Foundations of Curriculum Development

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Describe the foundations of curriculum development.
2. Explain how each foundation influences the curriculum development.

Foundations of Curriculum

1. Philosophical Foundations

Educators, teachers, educational planners and policy makers must have a philosophy
or strong belief about education and schooling and the kind of curriculum in the teachers’
classrooms or learning environment. Philosophy of the curriculum answers questions like:
What are schools for? What subjects are important? How should students learn? What
methods should be used? What outcomes should be achieved? Why?

The various activities in school are influenced in one way or another by a

philosophy. John Dewey influenced the use of learning by doing, he being a pragmatist. Or
to an essentialist, the focus is on the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, the
essential subjects in the curriculum.

There are many philosophies in education but we will illustrate only those presented
by Ornstein and Hunkins in 2004.

There are four main educational philosophies –

perennialism focuses on cultivating intellect through classical subjects;

essentialism promotes growth in core subjects;

progressivism promotes democratic living through experiential learning; and

reconstructionism aims to improve society through education for change.

A. Perennialism

 Aim: To educate the rational person; cultivate intellect

 Role: Teachers assist students to think with reason (critical thinking; HOTS)
 Focus: Classical subjects, literary analysis. Curriculum is enduring
 Trends: Use of great books (Bible, Koran, Classics) and Liberal Arts
B. Essentialism

 Aim: To promote intellectual growth of learners to become competent

 Role: Teachers are sole authorities in the subject area
 Focus: Essential skills of the 3Rs; essential subject
 Trends: Back to basics, Excellence in education, cultural literacy

C. Progressivism

 Aim: Promote democratic social living

 Role: Teacher leads for growth and development of lifelong learners
 Focus: Interdisciplinary subjects. Learner-centered. Outcomes-based
 Trends: Equal opportunities for all, Contextualized curriculum, Humanistic education

D. Reconstructionism

 Aim: To improve and reconstruct society. Education for change

 Role: Teacher acts as agent of change and reforms
 Focus: Present and future educational landscape
 Trends: School and curricular reform, Global education, Collaboration
and Convergence, Standards and Competencies

2. Historical Foundations

Where is curriculum development coming from? The historical foundation will show
to us the chronological development along a time line. Reading materials would tell us the
curriculum development started when Franklin Bobbit (1876-1956) wrote the book “The
Curriculum.” Let us see how each one contributed to curriculum development during his own
time. Here are eight among the many, we consider to have great contributions.

Person Contribution / Theorist and Principles

 He started the
Franklin Bobbit (1876-1956) curriculum development
movement.
 Curriculum as a science that
emphasizes students’ needs.
 Curriculum prepares learners for
adult life.
 Objectives and activities should group
together when tasks are clarified.
Werret Charter (1875-1952  Like Bobbit, he posited that
curriculum is science and
emphasizes students’ needs.
 Objectives and activities should
match. Subject matter or
content relates to objectives.
William Kilpartick (1875-1952)  Curricula are purposeful
activities which are child-centred.
 The purpose of the curriculum is
child development and growth. He
 introduced this project method where
teacher and student plan the activities.
 Curriculum develops social
relationships and small group
instruction.
Harold Rugg (1886- 1960)  Curriculum should develop the
whole child. It is child-centered.
 With the statement of objectives and
related learning activities,
curriculum should produce
outcomes.
 Emphasized social studies and
suggested that the teacher
plans curriculum in advance.
Hollis Caswell (1901-1989)  Curriculum is organized around
social functions of themes, organized
knowledge and leaner’s interest.
 Curriculum, instruction and
learning are interrelated.
 Curriculum is a set of experiences.
Subject matter is developed
around social functions and
learners’ interests.
Ralph Tayler (1902-1994)  Curriculum is a science and an
extension of school’s philosophy. It
is based on students’ needs and
interest.
 Curriculum is always related to
instruction. Subject matter is
organized in terms of
knowledge, skills and values.
 The process emphasizes problem
solving. Curriculum aims to
educate generalists and not
specialists.
Hilda Taba (1902-1967)  She contributed to the theoretical
and pedagogical foundations of
concepts development and critical
thinking in social studies curriculum.
 She helped lay the foundation
for diverse student population
Peter Oliva (1992-2012)  He described curriculum change as a
cooperative endeavour,
 Teachers and curriculum
specialist constitute the
professional core of planners
 Significant improvement is
achieved through group activity.

