CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

2.0 CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

A process is the flow of an activity from the initial stage to the end stage without repetition. Curriculum process
undergoes systematic stages of development.

2.1 Purpose of Education and Curriculum

The main purpose of education is to socialize an individual among peer groups. Without
a community and group, life and socialization of an individual would have very little meaning. From the beginning of
human society, the main objective of education has been that of transmitting to the child the accumulated experiences
of his people and their
culture as well as of training him to fit into the membership of the group. It was through this background that the society
has managed to survive and gain increasing knowledge over all forms of human institutions: governance, rituals, survival
etc.

Curriculum on the other hand was prompted during the World Wars, especially the 1st World War (1918) when Franklin
Bobbat published a book called “the Curriculum” to provide a course of operations on the war and its derived out
comes. This period was marked by industrial and technological development. There was need to design
programmes of activity or events which had profound effect on the social, economic and political life of people.
Curriculum as seen now is to create a situation of social activity- based on development of the people.

Functions of Education and Curriculum

• Education provides knowledge, desired attitudes and practical skills to individuals.

• Education matures an individual for a sense of responsibility, accountability and
service to the society.
• Education trains an individual for self-discipline, self appraisal and sense of humour
for self-reliance.
• Education provides ways and means of recognizing the environment and its
ecological content for use in survival trends.
• Education also leads to corporate efforts at societal, national and global levels of
human existence
• Curriculum is a blue print of education in systematically stated terms
• Curriculum offers guidance, knowledge, attitude and skill content for schooling and
training
• Curriculum directs the society through a school system to identify values, knowledge
and life instruments for survival.
• Curriculum organizes man into patterns of life type as organization fraternities and
expressions

Objectives of Curriculum Development Process

Curriculum Development Process

This is the process of choosing and refining the contents of an education system which may later on be implemented in
schools. It is in nature an improvement or modification or change on the existing, educational programme. Curriculum
improvement or curriculum development cannot be made in a neat series of steps; it involves a lot of work.

There are several component processes that should be considered in the curriculum
development process. Let us consider them one by one.

Situational Analysis
This is a type of information gathering which reveals both the need and feasibility of the curriculum development
intended. The main issues of concern here are:
What information?
From whom?
Who should gather it?
From whom should it be gathered?
Who should collect it?
What information should be used for?

Much information related to the curriculum development is gathered from curriculum experts, educators, government,
non-organizations employers, industrialists, agricultural sector etc. The reasons are that much information is revealed
concerning needs, problems and interests of learners and society.

From information gathered, curriculum workers (e.g. in KIE) will come to know whether or not there is need to improve
the existing curriculum.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS ACTIVITIES

Activity 1
Write down what you consider to be important when planning curriculum.
Does your school curriculum bit your findings? From these considerations you now have a bettter picture of needs
and feasibility of the curriculum intended.

The information gathered will reveal the feasibility of improvement, the information may reveal current social
economic and political philosophies of the society. Also vital to know is the employment chances and the aspirations
of parents, children and society.

1• Formulation of Objectives
They are justifications for the need of providing education or various aspects of the
school curriculum and indeed a slogan support for education.
They help to guide the educational process. For example, we cannot decide appropriately
what to teach or how to teach it until we know why we are doing it.
Objectives attempt to improve the practice of education by first obtaining clarity about
educational ends.

6 Objectives are a test to be applied to the educative process. They provide a precise basis for evaluation,
determining the extent to which the educational or instructional programme is useful

To help you in formulation of objectives, consider Tyler’s (1949) four significant questions.

(i) What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

(ii) What educational experiences or content should be effectively organized or
ordered or sequenced?

(iii) How can it be determined whether the purposes formulated in (i) above are being attained?
(iv) How can these Educational Experiences or Content be selectively organized?

Where do objectives come from?

To answer these questions think of Tyler’s (1949) suggestion of objective sources.

Source (i) the study of nature, needs and problems of contemporary society
Source (ii) The study of the needs, interests and problems of learners themselves.
Source (iii) Suggestions from subject specialists and the nature of subject matter
Source (iv) The nature of social values (philosophy)
Source (v) The nature of learning theories (psychology)
In Kenya, curriculum development is done at the K.I.E with selected panels whose members are drawn from school
teachers and other similar educational spheres. The membership of the project teams include classroom teachers,
university lecturers, members of religious organizations, publishers, educational administrators, school inspectors,
curriculum developers, personnel of the Kenya National Examinations Council, teacher trainers and representatives
of several other organizations.

The team of the project will have been briefed, trained and presented with aims, goals and objectives of education
and other necessary facilities to help them in their duties. They should be well trained as team members and given
terms of references.

Activity 2
Try to think and write down other relevant factors that this team should deal with a country of diverse cultural and
geographical aspects like Kenya.

2 •Programme Building
This is also referred to as the stage of curriculum designing and is actually the main task of the project team
selected:
The team tackles the questions such as these:
- What are we going to teach in schools to various grades of pupils?
- From what subject matters shall the content be selected?
- How shall learning opportunities be identified and used or applied to deal with learning activities within the
programme building stage?

In the programme there must opportunities, experience and a conducive atmosphere that will make learning easy
and possible so as to achieve the set objectives. In essence, the teaching and learning process require content or
subject matter, methods, teachers learners, materials and facilities all of which must be selected and organized for
proper learning theories and principles.

• Criteria for Selection of Curriculum Content

Validity: they (content or experiences) must be authentic or consistent with development in the subject or knowledge
area. All the materials must be up to date, therefore teachers must be given constant in-service courses and self
education in order to keep a breast in their disciplines.

Learnability: The learning experiences must be adjusted to the abilities of the learners. It must be appropriate to
learners. The knowledge of the students is important to ensure that their background, present attainment, mental
age and set up makes it possible for learners to behave as implied in the objectives.

Significance: Learning experiences or learning activities must be meaningful. They should be emphasized that any
content, learning activities of learning resources are meaningful only when they contribute to the process or
learning. Significance refers to the essentials of content to be learned. It requires that the content to be learned
subscribe to the basic ideas, concepts, principles and generalizations.

(i) Significance is related to the issue of breath and depth (scope) of curriculum content. Significance also pertains
to how the content or experience contributes to the development of particular learning abilities, skills and attitudes
formation.
(ii) Taba (1962) argued that one should not just select content based on the cognitive aspect of learners but also
on the affective dimensions of the learner.
(iii) The importance of content also concerns the issue of durability. Significant content will last over a period of
time before becoming obsolete. Content relevant to current times, but unlikely to be interest in five or 50 years is
said to be of limited durability, significance loses the meaning if there is too much emphasis on courage of content
because learners are likely to make little sense out of the bulky contents and many learning activities.

• Criteria for Organizing Content

(i) Balance: A balanced curriculum implies structure, its scope and sequence leading to the achievement of
educational objectives (ends). The problem of balance has two dimensions.

There is the balance sought in the curriculum provided by the school i.e. the subjects to be taught or offered as
required in the programs of study to be recommended, time allotments for various subjects and activities, the use of
books and other educational materials, the respective amounts of general and specialized education to be provided.
Dimension of balance is the part of the curriculum actually selected by and/or experienced by each individual child.
Ideally, balance is attained in the individual’s own curriculum as he or she develops an optimal level for competence
in each of the areas where provision is made in the curriculum.

(ii) Integration Bloom (1958) defines an integrative thread as “any idea, problem, method or device by which two or
more separate learning experiences are related”. It is evident that the concept of integration is used by persons
engaged in designing curriculum according to broad field and correlated designs. The concept is closely related to
articulation, but frequency in integrating content; the content areas lose their separate identities e.g. teaching
Geography, History and Civics in Kenya. Those confronted with designing curricula hopefully realize that learning is
more effective when content from one field is related meaningfully to content in another field.

Integration, sometimes seen as emphasizing horizontal relationships among various curricular areas, attempts to
interrelate content themes, ideas, and facts in order to ensure students perceiving a unity of knowledge. Thus what
is learned in language study may be related to study with a social studies unit on communication in modern times,
what is learned in science be further interpreted within the realm of Mathematics (Taba, 1962).

(iii) Continuity
Continuity refers to the continuousness with which individuals will experience content at various levels with an
educational system. However continuity and sequence are considered in Tandem (one behind the other)

It can also be considered as a horizontal concept if one thinks of the continuousness of particular topics or
experiences at any particular time, for instance during a certain day or days. Curricularists often extend theme
vertically throughout an entire curriculum. The spiral curriculum organization exemplifies continuity in that the key
concepts are experienced successively by students throughout the curriculum, for example, “persons’ basic needs”
can be a theme that might extend through 13 years of a school curriculum.

Continuity deals with the continued presence of curriculum elements (content topics or concepts or issues) and
relates very closely with the concept of articulation.

10 (iv) Sequence: (Content selected must be arranged in time) Sequence addresses the problem of ordering the
curricular offering so as to optimize students’ learning’ and, questions posed by sequence. What content and
experiences are to follow what content and experience? How can curricula be placed in time?

Piaget’s (1960) research has provided a framework for sequencing content and activities and relating expectations
to what we know and about how individuals function at various cognitive levels.

Frequently, curricularists faced with sequencing content have drawn some fairly well accepted principles. Smith,
Stanely and Shores (1957) introduced four such principles

(a) Simple to complex (b) Prerequisite learnings (c) Whole to part (d) Chronology

The first simple-to complex indicates that content is optimally organized in a sequence going from simple
subordinate components or elements to complex components depicting interrelatedness of components. It draws on
the idea that optimal learning can proceed to the more difficult material, often abstract.

(v) Scope: This is common to selecting and organizing criteria. The scope of curriculum content is regulated in part
by goals and objectives generated during the diagnosis stage in curriculum planning. It is the breadth and depth of
content.

3• Try out/Piloting
The curriculum materials and equipment should be tried out, in sample schools, feedback obtained and used to
revise the curriculum materials during equipment.

By trying out curriculum it is easy to identify and correct major defects before implementation. The try out must be
done using real learners, real teachers in actual schools.

At this stage, it is necessary to identify major problems that would arise during the implementation, and work out
solutions to them before the new curriculum is implemented or the new materials go into schools. These problems
are: distribution, storage and general follow up.

By so doing a method could be determined as to how they could be solved once a big number of pupils teachers
and schools are involved. Another reason for trying out is that some mistakes could have been unnoticed during
development and planning which could be easily detected and corrected through try out.

The try out should not begin until the planning is complete and the whole range of curriculum materials and
equipment prepared and produced in trial forms.

The fairest try out would be one on which the students use the new curriculum and materials through a complete
educational cycle or phase so that the curriculum workers can be able to see the cohort of children using new
curriculum systematically through a complete educational cycle.

Curriculum development process takes a long time to come to fruition. In summary form; there are six sub-
processes of the try out process that may be identified.

1. Selection of schools and colleges.

(2) Briefing of educators and general public.

(3) Preparation of school teachers and heads for try out.

(4) Supply of materials and equipment to the try out schools

(5) Conducting try out in schools.

(6) Gathering and analyzing feedback

(7) Use of feedback for the modification. Improving the new programme in light of data gathered during the
try out is the next step.

As the piloting goes on, some modification also is made on the programme based on the feedback but at certain
point piloting stops to allow for major revision and consolidation of the programme in order to address more
effectively the needs of the learners and other requirements of the programme.

During the stage try-out the suggestions from the piloting personnel are used to modify the programme in order to
make it appropriate to: the real school and instructional situation, the number of students with diverse backgrounds;
teachers and the general educational environment.

Modifications at this stage must address deficiencies discovered during the fieldwork and modified on the basis of
field data including reactions form the lay public.

No curriculum planner should assume and implement the new curriculum without careful revision of the curriculum
being tried. Several piloting programmes can be done especially when the feedback from the tryout reveals many
problems within the programme. It is more professional and even economical to subject the project to several tests .

4 • Implementation
This is the stage at which the planned curriculum is introduced into the schools and colleges. It is the stage in which
the newly developed and tried curriculum is made publicly available. This is the logical process to undertake after
the tryout of the curriculum.

Implementation of new curriculum should only be attempted by the institutions (schools) in which the right conditions
prevail. These are the schools and colleges for which satisfactory arrangements can be made for inservicing of
teachers, purchase of adequate materials, teaching and learning resource for which the necessary physical
facilities can be provided. Implementation can hardly take place uniformly across the country or geographical
area concerned. The schools should be grouped together according to their degree of readiness and implement the
curriculum accordingly.
In summary form there are nine sub processes of implementation stages to be followed; (Oluoch, 1982).
• Persuading a variety of people to accept the new curriculum.
• Keeping the general public informed.
• Educating the teachers.
• Educating the teacher educators.
• Provision of necessary facilities.
• Supply of materials and equipment.
• The actual presentation of the new curriculum
• Institutionalization of appropriate student assessment procedures.
• Provision of continuous support for the teachers.
• Project evaluation.

5• Project Evaluation
It is vital that curriculum development projects be evaluated as they are planned and as they are executed
(formative) and after they are completed (summative).

Some steps of evaluation are:

Specification of what exactly is to be evaluated and why.

Finding out how the objectives and processes to be evaluated can be observed and measured.

Selecting or developing the necessary observation and measurement techniques or instruments.

Collecting, analyzing and using data to make decisions.

Curriculum development project evaluation may be defined as the process of gathering and preparing needed
information for making decision on the planning, execution, completion and worth of the projects. It is the process of
gathering and using information to detect problems or modify the project.

Purposes of Evaluation are:

1.To know the state of the project.
2. To take corrective measures if necessary or to continue with the project as it is if there is nothing requiring
adjustment.
3.To find out how the project has worked if it has already come to an end.

Evaluating curriculum development is a must if the project is to achieve its objectives.

There are some things requiring modifications in a project and it would not be possible to know them unless an
evaluation programme is built into the project.
Formative evaluation is important in the project.
It is always important to know how the project has been when it is completed so that if nothing else, the knowledge
can be used when planning the executing of another project. It is therefore mandatory to carry out summative
evaluation in order to know the situation of the project. Summative evaluation is performed at the end of the
project implementation.

The scope of evaluation will be determined by the resources available both human and materials for the
purpose. Scriven (1967) coined two time accented concepts used to describe curriculum evaluation Namely:
formative and summative evaluation in order to avoid confusion which might arise in understanding the process of
curriculum evaluation.

6• Maintenance
Curriculum maintenance refers to activities and procedures that allow the operation of the programme to continue.
It involves several tactics whose prime purpose is to monitor all curriculum elements and the roles of persons
supporting this element, as it is people- oriented.

This stage attends to actions and reactions of students, teachers, parents, administrators and others in response to
the on-going programme. In maintaining the programme, the curriculum leaders strive to stabilize it and keep
operational the content; experiences and environments. The maintenance requires a steady flow of accurate data or
information in order to assess continual programme performance. It means managing the curriculum and support
systems.

The major curriculum elements to monitor include: objectives, content, environments, educational personnel, school
organization, students, school community, parents and the programmers’s budget in order to ensure that they relate
positively all through the curriculum process to ensure positive results. The following principles are basic to
the guidance of curriculum maintenance.

Monitors must understand the total curriculum process that occurred and the place of maintenance in the whole
process.

A firm co-operation network must be established between all the staff concerned with the curriculum. The
communication network needs to identify data from students’ and teachers’ behaviour and performance to be
communicated to those administering and implementing the programme.

There should be an established communication network to allow for the quick detection of programme deficiencies
and rapid relay of such information to the relevant people. The monitoring process itself needs to be re-examined
from time to time for relevance and effectives and eventually make the necessary re-adjustments.

The procedures used in monitoring must be in line with the overall educational or school philosophy, initially
determined during curriculum conceptualization.

Activity 6
Should evaluation tools be followed to dominate the curriculum? Should teachers put emphasis on only teaching to
pass national examinations?

FOUNDATIONS OF CURRICULUM

This section provides studies on foundations of curriculum. The cardinal principle in foundations of
curriculum is that in a democratic society such as Kenya, education should develop in an individual
knowledge, attitudes, skills and powers whereby the individual would find his place in the society and
be able to use the foundations to shape both himself and the society for noble ends.

You will find in this, statements of the aims of education with specific objectives based on a set of
beliefs of society.

Objectives of Foundation of Curriculum

At the end of lectures on foundations of curriculum, you should be able to:
• Define major terminologies used in foundations of curriculum
• Name major foundations of curriculum in development
• Discuss how foundations of curriculum influence Kenyan’s decision-making and policy on education.
• Identify various ways in which foundations of curriculum are used in Kenya.
• Suggest ways and means of how to develop and utilize Kenyan’s resources in
curriculum development
• Identify strengths and weakness of the Kenyas 8:4:4 system of education in line withfoundations of
curriculum.

Purposes of Foundations of Curriculum

Purposes of Foundations of Curriculum
According to Bishop (1985), the main purposes of foundations of curriculum are to:-
1. Preserve Cultural Heritage
2. Control Direction and Size of Education
3. Assist in Designing Curriculum,
4. Use for Selecting Curriculum Aims, Goals and Objectives,
 5. Use for Identify Curriculum Implementation Strategies
6. Guide in the Development of Evaluation Instruments
7. Used for identifying Innovation Needs,
8. Used for Cultivating Desired Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills
9. Used in policy and Decision Making

Types of Foundations of Curriculum

• Philosophical Foundation of Curriculum

What is Philosophical Foundation of Curriculum?

