MODULE 2: INTERPRETING THE

CURRICULUM: AIMS, GOALS AND

OBJECTIVES
Presenter: Dr. Daniel M. Mngarah
Sub-sections:
i)Defining curriculum Interpretation
ii)Levels in interpreting curriculum
iii)Aims, Goals and Objectives
 Module 2 cont…
iii) Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:
applicability in Teaching, Learning and
Assessment
iv) Instructional Objectives and learning
experiences
v) Critique of the Bloom’s taxonomy
vi) Interpreting the Syllabus, Developing Scheme
of Work and Lesson Plans
 Curriculum Interpretation
• It refers to the process of translating teaching
and learning so as to enable learning to occur
• Curriculum interpretation involve various
educational stakeholders, so the
interpretation may vary from one person to
another
Why variation in curriculum interpretation?
a)Interpretation involves stakeholders from
different positions (policy makers, teachers)
b)Interpreters have varying understandings on
the role of schools
c) They have different philosophical assumptions
on education (e.g. traditional and
contemporary educational philosophies)
d) Individual differences: Interests and
aspirations among interpreters (e.g. learners)
e) Socio-economic political and cultural context
of the interpreters/stakeholders vary
significantly (e.g. the needs of the herder-
farmer communities, the needs of the urban
parents)
Levels in Curriculum Interpretation
i) National/State/Macro level:
This is also known as the policy making level. It:
• Formulates the philosophy and policy of
education in the country
• Formulates aims and objectives of education
for the whole country (in case of centralized
curriculum)
• Personal Reading Task:
Read the Education and Training Policy (ETP)
1995; 2014 and write down the aims of
education in Tanzania.
The national level is sub-divided into two parts
namely:
(a) Ideal curriculum:
• Provides the vision, or basic philosophy
underlying curriculum
• The educational philosophy guiding T/L in
Tanzania is ESR (pragmatism)
• Raises philosophical questions on education
• Examples of questions:
a)What kind of a person can education produce
in society?
b)What role can education play in society?
c) Should education shape an individual or
nurture an individual’s talents and potentials?
(b) Formal/written curriculum
• Involves Curriculum Design, Development &
Evaluation (Meso Level)
• The level writes the curriculum documents,
i.e. syllabus, textbooks, teaching manuals
• TIE, NECTA form part of the formal curriculum
• Meso level is at national level but tends to be
specialized than macro level
• This level raises questions such as:
• What learning experiences need to be learned
by different learners
• How can learning outcomes be determined?
• What teaching and learning strategies, what
T/L resources are recommendable for
teaching?
• Interpretation leads to making materials
such as books, setting examinations, etc.
ii) Institutional/Classroom/Micro Level:
In this level teachers facilitate learning.
•The interpretation of curriculum by teachers
depends on possession of either extended or
restricted professionalism (Klaassen, 2010).
•Some are committed towards whole child
(extended professionalism); others towards the
subject (restricted professionalism).
• The level is also known as Implemented
curriculum and is sub-divided into:
i) Perceived curriculum, which refers to
curriculum as interpreted by its users, that is,
teachers
ii)Operational curriculum, (curriculum in
practice) means actual processes of teaching
in the classrooms/school
The questions related to this level include:
•Who am I in the lives of these children?
•How can I nurture my students’ dreams of
becoming the kind of persons they aspire?
•Which methods can I employ for effective
teaching of this topic (e.g.democracy)?
•Which materials can I use to enhance students’
learning in T/L?
iii) Individual/Personal/Nano Level
•The level involves individual students who are
the target of education
•It involves students’ experiences of learning
•Students’ interests vary, so that each may have
different interpretation of curriculum
Individual/Personal/Nano level is sub-divided
into:
(i) Experiential curriculum, that is, learning
experiences as perceived by learners
(ii) Learned curriculum, i.e. resulting learning
outcomes among learners. These are not in
form of grades; rather, they are
competences.
