PED 104 LESSON 4

APPROACHES TO THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

THREE WAYS OF APPROACHING A CURRICULUM

-Curriculum can be approached or seen in three ways.

-It can be defined as a content, a process or an outcome. If you examine the definitions provided by
the experts in the field,

three ways of approaching a curriculum:

1. is to approach it as content or a body of knowledge to be transmitted.

A. CURRICULUM AS A CONTENT OR BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

-It is quite a common traditionalists to equate a curriculum to a topic outline, subject matter, or
concepts to be included in the syllabus or a books.

*For example, a primary school mathematics curriculum consists of topic on addition, multiplication,
subtraction, division, distance, weight and many more.

-If curriculum is equated as content regardless of their design or models.

-The fund of knowledge is the repository of accumulated discoveries and inventions of man from the
explorations of the earth and as products of research.

- In most educational setting, curriculum is anchored on a body of knowledge or discipline.

There are four ways of presenting the content in the curriculum, These are:

1. TOPICAL APPROACH, where much content is based on knowledge, and experiences are included;

2. CONCEPT APPROACH, with fewer topics in clusters around major and sub-concepts and their
interaction, with relatedness emphasized;

3. THEMATIC APPROACH, as a combination of concepts that develop structures, and

4. MODULAR APPROACH, that leads to complete units of instruction.

These are some suggested criteria in the selection of knowledge or subject matter. (Scheffer, 1970 in
Bilbao, et al 2015)

1. SIGNIFICANCE

Content should contribute to ideas, concepts, principles and generalization that should attain the over
all purpose of the curriculum. It is significant if content becomes the means of developing cognitive,
affective or psychomotor skills of the learner. As education is a way of preserving culture, content will
be significant when this will address the cultural context of the learners.

2. VALIDITY

The authenticity of the subject matter forms its validity. Knowledge becomes obsolete with the fast
changing times. Thus, there is a need for validity check and verification at a regular interval, because
content which may be valid in its original form may not continue to be valid in the current times.

3. UTILITY

Usefulness of the content in the curriculum is relative to the learners who are going to use these.
Utility can be relative to time. It may have been useful in the past, but may not be useful now or in the
future. Questions like; Will I use this in my life as a future job? Will it add meaning to my lifelong
learner? Or Will the subject matter be useful in solving current concerns?

4. LEARNABILITY

The complexity of the content should be within the range of experiences of the learners. This is based
on the psychological principles of learning. Appropriate organization of content standards and
sequencing of contents are two basic principles that would influence learnability.

5. FEASIBILITY

Can the subject content be learned within the time allowed, resources available, expertise of the
teachers and the nature of learners? Are there contents of learning which can be learned beyond the
formal teaching-learning engagement? Are there opportunities provided to learn these?

6. INTEREST

Will the learners take interest in the content? Why? Are the contents meaningful? What value will the
contents have in the present and future life of the learners? Interest is one of the driving forces for
students to learn better.
GUIDE in the selection of the content in the Curriculum

1. Commonly used in daily life

2. Appropriate to the maturity levels and abilities of the learners.

3. Valuable in meeting the needs and competencies of the future career.

4. Related to other subject fields or discipline for complementation and integration.

5. Important in the transfer of learning to other disciplines.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR CURRICULUM CONTENTS

1. Balance -content should be fairly distributed in depth and breadth. This will guarantee that
significant contents should be covered to avoid too much or too little of the contents needed with in
the time allocation.

2. Articulation-as the content complexity progresses with the educational levels, vertically or
horizontally, across the same discipline smooth connections or bridging should be provided. This will
assure no gaps or overlaps in the content.

3. Sequence-the logical arrangement of the content refers to sequence or order. This can be done
vertically for deepening the content or horizontally for broadening the same content. In both ways,
the pattern is usually from easy to complex, what is known to the unknown, what is current to
something in the future.

4. Integration-content in the curriculum does not stand alone or in isolation. It has some ways of
relatedness or connectedness to other contents. Contents should be infused in other disciplines
whenever possible. This will provide a wholistic or unified view of curriculum instead of
segmentation.

5. Continuity-content when viewed as a curriculum should continuously flow as it was before, to

6. Scope -the breadth and depth of the curriculum content are vital in curriculum. scope consists of all
the contents, topics, learning experiences compromising the curriculum. In layman's term scope refers
to coverage. The scope shall consider the cognitive level, affective domain and psychomotor skills in
identifying the contents. Other factors will be considered but caution is given to overloading of
contents.
B. CURRICULUM AS A PROCESS

-We have seen that the curriculum can be approached as a content. On the other hand, it can also be
approached as a process. Curriculum as a process is seen as a scheme about the practice of teaching. It
is not package of materials or a syllabus of content to be covered. The classroom is only part of the
learning environment where the teacher places action using the content to achieve an outcome.
Hence the process of teaching and learning becomes central concern of teachers to emphasize critical
thinking, and heads-on, hands-on learning and many others.

When curriculum is approached as a PROCESS, guiding principles are presented.

1. Curriculum process in the form of teaching methods or strategies are means to achieve the end.

2. There is no single best process or method. Its effectiveness will depend on the desired learning
outcomes, the learners, support materials and the teacher.

3. Curriculum process should stimulate the learner's desire to develop the cognitive, affective,
psychomotor domains in each individual.

4. In the choice of methods, learning and teaching styles should be considered.

5. Every method or process should result to learning outcomes which can be described as cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor.

6. Flexibility in the use of the process or methods should be considered. An effective process will
always result to learning outcomes.

7. Both teaching and learning are the two important processes in the implementation of the
curriculum.

C. CURRICULUM AS A PRODUCT

Beside viewing curriculum as contentthat is to be transmitted, or process that gives action using the
content, it has also been viewed as a product. In other words, product is what the students desire to
achieve as a learning outcomes. The product from the curriculum is a student equipped with the
knowledge, skills and values to function effectively and efficiently. The real purpose of education is to
bring about significant changes in students pattern of behavior. It is important that any statement of
objectives or intended outcomes of the school should be a statement of changes to take place in a
student. Curriculum product is expressed in the form of outcomes which are referred to as the
achieved learning outcomes. There may be several desired learning outcomes, but if the process is not
successful, then no learning outcomes will be achieved. These learned or achieved learning outcomes
are demonstrated by the person who has meaningful experiences in the curriculum. All of these are
result of planning content and process in the curriculum.
Self Check!

Curriculum as way of doing . (process)

Authenticity of the content . (validity)

Curriculum as the subject matter. (content)

Fair distribution of the content across the subject . (balance)

Curriculum as the outcome learning . (product)

Seamless flow of content vertically or horizontally in the curriculum. (articulation)

Evidence of successful teaching. ( learning outcomes)

Enduring and perennial content, from past to future (continuity)

Allowing the transfer of content to other fields. (integration)

Arranging of contents from easy to difficult. (sequence)