How does this foundation influence curriculum practice?
In what way is philosophical foundation of curriculum the main curriculum source?
What is the meaning of the following terms as used in philosophical foundation of curriculum:
Realism, Pragmatism, Idealism, Existentialism, Axiology, Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism
and Reconstructionalism?
Activity 7
How can schools promote the ideas of equality and Excellence at the same time?

Philosophical foundation of curriculum refers to the nature of man in respect to his policy to
select, design and formulate objectives to develop and evaluate his objectives andevaluate his
knowledge, attitudes and skills of man in decision making for situational,society’s and learning
needs.

Man also derives his methods of presentation, expression, skills to develop and formation of
desirable attitudes from philosophical foundation of curriculum.

Objectives of the lecture on philosophical foundation of curriculum are to: Identify major
philosophies of education in ancient and modern periods Discuss how the major philosophies of
education influence curriculum decision making Establish the fact that philosophical foundation of
curriculum is the centre of all educational activities.
Activity 8
Identify areas in which philosophical foundation of curriculum has contributed to Kenyans
Education systems since Independence

Decisions are made on: communities, societies and learner’s needs. Methods of presentation,
skills to be developed and desirable attitudes to be formed, require correct decision making
derived from philosophy and policy of a country. Philosophy has entered into every sphere of
decision making about curriculum and
teaching.

This view caters for approaches to: Formation of education purpose Selection of knowledge
Organization of knowledge, attitudes and skills Formation of basic procedures in education and
curriculum Selection of education resources such as personnel, materials and equipment
Identification, selection and development of assessment instruments.

Tyler’s (1949) view of philosophy in relation to school purposes is based on five criteria for
selecting educational purposes
We shall examine four major schools of philosophy, which have guided the writing, organizing
and designing of school curriculum. Some of these philosophies are known by names. We shall
refer to them as reconstructionism, progressivism, essentialism and perennialism.
Reconstructionism is the most liberal of the four philosophies and prennialism as the most
conservative. Most educational practitioners have used a combination of essentialism and
progressivism in curriculum planning construction.

Pragmatism: this philosophy is sometimes referred as experimentalism, which is based on

change process and relativity while idealism and realism philosophies emphasize subject matter,
disciplines and content or ideas, pragmatism construes knowledge as progress in which reality is
constantly changing. Learning goes on as the student engages in problem solving. The idea of
problem solving, is however transferable to a wide variety of subjects and situations, knowing is
considered a transaction between the student and environment and are constantly changing. To
a pragmatist nothing can be viewed intelligently except in relation to a pattern.

Idealism:
In considering the influence of philosophie thought on curriculum, several classificationschemes
are possible. The cluster of ideas as organized in idealism, are those that often
evolve during curriculum development. Plato is the father of idealist/ philosophy.Idealism
emphasizes moral and spiritual development reality as the drier explanation of
the world. Truth and values are seen as absolute, timeless and universal. The world of mind and
ideas is permanent, regular and orderly, it represents a perfect order. The
idealist educator prefers the order and pattern or subject matter curriculum that relatesideas
and concepts to each other.

Realism: Aristotle is often linked to the development of realism, which is another school of
thought in philosophical foundation of curriculum. The realism views the world in terms of
objects and matter. People come to know the world through their senses and reason. Everything
is derived from nature and is subject to its laws. When behavior is relational, it conforms to the
laws of nature and is governed by physical and social laws.

Like the idealist, the realist stresses a curriculum consisting of organized, separate subject
matter, content and knowledge that classifies objectives. The realist locates the most general
and abstract subjects at the top of the curriculum literally and gives particular and transitory
subjects a lower order of priority.

They believe that the main aim of education is the disciplining of the mind, the development of
the ability of reason and pursuit of truth. Therefore, curriculum should emphasize grammar,
rhetoric, logic, classical and modern languages, mathematics and the great books of the truth,
which is the same today as it was then and always, shall be. These thinkers add to the
curriculum the study of the Bible and Theological writings.

Perennialism can afford education, which is suitable to a small percentage of students who
possess high verbal and academic aptitude. The ideal education is not directed to immediate
needs, specialization but it is education calculated to develop the mind.
Reconstructionism

Reconstructionism is a philosophical school of thought that broke off from the

progressive movement because of unresolved problems of democracy when they wanted to
rebuild the social order. They see education as a powerful instrument for effecting planned social
changes in given society. It is most likely to be favoured in times ofeconomic, political and
technological turbulence such as has been experienced recentlyby the newly independent
countries of Africa. They believe that new education can make new and better men and women
therefore the school should transmit cultural heritage.
Also the school is seen as an agent of solving political and social problems.
These schools of thought can be regrouped into two big schools.

(a) Progressivism (Reconstuctionism)

(b) Traditionalism (Perennialism and Essentialism)
However, progressivists and traditionalists disagree on many points concerning subject
matter which is to be included in the curriculum, such as:

- Which knowledge is most worthy?

- Should we emphasize process or information?
- Should a curriculum be fixed or flexible, constant or differentiated,
practical or liberal?

To a large extent one’s answers to these questions depends upon one’s system of values.

Perennialism
The school of perennialist teaches subjects in their customary separate forms, history ashistory,
geography as geography etc. rather than in the combination as general (social)studies.
The teachers and patrons of this school are sure that some subject is too trivial to be included in
the curriculum. Only subject matter that is alleged to be hard to learn is admissible. They do not
believe in the feelings and emotions of body movement,memory and thinking
Activity 10
Identify some of the beliefs concerning values which are held by educators who belong to the school of
reconstructinists.

Essentialism
Historically, essentialism and progressivism have succeeded in commanding education in the western
world. But essentialism is the more powerful than the progressivism. It was only in the early 1950’s
specifically 1957 the year of sputnic that the progressivism emerged for a short time as the victor among
the world philosophies of education. This did not last long. During the 1970’s upto now, essentialism has
proven that it was not the looser but the leader .
Activity 11
Identify some of the beliefs concerning values, which are held by educators who belong to the school of
essentialism

Progressivism
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Progressivism also known as pragmatism, swept
through the educational structure of America challenging the time- honoured doctrines of essentialism.
This movement was led by John Dewey, Willian H.Kilpatrick, John Childs, George S. Counts (Faculty
Members at Teachers College, Columbia University). Boyd Bodode the progressivist maintained that it was
time to subordinate subject matter to the learner. Borrowing from time European philosophers like
Rousseau who advocated rearing a child in a relaxed environment without forcing learning, the
progressivists created the child – centered school. John Dewey formulated progressive beliefs in a series
of publications that included among others Democracy and Education, Experiences and Education.

How we think and My pedagogic Creed progressivists captured the attention of educators when they
insisted that the needs and interests of learners bring their bodies, needs and interests or learners bring
their bodies, emotions and spirits to school with their minds.

Progressivists view education not as a product to be learned (e.g. facts, and motor skills) but as a process
that continues as long as one lives. To their way of thinking a child learns best when actively absorbing
presented content. If experiences in school are designed to meet the needs and interests of individual
learners, it follows that no single pattern of subject matter can be appropriate to all learners.

At the heart of progressivism thinking is an abiding faith in democracy. Hence the progressivists see little
place of authoritarian practices in the classroom and the school.

Teachers who are influenced by progressive thinking see themselves as counselors to pupils and
facilitators of learning rather than expounders of the subject matter.
Cooperation is fostered in the classroom rather than competition. Individual growth in relationship to one’s
ability is considered more important than growth in comparison to others.

A concern for the many unresolved problems of democracy led to a split in the progressive movement with a group
calling itself, “Reconstructionists” advocating that schools become the instrument for building a new social order.

It has been mentioned that the perenialist considers truth to be absolute, enduring, and found in the wisdom of the
past; the essentialist regards truth as relative, changing and in many cases as yet to be discovered. Education for the
pragmatist is continuing search for the truth utilizing whatever sources are needed to discover that truth.

Activity 12
Identify some of the beliefs concerning values, which are held by educators who belong to the school of progressivists.

Historical Foundation of Curriculum

This topic deals with past events, which have led to present trends of education. By analyzing past periods of curriculum,
it is possible to view and review the needed curriculum in terms of current and future education needs.

In this topic, historical foundation is addressed with the Republic of Kenya’s perspective. What contributions has
foundation Based on to our education systems and practices?
Sourcs of this contribution are listed as:
Foreign influence, especially in communication Contradictions between foreign and traditional ideology in education
Greeks classical period on Kenya’s curriculum subjects
The reformation period, especially Martin Luther Age of reason, known as the scientific world Return to nature as a way
of reconstruction in modern history of curriculum
Kenya’s progress in curriculum during pre and post independence.

History repeats itself, you will find interesting views, which have come from far in man’s thirst for knowledge to where
you are as a student of this day.

Historical foundation of curriculum raises some persisting questions in education such as:
How have foreigners (Europeans, Americans and Asians) influencedKenyan’s education in theory and practice?
How has Kenya emerged between traditional and foreign curricula in her education system?
What do we mean by the phrase: Under development through a curriculum concept?
Which traditional forms of education have persistent in Kneya’s curriculum despite modern forms?
Is there a relevant curriculum in Kenya’s Curriculum in Kenya’s system of education? If yes, what is it, if none, why not?

In consideration of African Traditional curriculum, such forms of content were addressed:

Rituals and culture patterns
Discipline and behavior norms
Leadership training and the potentials of leaders
Selection and practice of desirable attitudes
Doctrinal and non-doctrinal forms of religion
Entertainment concept and the theory of survival skills
Reliance on group force for unity and collective bargain.

To bring Africa where we are, foreign influence has meandered into African society both directly and indirectly, by
periods.
These are:
Ancient Times: which address individual naturity (Indians), moral values (Chinnese), practical knowledge and civilization
of man (Egyptians) and livelihood as an aspect of self-reliance Classical Period: which belonged to the Greeks and passed
on knowledge on: self- improvement, education as a continuos process, emphasis on practical experience, national unity
concept, introduction of mathematics and
science. Liberal arts education which people like: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau and Pythagoras pioneered in
knowledge areas. Architecture, design, sports, music leisure and laws are also subjects of this period. Worth wisdom
service and symposia also appeared. Roman Empire Period: The Romans colonized the Greeks. Greek contributions,
formal school system, language for sciences (Latin), literature and humanities were introduced in education. Christianity,
the recognition of wisdom, home improvement, generosity and other values of mankind were set up. Education was
home, school and community – centred and self-control led by all was emphasized in this period of the Roman Empire.

Christian Period: During the Roman period two religious forces emerged by Jews and Arabs. Christianity which
introduced the Bible and catechism for spiritual education, Christianity also paid tribute to the teaching of Jesus Christ
and emphasized: moral behavior, ethical God, teacher-based instruction, discipleship, the concept of church, doctrine
ship and informal theories of education. Medical doctors and the spread of Christianity were the main contributions.
Islamic Period: Arabs mainly based in Egypt introduced the islamic religion, mathematics (algebra) science (chemistry
and medicine). This period also brought in Arabic language, science of astronomy and business. Architecture (urban
planning) was introduced. Morality and behavior were emphasized. Mohamed as a counter part of Jesus Christ
disappeared in Mecca. Arabs Moslem University in Cairo (Al-Ashar) is evidence of the Moslem contribution in education.
Martin Lurther and Ignatius of Loyola reformation introduced the idea of constitution, sacred scriptures, uniform
instruction and student teaching practice.
Age of Reason: popularly known as the scientific world saw the introduction of solar system (Nicholars Copernicus). Sir
Francis Bacon introduced scientific methods, authority of the church, analytic methods, the four introduced the idea of
physic based Sir Isaac Newton introduced the idea of physics based on gravitational theory. Amos Comenius introduced
the idea of child development and natural methods of teaching (Experience-centered design). Return to nature
introduced a child’s stages of development (Piagets Studies) free play with objectives, specially the cognitive stages of
human development:

infancy Upto 5 years

childhood 5-12 years
Youth 12-15 years
Maturity 15-20 years

Some outstanding scholars emerged and addressed the following areas of education:
•Society needs, child-centered education, order of nature, doctrine of unity and Fredrick Froebel introduced sense of
perception. He also addressed the concept of cooperation, manual training and kindergarten education.
•Immanuel Kent introduced virtues of man to include: obedience, goodness and justice. Johan Pestalozzi introduced
physical laws of nature while Montessori introduced the idea of individual instruction, special education of mentally
retarded children and sensory training.
•John Loske (1959 – 1952), a British educationist founded the idea of studying the role of school, society and
community. He introduced the study of individual differences for instruction, democratization, occupational education,
moral education and the art of teaching as a profession.

The reflection of these historical events moved into Africa and thereafter to East Africa and then in Kenya. For
curriculum development purposes, the lessons on historical foundation of curriculum are numerous. Pre-colonial
discovers (Christopher Columbus) witnessing the reduction, which split religion into Protestant and Catholic.

Events which led to castle schools abolition of slave trade, coming of Christian missionaries with missionary education,
training in basic skills the curriculum of 3 R’s (Arithmetic, writing and reading,
Many other events took place, but those listed are across section of curriculum progression in Kenya.

Issues for awareness in Kenya’s history of education are:

Medium of instruction, national language, official business language, sustainable economy for survival, multipartyism
and change process, emphasis quality or quantity of education products, search for relevant curriculum and literacy and
reading culture.
In the colonial period especially for Kenya and other parts of Africa, Europeans moved in and shared Africa (scramble for
Africa). You can read Nyerere’s Book “Education for Self-reliance’, 1967”. Education development programmes were
undertaken:
Missionary converted Africans into Christianity, World wars brought in the need for money, medicines and literacy.

The British finally colonized Kenya. Missionaries served both the African and the Europeans when schools emerged
especially after Phelps Stoke Commission (1924). The educational institutions followed;
Alliance (1925), Kabaa and Yala (1939), Kagumo Teachers College 1944), Siriba Collge (Maseno University) (1948).
Education has reached university status in Kenya. (Education Commission in Kenya). Education in Africa moved from
colonial to independence perspectives. Missionaries, colonial governments and world wars introduced: literacy, money
and medicines with religious sects.

Psychological foundation of curriculum

Focus: This unit focuses on:
Definition of terms: Behaviorism, Cognitive Development and Gestalt Theory as learning theories.
Study how the various steps of psychology are solving, teaching and learning in learning. How to use the
term ‘Creativity” and explain the concept of creative thinking.

What constitutes humanistic learning in Kenya’s schools.

Psychology has significant impact on curriculum. It focuses on learning and teaching theories through
three major theories:
Behavioral
Cognitive
Humanistic
Behavioral psychology is the oldest theory of learning. It is illustrated by such teaching-learning trends as:
Micro-Teaching
Instructional Training Models
Individual Learning
Direct Instruction
Mastery Learning

Most learning theories to-day are cognition –oriented (intellectual). Piaget’s stages of
cognitive development show stages of human development. They are:

Sensori Motor (0-2 years)

Pre-operational (2-7 years)
Concrete (7-12 years)
Formal (over 12 years)

•Humanistic approach to curriculum is the most recent learning theory. It emphasizes that curriculum
should be based on society’s needs. This approach includes:
Formation of Desirable Attitudes
Development of Humane Feelings
Self Actualization
Freedom to Learn
Value Classification
You should note that behaviorist component is needed for planning and developing curriculum. Cognitive
component is for development of the intellect through subject content and humanist component is for
instruction. Each theory of learning is incomplete by itself, the three theories should be inter-dependent.

In behaviorist class, Cogne’ identified these levels of learning:

Signal (stimulus)
Motor chains (Linkages)
Virtual Association (Translation)
Multi-Discrimination (Different Responses)
Concepts (Abstract Reactions)
Rules (Chain Family Relationship)
 Problem – Solving (Use of Rules)
Other theories of learning and teaching include:
Maslow’s on Human Needs
Rogers on Freedom to Learn
Guilford on Structure of Intellect
Dewey on Reflective Thinking
Stenberg on Critical Thinking
Brunner on Structure of Subject and Inquiry / Discovery Methods
Gestalt Theory on Shape, Form and Configuration (Stimulus Vs Response).

You should note the influence of psychology on curriculum resources, teaching strategies, designs and
stages of human development.

Sociological foundation of curriculum

Focus: This unit addresses the following areas:
Application of the terms: Curriculum, Education, Schooling and Moral Development
♦ How do you describe the rate and direction of change in a social setting?
♦ What knowledge is most worthwhile for students of your level? Why?
♦ How do curriculum developers organize knowledge?
♦ What type of knowledge should students learn to better cope with the future?
♦ In what ways can schools and society change the focus or priorities of education in Kenya?
♦ Explain in details how you use sociological foundation of curriculum in selecting curriculum content.

Social forces have always had a major influence on schools and in terms of curriculum decisions. Some of these forces
originate from the society and others from the local community. Educators are faced with a choice:
♦ To accept and mirror the tendencies of times or
♦ To appraise and improve the times.

The first view represents a permanent notion of education while the second view represents a reconstructionist notion,
which is the way of viewing the choice in terms of traditional against futuristic way of looking at schools.
The latter (futuristic) suggests that the educator can analyze and evaluate the trends taking shape in society. In doing so,
they can decide on appropriate aims of curricula and can therefore prepare students for the world of tomorrow by
providing them with the type f knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for making wise decisions.
Curriculum workers who merely participate in curriculum decisions play a major role in accomplishing the nationally
stated aims, goals and objectives in curriculum content and process.