3. Psychological Foundations of Curriculum

 Psychology provides a basis to understand the teaching and learning process. It
unifies elements of the learning process. Questions which can be addressed by psychological
foundations of education are: How should curriculum organized to enhance learning? What
is the optimal level of students’ participation in learning the various contents of the
curriculum? In this lesson, we shall consider three groups of learning theorist: behaviorism or
association theorist; cognitive-information processing theories and humanistic theories
(Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004).

Let us review some theories in learning related to these clusters of learning theories.
3.1. Association and Behaviorism

Persons Contributions/ Theories and Principles

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)  He is the father of the Classical
Conditioning Theory, the S-R Theory
(Stimulus-Response)
 The key to learning is early years of life. This is
to train them what you want them to become.
 S-R Theory is a foundation of learning
practice called indoctrination.
Edward Thorndike (1874-  He championed the Connectionism Theory.
1949)  He proposed the three laws of learning:
- Law of readiness
- Law of exercise
- Law of effect
 Specific stimulus has specific response
Robert Gagne (1916-2002)  He proposed the Hierarchical Learning Theory.
Learning follows a hierarchy
 Behavior is based on prerequisite conditions.
 He introduced tasking in the formulation of
objectives.

3.2. Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)  Theories of Jean Piaget

o Cognitive development has stages from
birth to maturity:
Sensorimotor stage (0-2), preoperational stage (2-7),
concrete operations stage (7-11) and formal operations (11-
onwards)
 Keys to learning
o Assimilation (incorporation of new
experience)
o Accommodation (learning modification
and adaptation)
o Equilibration (balance between previous
and later learning)
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)  Theories of Lev Vygotsky
  Cultural transmission and development
stage: Children could, as a result of their
interaction with society, actually
perform
certain cognitive actions prior to arriving at
developmental stage
 Learning precedes development
 Sociocultural development theory
 Keys to learning
 Pedagogy creates learning processes
that lead to development
 The child is an active agent in his or her
educational process.
Howard Gardner  Gardner’s multiple intelligences
 Humans have several different ways of
processing information and these ways are
relatively independent of one another
 There are eight intelligences:
linguistic, logico-mathematical,
musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
naturalistic.
Daniel Goleman  Emotion contains the power to affect action
 He called this Emotional Quotient.

3.3. Humanistic Psychology

Persons/Symbols Contribution/ Theories and Principles

Gestalt  Gestalt Theory
 Learning is explained in terms of
“wholeness” of the problem.
 Human beings do not respond to isolated
stimuli but to an organization or pattern
of stimuli
 Keys to learning
 Learning is complex and abstract.
 Learners analyze the problem, discriminate
between essential and nonessential data,
and perceive relationships.
 Learners will perceive something in relation
to the whole. What/ how they perceive is
related to their previous experiences
Abraham Maslow (1908-  He advanced the Self-Actualization Theory
1970) and classic theory of human needs.
 A child whose basic needs are not met will
not be interested in acquiring knowledge of
the world.
 He put importance to human emotions,
 based on love and trust.
 Key to learning
 Produce a healthy and happy learner who
can accomplish, grow and actualize his or
her
 human self.
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)  Nondirective and Therapeutic Learning
 He established counselling procedures
and methods for facilitating learning.
 Children’s perceptions, which are
highly individualist influence their
learning and behaviour in class.
 Key to learning
 Curriculum is concerned with process, not
product; personal needs, not subject matter,
psychological meaning, not cognitive
scores.

4. Social Foundations of Curriculum

Person/Symbols Contributions/ Theories and Principles

 Society as a source of change
School and Society  Schools as agents of change
 Knowledge as an agent of change
 Influence of society and social context
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) in education
 Things that surround individuals can
change, develop their behavior
 Considered two fundamental elements
which are schools and civil society
 Wrote the book Future Shock
 Believed that knowledge should
prepare students for the future.
 Suggested that in the future, parents
might have the resources to teach
prescribed curriculum from home as a
Alvin Toffler
result of technology, not in spite of it.
(Home Schooling)
 Foresaw schools and students worked
creatively, collaboratively, and
independent of their age.

In summary, the foundation upon which curriculum is based are educational

philosophies, historical developments, psychological explanations, and societal
influences. All of these foundations are interrelated to each.
 philosophies, - 4 + 4

historical developments, 8 + 2

psychological explanations, - 10 + 2

societal – 3 + 2

Prepare a powerpoint presentation of the foundations of curriculum assigned to you.

- Explain further
- Give specific application to school/classroom curriculum/give specific
examples related to your area of specialization
- For the philosophical foundations group, name some philosophers and
their specific contributions
-
Present/Illustrate your understanding of the lesson in a graphical form/infographics, poetry, or
any other way of presentation that you are comfortable with.