 Fidelity of Implementation (FOI)
• FOI refers to a degree or extent to which the
intended goals are linked with the learning
outcomes
• In many situations, the curriculum intentions
are not attained as planned
• FOI is important for several reasons:
 Importance of FOI
i. It helps providing explanations why some
programs succeed/fail
ii. It provides research opportunities:
Researcher investigate what went wrong
iii. Shows positive/negative impacts of new
innovations
iv. For precaution purposes
v. For practicability of the programme
 Factors affecting FOI
i. Teacher characteristics (self-confidence,
enthusiasm vs. authoritarian, PCK, etc.
ii. Institutional features (eg. School culture)
iii. Regional, social, economic, cultural variation
iv. High stake testing
v. Student characteristics
vi. Teacher training
vii. Centralized/decentralized curriculum
 Aims, Goals and Objectives
• The concepts are used interchangeably in the
ordinary language. However they differ greatly in the
field of curriculum.
a) Aims of education (Government aims):
i) They are general/broad statements that provide
direction to educational processes
ii) They serve as guiding principles for education policy
iii) They are translations of the educational philosophy
and needs of the country
iv) They are statements about educational needs
of society, roles of school, youth, etc.
v) They are long-term educational intentions
which look forward into students’ life beyond
schooling e.g. students’ career plans
 Examples of aims of education
i) To prepare students to become democratic
and responsible citizens
ii) To develop a moral character and personal
discipline in young people
iii) To encourage and promote creative and
critical thinking among children
 Goals of Education
i) These are statements of intent, but are more
specific than aims as they make reference to
the school system
ii) They may be focused on a specific
educational programme i.e. primary,
secondary or tertiary education
iii) They may also deal with a subject area
iv) They translate aims into statements
describing what schools are to accomplish
v) Although they are specific than aims, goals
are non-behavioural and non-measurable
vi) Goals provide notion of time, depending on
which type of goal is involved
vii) Goals stand between aims and objectives.
Some of those goals are closely related with
aims while some are closely related to
objectives.
 Types of educational Goals
There are three types, namely:
i)Ultimate goals
ii)Mediate goals, and
iii)Proximate goals
Goals can be ultimate, mediate or proximate
depending on the context and time stated in
each of them
 Ultimate Goals
i) They are statements of purpose which resemble
aims but they set clear contexts. For example they
may be stated in policy documents as:
• aims and objectives of primary or secondary
education,
•Aims and objectives of Civics teaching in Tanzania
•Aims and objectives of teaching Mathematics in
Form one, etc.
ii) They are made by curriculum designers e.g. TIE
 Mediate Goals
i) These stand between ultimate goals and
proximate goals
ii) They are statements of educational intent
which are stated by considering a rather shorter
period of time, topic, sub-topic, module or a
unit of any content

iv) They may be seen in the subject syllabi for

various topics, wrongly stated as ‘specific
objectives’ for each topic
iv) Unlike the ultimate goals, the time involved
for the realization of mediate goals could be
some days or a few weeks
• Mediate goals may be stated in:
a)Schemes of works, where they show
competences to be attained in the specific
topics/sub-topics
b)In seminar/workshop/conference
presentations
 Proximate Goals
i) These are always used in the classroom
teaching and learning processes
ii) They are statements of educational intent
which help teachers to prepare the specific
objectives for their lessons
iii) Their life span is always shortest of all goals
as they are attained at the end of few
encounters
iv) They are also named as general objectives in
lesson plans
 Objectives
• These are statements of intent which are most
specific, used in planning and executing
lessons
• They are referred to as learning or
instructional objectives
i) These statements are stated in observable
ii)They are presented in measurable terms
iii)They indicate clearly what specific
proficiencies or competences must be
attained in the lesson
iv) Objectives are concerned with achievement,
i.e. they show what should be achieved at the
end of the lesson
v) Objectives serve as the criteria for
determining how learning has occurred
vi) The formulation of objectives acts as one of
the technical problems facing some teachers. It
requires careful planning.
 Why formulating objectives?
i) They help teachers to follow a proper
sequence in the teaching flow
ii) They remind teachers about the stage of
teaching in relation to time
iii) They enable teachers to identify learning
difficulties for specific parts of the content
iv) They enable teachers to make self-reflection
of what is achieved in relation to intentions
v) They help in determining teacher’s PCK
vi) Help teachers in setting tests/examination
 Types of objectives
According to Allan Ornstein (2013), objectives
may be classified into:
i.Government objectives (aims)
ii.Programme objectives (ultimate goals)
iii.Course objectives (mediate goals), and
iv.Classroom objectives (proximate and specific
objectives)
 Note that:
• The statement of objectives requires using
action verbs that are observable and
measurable at the end of the session
• Objectives are stated by considering the ABCD
format so as to be more precise.