Sociological foundation of curriculum considers curriculum areas such as:

♦ Home, school and society for corporate curriculum development
♦ Individual socialization as one of man’s to human rights practice
♦ Social implication of knowledge change for change changes the changeless
♦ Aims of education as man’s right and his nature of knowledge, attitudes and skills
♦ Various reform strategies in education planning and practice
♦ Political reforms as a means of fulfilling social change and adjustment.

Special considerations for sociological foundation of curriculum are:

♦ Society and modal personality in that members of society have a lot in common
♦ Gender roles and differences
- Special sex roles
- Patrolocalism and Matrolocalism roles
- Gender Parity and Sensitivity
- Opportunity Criteria
- Staffing Criteria
- Gender Sensitivity
Another special consideration in sociological foundation of curriculum is the Human Task Needs, according to Robert
Havighurst, with his six periods of human development:
♦ Infancy and Early Childhood
♦ Middle Childhood
♦ Adolescence
♦ Early Adulthood
♦ Middle Age
♦ Late Maturity
There are moral development norms attached to these human task needs.
♦ Culture
♦ Language
♦ Politics
♦ Religion
♦ Interests
♦ Standards
Phenix called these needs, moral traditions for curriculum. He calls for a changing and continuing curriculum to cater
for:
♦ Human Rights
♦ Sex and Family Relation Code
♦ Social Relationship Within Society
♦ Property Rights and Succession
♦ Politics and Matters of Justice and Power
Change and the curriculum
♦ Society as a Change Agent
♦ Rate and Direction of Change
♦ School as a Source of Change
♦ Education for Diversity (Variety)
♦ Knowledge as a Source of Change (Worth)
♦ New Core-Curriculum (Knowledge and Future Learning)
Main features in sociological foundation of curriculum centre on:
♦ Schools and Society
♦ Individual Socialization
♦ Social Implications of Knowledge Change
♦ Aims of Education
♦ Various Reform Strategies
♦ Political Reforms

Education is a sharp instrument in dealing with sociological foundation of curriculum:

♦ Constructive or Destructive Ends
♦ Promotion of Human Institutions
♦ Type of Society Depends on Type of Education
♦ Transmission of Culture (Education System)
- values
- Beliefs
- Norms
Dewey says that Education is the means of perpetuating and improving society through organizing of experiences of
learners through environmental and cultural influences.
The cultural roots of curriculum also are important for consideration in the context of curriculum. Experience shows
that curriculum is interwoven with the social fabric that sustains it. Every society distinguishes between the curriculum
of:
♦ Common Education
♦ Universal Elements of Culture
♦ Curriculum of Special Education.

These phases of curriculum are coupled with the requirements of special groups within the society. When a society
passes from a class system, the special education for the upper classes in the earlier phase tends to persist in the later
phase, under the guise of common education. The three aspects of cultural roots of curriculum are:
♦ Common Education based on cultural universals
♦ Special Education related to the specialties of the culture
♦ Class Education against common Education.

Which policy does the Kenya society opt for a context of curriculum? How is this done?

Consideration in Social Context:

Society and Modal Personality (According to Ruth Benedict)
No culture yet observed has been able to eradicate the differences on temperament of the persons who composed it.
However, members of a society have much in common.
Sex Roles and Sex Differences
♦ Specialized Sex Roles
♦ Patrolocalism
♦ Matrolocalism
♦ Gender Issue
♦ Staffing Criteria
♦ Gender Sensitivity.

Human Tasks Needs: Robert Havighurst identified six periods in human development:
♦ Infancy and Early childhood
♦ Middle Childhood
♦ Adolescence
♦ Early Adulthood
♦ Middle Age
♦ Late Maturity
Needs assessment to fit each period
Moral Development and Sharing of Common Norms:
♦ Culture
♦ Language
♦ Politics
♦ Religion
♦ Interest
♦ Standards.

Kholberg outlines six developmental types of moral judgements grouped into three moral levels or stages corresponding
to Paiget’s cognitive stages of development:
♦Pre-conventional Level:
- Children who do as they are told because they fear punishment
- Children who realize that certain actions bring rewards.
♦ Conventional Level
- children who seek their parent’s approval by being nice
- children who begin to think in terms of rules
♦ Post-conventional
- Children who view morality of contractual obligations legally
- Children who view morality in terms of individual principles of conscience.
Extentialist educators view morality as something beyond cognitive processes.
Phenix outlines five basic moral traditions that encompass society:
♦ Human Rights
♦ Sex and Family Relations Codes
♦ Social Relationship with Society
♦ Economic matters – Property Rights and Distribution of Goods andServices
♦ Political Matters Dealing with Justice and Power.

Change and the curriculum

A Change and the Curriculum

♦ Society as a Source of Change

♦ Rate and Direction of Change
♦ School as a Source of Change
♦ Education for Diversity (Variety)
♦ Knowledge as a Source of Change (Worth)

New Core-Curriculum (Knowledge and Future Learning)

♦ Knowledge should comprise basic tools

♦ Knowledge should facilitate how to learn
♦ Knowledge should be applicable to the real world
♦ Knowledge should improve the learners’
- Self concept
- awareness skills
- Sense of personal integrity

♦ Knowledge should comprise of many forms and methods

♦ Knowledge should prepare the individuals for the world of work
♦ Knowledge prepares individuals for the world of bureaucracy
♦ Knowledge should permit the individual to retrieve (information
♦ Knowledge acquisition should be a lifelong process
♦ Knowledge should be taught in context with values.

Professional Foundation of Curriculum

Focus: This unit focuses on:
♦ Professionals Role Models
♦ Role of Professionals
♦ Characteristics of Professionals
♦ Teaching Authority
♦ Teaching Profession and Efficiency
♦ Teacher as a Researcher
♦ Roles of a Teacher
♦ Methods of Teaching and Learning
♦ Some Selected Methods of Teaching

This Unit addresses various ways in which curriculum products are marketed through role
models, characterization, tripartition and sport-checks on research, teaching and publication.
Professionals are skilled specialists and experts in particular areas of curriculum subjects’
content: languages, humanities, sciences, technology and mathematics.

Professionals Normally:
Teach, research and publish materials through workshops, symposia, seminars, conferences,
projects, exchange programmes, excursions etc. Professionals also interpret curriculum through
design, development, implementation, evaluation and innovation.
They use curriculum documents such as the syllabi, circulars, legal acts, reports,
journals,textbooks, minutes, hansards, commission reports, schemes of work and archives
among
others.

Characteristics of Professionals Include Productive personality, critical attitude, measurable

responsibility, accountability, transparency and development conscience. In all, a rofessional
must be balanced, mature and upright person. Such a person reads widely and wisely. The
person is mindful of others’ needs and maintains a guiding personality to develop others for
solving and not creating problems.

The Teacher as Authority in the Profession:

Every time teacher steps into a classroom to teach, they are putting themselves on the ‘firing
line’ and students either shoot at them down or claim them. Students continually
assess their teachers informally and the amount of confidence they have in them depends to a
large extent on the perceived level of competence in the subjects they teach.
Students rate very highly their teachers who ‘know their stuff’.

Studies have shown that in some cases, teachers fail to perform efficiently because of the
following reasons:
♦ Lack of adequate preparation
♦ Poor delivery techniques
♦ Pitching the lesson above or below academic level of the students
♦ Insensitivity to the expectations of the students
♦ Un-called for arrogance in the teacher’s personal qualities as a role model
♦ A failure in time-management in the teaching process
♦ Failure to adhere to professional ethics.
♦ Lack of research experience and interest.

In many instances, the ultimate goal of carrying-out research is to publish in learned documents.
Being published constitutes a vital criterion for promotion. Three indicators of a professional
teacher by efficiency are linked to: research, publication and promotion.

A Professional Teacher is a Consultant Many members of the public and scholars look upon a
professional teacher to:
♦ Give public lessons on academic topics
♦ Chair functions organized in the community
♦ Carry out research on relevant issues
♦ Participate in the local politics
♦ Act as role models
♦ Assist with extension work.

Roles of a Teacher
Whether teachers are experienced or not, there is general agreement that using the right
methods to teach is important because teaching forms significant part of the noble profession, so
quality learning depends on the effectiveness of the approach used. Teaching has become
complex due to new variables and constraints involved in the education options.
In a teaching and learning situation, the following areas receive unchallenged attention:
♦ Teaching environment
♦ Protracted teaching methods
♦ Objectives of learning
♦ Group size and anatomy of students
♦ Teachers’ like and dislikes in the teaching area.

List of some commonly used Methods of Teaching follow

♦ Lecture
♦ Laboratory work
♦ Tutorial
♦ Project
♦ Case study
♦ Problem-solving in groups
♦ Simulation
♦ Excursion.

It is important to note that the degree of student anatomy in learning is increasingly featuring in
the selection of methods for teaching.
Full text of methodologies of teaching and learning are left to the Curriculum Implementation
section of this module.

AIMS, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

In some educational literature, the terms educational goals, objectives and aims are used to mean different things
together. Some people view educational goals and objectives as curriculum objectives or instructional goals.
There are also people who use aims of education to mean instructional goals and objectives. An agreement has not been
reached by most curriculum experts on the correct definitions of and differences between aims, goals and objectives.
Most writers on education use the three concepts synonymously. Some adequate aims of education with goals. There is
nothing wrong with this. In general terms we use aims, objectives and goals to refer to purposes, outcomes, and ends.

Objectives
At the end of this lecture you should be able to:
• define aims, goals and objectives as defined in this lecture
• Explain the difference between curriculum goals and objectives.
• Identify several curriculum goals and objectives found in educational literature.
• Write precise curriculum goals and objectives.
• Analyse characteristics and reasons for goals and objectives in curriculum planning.

Definition of Aims
We indicated in the previous paragraphs that educational literature uses terms loosely to signify terminal expectations
of education, terms such as ends, purposes, out-comes, goals, functions, aims and objectives are used by educators
alternatively.
Aims should be equated with ends, functions or purposes. Aims are therefore defined as broad general statements of
purposes of education for a given country. The purposes of aims of education are to give a general direction on
education system throughout the country. Curriculum developers divide aims, and even individual aims. The following
statements found in Gachathi Report (1976), Ominde Report (1965), and Ndegwa Commission (1971), should be seen as
aims of education rather than objectives.

Aims of Education in Kenya

♦ Education must serve the needs of national development
♦ Education must assist in fostering and promoting national unity
♦ Education must prepare and equip the youth so that they can play a leading role in life of the nation
♦ Education must assist in the promotion of social equality, train in social obligation and responsibility
♦ Educational system must foster and develop our rich and varied cultures.

Global Aims of Education

Sometimes attempts are made to define aims of education on a global scale e.g. UNESCO attempts to state the aims of
education to promote in the world are such areas:
a) Fostering international understanding among all the people of the world
b) Improving the standard of living of people in various countries
c) Solving continuing problems that plague people or humanity, such as wars, diseases, hunger and unemployment.

Definition of Goals
Goals and objectives are categorized at two levels.
The first is defining goals and objectives at the curriculum level.
The second one is defining them at the instructional level.
Teachers and people involved in the process of curriculum planning and improvement need to know the difference
between the two levels. They also need to know the level at which each one of them is applicable in the whole process
of curriculum development. You as a teacher should know something about them.

Activity 14
Identify curriculum goals in the 1985, K.C.E syllabus and regulations.

Activity 15
Are Curriculum Objectives Really Necessary?

Why Do We Need Objectives?

Hilda Taba, identified several reasons or factors which warrant the writing of objectives in curriculum.
1.The first important function of objectives is that of guiding decisions about the selection of content and learning
experiences and also providing criteria on what to teach and how to teach it.
2. Secondly, a clear statement of objectives helps to select from vast areas of knowledge in the various disciplines that
which is realistically necessary for some valid out-comes.
3.Thirdly, objectives serve to clarify the types of powers mental or otherwise which need to be developed. The
definition of these powers and how it is handled in the classrooms.
4. Fourth, objectives are needed to provide a common consistent focus for the many activities that go into curriculum.
The programme of the schools is managed by many people; there are many subjects, classes and teachers. Some unity
is emphasized; some common focus is needed to make their efforts coverage on certain common consistent goals.
5. Fifth, the objectives serve as a guide for the evaluation of achievement. Discrepancy between what is taught and
what is evaluated is a common fault of school programmes. This discrepancy is caused by limitations in the available
means of measuring a sufficiently broad range of achievements of information and skills. Sometimes discrepancy may
be due to badly formulated objectives.

• Instructional Goals and Objectives

When curriculum decisions have been made at the national level, teachers in schools, educational supervisers and
administrators are left with the major role of implementation.
Teachers have to decide how they will organize the instruction in their respective schools.
They will be occupied with decisions of methodology. Some of the questions teachers will ask themselves are:
(i) What are the objectives to be achieved as a result of instruction?
(ii) Which procedures are appropriate for directing the learning
(iii) How will evaluation be carried out?
Teachers in this country face a lot of challenge. They are first and foremost expected to prepare children at all levels of
schooling to pass national examinations. National examinations in this country include, the Kenya Certificate of Primary
Education (KCPE), and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Secondly, schools are expected to prepare
children to acquire basic skills and knowledge necessary for functioning in our society.

Objectives

At the end of this lecture you should be able to:

• Define instructional goals and objectives;

• Identify characteristics of instructional goals and objectives;
• Explain the importance of writing instructional objectives;
• Write clear and correct instructional goals and objectives;
• State instructional goals and objectives for the three domains. (Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor).

• Definition of Instructional Goals

An instructional goal is defined as a statement of performance expected of each student in a class phrased in general
terms without criteria of achievement. Sometimes the term instructional goals is used to refer to general objectives.
The writers use tentative general objectives when they mean instructional goals.
Examples of Instructional Goals
(i) The student will show an understanding of the causes of inflation.
(ii)The student will demonstrate an understanding of the works of great philosophers.
(iii) The student will demonstrate his ability to read novels without difficulty.

Instructional Objectives
An instructional objective is a statement of performance to be demonstrated by each student in the class, derived from
the instructional goal, phrased, imeasurable and observable terms. Instructional objectives are also called
(a) Behavioural objectives
(b) Performance objectives
(c) Competencies
Teachers are always encouraged to state instructional objectives whenever they are planning instruction.
• Examples of Instructional Objectives
a) The student will be able to identify and name five main parts of a flower, using a specimen given from the school
garden.
b) The student will be able to identify and write correctly the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in a given English
passage.
c) At the end of the lesson students will be able to name the main sources of revenue for local government.
Many teachers in our schools find it difficult to plan and state instructional objectives. On many occasions, they have
regarded instructional objectives as very useful. Some of them view them as a waste of time and unnecessary.
However,they are very useful. Some of the uses of instructional objectives are specified below:
Instructional objectives force the teacher to be
1. Precise about what to accomplish.
2. Enable the teacher to communicate to pupils what they must achieve.
3. make evaluation procedures easy
4. make accountability possible
5. make sequencing quite easy
6. Make the students to be aware of what they are expected to learn in a given lesson.

Taxonomic Levels
Classification of educational objectives was introduced for the first time by an American Educationist. In his book
“Taxonomy of Educational Objective,” Benjamin Bloom (1956) identified three levels of taxonomies, though the third
level is not a taxonomy.
(i) Cognitive Taxonomy
Bloom and his colleagues developed taxonomy for classifying educational objectives in the cognitive domain. Taxonomy
of cognitive domain is widely used and followed:
cognitive learning was classified into six major categories by the writers.
a) Knowledge level: the student will name the three longest rivers of Africa.
b) Comprehension level: the student will read “things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe
c) Application Level: the student will demonstrate how to prepare how to prepare ugali dish using the information given
d) Analysis Level: the student will analyse the function of local government in Kenya.
e) Synthesis Level: the student will write two paragraphs on the strangle for uhuru in Kenya.
f) Evaluation level: the student will evaluate the role of women in the struggle for uhuru in Kenya.

(ii) Affective Taxonomy

Bloom and Krathwohl developed taxonomy of objectives in the affective domain. They categorized them into five levels.
Receiving: the student will listen while the teacher explains new points.
Responding: the student will answer a call for volunteers to plant trees
Valuing: the student will express appreciation for the contribution of other ethnic groups in the development of this
country.
Organizations: the student will choose nutritious foods over junk food.
Characteristics: the student will be bound by the school rules, at all times.

(iii) Psychomotor Domain

Taxonomy in the psychomotor domain has not been given prominence to cognitive domain. The following examples will
help to illustrate the levels of objectives in the psychomotor domain.
Perception: the student will identify a woolen fabric by feel.
Set: the student will demonstrate how to hold a plane when planning a piece of wood.
Guided response: the student will imitate the sound of a lion.
Mechanism: the student mix water and flour to make dough for chapatti
Complex over response: the student will operate a 16mm projector.

CURRICULUM DESIGN

The concept curriculum design is used in educational literature to refer to the organization of the components of
curriculum element. Some people refer to curriculum organizations when they are actually talking of curriculum
patterns when they mean curriculum organizations or designs.
Components, which are included in any curriculum design, are aims, goals and objectives, subject-content,
learning activities and evaluation. We usually refer to how all these components are structured in any curriculum as a
design.
How a curriculum is conceptualized, organized, developed and implemented depends on particular country’s
educational objectives and whatever, design a country may adapt depends also on the country’s philosophy of
education.There are several ways of designing school curriculum.

Objectives:
At the end of this unit you should be able to:
Explain the organization of subject centered curriculum design
State the advantages and disadvantages of subject-centred design;
Describe the meaning of broad fields designs
Explain the extent broad field curriculum design as applied in Kenya.

