Module 1
Done
CURRICULUM AND THE TEACHER
I. INTRODUCTION
This module is all about school curricula and the teacher. This introductory
module identifies the different types of curricula that exist in the teacher’s
classroom and school. Further, Module 1 describes the important roles of
the teacher as a curricularist who engages in the different facets of
curriculum development in any educational level.
II. LEARNING OUTCOMES
Ø Discuss the different curricula that exist in the schools.
Ø Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist.
Ø Analyze the significance of curriculum and curriculum development in
the teacher's classroom.
III. COURSE CONTENT
TOPIC: Curriculum in School
IV. LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Take-Off
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 the 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- Fist was also a thinker. Then as now, there were few
lengths to which men would not go to avoid the labor and pain of
thought .New-Fist 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, his family and his
group. By virtue of this development, he became a dangerous man
New-Fist thought about how he could harness the children's play to
harness 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-toothed-tigers-with-fire. These then
became the curriculum and the community began to prosper-with plenty
of food, hides for attire and protection from threat. "It is supposed that all
would have gone 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 the community could no longer see the fish
to catch with their bare hands, and only the most agile and clever fish
remained which hid 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 a system of traps on 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 this suggestion. "That wouldn't
education... it would be mere training". We don't teach fish grabbing to
catch fish. we teach it to 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
rue 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 torrent."
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.
No formal, non-formal or informal education exists 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 son 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:
l . Basic Education. This level includes Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 6
for elementary, and for secondary, Grade 7 to Grade 10, for the Junior
High School and Grade Il 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.
2. Technical Vocational Education. This is post-secondary technical
vocational educational and training taken care of by Technical Education
and Skills Development Authority
(TESDA). For the TechVoc track in SHS of DepEd, DepEd and TESDA work
in close coordination.
3. Higher Education. This includes the Baccalaureate or Bachelor
Degrees and the Graduate Degrees (Master's and Doctorate) which are
under the regulation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
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 in Schools
Have you realized that in every classroom there are several types of
curricula operating?
Let us look into each one.
1. Recommended Curriculum.
Almost all currricula 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 international 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 to life 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 greatly on the teaching style of the
teacher and the learning style of the learners.
4. Supported Curriculum
This is described 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
presentation movies, slides, 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 the 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 learning. 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 learning, assessment
as learning or assessment of learning. If the process is to find the progress
of learning, then the assessed curriculum is for learning, but if it is to find
out how much has been learned or mastered, then it is assessment of
learning. Either way, such curriculum is the assessed curriculum.
6. Learned Curriculum.
How do we know if the student has learned?
We always believe that if a student changed behavior, 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, affective and
psychomotor outcomes. Learned curriculum will also demonstrate higher
order and critical thinking and lifelong skills.
7. Hidden/Implicit Curriculum.
This curriculum is not deliberately planned, but has a great impact on the
behavior 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.
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 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 the life of the learners.
Now that you are fully aware that there are seven types of curricula
operating in teacher's classroom, it is then very necessary to learn deeper
and broader about the role of' the teacher in relation to the
school curriculum.