• Stating objectives follows the SMART format.
 Note also that:
The distinction among aims, goals and
objectives of education is determined by:
i.Time factor indicated in the statement
ii.Description of the context (e.g. school system,
level of education, subject discipline)
iii.Verbs used in the statement in question
iv.The way a behaviour is stated
 SESSION TWO
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:
i.Conceptualization and background of the
taxonomy
ii.Domains of learning
iii.Levels and verbs in each domain
iv.Applicability of the taxonomy in teaching and
assessment processes
 The concept of taxonomy
• Taxonomy of educational objectives refers to
the framework for classifying learning
objectives
• It refers to one of the ways for organizing
levels of expertise/competence to be
developed in learners
• A way of organizing student learning
outcomes so that they help in T/L and testing
procedures
 Background
• The taxonomy of educational objectives was
published in 1956 after some years of scholars
attempting to classify learning objectives in
the USA
• Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill & Krathwohl,
(1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives:
Handbook 1: Cognitive domain
• They clearly stated that objectives in the
cognitive domain were easy to measure, were
observable and had clear statements
• In 1964, another book (handbook 2) was
published classifying the levels in the affective
domain
• Krathwohl, Bloom & Masia, (1964).
Classification of educational objectives:
handbook 2, affective domain.
• Although by now there were two domains to
state educational intentions, only the first
remained famous to date.
 Domains of Learning
The classification of the taxonomies:
i.Cognitive domain (knowledge-based
goals/about knowing)
ii.Affective domain (about attitudes, feelings,
values, emotions, interests)
iii.Psychomotor (about doing/skills-based goals)
Within each taxonomy, the levels of expertise
are in the order of increasing complexity (i.e.
arranged from simple to complex)
 Levels for each domain
Cognitive domain: This domain has both the
original and revised taxonomies:
Both the original and revised cognitive domain
(1956 and 2001) have six levels as follows:
The original taxonomy levels comprises:
i.Knowledge, including recall or recognition of
terms, ideas, procedures, theories, facts
ii.Comprehension, comprising ability to
interpret information /data
iii. Application, encompassing taking
information in solving problems in concrete
situations
iv). Analysis, involving breaking down a
communication into its constituent parts and
revealing the relationship among them
v). Synthesis, i.e. putting together disorganized
elements to form a whole, e.g. compose, plan,
vi). Evaluation, i.e. making judgments about the
value of materials or methods
 Verbs used in the original taxonomy
i. Knowledge level: define, list, name, label,
locate, state,
ii. Comprehension level: paraphrasing,
summarizing, describing, interpreting,
extrapolating, translating, restating,
iii. Application level: solve, calculate, apply,
employ, use, execute, implement,
iv. Analysis level: distinguish, organize, analyze,
discuss, compare, contrast, argue,
v. Synthesis Level: compose, plan, propose,
arrange, assemble, collect,
vi. Evaluation level: appraise, evaluate,
compare, rate, value, revise, critique, score,
examine, assess
Note that: The use of these verbs in the
statements helps to identify the taxonomy level
involved
 Levels in the Revised Taxonomy
i. Remembering (instead of knowledge)
ii. Understand (instead of comprehension)
iii.Applying
iv. Analyzing
v. Evaluating (this has changed places with
synthesis)
vi. Creating
The revised taxonomy was published in (2001).
 Levels in the affective domain
The taxonomy has five levels namely:
i.Receiving (willing to notice a phenomenon)
ii.Responding (makes response)
iii.Valuing (accepts worth of a thing)
iv.Organizing (organizes values, determines
interrelationships, adapts behaviour)
v.Characterization (emphasis on internal
consistency; total philosophy or worldview of
life)
 Verbs in the affective domain
i. Receiving level: be conscious, realize, be
sensitive, attend, listen, be alert, cooperate,
contribute, volunteer
ii. Responding level: willing, comply, obey,
engage, display, respond, prefer, accept,
devote, is loyal to, enrich, consider
iii. Valuing level: continuing desire, grow, feel,
participate, assume responsibility, enable,
initiate, examine
iv. Organization level: relate, weigh, regulates
v. Characterization level: ready, change,
approach, is consistent,
Note that: The levels and verbs in the affective
domain are important in every learning
encounter that intend to raise self-awareness,
positive attitudes, commitment, self-regulation,
etc.