 Subject –Centered Design

The organization of curriculum in terms of separate subjects has far been the commonest all over the world. It is also the
oldest school curriculum design in the world. It was even practised by the ancient Greek educators. The subject centred
design was adapted by African education system from Europe.
For a long time content has been arranged in the curriculum by specific subjects representing a specialized body of
common areas of content. An examination of the subject centred and curriculum design will show that it is used mainly
in the upper-primary sections, secondary school classes and colleges. This is the commonest organization, which you
teachers are familiar with. Frequently, lay people educators and other professionals who support this design received
their own schooling or professional training in this system. Teachers, for instance, have been trained and specialized to
teach one or two subjects at secondary level in this country. No teachers are trained to teach as many subjects as
possible.
You are quite aware of how subjects are organized in our high school syllabus. The whole high school curriculum has
been organized around subject areas such as – English, Kiswahili, Geography, History, Christian Education, Economics,
Commerce, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Computer Science, Home Economics etc. This type of curriculum
organization is still being used in African schools today.
Let us examine the advantages and disadvantages of this design. We shall be able to see why some educators advocate
for it while others criticize this approach.
Advantages
It is possible and desirable to determine in advance what all children will learn in various subjects and grades (classes).
For instance syllabus for all schools in Kenya are prepared and approved centrally at the K.I.E for Ministry of Education
Science and Technology – The Kenya National Examinations Council is also involved. All the syllabuses are then sent to
all the schools in the country irrespective of geographical position, status, resources, manpower available and cultural
variations. It is expected that teachers prepare students based on the same syllabus. Students in all the schools cover
the same among of content in various subjects sat at the end of every level of education (primary, secondary levels).
Students sit for the same examination to determine whether they have covered the amount of content expected of
them. It is feasible and necessary to determine minimum standards of performance and
achievement for the knowledge specified in the subject area. Almost all textbooks and support materials present on the
educational market are organized on subject-by-subject format.

Also tradition seems to give the design greater support. People have become familiar and more comfortable with this
design and seem to view it as part of the system of the school and education as whole. The subject centred curriculum is
better understood by teachers because their training was based on this method as specialization.
The advocates of the subject-centred design have argued that intellectual powers of individual learners can be
developed through this approach. Curriculum planning is easier and simpler in the subject centred curriculum design.
Imagine the period of planning, developing and implementing the curriculum. Also imagine what goes in your first staff
meeting when every teacher is to be allocated his/her teaching load for the year and how this should be plotted on the
daily school time-table. It is simply and easily achieved at a short time.

• Criticisms of Subject Centered Design

Critics of subject-centred curriculum design have strongly advocated from it. These criticisms are based on the following
arguments: Subject-centered curriculum tends to bring about a high degree of fragmentation. They argue that with the
current increase in knowledge more subjects are created and added to the school curriculum as areas of study. Subject-
centered curriculum lacks integration of content. Learning in most cases tends to be compartmentalized. Subjects or
knowledge are broken down into smaller seemingly unrelated bits of information to be learned. There has always been
an assumption that information learned through subject matter-curriculum will be transferred for use in everyday life
situations. This
assumption of claim has been doubted by many schools of thought that argue that automatic transfer of the information
already learned is not possible. The design stresses content and tends to neglect the needs, interests and experience of
the students. It is examination oriented.

•Broad Fields Curriculum Design

Broad-fields curriculum design is generally considered to be expanded version of the idea of fusion. In this approach,
two, three or more subjects are unified into one broad-course of study. This organization is actually a system of
combining and regrouping subjects that are related in the curriculum into separate broad fields of study.

The broad-fields approach attempts to develop some kind of synthesis or unity for the entire branch of knowledge. It
may even involve synthesizing two or more branches of knowledge into new fields. Good examples would be

(i)Ecology
(ii) Environment Education
(iii)Family Life Education

No doubt, you are familiar with some of the following groupings that have been attempted in recent years. The present
8:4:4 curriculum contains enough examples of broad-fields organization. You will need to get a copy and just go through
it to be familiar Language Arts – (both at primary and secondary school levels). Reading, writing, grammar, literature,
speech etc. Kiswahili and foreign languages. Social Science fields – (high school and colleges) history, political science,
government, economics anthropology sociology etc.
Social Studies – (primary school level)
a) History, Geography and Civics
b) Social Education E could also fall under these broad fields General Science – to include natural and physical sciences.
a) Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Astronomy Physical Geographical
b) Zoology, Botany, Biology and Physiology
Humanities – (both primary and secondary school levels) Art, Music, Design, Literature. Industrial Education –
a) All vocational courses may be included – Commerce, Typing, Book Keeping, Accounts, Office Practice.
b) All industrial and technical courses may be included
– Carpentry, Masonry, Plumbing, Metal Work, Engineering etc. Physical education
– Health and Safety Education.
General mathematics – to be included in this group are
– Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry Trigonometry and Calculus. Home Science
– all courses which are taken care of in this group may be included
–Needlework, Cookery, Nutrition, Home Management, Clothing and Textiles etc.

Advocates of broad fields design believe that the approach would bring about unification and integration of knowledge.
However, looking at the trend of events in curriculum practice in this country, this has not materialized. Several reasons
could be given for this drawback. Three of them will be discussed here with reference to the present situation in Kenya.

First, teachers trained at the university, and diploma teachers colleges are expected to specialize in two or three
subjects taught in secondary schools. A teacher who specialized
in history, geography or any other subject finds it difficult to teach in an integrated curriculum.

Good example can be drawn from the teaching of social studies in our schools. Most teachers would be comfortable to
teach history and geography as separate subjects on the
school timetable. The same problems are experienced in the teaching of general science. Secondly, universities and
diploma colleges in this country still return their subject-
centred curriculum. Before 1985, candidates for admission to universities and diploma colleges in this country are
expected to have studies three or four subjects at form 5 and 6. Aggregate points obtained in the final advanced level
examination were then used for selection into university.
Students tended to specialize in their later years of secondary education. Thirdly, the Kenya National Examination
Council has in 1985 come up with a unified syllabus to be adapted for integrated studies in schools. All national
examinations are still set on subject basis.

• Advantage of Broad Fields Design

The advocates of broad-fields design argue that;
It is based on separate subjects, so it provides for an orderly and systematic exposure to the cultural heritage. It
integrates separate subjects into a single course. This enables learners to see the relationship among various elements in
the curriculum. It saves time on the school timetable.

Prepares a student for self-reliance and survival skills.

• Criticisms of Broad fields Design Opponents of broad-fields curriculum design claim that;

(i)It lacks depth and cultivates shallowness.

(ii)It provides only bits and pieces of information from a variety of subjects.
(iii)It does not account for psychological organization by which learning takes place

• Learner Centred Design

The curriculum designs, which come under the name learner-centered, may take various forms. Some curriculum
experts refer to them as child-centered or individualized
approaches. It is the curriculum planners who decide how the design should be organized.

This design puts great emphasis upon individual development. The curriculum is therefore organized around needs,
interests and purposes of students who attend to particular subject matter. Advocates of the design believe that while
developing the curriculum, great attention should be paid to what is known about human growth, development and
learning. But due to the nature of human beings, planning any curriculum of this type in detail before the students arrive
should be avoided. When students have arrived, an attempt can be made to identify their varied concerns, interests, and
priorities and then develop appropriate topics to address meaningful issues.
However, this type of curriculum design has not been popular in developing parts of the world for various reasons,
which we shall identify in the following paragraphs. Only in well-developed nations has this design been practised to
some extent because they have enough manpower and resources.

•Advantages of Learner-Centred Design

People learn only what they experience and that learning which is related to active purposes and is rooted in experience
translated itself into behaviour changes. Children like best those things that are attached to solving actual problems that
help in meeting real needs or that connect with some active interest. Learning in its true sense is an active transaction.
Some of the advantages given by the advocates of the learner-centered design are as follows:

The needs and interests of students are considered in the section and organization of content. Since the needs and
interests of students are considered in the planning of students work for whatever will be applicable to the outside
world.

•Criticism of Learner Centred Design

There are disadvantages of the learner-centered design. Those who challenge this type of curriculum design argue that,
the needs and interests of students may not be valid or long lasting. The interests and needs of students may not reflect
specific areas of knowledge that could be essential for successful functioning in the society in general. Quite often, it has
been observed that the needs and interests of students are not those that are important for society in general. Interests
and needs of students are usually short-lived, change with time and are influenced by the available conditions. Students
may develop new needs and Interests based on external influences within the society.

Another limitation of this design is that we may not be in a better position or assumption to know enough about human
growth, development and learning to be able to plan for individual students as stated above. The nature of our
education system and the Kenyan society for whom the system is intended may not permit learner-centred curriculum
design to be implemented effectively. Another important limitation of this design is that is expensive to produce
materials to satisfy the needs and interests, of individual students in a school. Imagine what would happen in our school
if we were to implement this type of curriculum design.

•Core Curriculum Design

The concept core-curriculum is used to refer to areas of study in the school curriculum that are required by all students.
The core-curriculum provides students with “common learnings” or general education – that will be necessary.
Therefore the core-curriculum constitutes the segments of the curriculum that teache common concepts, skills
and attitudes needed by all individuals in order to function ffectively within the society.

Two definitions of core-curriculum design will be adapted for use in this section:
The core-curriculum is a way of organizing some important common learning in the high school or college using a
problem solving approach as its procedure, having social and personal significance to youth “as its content, and the
development of the behaviours needed in a democratic society as its purpose” In modern education, the term core has
come to be that part of the curriculum which is concerned with those types of experiences thought to be necessary to all
learners in order to develop certain behaviour competencies considered necessary for effective living in our democratic
society.

Characteristics of Core Curriculum Design

The core-curriculum design constitutes the following features:
They constitute a section of the curriculum that all students are required to take. They unify or fuse subject matter,
especially in subjects such as English, Social Studies, etc.
Their content is planned around problems that cut across the disciplines. In this approach, the basic methods of learning
is problem solving using all applicable subject matter.
They are organized into blocks of time. Two or three periods under a core teacher may be organized. Other teachers
may be utilized where it is possible.
They encourage teachers to plan with students in advance
They provide pupils with the necessary guidance

• Types of Core Curriculum Design

Many types of core-curriculum design are recognized in the literature on education. Most of these designs tend to
appear like the other designs discussed elsewhere in this literature. If you can look back at the characteristics of core-
curriculum design, it will help you to perceive the great differences that exist between the pure-curriculum design and
other curriculum designs discussed.
The following types of core-curriculum design are commonly found in our schools and college curriculum in Kenya.

Type One: Separate subjects may be taught separately with little or no effort to relate them to each other e.g.
Mathematics, Science Languages, Humanities, may be taught as unrelated core-subjects in high schools.

Type Two: Two or more subjects may be correlated. For instance topics in History, Geography and Economics may be
able to see their relationship e.g. a topic on energy can easily be taught in this way.
History: Discovery and use of oil as a form of energy by man.
Other forms of energy that have been used in the past.
Geography: Forms of Energy. (i) Use and conservation of energy by man
(ii) Where oil is mined in the world
Economics: (iii) Importance of oil in world trade
(iv) Production of cheap forms of energy for man’s use
(v)Linkage of oil production to a nation’s development

Type Three
The fused-core is based on the overall integration of more subjects:
(1) History, Geography, Economics, Sociology and Anthropology may be combined and taught as social studies.
(2) Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology may be taught as general science
(3) Environmental Education Studies –
some colleges in other parts of Africa have introduced this core-curriculum as a component of the entire curriculum.

(1) In your own words, state what the concept core-curriculum means.
(2) State three characteristics of a core-curriculum design
(3) Write three examples of core-curriculum designs. If you can, give examples from the school where you teach.

Activity-Experienced Design
This type of design is one form of the learner-centred design. It originated in eighteenth- century in Europe. The design
became popular in American public schools during the progressive movement in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It was basically
organized in the elementary schools in America. The design is included in our study to provide us with an opportunity to
examine another attempt to improve learning with others; you are advised to go back to the previous discussions on
learner-centred curriculum design. Read Hilda Taba (1962).
The activity-experienced design is organized around the need and interests of learners. These must be the immediately
felt needs and interests of students, and not what the adults feel and ought to be the case.
First, there are roles for the teacher in this design, if the curriculum is to be implemented appropriately. First, the
teacher who is implementing this design should discover what the interests of his students are; secondly, he must help
them select the most significant interests for study. This is not a simple task as you can see, the role of the teacher is
made harder when the students genuine needs and interests have to be distinguished.
To do this effectively the teacher is expected to have a thorough knowledge of his students. Knowledge of child and
adolescent growth and development is necessary in the planning of activity/experience curriculum.

The second feature of the activity/experience design comes from the first. Since students interests and needs determine
the structure of this design, the curriculum cannot be planned in advance. Advance planning is possible in subject-
centred and related curriculum designs.
Teachers and students plan together the goals to be pursued, the procedures for assessment to be followed by
cooperative planning. However, advance planning does not mean that the teacher will not carry out any preparation.
The teacher still has many responsibilities which require a lot of planning. He is responsible for discovering of student’s
interests, guiding students in the selection of interests, helping individuals and groups to plan and appraise their
experience. From this description, the teacher must prepare in advance to help learners to carry out the
required activities in every stage of learning.

The third feature of the activity/experience design in its focus on problem-solving approach to learning. While pursuing
their interests, student’s come across specific problems that must be overcome. Such problems pose challenges that
students eagerly accept. In the course of finding out solutions to these problems, students achieve results that
reflect major values among the goals of this curriculum significance, immediacy, vitality and the relevance of activity and
experience.
Advantages
Three main advantages of the activity/experience design school activities are based on students needs to be externally
induced. Facts, concepts, skills and processes are learned because they are important for students, not because they are
needed for college or because the teacher will be testing them. Learning should be real and meaningful it if has to be
relevant.
The second advantage of the activity/experience curriculum design is that it provides for the individual differences
between students. For instance, students may join a class or group if its interests are unique.
Thirdly, the problem-solving approach emphasized in this design provides students with the process skills such as
reading, writing and numeracy they will need inorder to cope with life outside school.
criticisms against
Critics of the activity/experience design have grave reservations concerning its effectiveness as a process of educating
students. They argue that a curriculum strictly based on students needs and interests cannot possibly provide an
adequate preparation for life. This is so because many areas of knowledge necessary for effective functioning in the
modern society would be omitted if students were allowed to exclude from their curriculum anything that does not
immediately interest them. It is also argued that this design neglects critical social goals of education, which all students
must acquire. Important among these is cultural heritage, which should be provided to all students in the school.
Critics also point out that activity/experience design lacks a balance and structure. It also lacks continuity or sequence.

CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

Curriculum implementation is the systematic process of ensuring that the new curriculum reach the intended
consumers; learners and teachers, parents AND society without delay or deviation. It also involves making the new
curriculum and the accompanying materials and resources generally available to all schools and colleges within the
jurisdiction of the curriculum development project.
Implementation is the making real which has been planned. It is the time of truth. It means the open use of a
programme throughout an entire school system. In most schools or educational institutions, implementation is managed
by the curriculum staff in the central office with staff at other levels throughout the system. This is the
centrally coordinated model of curriculum. Kenya’s Education System is centrally controlled. In centralized education
system, a programme may either become compulsory for all schools of a certain type, or be among a list of authorized
alternative programme from which each school chooses the most suitable for its needs.

In both cases, implementation entails certain changes within the system.

First, teacher-training programmes must be adjusted to the requirements of the new programme. This implies
modification in both pre-service and in-service training activities. Occasionally, teachers themselves are in need of
further instruction in the content area of the new programme. New teaching methods, strategies, or class management
practices may also contribute the focus of a retraining course. Almost always teachers should be trained to monitor the
programme to identify flaw defects and to diagnose learning difficulties.

A second implementation problem is that of obtaining the support and cooperation of the supervisory staff. Without
their cooperation one can hardly expect successful implementation of the programme (Lewry 1977).

A third problem is in making the appropriate changes in the national examination system, if it exists. If programmes are
changed but national examinations remain unaltered, teachers may not have the motivation for the focus on their
educational work. At this stage of development, the formative evaluators role is to examine the efficiency of changes
and adjustments made. This may be made through observation of the teacher-training programme, through analytical
examination of both teacher programmes and the judgments and opinions of educational experts.

It must be emphasized that implementation is a process that the project staff and educational authorities always look
forward to with a lot of eagerness. Sometimes the participants are so eager that they are attempted to get to it before
the pre-requisite processes such as try out have been completed. This temptation should be resisted at all costs.
It cannot be over-emphasized that implementation of new curriculum should only be attempted by the institution in
which the right conditions prevail. There will be the school and colleges for which satisfactory arrangements can be
made for in servicing of teachers and learning materials, and equipment for which the necessary physical facilities can be
provided.

This means that implementation can hardly take place uniformly across the country or geographical areas concerned.
Some schools will be ready while others will not. The fact that implementation cannot be uniform throughout an
educational system is another problem which the project staff and educational authorities find bitter to accept.
The former wants to score success quickly overhear; and the latter, in addition to being anxious about uniform success,
they are uncomfortable about the thought that different administrative and other arrangements such as those
connected with students assessment procedure will have to be made for different groups of institutions.
Not all schools and colleges will have the necessary pre-requisite in the same extent and at the same time. Therefore,
the best that can be done is to group the schools according to their degree of readiness and implement the curriculum
accordingly hoping that the schools involved will be many so that the whole school system can be covered quickly.

