Promote work experience which develop orientation to the world of work and
prepare the leaner to engage in honest and gainful work.

Aims of Secondary Education

1. Continue to promote the objectives of elementary education.
2. Discover and enhance the different aptitudes and interest of students in order to
equip them with skills for productive endeavor and /or to prepare them for tertiary
schooling.

Aims of Tertiary Education (CHED)

1. Provide general education programs which will promote national identity, cultural
consciousness, moral integrity and spiritual vigor.
2. train the nation’s manpower in the skills required for national development.
3. Develop the professions that will provide leadership for the nation.
4. Advance knowledge through research and apply new knowledge for improving the
quality of human life and respond effectively to changing society.

Definition of Terms in the K to 12 Curriculum (DepEd)

and Outcomes-Based Education (CHED)

Content Standards. These are broad statement of goals that describe specific content
areas that groups of students should learn at each grade level about the subject area/
course.
Performances Standards. These are specific statements of what the learners should be
able to do after the end of every unit of study. These are the assessment tasks.
They provide all students with the evidences that students have met the content
standards, helping teachers define what level of work is satisfactory.
Learning Competencies. These are specific knowledge, skills and values that the
learners should be able to acquire, demonstrate and do after the end of the unit of
study and subject area/course.
Learning Outcomes.   A very specific statement that describes exactly what a student
will be able to do in some measurable and observable way. There may be more
than one measurable outcomes defined for a given competency. These are known
as learning objectives based on the behavioral domains of learning.

Levels of Learning Outcomes

1. Institutional Learning Outcome. Refers to what the students have become after
completing the ladder of education at a particular school with concrete evidences
of performance in their knowledge, skills and values.

2. Program Learning Outcomes. Pertains to what the students have learned after
completing a degree program that are evidently shown in their knowledge, skills
and values.
3. Course/Subject Outcomes. Refers to the what the students have learned after
completing a specific subject or course every semester that are evidently shown in
their knowledge, skills and values.

II. Learning Content. (Implemented & Taught Curriculum)

It covers the different subject matter (unit of study and topics to be learned in a
curriculum. These topics are based on the curriculum intents. Contents may include
values, concepts or skills that are important for the learners to learn.
Content Area. This is used in the K to 12 Curriculum, which refers to the unit of study
or broad topics about the subject area/ course

III. Learning Experiences. (Implemented & Taught Curriculum)

These are instructional strategies that are useful for the implementation of the
curriculum. These may appear in the form of activities, strategies, methods or
approaches that are useful in implementing the curriculum based on the
Intended Learning Outcomes, and Learning Contents.
 In preparing the learning experiences, the teacher as a curricularist should take into
consideration the Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience.

IV. Evaluation/Assessment. (Achieved & Learned Curriculum)

It includes the different ways and tools used for assessing whether or not the curriculum
intent is achieved. These may be written works, performance or projects done by the
individual learners or group of learners based on the performance standards,
learning competencies, and learning outcomes.

B. CURRICULUM DESIGN MODELS

1. Subject-Centered Design Model.

This model focuses on the content of the curriculum. Most schools using this kind of
structure ain for excellence in the subject matter content. In this instance, schools divide
the school hours to different subjects such as English, Filipino, Science, Math, History, etc.

1.1. Subject design- This is the oldest and most familiar design for teachers, parents
and common people. The subject centered design corresponds mostly to the
textbook, written for the specific subject. Complementary books are written and
support instructional materials are commercially available. The tendency of the
teacher is to pour in so much content to the learner so that the students become simply
 the empty vessels that receive the information or content.
1.2 Discipline design- related to subject design, but focuses on academic discipline.
Discipline refers to specific knowledge learned through a method which the
scholars use to study a specific content of their fields. The discipline design model
of curriculum is often used in college. The discipline becomes the degree program
of students based on their field of specialization.
1.3 Correlation design- Subjects are related to one another but each subject maintains
its identity.
Example: Science is the core related to Math, Literature as the core and art, music,
history, geography will be related to it.
1.4 Broad field design- Variation of the subject-centered design.
This design was made to prevent the compartmentalization of subjects and integrate
the contents that are related to each other.
Example: Social Studies refers to the following subjects: geography, economics,
political science, anthropology, sociology and history. Language arts include
grammar, literature, spelling, composition and linguistics.
This is also called holistic curriculum. Broad field design draws around themes and
integration known as integrated curriculum.

Three Types of Integration:

a. Intradisciplinary approach b. Interdisciplinary approach

English
Language
Listening Science
skills
Speaking History Core
skills concept

b. Transdiciplinary approach
Math

Subjects areas
Themes:
Concepts
Thinking skills
Academic skills
Life skills
Real-world contexts
Students’ questions
Students’ concerns
2. Learner-Centred Design ( Highly Progressivism and Constructivism
philosophical approach )
Grounded on progressive education, the learner is the center of the educative process.
This design is highly emphasized and very strong in Preschool and Elementary levels.

2.1. Child-centred design

This design is rooted on the educational philosophy of John Dewey, Rousseau,
Pestalozzi and Froebel. The content of the curriculum is anchored on the needs and
interest of the child. Emphasizes learning by doing. Learning is a product of the
child’s interaction with the environment through play. Learners actively create,
construct meanings and understanding as viewed in by the constructivists.
2.2. Experience-centred design (Focuses on LEA: Learning Experience Approach)
Learning is primarily based on the interest and needs which are not
pre-planned. Experiences of the learners become the starting point of the
curriculum. The pupils are made to choose from various activities that the teacher
provides through the different learning areas inside and outside the classroom.

The learners are empowered to shape their own learning from the different
opportunities given by the teacher.
Time is flexible, and children are free to make options. Activities emphasize the
use of all the senses (touching, feeling, observing, constructing, smelling, etc.),
manipulation of concrete objects, and socialization or relating with classmates and
others.
2.3 . Humanistic design
Proponents of curriculum this design are Maslow on the theory of Hierarchy of
Needs and Carl Rogers on self-directed learning by improving self understanding
and basic attitudes to guide behaviour.
In the Humanistic curriculum design, the development of the self is the ultimate
objective of learning . It stresses the development of positive self-concept and
interpersonal skills,
It focuses on the development of the whole person and the integration of
thinking feeling and doing. It considers the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor
domains to be interconnected and must be addressed in the curriculum.

3. Problem-Centred Design (Intended for Higher Education like Tertiary

and Graduate Education Programs)
The content design draws on social problems, needs, interest and abilities of the
learners. Various problems are given emphases, and are scientifically done through
research.
 3.1 . Life-situations design-
It uses the past and present experiences of learners as a means to analyze the
basic areas of living. It starts with the pressing problems of the society and the
students. Based on Herbert Spencer’s curriculum writing, his emphases were
activities that sustain life, enhance life, aid in rearing children, maintains the
individual’s social and political relations and enhance leisure, tasks and feelings.
3.2. Core design
It centers on general education and the problems are based on common human
activities. The central focus of the curriculum includes common needs, problems,
concerns of the learners.

III. REFERENCE
Bilbao P, et al. Curriculum Development for Teachers (2014). Cubao Q.C: Lorimar
Publishing, Inc.