 Some examples
i. Subject disciplines such as Civic Education
call for the affective domain than other
subjects because the subject is there for
promoting attitudinal dispositions
ii. Most of the cross-cutting issues (gender, HIV-
Aids, environmental conservation etc. cannot
materialize without promotion of the
affective abilities in learners
Hence, no meaningful learning may occur in the
absence of the affective domain.
 Psychomotor domain Levels
Dave (1975) psychomotor (kinesthetic) levels:
i.Imitation level: ability to copy, replicate the
actions of others following observations
ii.Manipulation level: ability to repeat or reproduce
actions to given/approved standard from
instruction or memory
iii.Precision Level: ability to perform action with
expertise and without interventions and the ability
to demonstrate and explain actions to others
iv. Articulation level: ability to adapt existing
psychomotor skills in a non-standard way, in
different contexts, using alternative tools and
instruments to satisfy need
v. Naturalization level: Ability to perform actions
in an automatic, intuitive or unconscious way
appropriate to the context
Applicability of the Bloom’s taxonomy
The Bloom’s cognitive domain levels are
applicable in planning teaching processes, actual
teaching, assessment of learning and in testing
a)In lesson planning:
•Teachers plan their teaching interactions
through lesson plans
•They select action verbs that consider the
cognitive domain levels so that teaching starts
from simple to complex
•The lesson plans need to include both lower
and higher order levels of the taxonomy
• In many cases, teachers tend to state specific
objectives that consist of the lower-order
levels causing teaching and learning to go for
mere recalling of facts, conceptualizations and
memorization
• Most teachers look for what they can easily
measure so as to claim that learning occured
• Irrespective of the educational level involved
in the lesson, both the lower and higher levels
have to be considered in planning the lesson
 b) Applicability in T/L
Teaching involves three major activities:
(i) explaining, (ii) questioning and (iii)
motivation
•A teacher needs to consider the Bloom’s levels
in both explaining and questioning for every
encounter by focusing on the specific objectives
•Motivation acts as a means to change levels,
i.e. from lower-order levels to higher levels
•Lower levels are vital at all stages of the lesson
 c) Applicability in reflection
• The Bloom’s taxonomy is involved in the
assessment of learning before the closure of
learning
• A teacher poses some questions on what was
learned in the lesson using both low and high
levels of the taxonomy
• Reflection depends on whether a teacher
employs the teacher or learner-centered T/L
approaches
• In the latter case, reflection is of little
significance
 d) Applicability in testing
• Bloom’s taxonomy is a convenient way to
describe the degree to which teachers define
how students understand and use concepts
they taught.
Hence,
• The Bloom taxonomy (cognitive levels) is
highly used in setting the tests/examinations.
• Each of the Bloom’s cognitive levels has to be
represented in the test/examination
• One of the difficulties teachers may face is to
strike a balance so that each of the levels is
included in a test/examination
• Given a sample of test questions, one needs to
identify which level each question represents
• Higher-order levels need more questions than
lower-order questions
• The Bloom’s levels are used collectively in
setting test items such as the multiple-choice,
matching, T/F statements, essay, etc.
• That is to say, each level can be involved in
setting any kind of the test/examination item
• In order to strike a balance of the Bloom’s
levels used in any given test, a table of
specifications is used
 Table of Specifications
• A table of specifications is a diagram prepared by
teachers to plan the test items in relation to the
cognitive levels
• It has vertical and horizontal lines, where the
horizontal line indicates columns of the Bloom’s
levels while the vertical lines indicate the number
of questions for each level or vice versa
• The table then has the columns of total of
questions for each level to show the share of
each level in the test
• In other words, a table of specifications in test
construction serves as a tool for ensuring that the
Bloom’s cognitive levels are well represented in a
test/examination
• However, the inclusion of all the Bloom’s levels in
a table of specifications can only materialize if all
the levels were used in the teaching processes
• The table is useful in determining validity and
reliability of any test/examination
 Critique of the Bloom’s Taxonomy
i. Biased, emphasizing the cognitive domain levels
alone. Rare/few tests are set measuring
affective or psychomotor levels in schools
ii. Meaning of education lost: Reliance on the
cognitive translates education to mean the
process of transmitting knowledge alone. Skills
and attitudes are left out.
iii. Education focuses on certification rather than
providing competences.
iv. Education outcomes involve half cooked
individuals with a diploma disease.