Oluoch (1982) cited some nine sub-processes in the implementation of a new curriculum that may be identified in
preparation. These are:
Persuading a variety of people to accept the new curriculum.
Keeping the general public informed.
Educating the teachers
Educating the teacher-educators
Provision of necessary facilities supply of materials and equipment
Actual presentation of the new curriculum
Institution of appropriate student assessment procedures
Providing continuous support for the teachers

- Perhaps we should include budgeting for this process

Bishop (1976) noted some reasons for discrepancy between the intent of curriculum projects and what actually happens
in the classroom between the theory and practice, between desire and actual achievement, between plan and
execution. One of these reasons is resistance to change springing from tradition.
Bishop (1967) has also noted that there is practically complete agreement in theory on the view that great changes are
inevitable, but in practice, every position innovation encounters the most vigorous opposition. Education is a realm
kingdom of tradition, and resistance to change springs up in the most varied quarters, ranging from the
teachers themselves, the administrators, the parents, the pupils to political professional confessional religious and
cultural circles. Several countries note that socio-psychological resistance to reform is the major problem, perhaps more
stubborn, than financial problem itself.

6.1 Primary Task of Implementation

Setting up the major steps in the implementation system (outline of the process). Reviewing of existing system and
noting the existing networks and places where new
networks are required. Allocating budget for various actions of implementation. Ensuring that a management plan for
this sub stage of curriculum development is
created by personnel in charge. Developing means of synchronizing all the support system requisite for successful
piloting and final implementation. Preparation of the curriculum for teachers-staff training for all staff who will receive
the field-tested curriculum including special training for those who will pilot before implementation). Identify all staff
required for the technical implementation of the field tested programme.

Bishop (1976) pauses some basic questions regarding the staff to be involved in piloting and implementation. What new
staff’s knowledge and skills are necessary for the programmeimplementation? What are the new roles and
responsibilities that the staff will have to assume in both the piloting and the final implementation? The level of
expertise a staff possesses will influence the answers to these questions.

At this juncture, the question is not what expertise staff require but where the staff
currently with regard to required expertise come from.

Agents of Curriculum Implementation

Agents are support resources in order to Implement Curriculum as required. They include:

Teacher’s Advisory Centres (TACs)

New teaching, new teaching strategies and other changes have been introduced in the education system. Newly
employed teachers may quite often use the Teachers Advisory Centre for obtaining information on how to handle their
teaching assignments. Particularly the untrained teachers in Kenyan education of system have benefited from the
services of Teachers Advisory Centres Old teachers; also use the centres to update themselves.

Another role of Teacher’s Advisory Centres is the dissemination of teaching materials already developed by the Kenya
Institute of Education. Teachers may meet at the centre to discuss how the materials supplied by K.I.E could be
beneficially utilized by schools. Sometimes, material supplied by the Kenya Institute of Education’s
curriculum development panels may appear irrelevant to the local needs of the learners in particular areas. Teachers use
the centres to discuss and make some recommendations to the curriculum panels on how improvement could be made.
This role may be viewed as a feedback to curriculum developers at the Kenya Institute of Education. The
feedback information from the teachers centres may become a basis for modifying the newly introduced curriculum in
schools.

In well established Teachers Advisory Centres, teachers have organized local curriculum development panels. Teachers
of English, Mathematics, Geography or Science may form local subject panels. Local subject panels may be to organize
teachers to work as a team to develop materials to support what teachers use in classrooms. The materials
developed are kept in the centre for other teachers who may want to use them. A lot of materials developed in the
Teachers Advisory Centres have been very useful to the Kenya Institute of Education curriculum panels in developing
primary school education curriculum.

Social Studies for instance, is a crucial curriculum which cannot be generalized by the National Curriculum
• Supportive Personnel and Services
Our further concept we need to consider in the implementation of a curriculum is that of educational supervision. This is
a very important element in the implementation process.

This part of the process is provided by inspectors and filed supervisors. Once one looks at the task the supervisor can
perform in relation to curriculum implementation and the improvement of quality at local level one realizes how limited
the direct influence on teachers. Field officers and assistance in demonstration of a particular approach to the classroom
teacher is very vital. Their feed back of the running quality of the project will assist the review of the materials.

These supervisors can arrange for workshops for teachers to help them discuss issues emerging from the project and
also provide suggestions for production of localized materials for teachers’ use in teaching. However, their indirect
influence on teachers as co-ordinators of support system for teacher in the field can be very great indeed. Some of the
roles supervisors would address themselves to are: Identification of problem areas in the materials;
Suggestions as to the necessary modification;
Advice on the program me of work to be done in the schools;
Preparation for the workshops, seminars and courses;
Assistance with displays at the Teachers Advisory Centres where these exist and encouragement of display in schools;
Encouragement of regular visits to the centres by teachers and guidance and help to teachers with regard to source of
information and other materials.

Voluntary Agencies as Curriculum Implementers

In the African context, the curriculum for basic education can no longer be conceived as the sole responsibility of
professional educators. This is particularly true in the implementation stage. Voluntary Agencies such as the Church,
Women’s Organizations, Women’s Associations, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Entertainment Groups of every description
have a legitimate role to play in implementing some aspects of the curriculum, particularly in the affective domain.
Cultural activities which are initiated bythe school may be extended and refined in the community around the school.
The integrated primary school staff should be afforded every opportunity to each voluntary agency to contribute
positively to the advancement of their local community socially, economically, culturally, and intellectually.

• Parents as Curriculum Implementors

It has been assumed for too long that the unschooled (African) parents have no role to play in curriculum
implementation. On the contrary, their role is crucial in the continuing process of value-orientation and attitude
formation. Being the natural and immediate “reference group” for their children, the parents’ influence in cultural value
is often unchallenged. It is in the home that the children learn effectively such important social and cultural values as
personal relationships, hospitality, generosity, comparison, personal hygiene, etiquette, love, thriftiness etc.

The current search for cultural identity should emphasize respect for education received through instructional materials.
One of the final products of each curriculum project is the production of several types of instructional materials. If the
teacher develops his own curriculum, materials he is likely to utilize products easily available in his environment for the
preparation of the learning materials. If the curriculum is developed by the central institute like Kenya Institute of
Education (K.I.E) to serve a large population, items of various types will be assembled in a package or kit for easy
dissemination. What does curriculum kit contain? The most simple form of instruction materials produced by
the curriculum team is a teachers’ guide, composed of suggestions and instructions for the teacher on what to do in the
classroom. This is a very important item because it is necessary to inform the teacher of the programmes goals so that
they can make use of the programme adequately. Generally, the programme kit will also contain individual study
materials in the form of textbooks, worksheets and supplementary materials, such as demonstration charts, slides, and
equipment; which are also included. Finally a
programme may also have components which are deposited in regional centres to be borrowed by schools for
classroom use.
• The Community
Curriculum implementation is most effectively implemented when the community understands and supports it when
facilities are available for desirable school organization and learning activities. There is also need for appropriate
materials and supportive personnel to assist teachers. Two key factors are necessary to the implementation of
the curriculum. Financial support and other physical facilities Community’s theoretical support for change.

The financial aspect of curriculum implementation is dealt with as a priority of the community. The community’s support
creates a healthy climate of understanding and encouragement prevailing in the community. Most important here are
the attitudes held by parents because such attitudes towards the programme are easily transmitted to the child for
whom the changes are intended.

School community communication needs to go beyond mere information which includes the maintenance of a
continuous dialogue that enables the community to understand the rationale behind such a change; to understand the
educational problems and procedures involved, and in many instances to provide direct assistance for
curriculum implementation in the form of resource persons, school volunteers, and any other personal forms of
contributions to the effort of the school.

Preparation of parents and the community is therefore seen as an important element even at the planning stage. Also
during the needs assessment stage, parents and the

community or what may be referred to as the lay person will have been involved extensively in assessing their needs as
far as the school curriculum is concerned.
Whatever needs are identified and written in the form of objectives for the new curriculum, should be discussed with lay
people if for nothing else to keep them in touch with what is happening. This exercise is what Kenya Institute of
Education refers to as familiarization.

The main objectives of this exercise is:

To explain how the new curriculum sets out to achieve in relation to national development goals;
To explain how the new curriculum provides greater individual benefits than its predecessor;
To describe changes in organization and structure of the new educational system;
At specific levels, to explain why pupils course offerings, say in secondary schools, differ for various groups of students;
To gain the co-operation of parents and the public.

Undertaking the familiarization exercise is often necessary to use all means possible to reach as many people as
possible. This may be done through weekly radio programmes explaining the new curriculum in the simplest terms
possible and outlining its new objectives, where showing visual examples of the new curriculum in use.
Documentary films should be produced for use with mobile cinemas. The local news papers in as many languages as
possible, should be utilized to provide information on the new curriculum.
In some cases personal contact may be necessary.

TEACHER EDUCATION

Objectives
After studying this lecture you should be able to:
1.Define the term teacher and teaching
2.Explain the origin of the terms the teacher, teaching and professional teachers
3.Identify some important qualities of a good teacher.

• Defining Teaching
The terms teacher and teaching have been with us for a very long time. We have used them to refer to
specializedactivities in our societies. Generally, all societies, including
yours, refer to teaching when they mean the process of providing information, knowledge or skills to others. “Teacher”
then strictly refers to the person who is involved in the process of providing information, knowledge or skills to other
Who then is a teacher?
Anybody who can facilitate learning or directly provide knowledge or required skills is a teacher. For instance, a
carpenter teaching his own son how to use a hammer and saw is a teacher; a house mother who instructs her daughter
how to prepare a fish-dish or ugali or cleaning the house, is a teacher, a herbalist who trains his son on the use of
certain herbs found in the forest and how to identify those that contain medicinal value is a teacher. Our ancestors used
informal teaching to pass over skills and knowledge that were essential to our society. Many of the roles of informal
teaching have been taken over by schools. The modern professional teachers are found in schools and other related
institutions.

Who is a professional teacher?

Professionals are the trained people in the art of teaching. They are paid a salary or wage for the service they render to
their customers. Terms of employment for these professional teachers may vary from place to place. In Kenya we may
categorize professional teachers by place of employment. There are teachers employed by private or non-governmental
agencies with different terms of service. The majority of professional teachers in this country are employed by the
Teacher Service Commission (TSC) which is a government agency.

Greek sophists are believed to be the earliest known teachers. They consisted of a group of well-learned teachers who
moved from one place to another teaching.
They usually charged a fee for the services rendered to people. Sophists were prominent in the art of public speaking or
rhetoric. They were able to put doubt or confession in the minds of the youth. The youth were able to develop a high
degree of thinking or reasoning. As a result, they were able to challenge dogma, word which did not possess meaning
and any form of opinion which did not seem to be knowledgeable. During the time of Socrates, the Greeks began to
discourage charging of fees for teaching. They thought that this would degrade or lower the value of education. This is
why Socrates himself moved from one market to another teaching without being paid fees for his service.

The meaning of “teacher” became so pronounced at the time of the Romans conquered Greece and introduced a kind of
hierarchy. The Romans introduced two groups of professional teachers. The first one was, the “Literator” i.e. a teacher
in primary school and the second one was “Ludi Magista or Rhetor” i.e. teachers who taught in the Roman Grammar
Schools.
This period actually marks the beginning when people could see and appreciate the role of teachers in a society. They
began to advocate for teachers salary based on their services. Plato was among the earliest advocates of salary for
teachers. He drew up a plan of education for the ruling class, the philosophers, kings or guardians of the state.
He felt that teachers had a big role in society, which gave them the honour they deserved. It interesting to note that
during this time, Plato felt that the highest officer in the state should be the Minister of Education and that anybody who
should hold that office must be fifty years of age, married and with his own children.
During the middle ages, schools began to be diversified. This state of affairs made teaching to become complicated. As a
result, the system of pre-service training was introduced and became compulsory for anybody inspiring to become a
teacher.

What qualities do we expect of Professional Teachers?

All of us always think that colleges and universities should produce teachers who are adequately trained to handle every
aspect of school curriculum. Unfortunately, this is not what colleges and universities do. They merely lay the foundation
upon which the young teacher in the field can build. After three to five years, the young teacher will have acquired
experience. Experience necessary for carrying out curriculum activities can only be acquired in schools where one is
posted to teach.
On the other hand, experience alone may not be sufficient for a good teacher. Some educators wrote that, the amount
of experience we have had is of less importance thanour ability to profit by it. The best teachers are those who have the
humility and capacity to learn by success and failure. Humility, the educators argue, is the capacity to accept the
criticisms of others and to criticize ourselves without feeling too sorry for ourselves.The points selected and discussed
below are only guidelines of what is thought or felt that teachers should do or be. You can think of many other qualities
that will be relevant to your society. Our society is complex; therefore, their views and values on qualities teachers
should posses, will vary.
First and foremost, all societies expect a teacher to be a person of good moral conduct. The teacher must be someone
who is prepared to respect truth under all circumstances. Most important, a teacher must have love for people and
children in particular. Children and people in common are the immediate clients of a teacher in school. Teachers are
looked upon in society as people with high integrity and morals whose personal lives set examples for others to emulate.
Youths will be most comfortable in the hands of a teacher with good character than a bad person. We have heard and
read of cases of teachers interdiction, suspension and even dismissal because of bad behavior in schools.
Secondly, a good teacher will remain a student throughout the period of his teaching career. This is the only way a
teacher will become an educated person. Good teaching fails as soon as we cease to renew our knowledge through
learning. Age and experience do not alone promote good teaching. The content we learn at school and in college
serve as the starting points for learning. We must remember that knowledge is dynamic. It is increasing daily with new
discovery and expansion in areas of study. As a teacher, you are expected to know far more than the pupils you teach in
class. As teachers, we are forced to improve our methods of teaching in order to cope with the new technology.
The students you teach are inquisitive. They acquire new information through all forms of media. It is therefore,
necessary for you to know the pupils you teach as well as the subject content. This can be achieved by the teacher
accepting to continue learning throughout his life time.
Thirdly, a good teacher must be adaptable. The education you have received should help you to tackle new types of
experiences within your teaching environment. We must develop personal initiatives and abilities to handle new
situations as they come to us in schools. For instance, our curriculum is changing form time to time with new subjects
being introduced. For example, Social Education and Ethics syllabus in the 8-4-4 curriculum. Various types of this
syllabus, will need personal initiative, common sense and ability. We must be willing to confront and face new issues
and problems as they come.
Fourthly, courage combined with adaptability is important for a good teacher. You may be faced with harsh conditions
when posted to a new school. May be, the school has not enough buildings or they may be of poor standards, not
enough equipment, text books etc. What do you do? Run away and abandon your students? Many people have
faced similar situations in the past. Bear in mind that, our society is not economically equal.

In summary we have been able in this lecture to:

Explain the origin of the terms teacher, teaching and professional teachers. They usually charged a fee for their services.
The term professional teachers became more pronounced during the period of the Roman conquest of Greece. The
Romans introduced two categories of teachers. The first category of professional teachers was the Ludi Magista or
Rhetor teachers who taught in the Roman Grammar schools.
Identify some important qualities of good teacher. We put the qualities of a good teacher into four main categories:
moral conduct be a student throughout his life, thirdly, adaptable to varying circumstances of the teaching for courage
combined with adaptability.

Pre-Service Teacher Education

Primary
Goals of primary teacher education as contained in various government documents are as follows:
1. To develop the basic theoretical and practical knowledge about the teaching professions so that the teachers’ attitude
and ability can be turned towards professional commitment and competence.
2. To develop in the teacher the ability to communicate effectively. Bearing in mind the child as the centre for
education, teacher education should prepare teachers who can:-
(i)Provide suitable learning opportunities
(ii) Develop the child’s communication skills
(iii)Develop individual child’s potential abilities to their maximumefforts through a variety of creative learning
experience
(iv)Develop a child’s sense of citizenship and national attitude
(v)Develop the child’s ability in critical and imaginative thinking,problem solving and self-expression
(vi) Develop positive attitudes to the moral and religious values of the community
3. To create a national consciousness for educational excellence in every teacher.
4. To provide opportunities to develop special interests and skills and to promote initiative in the teacher.
5. To develop in the teacher the ability to adapt to change and new situations.
6. To develop an awareness and appreciation of innovation in the field of education and an ability to utilize them
7. To develop an awareness of the principles and use these in their dealings with children and their community
8. To promote national unity, national development and social equality
9. To foster in the teacher an appreciation and respect for our rich and varied cultural heritage.

Primary Teacher Education Curriculum

Teacher education curriculum has undergone a lot of transformation. A brief history may help us to follow this
transformation. Prior to 1974, Primary Teachers Colleges in Kenya enjoyed some form of autonomy to suit their
conditions. The syllabuses were implemented in respectful colleges subject to approval by the Ministry of Education.
They also prepared their own examinations and assessment devices to be used locally.
The role of the K.I.E and the Inspectorate was to moderate such examinations and provide panels of examiners to assist
assessing students during teaching practices. After 1976, the role of KI.E seemed to be minimized. The Ministry of
Education and its Examination Section in Mitihani House took over and amalgamated all the responsibilities carried out
by the colleges themselves and K.I.E. Professional studies examinations were now thrown to a public examining body.
Explicitly, examinations for teachers in all the colleges in the country were centralized. These steps were harsh.
What was the impact of these measures to the process the among teachers was killed by the strength of examinations?
Training of teachers became more of an academic exercise where the best achievers in the final examinations were
rewarded with grades and certificates. Secondly a strong element of competition developed among the colleges.
Thus students were forced to master facts from subjects taught and reproduced them after two years in one
examination. This is typical of what an American educationist, Paul Freire calls “the banking concept”. Teachers teach
and students receive the information. National teachers examination was good. On the other hand, someone who had
completed primary level of education could easily be awarded a P2 teachers certificate if he passed in the National
Teachers Examination at the end of two years training.

