Principles and Theories in

Curriculum Development
Curriculum from the Latin word
‘’currere’’ which means a race
(meaning to run/to proceed). It is
planned interaction of learners with
instructional content, materials,
resources, and processes for evaluating
A curriculum is a ‘’plan or program of
all experiences which the learner
encounters under the direction of an
educational Institution. It is ‘’the
totality of the experiences of
students received from an
 The Need for a Curriculum
Framework

•The implementation of curriculum

structure that is sari-sari and developed
through hula-hula, lakas ng kutob or
gaya-gaya, becomes problematic
because of the confusion that it creates,
• Taking into account the considerable
expense for major nationwide
curricular reforms for basic education,
it is necessary to underscore the need
for curriculum developers to pay
attention to a multitude of concerns
 THE ROLE OF CURRICULUM
•Curriculum is a crucial factor in the teaching-
learning process.

•It means a written plan (a degree program, a

syllabus, a textbook, a learning package, a
lesson)- which is prescriptive definition.
• Based on Dewey’s (1916) view= “as
all the experiences of the learner
inside and outside the school under
the guidance of the teacher, that is all
encompassing.”
•A written plan that is specific and
prescriptive indicates the objectives,
defines the scope and sequence of the
content, identifies the strategies and
activities or learning, selects materials
and describes the role of the learner and
•Comprehensive plan include all
learning experiences that may or my not
be specifically written but supervised by
the school.
 COST- EFFECTIVENESS
•A need to maximize scare resources allocated
to the educational system for obvious reasons.

Phases of Curriculum Development

Curriculum Dev’t- refers to process that
produces a written plan.
PHASES:

1.The curriculum design or structure

2.The implementation scheme

3.The evaluation procedure

Curriculum Designs – are overall
frameworks which describe the interaction
and congruence of the four basic elements of
aims: objectives, content, organization, and
evaluation.

--These frameworks become the bases for the

 Areas of Concern in Curriculum
Development

1.Shared philosophy, beliefs, behaviors, norms

and rules of Philippine society.

2.Knowledge of the nature of the learner in

terms of development level, learning style,
normative needs and other philosophical and
3.Knowledge of teaching-learning
theories and principles; and

4.The different domains of

knowledge (cognitive, affective,
psychomotor).
Cultural Values

• A group of people in any given society may be defined by

its culture which is manifested by both visible and non-visible
dimensions.

 Visible dimension- rules, food, dress, language, music,

dance, means of livelihood, political behavior, as well as
family, community, and institutional norms and practices.

 Non-visible- such as philosophy, beliefs and value system

which have far greater influence and impact on the way of
 KNOWLEDGE OF THE LEARNER

•The learners are beneficiaries of curricular

revision efforts, it is necessary to know their needs
and interests so that the curriculum design can
respond to their developmental needs that impact
on the growth of knowledge, skills, values,
attitudes and habits as well as on their
expectations in relation to the socio- economic
•The Program For Decentralized Educational
Development Program (PRODED) and the
Secondary Education Development Program
(SEDP) intended to improve the quality of
elementary and secondary education respectively
are focused on the content rather than on the
learner and the learning processes despite their
expressed bias for humanist orientation.
 FACTORING OF THE ECONOMIC
CONDITIONS OF THE LEARNERS

•Poverty continues to be pervasive in the Philippines.

•Because the basic needs for food, health, and housing of

majority of people are not met, many children of school age
are malnourished and sickly.

•In the 80’s, UNICEF estimated that 1.35 million Filipino

children were out of school.
 RECOGNIZING FUTURE NEEDS OF THE
LEARNERS
•It is necessary to anticipate future needs and expectations
too, in order to train the learners to live in and cope with the
demands of a world that will certainly be unlike the present
in many significant ways.

•Visions about the future outlined in documents like

Philippines 2000 provide information on the kind of
curriculum needed in the next century.
 KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHING-
LEARNING PRINCIPLES

•Understanding how human beings learn requires

knowledge of psychological theories and
principles.

•Behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and

cognitive- field psychology.
 BEHAVIORISM

•Behaviorism represents a philosophical and

scientific orientation which focuses on the study
of observable events through the use of the senses
(seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling).
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
PSYCHOLOGY

•Cognitive Dev’t Psychology refers to a

philosophical and scientific orientation which
focuses on mental processes (cognition) that are
non- observable.

Cognition- represents the manner by which a

•According to cognitive
psychologist, learning takes place
through the interaction between the
genetic factors (hereditary), and
environmental ones (nurture).
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
PSYCHOLOGIST
RELATION TO CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION
 COGNITIVE- FIELD
PSYCHOLOGY

•Based on the German concept of Gestalt

that connotes patterns, shapes, forms and
configuration._.....personal meanings or
private views referred to as perception.
•The theory was started by three German
psychologist: Koffka (1935), Wertheimer
(1945), and Kohler (1947). According to
the theory, “what individuals perceives and
what they pay attention to, determine the
meaning they give to the field
(environment)”.
•The field represents how the
individual perceives himself in relation
with the environment (perceptual
organization).
Universal Development and the Theory
of Multiple Intelligences

•Piaget’s concept of universal dev’t may no

longer tenable.

•Sperry’s (in De Tagle, 1992) neuroscientific

research describes how the left and right
hemisphere of the brain for majority of
•Howard Gardner (1983),
proposed the theory of Multiple
Intelligences (MI)
 A PROPOSED EMERGING
LEARNING PARADIGM

•The emerging paradigm suggest that’s

that it is the learner who has stellar role
in the learning process; the teacher’s role
although important is only a supporting
one.
 BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

•What knowledge is of most worth

and therefore should be
taught…….since the time of Plato
and Aristotle.
•The early Romans decided that the
ideal curriculum to produce an
educated man consisted of the seven
liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic,
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and
music.
•In modern times, as a consequences of
discoveries in science, new ideas about
human beings, nature and life, there
had been a tremendous explosion of
knowledge that necessitated the
inclusion of other subjects in he
curricula.
•Several branches in the field of
science are now included in the
school curriculum.
•Social science courses which
were not deemed essential
before are now standard
components of the curricula.
•As new knowledge and
information as well as
technological inventions are
introduced and validated.
 DECISION- MAKING

•The concerns on cultural values, learner

characteristics, teaching- learning principles and
worthwhile knowledge guide the curriculum
developers in making decisions regarding the
curriculum design, on how to conduct a pilot study
of the curriculum to determine deficiencies in the
design that should be corrected prior to its full