 Instructional Objectives and Learning
experiences
• Instructional objectives refer to specific
objectives which are prepared by teachers so
as to guide the T/L processes
• These are the same as the specific objectives
which guide T/L processes
• Learning experiences refer to the content
which students learn.
• Learning experiences are provided by teachers
and are received by students.
 Way forward for Tanzania
• Tanzania has claimed to employ the
competence-based curriculum, which, in fact,
cannot match with the Bloom’s cognitive
levels. Hence,
• There is need to look for curriculum
reforms/changes so as to accommodate the
competence-based curriculum fully
• The Bloom’s taxonomy (cognitive levels) is
inadequate in Tanzania as it fails to produce
learned and competent people.
 Session Three
Interpreting the Syllabus, Developing Scheme of
Work and Lesson Plans
a)A syllabus as Formal/written curriculum
i.Levels in the interpretation of the syllabus
ii.Syllabus vs. philosophy, aims
iii.Organizational structure
iv.Critical review/analysis
b) Scheme of Work
c) Lesson Plan
 Syllabus
• A syllabus refers to a document prepared for
the purpose of guiding teaching in schools
• It is developed by the curriculum designing
institution (meso level) on behalf of the nation
and is used mainly by teachers
• For teachers, it serves s a contract
• The curriculum designing institution translates
the philosophy and aims of education into T/L
materials
A syllabus comprises two main parts:
i.Preliminary part: This involves aims and
objectives of education, aims and objectives for
the level of education in question, list of
competences, etc.
ii.Content in terms of topics/sub topics,
objectives, T/L resources, assessment, etc.
 Critical analysis of Syllabus
Positives:
i.It makes teachers accountable
ii.It guides T/L processes
iii.It enables curriculum evaluation institution to set
the summative evaluation
iv.It enables teachers to decide the pace/speed of
teaching
v.It enables teachers to determine T/L approaches
vi.It reminds teachers of time management
Negatives:
i.Syllabi do not indicate clearly competences for
each topic and sub topic so as to guide teachers
to employ the competence-based teaching and
learning

i.They emphasize the use of cognitive domain at

the expense of affective and psychomotor
domains
iii. Some syllabi indicate T/L resources to include
‘written sources’ through out thus hampering
teachers’ creativity
iv. Most syllabi in the Tanzanian context consist
of overcrowded content which cannot be
covered using the proposed T/L strategies
v) Emphasis on cognitive domain causes failure
to realize the aims and philosophy stated
 b) Schemes of Work
• A scheme of work is a document prepared
from the syllabus so as to enable teachers to
prepare the teaching procedures for a long
term period, usually a year.
• A scheme of work:
i. Enables a teacher to prepare lesson plans
because it breaks content from the syllabus
into manageable sections
ii) Enables a teacher to determine the T/L
activities as it sets time for each activity
iii) Enables a teacher to devise various T/L
resources before the time for teaching arrives
iv) Enables a teacher to look for specific
references (written sources) for each topic/sub
topic.
• Note that: While the syllabi indicate T/L in
form of ‘written sources’, in the scheme of
work, teachers must state specific written
source, such as the book, journal article,
newspaper article, etc.
v) A scheme enables a teacher to look for
reference books before the time for their use
comes.
 c) Lesson Plan
These are teacher’s documents prepared for
every lesson. Lesson plans:
i.Must indicate clearly what learning outcomes
are to be attained at the end of every lesson
(ABCD)
ii.Must indicate low and high Bloom cognitive
levels to be used in T/L processes
iii.Are made to guide teachers in their teaching
procedures step by step
iv) Are accumulated and used in the processes
of setting tests and examinations.
v) For Tanzanian context, lesson plans are
confined to the cognitive domain, putting aside
other domains of learning which are equally
important.
 Conclusion
The interpretation of curriculum in Tanzania has
revealed that:
i.Philosophy and aims of education call for
teaching and learning processes that include all
the domains of learning (cognitive, affective and
psychomotor domains). So Tanzanian education
is in wrong footing.
ii. Although the competence based curriculum
was introduced in Tanzania since 2005, it does
not work because the syllabi are mainly
cognitive oriented and do not provide room for
competences to emerge during teaching and
learning. Hence, the ESR philosophy cannot be
reached.
Thank you for listening. Stay tuned for the
coming module on curriculum designing.