Organization of Teacher Education Curriculum

The initial curriculum in primary teacher education is organized around 14 subject areas. This organization has not
changed much in the present period. The following organization is used:
Professional Studies: the syllabus is divided into four major section areas:
(i) Foundations of Education
(ii) Curriculum Studies
(iii) Educational Administration
(iv) Educational Psychology.
It was compulsory for a student to pass a written examination in all these areas in addition to practical teaching. Failure
in Practical Teaching meant that one had failed the entire course, even if performance in thirteen other areas was
excellent. This rule was later changed in order to give a student a second chance to be re-assessed up to two times re-
assessment in the Teaching Practice which takes place after the final results have been announced.
The Languages: either English of Kiswahili has to be passed in order to be awarded a certificate
The Science: this includes general Science and Agriculture. Again a student is expected to pass in anyone of them for the
purpose of certification.
The Social Science: this area comprises of History, Geography and Christian Religious Education as well as Islamic
Religious Education. Only students who are Muslims take Islamic Religious Education
The Creative Arts Area: this area has the largest combination of subjects. It includes Arts and Crafts, Music, Health
Education and Physical Education, Domestic Science. A pass in this area is also necessary for the purpose of certification.
Mathematics remains separate and independent area of study by all students. It is a compulsory requirement for
certification.

In service Teacher Education

A lot of confusion exists in the minds of many educators and the teaching profession in general, when the term in-
service education is defined. There are two stages of teacher education are in practice at the present time. First, is what
we often refer to as pre- service education and takes place in residence in a college or University before a teacher is
appointed to his first post or employed and registered by the Teachers Service Commission. Second is the in-service
education and may be taken any time while the teacher is already trained and qualified who are also professionally
employed. It may also be arranged for untrained teachers who have been recruited by T.S.C and registered to teach in
public schools. The present growth of in-service education practice in the teaching profession is historical. First, is the
fact that knowledge continues to expand in the present world at a much greater rate than before. Days when a teacher
could be contented with a bank of knowledge which he would find adequate to sustain him throughout his teaching
career have ended. Whatever knowledge a teacher acquires during his initial training may not still be satisfactory in ten
or fifteen years later. New knowledge keeps coming up through research and technology. A teacher faces great
challenges now than what was experienced before. It must be admitted in this lecture that in-service education is an
essential element and condition for all members of the public employed to teach in schools. This condition should apply
to both the pre-service or trained and the untrained teachers. There are at present more than 30,000 untrained teachers
employed to teach in schools in Kenya.

What are the main purposes of in-service education?

All kinds of in-service education undertaken by teachers reveal various purposes.
Education administrators who organize and provide chances for in-service education are well aware of the purposes
discussed here. The teachers who choose to enroll in various in- service education courses are also made aware of the
purposes. Some of the purposes of In-service education may be found to overlap.

Acquisition of New Knowledge

For many years educational administrators in this country thought that only primary school teachers needed In-service
education because they were not well academically prepared. Graduate teachers and others involved in teaching
secondary schools and college level were regarded specialists. This view has changed in recent years with
new development taking place in education. We can see this change in view of the following evidence.
i) programmes of one term or one year duration have been organized by overseas agencies for experienced serving
teachers to attend advanced courses abroad for the teaching of Science, Mathematics and English etc Many teachers
have benefited from the scheme.
ii) Locally organized in-service programmes of one month or longer have been organized by the Ministry of Education in
conjunction with the Kenya Institute of Education and the public universities which train teachers.
iii) Graduate teachers attend courses of this nature in subjects of their specialization. For instance the Social Science
Project, Science and Mathematics, Geography, Kiswahili, etc. in-service Education programmes for trained teachers of
normal children have been organized in various colleges. Trained teachers of normal children can obtain specialization
and qualifications as teachers of handicapped children after attending an in-service education course at High ridge
Teachers’ College. For instance, P1 teachers of normal children are recruited for in-service education course for the
handicapped.
iv) Teachers of Art, Music, Drama and P.E. e.t.c can obtain more knowledge and techniques through organized in-service
education programmes. The introduction of 8.4.4 system of education in Kenya in 1985 prompted the Ministry of
Education Science and Technology to organize P.E and other subjects in secondary schools. Similar in-service courses
were also organized for other subjects taught in secondary schools.

Familiarization with Curriculum Development

Changes in curriculum are dynamic, particularly with the increase in knowledge in demand and supply by society or
relevancy in curriculum content. To familiarize teachers with curriculum development, changes, seminars, workshops,
and conferences are organized at the district or national level. In many cases some of the work in
curriculum development changes are channeled through circulars, demonstrations and government documents from
the inspectorate to the schools. Heads of schools are expected to make such information available to teachers. In well -
organized schools, seminars or meetings are organized for members of staff to discuss new changes in curriculum.
Training of examiners and markers for public examinations falls under this category. It is done by the Kenya National
Examinations Council.

• Familiarization with Principles of Organization and Management.

Many teachers are appointed to head schools without prior training in organization and management. Appointments to
head schools are usually made on the basis of a teacher’s academic qualifications and some appointments to headships.
A lot of work that is necessary for school organization and educational management cannot be done during the pre-
service training. It’s after working in the schools for sometime that a teacher gains insights and familiarity with the basic
principles of organization and management. Some teachers become fortunate when they work in schools where head-
teachers may be assigned roles of departmental heads, deputy head-teachers or guidance and counselors. To function
properly and project educational services, some form of instruction in organization and management is essential.
In some countries such as the United States of America, a special qualification is required of all people who aspire to
become head-teachers or principals.
The Ministry of Education Science and Technology in Kenya, often organizes seminars, workshops and meetings to
familiarize head-teachers with essential principles of educational management. Such courses have become popular to
teachers who got appointed to headship with a limited knowledge in educational management.

Why do teachers participate in In-service education?

Teachers participate in in-service education for various reasons. In some countries like the United States of American
teachers can be assured of immediate direct benefits like salary increase, when they complete participation in in-service
education course successfully. In Kenya, this happens but in a different form. Let us examine some of the reasons which
make teachers to participate in in-service education programmes in Kenya.

1.Promotion Status
Many teachers in this country have been promoted from one grade to another after under- going an in-service
education programme. For instance, pre-service teachers who were initially trained as P1 have participated in a one year
in-service education course to prepare them to be qualified to handle the handicapped. After completing the
programme they are awarded an S1 teachers certificate.
Graduates without professional training in education are recruited by T.S.C to teach in secondary schools. They are
basically employed as untrained graduate teachers. The Ministry of Education requires that after teaching for a short
duration, such untrained graduates should go for a one-year diploma course in education in a university. After
completing the course successfully their status is changed from untrained to qualified graduates. In addition to change
of status, they also get the normal salary scale and increments given to other qualified graduate teachers.
More than 30,000 teachers are employed to teach in primary schools in Kenya. The ministry of education has been
conducting in-service education programmes by correspondence to train the untrained teachers. After three years the
untrained teachers, who complete the course successfully, are awarded certificates to indicate grade levels.
For instance P1, P2 and P3 certificates are awarded. The certificates awarded correspond to salary scales from other
teachers in the profession. Promotions and changes of status are major reasons why most untrained primary school
teachers attend in-service courses.
The second reason would be to secure permanent and pensionable employment status enjoyed by other qualified
teachers employed by T.S.C. after gaining knowledge in methods of teaching in the primary schools.

2. Improved Job Performance

Many teachers select to attend shorter courses for one or two weeks for almost the same purpose. They want to
increase, extend or expand their knowledge. This is quite true of teachers who trained more than ten years ago and are
still teaching. Changes in the teaching profession are common. Most teachers want to improve their performance
to cope with new changes in education. To this group of teachers, promotions or salary are not reasons for participation.
For instance, new subjects such as social Education and Ethics, Business Education etc. have been introduced in primary
school syllabus. Teachers without initial training of these subjects must participate in short in-service education courses
to become qualified to teach them. Teachers advisory centers are most appropriate venues for organizing short in-
service education courses for the improvement, increase and expansion of knowledge. This role is well played in districts
with well-organized centres.

3. Increased Salary
Additional salary is not an incentive for participation in all types of in-service education courses. Salary in Kenya goes
along with certificates and degrees obtained. Any in- service education programme may not be organized for the
purposes of awarding extra or higher certificates or diplomas. Exceptions to this are the following programmes.
a) One year course for P1 teachers to be qualified as S1 teachers for handicapped. Promotion from P1 to S1 teachers
provides an essential salary increase.
b) One year full time course for untrained graduate teachers. After successfully completing the course at a university
they are awarded diplomas in education or (P.G.D.E) with salary increase or some adjustment.
CURRICULUM EVALUATION

What is Evaluation
Evaluation in the content of education is a process used to obtain information from testing, from direct observation of
behaviour, from essays and from other devices to assess a student’s overall progress towards some predetermined goals
or subjects. It includes both a qualitative and quantitative description and involves a value judgement of overall student
behavior for decision making.
Evaluation and measurement are not the same, although evaluation involves measurement. If we assess a student’s
knowledge and understanding in a subject by means of an objective or essay type test, that is measurement. If a teacher
puts a value on the student’s work, talents, attitudes and other characteristics of behaviour that is evaluation.
Evaluation should in part involve testing that is non-subjective on the part of the teacher, otherwise it is likely to be
unreliable.
Assessment is used interchangeably with evaluation. Testing is the process of using an instrument or test to measure
achievement. Measurement and testing are thus ways of gathering evaluation and assessment data.

Purposes of Curriculum Evaluation

Evaluation has many purposes; it can be used in the following ways.
(i) Evaluation as a basis for school marks or grades by teachers
Educational systems require that teachers occasionally submit marks or grades on students. These marks or grades can
be arrived at through formal examinations, regular tests, assignments, laboratories reports, observational information or
combination of these.
(ii) Evaluation as a Means of Informing Parents Parents of schools children have a right to know how their children are
progressing in school. Student’s evaluation is the most important way of providing them with this information.
(iii) Evaluation for Promotion to Higher Class
Student evaluation is sometimes used to determine whether a student has made enough progress to be promoted to a
higher class or form in the school.
(iv) Evaluation for Student Motivation
Success in tests and examinations as well as sports and other school activities can give great encouragement to students.
Similarly, failure to do well can make students work harder or strive to do better. Teachers should try to give their
students feedback on the evaluation of all aspects of their learning and behaviour so that both those who do well and
those who do not will be motivated to improve on their performance.
(v) Evaluation for Guidance and Counselling Purposes
All students need to be advised to help them solve their own personal problems, whether academic or emotional. The
two types of problems are indeed often connected. Successful students tend to enjoy school more than those who are
not so successful. It is generally those who appear to be failure as indicated by the evaluation of the teaching staff, who
need the most attention and it is to them that the class teacher must direct herself.

(vi) Evaluation to Assess the Effectiveness of the Teaching Strategy

If a teacher does not in some way assess the students’ improved knowledge, understanding and higher cognitive skills as
well as their attitudes and psychomotor abilities, will not be able to evaluate the success or otherwise of the teaching
strategy she has employed. A higher failure rate in a course is more often due to poor teaching that to the lack of
intelligence of the students.
(vii) Evaluation for Employment Purposes
Not all students who pass through post-primary schools will proceed to university or other institutions of higher
learning. Some students may decide to join a company or business. Employers normally require information on potential
employees with reference to academic ability, attitude to work, moral character personality and so on. It
therefore necessary for the teachers to evaluate nearly all aspects of the students’ performance while they attend the
school.

• Curriculum Evaluation
The primary purpose of curriculum evaluation is, of course, to determine whether the curriculum goals,
and objectives are being carried out. These goals and objectives are to be evaluated in the first place to determine if
they are the right kind of objective. It also determines whether the curriculum is functioning while in operation, and
using the best materials and the best methods.
Curriculum evaluation also determines whether the products of our schools are successful in higher education and in
jobs, whether they can function in daily life and contribute to our society. Curriculum evaluation also determines
whether educational program is cost- effective, that is to say whether the people are getting the most of their money.

Phases of Evaluation
There are three phases of evaluation which every teacher needs to know.
♦ Pre-assessment
♦ Formative Evaluation
♦ Summative Evaluation

These terms are technical words to differentiate evaluation that takes place before instruction (pre-assessment), during
instruction (formative), and after instruction (summative). Pre-assessment evaluation is provided before instruction that
takes place before instruction to determine the starting point on an instructional program. It identifies need prerequisite
skills and causes of learning difficulties and to place students in learning groups. Formative evaluation consists of those
techniques of a formal and informal nature, including testing, that are used during the period of instruction. Progress
tests are given in the classroom are a good illustration of formative evaluation.
Thorough formative evaluation teachers may diagnose student difficulties and take remedial action to help them
overcome their difficulties before they are confronted with the terminal (summative) evaluation. Formative evaluation
enables teachers to monitor their instruction so that they may keep it on course. It is also used to provide assessment of
curriculum quality. It is conducted during the curriculum development process for the additional purpose of providing
information that can be used to forma a better finished product. Thus formative evaluation takes place at a number of
intermediate points during curriculum development process.

Summative evaluation is the assessment that takes place at the end of a course or unit. A final examination (post-test)
means used for the summative evaluation of instruction. It major purpose is to find out whether the students have
mastered the preceding instruction.
A good teacher utilizes results of summative evaluation to revise his or her program and methodology for subsequent
groups.

Role of Evaluation in Curriculum

Evaluation entails not a single study but also a series of sub-studies, performed at the various stages of curriculum
development process. The main aim of curriculum evaluation is to collect descriptive information about an educational
programme, which is then used to modify and improve the program; to compare the program to other programs, and to
make judgement as to the worth of the program or project.
Evaluation generally answers the questions regarding: selection, adoption,, support change, innovation and worth of an
education program. Formative evaluation helps the curriculum team at the planning stage to formulate a new
educational policy, to discover new needs, to formulate new goals, to clarify in their definition of goals,
select appropriate goals form competing goals, determine complementary goals, number of new disciplines to be
taught, provide empirical evidence on the view of teachers, parents, learners, employers, professional on what requires
change or towards the envisaged change.
At the project materials development stage, evaluation helps to translate broad educational goals into
curriculum objectives for various subjects, redefine general objectives into operational objectives, determine
appropriate syllabus and textbooks structure and content; ensure relevance in content scope, sequence, continuity,
integration and balance, identify areas that require in-service for teachers and determine appropriate evaluation
procedures and process.
At the project field-trial (try-out) stage evaluation helps to determine:
♦ Adequacy of the materials
♦ Needed revisions, cost of production, quantity
♦ Nature needed
♦ Teaching-learning strategies need
♦ Evaluation procedures – instrument required

Evaluation at the school implementation stage check on arrival of teaching-learning resources in schools and their use
by teachers and students
♦ Whether teachers have been adequately prepared
♦ Reaction of teachers, parents and other stakeholders on the new program
♦ Whether procedures used meet the standard criteria designated by the curriculum developer
♦ What is actually being learned – the operational curriculum
♦ What requires change
♦ Acceptance of the new program by the beneficiaries

National examinations cater for comparison of schools, districts, pupils, teachers. Grading selection, placement,
certification, school academic records. Evaluation of examination procedures ensures higher standards of education,
detects areas of difficulty; determiners new methods of teaching and evaluation; problems teachers and learners have
in interpreting course objects.

Principles of Instructional Evaluation

Instructional Evaluation should be used on the following criteria by which worth is determined.
1. Consistency with Objectives
Evaluation should be used to measure what is indicated in curriculum objectives of a course programme. R. Tyler (1950)
observed that educational objectives are the criteria by which materials are selected, content is outlined, instructional
procedure are developed and tests and examinations are prepared. Evaluation tells us how successful we have been in
this effort. The criteria for evaluation and the results so obtained should be underscored and accepted by all those
concerned. There is need to develop in pupils the ability to learn further.

2. Validity and Reliability

Evaluation instruments are valid if they measure what they are supposed to measure. A test in CRE, for example, should
not be expected to elicit scientific knowledge but religious education concepts. A valid test shall relate to objectives of
the specific course and appropriate for the level.
Reliability refers to the consistency with which an evaluation instrument measures giving the same score of results. Two
different examiners are able to arrive the same score on the test candidates who have gone through the same learning
process. A test item that has several answers yet the test constructor required only one correct answer cannot be said to
be reliable. A reliable test will also try to elicit the same abilities, skills from the same sample of students.

3.Continuity
Curriculum evaluation should be an on-going process in order to provide effective feedback, which will lead to course
improvement. It should moreover relate to previous, present and future learning experiences and follow proper
sequencing of the course, from easy to complex items. The evaluation system begins with curriculum decision,
which results in the identification of the first goals. It continues throughout the planning process into
implementation activities, and cycles back to the planning process.
Instructional evaluation should be a continuous process so that the teacher can adequately and effectively assess each
student needs in order to select appropriate resources, develop appropriate learning strategies, judge each student
merit, and provide effective feedback and motivation to each student; plan group methods, appropriate activities along
specified learning objectives.
Through continuous assessment the teacher consistently and systematically provides the educational experience most
suited to the educational needs, interests, readiness and ability of each student.

4. Balance
Balance means that the curriculum developers have weighed the relative importance they have given to each student
need and development tasks. Considerations should be given to all student needs. Evaluation should assess all skills
weighted against the time allocated to each. Balance also ensure that the various cognitive skills are equally
or reasonably weighted. If the test items dwell on higher or lower cognitive skills only, such a test will lack balance.
Hence, there should be a balance in the following cognitive levels of skills: knowledge, comprehensive, application,
analysis, synthesis and evaluation. There should be also balance theory and practical skills. All subjects have theoretical
and practical aspects.

5. Comprehensiveness
Education aims at the development of the whole person. Hence, all the objectives of the curriculum programme should
be evaluated, namely: the cognitive, effective, psychomotor, spiritual and social relating domains. Evaluation
instruments should be designed to yield accurate information concerning personal, social adjustment, physical growth,
spiritual growth, habits of work, interests and attitudes; special aptitudes, growth in creative ability, home and
community backgrounds must also be available if the schoolis to do the best job possible in fostering the wholesome
growth of learners and preparing them for effective citizenship in a democratic multi-part, multi-racial, multi-ethnic,
multi- religious society such as obtains in Kenya. Education should prepare the individual to face the vicissitudes of life
with constancy, persistency, insistence and courage.
Individuals play different roles at different educational experience and stages of life; Pre- primary, primary, secondary,
university; childhood, adolescence, adult middle age, retirement age and old age. Each stage requires definite
knowledge, skills, values and are subject to evaluation by society. It is not the mere acquisition of knowledge that
matters but how it utilized. Modern evaluation attempt to obtain as complete a picture as possible of the individual.
The evaluation procedure is comprehensive if they utilize a variety of means and techniques in collection evaluation
data.

6. Cooperation
An evaluation system is depended upon the adequacy of the planning which resulted in the selected or creation of
curriculum programs, activities, procedures, resources and other elements to be evaluated. Evaluation systems are also
dependent upon the utility and integrity of the specific data to be gathered, displayed and intepreted (practical
skills, work at primary, secondary, and university exams). What criteria should be met to ensure validity and reliability?
An adequate evaluations system involves at least two levels of cooperation. The first concerns the integrity of the
relationships established among the planning, implementing and evaluation phases of program building. Evaluation
should be inbuilt in the planning and preparation states of curriculum development. The second concerns
the comprehensive involvement of all parties, which have legitimate input or from the programs activities or its
evaluation systems.
The determination of what constitutes success or failure requires the cooperative involvement of those who implement
and are affected by the program and those who evaluate. There should be cooperation among the KIE curriculum
developers, the Kenya National Examinations Council and the classroom teachers. There should be also cooperation
among the psychologists, sociologists, philosopher, religious leaders, professors, trade unionists, curriculum developers,
employers and teachers; and all otherstakeholders.
Evaluation instruments should be functional, practical understood and acceptable by all teachers involved. There should
be a closer relationship between the examination and the objectives which school education hopes to achieve,
therefore, between the style of the What is the difference evaluation and measurement?

Measurement and Evaluation

Confusion usually arises in the use of the terms measurement, testing and evaluation. Let us define each one of the
these terms.

(a) Measurement and Testing

(i)Measurement is the means of determining the degree of achievement of a particular objective or competency.
(ii)Testing on the other hand, is the use of instruments for measuring achievement.
Measurement and testing are ways and tools of collecting information for evaluation and assessment. These are not
only ways of gathering evaluation data. There are others that we shall deal with in the following lectures.
(b) Evaluation is the process of giving value judgment based on the information gathered through measurement and
testing for decision making.
(c) Measurement and evaluation are not the same thing in curriculum development process.

Whatever judgment we make regarding the degree to which learners have achieved curriculum objectives will be valid if
they are based on empirical data. We can obtain empirical evidence through measurement. We use measurement to
quantity representations of the degree to which a learner reflects certain traits or behaviour. Data obtained through
measurement is basically descriptive in nature. It is expressed numerical terms. Elements of value connotations are
avoided as much as possible by measurement.

Purpose for Evaluation

Evaluation has a lot of purposes for both schools and public. Some of these purposes are identified as follows:

Evaluation as a Basis for Student Records by Teachers

Many educational authorities require that teachers submit marks or grade for their students, at the end of the term or
year. The grades or makes are kept as records of students performance. Marks or grades are arrived at through formal
examinations, test, regular assignments, oral or written reports or observations.

Promotion to Higher Grades

Schools are examination and test results to determine whether students has made enough progress to be promoted to
the next class or form in the school. In many cases a student whose progress is low, is adviced to repeat the same class
for a year before he can move on to the next one. The class teacher in consultation with the head-teacher will talk to the
parent of the affected student and convince him to see the advantages of the child to repeat. Fear of failing in the final
selection examination is cited as a big reason in many schools.

Selection and Certification Purpose

Not all students who pass through the primary school systems move automatically to secondary schools or form one.
National examinations are used in Kenya to select those who have passed with enough points to go to form one. The
National examinations are similarly used to select students to join form five and University. Examinations results are also
as a criterion for certification. Thus students who pass national examinations at various levels are entitled to being
issued with certificates. For instance the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E) and Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education (K.C.S.E).

Employment Purposes
Students who complete primary and post-primary school education are provided with certificates which enable
employers to make a choice. Some students may want to join a company or training for a profession in pubic or private
sectors. All employers usually require information on perspective trainees or employees. Such information may include
academic attainment in specific subjects, attitude towards work, moral behaviour, personality another related data. In
many cases, a student’s certificate or school leaving testimonial will be important for training and employment
purposes.

Student Motivation
Good performance by students on tests and examinations has been proved by educators to be a motivation to them.
Failure to do well in examinations may also crease a sense of competition with students. They will work had to improve
performance in future examinations. It has been suggested that teachers feedback will assist students to work harder.

Guidance and Counselling Purposes

Students in all schools need to know their progress in academic performances. The only way they can judge themselves
and be able to solve their personal problems is by seeing their performance on class tests or examinations. Successful
students tend to enjoy school much more than those who do not perform well. Those who seem to be failures need
greater attention by the teachers. The teacher must direct attention to such demanding cases in a class.

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Teaching Strategies

Many students fail examinations due to poor teaching methods. Teachers who do not assess students acquisition of
knowledge, skills and understanding in a course may not be able to judge the effectiveness of the approaches in
teaching. Assessment of student performance will therefore assist the teacher to modify the teaching strategy where
necessary.

Purposes of Informing Parents or Guardians

Parents want to know how their children are performing in class. It is their right to know the progress of their children.
Terminal records of students’ performance are the most important method of informing parents about the performance
of their children in school. Some parents may use such records to advice their children or recommend to their teachers
what steps should be taken to improve the child’s performance.

Difference Between Instructional and Curriculum Evaluation

Instructional and curriculum evaluation are not the same. Instructional process may be very effective whereas the
curriculum may be out of order. Instructional evaluation may reveal that the students are achieving the instructional
objectives well. If we do not evaluate and rely through curriculum evaluation that we shall know if we are
following items well but they may not be universally acceptable as being correct. The earth is flat, illness is caused by the
evil eyes and bad spirits, all developing human beings are corrupt and all children can be doctors and engineers.

The main purposes that curriculum evaluation is undertaken is to determine whether curriculum goals
and objectives are being carried out correctly. The following are other questions we may need to provide answers for
through curriculum evaluation: We want to know whether the goals and objectives are the right ones. We should be
interested to know if the curriculum is functioning while in operation We want to know whether the material we are
using is the right one.We also want to know how our products (graduates) can function in daily life after school, and
whether they are contributing to the development of our society. We want to know whether the programme we have
launched raw deal for our investments
evaluating a curriculum?

Gathering Evaluation Data

Sources of data for curriculum evaluation are numerous. For the purposes of our study we shall divide them into two
categories.
Teacher – made-tests and examination’s

Other informal devices

♦ Teacher-Made-Tests and Examinations
Established procedures for collecting data for curriculum evaluation are mostly to do with instructional evaluation. In
Kenya, teacher-made test provide the only information that may be used for determining student progress in school.
Tests are predominantly used in school for evaluation because:
(a) they are expected to be objective
(b) they are economically to use
(c) they are easy to administer
(d) they provide a norm against which individual achievement can be judged

Tests have their limitations too e.g.

Tests do not test al objectives
Non-cognitive abilities hardly tested
Teacher-made-tests tend to ignore individual learners differences.

However, test and examinations do provide data for curriculum evaluation that serves a useful function in judging the
quality of the whole curriculum.

Informal evaluation devices serve as an important source of evaluation data. Some of the devices used also come under
the instructional evaluation. They may include
♦ All students’ records in school,
♦ Classroom observation by teachers
♦ Students’ projects
♦ Essays and classroom exercises and other assignments

The curriculum document itself will be acceptable to serve as a source of curriculum evaluation. Curriculum documents
consist of all the elements indicated below which
should be useful for providing information for evaluation:-
-Statement of purposes
-Curriculum content
-Learning activities
-Evaluation procedures indicate

Teachers from an inherent source of data for curriculum evaluation. Information needed for curriculum evaluation
should be obtained from the teachers who are involved in the implementation of the curriculum in schools. Information
from teachers can be obtained by means of:
(i) interview
(ii)questionnaires
(iii)oral or written devices

Teachers perception of curriculum content, instructional materials learning activities, relevance and student
performance in general yield valuable information about what goes on in our schools.

Students are an important source of curriculum evaluation data. Many curriculum developers forget the fact that
students can provide very useful information on the
curriculum. Students will provide information freely when they know what it will not be used to determine their
individual grades. The information obtained from students should be compared with that obtained from teachers.

Materials used for instructional would serve a useful purposes as a source of evaluation data.
These materials could include:
-Text books for teaching and references
-Films, slides, periodicals etc.

Some books for instance, may serve no useful purpose as class texts; others may be out- dated while others may provide
undesirable information to the students. They may not assist the teacher in attaining objectives.

Follow-up studies of graduates will yield good information on how effective the objectives in the curriculum were
achieve. Studies of graduates have been organized and carried out to determine what the youths who complete primary
education in this country do. These studies have revealed that a lot of youths who graduate from primary schools cannot
be absorbed in employment among the graduates. Crime among youths and lack of relevant skills would be relevant for
making decision on what changes should be taken by curriculum developers. Society would be another important source
of evaluation data. How do we get curriculum evaluation data from society whose population consists of people with
diverse social and cultural backgrounds? Information about what goes on in schools could be solicited through various
ways:-

(i) Letters to prominent members of our society will give us what we expect.
(ii)Parents visit’s schools and other local personnel who may express concern in the welfare of schools would be
acceptable

Activity 35
Activity 35
Examine the process of Curriculum Evaluation in Kenya.

In Kenya the task of evaluating the curriculum in schools is carried out into phases:-
Formative Evaluation Phase
Summative Evaluation Phase

In all the two phases different personnel are involved. Let us examine the role of each personnel in curriculum
evaluation. The ministry of education science and technology has
the following branches of personnel who undertake the evaluation tasks in Kenya.

(a) The Inspectorate

(i)Subject inspectors at the headquarters are responsible for every subject that is included in the curriculum and taught
in our schools. There is a team of
subject specialists who inspect and provide information on the effectiveness

(ii)or weakness of subject-content, methodology and material used for instruction Subject Inspectors at the
headquarters co-ordinate activities pertaining to
particular subjects for all schools, i.e. secondary, colleges and primary schools.

(b) Curriculum Development K.I.E

(iii) Subject-Inspectors at the headquarters are assisted by provincial and district school inspectors.

(i) The section of research and evaluation is responsible for curriculum evaluation at both formative and summative
phases. The work of evaluating curriculum is done by curriculum development experts under the auspices of the section
of research and evaluation. Whatever evaluation is undertaken by this group is used to supplement what is done by the
nspectorate.

(ii) K.I.E has a panel which reviews books for schools. Recommendation of the books reviewed is transmitted to the
Ministry of Education Science and Technology.

The approved books are either bought by the schools Equipment Scheme and sent to schools or head-teachers may be
provided with the list of books to enable them to purchase them.

The panel may also recommend some books to be withdrawn from Circulation and use by schools if they may find them
to be undesirable. You have seen in your schools lists and Circulars from the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology showing new books recommended as teachersreferences, pupils class text etc. the circulars may also inform
the teachers if the new books will be set books for literature of fasihi ya kiswahili, etc.

(c) Role of the Kenya National Examinations Council

Instructional evaluation will reveal to us a lot of what goes on in various classrooms and what actually happens in
different schools. End o year examinations (National Examinations) have been used for many years as a yardstick to
measure the achievement of curriculum objectives. The role of the Kenya National Examination Council is to facilitate
the setting, moderating, marking and grading of all national examinations for various levels of education in this country.
In particular, the council is in charge of primary schools, secondary schools, Teachers colleges, Technical Training
Institutions and other relevant public examinations taken in the country.

9.0 CURRICULUM INNOVATION

9.0 CURRICULUM INNOVATION
Issues and changes in curriculum are many. In recent years we have a seen wide range of innovation s emerge in
education. the efforts of the innovations for the innovations are designed to improve the quality of schooling for all
Kenyan children. The most recent effort has been the introduction of the 8.4.4 system of education with
vocational education as its core. Other changes which have occurred in education since early sixties through seventies
are the establishment of the Jomo Kenyatta foundation for the publication of educational books and other related
teaching materials; the establishment of Kenya School Equipment Scheme (KSES) for the acquisition and distribution
of school equipment to schools under the jurisdiction of the ministry of Education. the scheme supplies mainly books
and other instructional materials to the primary schools through out the country.

However, many attempts to develop the systems designed to meet the needs of the children in Kenya have appeared
and again disappeared through out the history of education in the country. Although we have not yet developed the
means to implement genuinely effective education programmes designed to meet the needs of individual children, the
government has increasingly a wide range of options and directions to be followed.

This lecture is devoted to a discussion of such options and changes. Some changes have been with us for long while
others are quite recent in our educational practices.

Objectives

After studying this lecture, you should be able to:

(1) Identify curriculum changes before independence
(2) Identify specific curriculum changes in subject areas after independence
(3) Name some of the curriculum projects that have been initiated in Kenya
after independence
(4) Name curriculum projects initiated before independence

9.1 Curriculum Changes in Kenya

This study of curriculum changes in Kenya goes back to the year 1890 when Africans rules themselves. The curriculum
that was offered to the youth was meant to prepare him for his responsibilities as an adult in his home, his village and
his tribe. Instructions were given by the fathers and through organized systems of elders or villagers.

The curriculum that was taught to the child included:

Craftsmanship through apprenticeship system, initiation of rites, religion, hunting, farming including the raising of cattle,
community responsibility, number work, dance and music.

The elders as part of the instructors made sure that the youth were introduced to the legends surrounding previous
exploits of their tribe, to the mysteries of their religion and
practical aspects of hunting. Along this process of teaching learning aspects, there were varieties of formal and non-
formal observances in addition to the experience of daily living which had a profound effect on the youth’s place in the
society in which politics economics and social relationships were invariably interwoven.

The period (1891-1911) of the curriculum development in Kenya was heavily assisted by few Christians missions and
indirect government help given in the form of grants in aid. The primary goal of missionary education was to make
converts and train catechists. But it soon established as basic elements in the curriculum the following: Practical skills,
carpentry, gardening (to maintain mission stations) and literacy (reading and writing).

These skills were taught specifically to children so that they could acquire skills to use and also learn how to relate
themselves properly to their immediate and extended families, ancestors, their peers and their gods.

The period (1911) marked the beginning of the establishment of the department of education with a Director. In 1924
there were four outstanding events, which contributes
largely to the process of Kenyan education. These events were as follows:
The visit of the Phelps stroke commission, the adaptation of the Education Ordinance of 1924, the appointment of the
colonial office advisory committee and the appointment of Local Advisory Committee on African Education.
The general policy of the Educational Department as adapted in 1911 and based upon the excellent work of the great
Afro-American known as Mr. Booker T. Washington in a book entitled “working with the hands” not only remained
unchanged in principles, but was confirmed and strengthened, first by the agriculture policy of the late Sir Robert
Corydon and secondly by the principles advocated by Dr. Jones and the Phelps Stokes Commission, namely
Adaptation to Environment in Education, and the distinction between the education of the masses and the education of
the leaders.

By 1952 the principles governing the curriculum were based as far as possible on the Mentality, Customs and Institutions
of the Africans. New knowledge or skill was taught in contact with the indigenous knowledge or skill. The curriculum was
developed in view of the needs of the village. The life of the school provided opportunity for the exercise of the quality
of character which the colonial office wished to impart and encourage and therefore the curriculum was to utilize every
opportunity of education arising in the life
of the school.

Since independence up to the present there has been a rapid expansion of education in Kenya. First there was the
integration of the pre-1963 African. Asian and European syllabuses into one. Then there was the New Primary Approach
which was initiated in the mid-fifties by the special centre. The chief developments were seen in classroom practice and
in the material used for the teaching of English, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Science by Curriculum Research and
Development Centre was formed through amalgamation of the Mathematics and Science Centre with the special centre.
By 1968 Kenya Institute of Education (K.I.E) absorbed the C.R.D.C and its on-going projects. The

biggest in scale of these were the safari English Services which were used in standard IV, V and VI in high proportion.

9.2 Curriculum Innovations in Kenya

New Primary Approach (NPA)

The New Primary Approach was an innovation in the teaching of English in Primary Schools. The programme was
initiated as a result of poor performance among the Asian and African children in Kenya. Plans were made to start the
programme in Asian Schools first. Four years after the centre was opened, the Oxford University Press launched the
PEAK SERIES publications a groups of books in English designed to meet the needs of Asian children in East Africa who
begin their primary education in English without prior knowledge of the language. The Ford Foundation provided
printing equipment, tape-recorders, and additional staff.

By 1963, the New Primary Approach had picked up very much. Teacher Training Colleges introduced the NEW SERIES
English Medium. The objective of this special centre was to educate through the medium of English but not to teach
English. By this time (1963) the newly independent Kenya commended on the programme by saying that, the
government has been actively attacking the problem of standards of primary education from the area of teaching
methods and the curriculum. It went on to say that one of the most promising ventures in the history of education in
Kenya has been the development of the New Primary Approach in the primary schools. The essence of the programme is
that the old concept of the child passively receiving instruction from the teacher should be replaced by a system in
which the pupil develops through active and full participation in the education process.

There was a slow down on the program by 1970 because of lack of uniformity in the quality of the NPA program.
Supervision was inadequate; classroom and teaching facilities were very poor. The government decided not to open
more NPA classes.

The New Primary Approach influenced the teaching of vernacular languages and the General Methods of K.I.E produced
TKK series of vernacular readers which were very useful pamphlets on the approach to reading, and a variety of other
materials designed on N.P.A lines.

Science Education Programme for Africa (SEPA)

The Science Education Programme for Africa was unusual project since its inception in 1971, when the African Primary
Science Programme (APSP) handed over its responsibilities to it. The aim of SEPA was not only the production of
curriculum materials, but also it attempted to build into teachers at all levels of educational system the ability to make
effective decisions about curriculum.

The project influenced the teaching of primary science in Kenya through the following objectives:

(i)Promotion effective ways of learning science by utilizing the child’s environment

(ii)Developing and introducing new and relevant science curricula materials into African schools
(iii) Establishing institutions in Africa concerned mainly with the furtherance of the renewal of science curricula
(iv) Encouraging Kenyans to write more science materials

Kenyans Primary Mathematics Project (KPMP)

The Kenya Primary Mathematics Project encountered a number of problems similar to those encountered by the school
Mathematics Study Group (SMSG) and the School
Mathematics of East Africa (SMEA). Some of the problems that this project encountered were:

(i)Negligence of making mathematics practical

(ii)Isolation of mathematics from the physical and social sciences by putting too much emphasis on such topics as set
theory, symbolic logic abstract, algebra, matrices and Bolean Algebra.

(iii)Lack of sufficient tools of evaluation because Kenya found that the Entebbe project (SMEA) which was similar to the
SMSG failed to meet the needs of the country.
(iv)Lack of sufficient or proper trials.
(v)Teachers were not given chances of developing materials
(vi) In general this project filed to achieve its objectives

The only major significant success that this project made was production of plenty of mathematics materials through
workshops. Also commercial publishers entered into the business of producing many books on new mathematics.
He reading below takes us into the historical development of the KPMP and the criticisms the project received during its
implementation.
This reading comes from an occasional paper written by Professor George Eshiwani. He discusses the origin of the
project and gives some of the criticisms that were given to the project.

Kenya Primary Mathematics (KPM)

In 1964, a decision was taken to begin along term project to develop a new series of mathematics in Kenya Primary
Schools, it was intended to use the Entebbe Mathematicsseries for one year in each standard, beginning with standard 1
in 1965, and then each year to replace this book with an experimental Kenya text which would lead to a definite Kenya
series. Twenty-five experimental schools in Nairobi and Kisumu Districts were chosen. In-service programmes for the
teachers in these schools were conducted and the Teacher Training Colleges were visited on regular basis to acquiant
tutors with the new developments. The project proceeded more or less as planned until 1968 but in 1969 shortage of
staff the mathematics section of the Kenya Institute of Education, which had been entrusted with the production of the
new materials, resulted in the experimental editions of the books being dropped.

In 1970 the decisions were taken to extend the new series, then named as Kenya Primary Mathematics, to all schools in
Kenya in January 1971. Curriculum work that had to be undertaken by the Kenya Institute of Education to meet this new
situation was gigantic. The KPM textbooks had to be written hurriedly and passed on to schools.

As in the case of the SMEA programme, the content in the KPM consisted of more than 60 per cent of the topics from
the traditional mathematics (e.g. Highway series). There were few “new” topics such as sets, bases, probability, and
statistics, transformation, geometry and clock arithmetic. The major differences between the KPM texts and
the traditional text was in the presentation of the subject matter.
Criticism of New Mathematics Programme
In many countries, the new mathematics has provided a field day for cartoonists, monologists, and polemicists. Some of
the criticisms have been insightful while others have been penetrating. It is worth mentioning that several people in
Kenya have written in the past about the shortcomings of the new mathematics. Several years ago the following
criticisms on the new mathematics in Kenya have been identified.

The new mathematics syllabus and the textbooks being used are far too difficult for the average child in this country and
the content is extremely demanding to both the student
and the teacher. The texts are best suited to the top students, especially those who will continue in mathematics
beyond the high school. Little attention has been devoted to the
average and below average and below average student. The fact that primary and secondary school education is
terminal for the majority of our school population dictates that school curriculum should be tailored to this group and
not to the academic extroverts.

The applications of mathematics were largely ignored. Mathematics should derive from the application to the real world
or it will lose its vitality one of the shortocomings of the new mathematics curriculum in Kenya is that it was left largely
in hands of expatriate staff who could not translate their good intentions into reality for the Kenya child.

Rigour, precision and symbolism were overdone in both SARA and in the KRM
textbooks and sometimes become an end in themselves. Two effects of this were:

(i) A decline in interest on the part of students whose concern are more practical and
(ii)A peculiar form of notational mockery among some students, teachers and examiners (if you cannot use the symbol
you do not know basic mathematics).

The conceptual emphasis was so great that teachers would incorporate appropriate computational skills in their
instruction. The teachers did not do this and hence the public outcry about the incompetence of the school children in
performing simple computational operations.

Both the primary and secondary school syllabus was overloaded. Most teachers complained that there was so much
work to be done that they had no time to try out new techniques in their teaching.

The language use in the SMRA and in the KPM textbooks was generally difficult for most pupils. This has often led to
inadequate understanding of the subject matter.
Lack of curriculum diffusion between those who develop curriculum at K.I.E and teachers. The curriculum developers
failed to communicate to classroom teachers what they were trying to accomplish. There were as significant inservice
training programs for teachers who were supposed to teach new mathematics. As a result, many of the mathematics
teachers were no better than their students. Of course the new texts were well taught by good teachers buy in the
hands of poor teachers it was a complete disaster.

There was no evaluation of the new mathematics both at primary and secondary level. This long term effect of changing
from one type of curriculum to another was therefore not evaluated.

The Gachathi Report of 1976 spelled out in details the objective of education. This commission was assigned the task of
investigating the quality of education in Kenya.
Primary education has been accused by members of the community that is lacked quality, content and relevance and
therefore it was not catering sufficiently for the
majority of our children for whom primary education is terminal.
In an effort to fulfil this responsibility, the government decided to introduce far reaching changes in Kenya’s Primary
Education Programme (PEP) which took into called primary and relevance. The development of PEP started in 1997 and
in progress was the piloting of materials for standard one to five. Piloting of other classes followed this until they were
all covered. The development of PEP was based on the premise that:

(i) There is need to improve the quality, content and relevance of primary education so that it centres more effectively
for the majority of children for whom primary education is terminal.

(ii)Primary education should be made available to all primary school age children.

(iii) Primary education should be broadly based and lead to the development of competencies in a variety of practical
skills.
(iv) Primary education should concentrate on the needs of the majority who terminate their education at the primary
school level while bearing in mind the needs of those who will continue to the secondary ant tertiary cycles.

The programme consisted of three phases:

Designing of a primary and primary teacher education curriculum programme and production of curriculum materials.

Implementation of the primary and primary teacher education programme into all the primary schools and primary
teachers colleges. Summative evaluation of the programme
The Mackay’s Report of 1981 which was presidential working party on the second university recommended among other
things the major changes to 8-4-4 system of education.
The essential elements of the new system are in the area of structure which have 8 years of primary, 4 years of
secondary and 4 years minimum university education. In the area of curriculum, content is oriented towards technical
education and movement away examination centred.
The preparation of the curriculum for the 8 years primary cycle was patterned on similar lines to the primary education
project popularly known as PEP which was by then being developed by the Kenya Institute of Education.

The most significant aspects of PEP with the 8 years of primary education are:
(i)Focus on the entire primary education
(ii)Relationalization of primary education
(iii)Reorganization of subjects into broad curriculum areas with common objectives
(iv)Introduction of new subjects to meet identified needs no presently adequately catered for.

The curriculum is organized on two broad on two broad cycles:

Lower primary cycle (std. 1-3)
Upper primary (std. 4-8)

The main emphasis at this level is the development of numeracy and literacy Language

(i) Mother tongue (including Kiswahili where it is used as a mother tongue). Mother tongue is also used as the medium
of instruction. English
(ii)Mathematics
Science (integrating agriculture, home science and general science). Social Studies (integrating geography, history, civics
and social education). Religious Education
(i)Christian Religious Education
(ii)Islamic Religious Education
Creative Arts:
(i) Art and Craft
(ii)Music
(iii)Physical education
Upper Primary (std. 4-8)
The main emphasis at this level is the development of practical skills to prepare children for the world of work. The
subject to be followed are:
Languages:
Mathematics
Science
Home Science

(I) Kiswahili
(II) English – also used as the medium of instruction
Social Studies (incorporating Geography, history, civics and social education). Religious Education
(i)Christian Religious Education
(ii)Islamic religious Education

Practical skills education:

(i)Agriculture
(ii)Art Education
(iii)Craft Education
(iv)Business Education

Music
Physical Education
In an attempt to relate primary education to the development of life oriented skills, a new cluster of subject known as
practical skills was introduced in primary education. this was adapted after extensive consultation and discussion in
preference to occupational skills Education that had been used earlier. The latter is considered to be presumptions
and gives the impression that at the end of primary education the pupils will have prepared for a job or occupation. The
most that can be expected to be achieved within the primary cycle is the building of a solid education foundation with
some practical skills on which the pupils can build after leaving school.

(a) Standard 8 Curriculum

According to the primary education (PEP) project plan for std. 8 piloted in 1986 and were to be available for use in all
schools until 1989 as the earliest. Therefore, to facilitate the implementation of the 8:4:4 program in 1985, an interim
curriculum program for std. 8 replaced by PEP materials until it was completely phased out.

The interim curriculum was based on existing curriculum areas, that is, the subjects as they appeared on the current
primary timetable. And not as proposed by PEP. However, not unduly penalized as they a waited for the completion of
the development of PEP materials. Care was taken to ensure that the transition from std. 7 to 8 in the interim period
was smooth.

A new examination was developed and used in 1985. The details of the examination were worked out alongside the
development of the interim curriculum. A new examination was also developed through PEP.

(b) Secondary Education Cycle

The presentation of the secondary education cycle was made by the Director of Higher Education, who made the
following That secondary education should take off from the cut off point of primary education and hence down to
standard VIII.

(i)That current from own work should not be pushed down to standard VIII.
(ii)Stds. VII and VIII will need to be diversified.
(iii)The development of an elaborate secondary education curriculum is to take into account the basic preparation
offered in the primary education cycle, hence it has to await the completion of the development of the 8-year primary
education curriculum
(iv)The secondary education curriculum is to be based on the terminal level of the primary education cycle
(v) There was a need for continued close cooperation and liaison between the Ministries of Basic and Higher Education
in the implementation of the 8-4-4 education system.

That there was a need for agreement with the University on the terminal level of secondary education particularly on
what aspects of the current KACE academic work should be retained in secondary education and what aspects should
move to the university.

There was a need to examine the various issues relating to the secondary terminal examination, and certification, as well
as the nature, level and duration of the various post-secondary training programs.

Four year University Education Cycle

The vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi made the following presentation on thee university Education Cycle. He
made the following comments:
He reported that the senate in its discussion last year on the 8-4-4 education had raise several points regarding.
(i)The level at which secondary school leavers will be selected for University entry.
(ii)What would be covered in the extra university year.
He noted that university education in East Africa is currently based on ‘A’ level academic reparation and that
recommended change to 4 year secondary education is very fundamental.

The working party on the Second University did not go into details of the changes University Education. It recommended
that it should be more practical in its approach. Graduates were to be practical oriented and aware of general
development issues and strategies. It was also recommended that the B.Ed. programme at Kenyatta University
should be reviewed to make it richer in content.

He noted that while University Education must continue at the present leve of
competence, there were mundane implications of lengthening the duration of University
Education.

Summary
In this lecture we have been able to discuss curriculum changes that have taken place in Kenya'’ educational
development. Specifically we have stated that changes in curriculum in Kenya go away back to precolonial and colonial
ear. In 1963, the New Primary Approach was very popular as an innovation in schools. NPA did not last long in the
system due to a number of factors.
Science Education programme for Africa, the Kenya Primary mathematics project, and other similar projects were
introduced after independence.
An important change that has occurred in the History of our educational development in Kenya has been the
introduction of the 8:4:4 cycle system of education.

Discus some curriculum changes in Kenya between 1960 and 1966.

Read more on N.P.A and give your views on why the project failed.
Examine the criticisms against the Kenya primary maths. Why was the programme criticized so strongly?
Which areas in the 8:4:4 syllabus that you consider to the new and which ones are not?
Give reasons for your reactions.

Forces Affecting Curriculum Innovation in Kenya

People who develop curriculum are faced with a lot of issues to wrestle with. Some of
these affect curriculum changes. In this lecture we shall refer to these issues as forces which affected curriculum
changes in Kenya.

Some specific forces have been selected for our discussion in this lecture. There are many other which could not be
discussed in the small space for this lecture. We shall
particularly discuss the drive for power, in a force, the appeal for the shillings, growth in knowledge and peoples need in
schools.

Objectives
After studying this lecture you should be able to:
1. Describe some factors, which affect curriculum changes.
2. Explain how growth in knowledge has influenced curriculum decisions.
3. Examine various needs of the society, which must be considered in curriculum planning.

Imminent Problem
Curriculum development is a difficult and complex task. There are many problems and no ready solutions. In many cases
curriculum, one would find in our schools appear to stress the teaching of subject matter (knowledge) and forgetting to
remember that the child’s needs are paramount. There is too much of class instruction going on in our schools and too
little of education of the hands. The question of how far is our curriculum in tune with our social change, needs and
future aspirations has been asked again and again. No solution has been given to this question. For those involved in the
construction of the school curriculum tend to adapt foreign ideas and use them in teaching. Some of the ideas become
completely impracticable and are abandoned before they mature.

There is need for changes which would occur gradually and not abruptly. In most cases the syllabus is designed in such a
way that knowledge is brought to the child go seeking for knowledge. The teacher should initiate the child and arouse
his curiosity which will lead the child in seeking for knowledge. This process can be termed self-learning which is true
learning

President Moi has repeatedly pointed out that a discipline should be studied more that the content of the subject. This is
to say that in studying agriculture children should study the subject from the agriculturist approach and so on. The
exploration and inquiry approaches should be given the priority. While studying a discipline it should be studied in the
manner in which it affects our society.

Our classroom instruction does not provide sufficient freedom to the child. A flexible classroom is needed where
children go on discovering the world around them as they
seek that knowledge is unknown to them.

From the beginning of Kenya’s independence in the 1963 hostile influences have continued to play our school systems.

Groups and individuals of varied view-points have since then affected our schools. Today those of us in curriculum work
recognized that some agents of forces, and thus some forces and themselves affect the curriculum intimately and
consistently. These special and permanent forces, with their temporary agents tend to cause curriculum change, though
sometimes they hold it back. Because the curriculum is where people are, the special, permanent forces bringing about
the other affecting curriculum change are dearly human. Each force in its quality of humanness hold potential for good
and potential for end. Each lies deep in human motivation.

Four forces affecting curriculum in Kenya have become especially prominent. These are:

(i)The drive for power

(ii)The appeal of the shilling
(iii)The growth in knowledge with corresponding efforts at evaluation acquisition of knowledge
(iv)The needs and concerns of people in schools within surrounding social and cultural factors

The Drive to Power

During the sixties the people’s drive for power over the curriculum revealed itself in the urge of people to speak loudly,
to alert other citizens to an alleged problem, to become nationally prominent. Sometimes the drive had a helpful end,
often it seemed only a quest for power for power’s sake. During the early sixties the attack on the curriculum
was justified because the colonial curriculum was not designed to the needs of the Kenya people. So improvement was
needed in providing education geared to meet the need of the learners and for national development.

There has been in the past militancy by teachers organizations which have learned that when one begin to talk about
teachers’ welfare, he must soon discuss organization of schools and children’s’ curricula, both of which matters have
previously been in the presence of Ministry of Education.

The militant behaviour of youth, beginning at university and moving to the second schools. There has been also a push
by scholars in the subject-fields or political positions who often at the expense of professional educators and especially
curriculum leaders, who criticize what primary and secondary schools teaching.

While formal arrangements for decision making about the curriculum have not materially changed, the people who have
initiated and sanctioned curriculum ideas have often been those who do not understand the concept of curriculum
change.

The Appeal for the Shilling

A second fundamental force which has affected curriculum change in Kenya has been the strong appeal which money
has for curriculum makers. People are always in need of funds to do what they have wanted to do for children,
curriculum personnel have found a bonanza in grants-in-aid, which have frequently proved to be mixed blessings.
The ministry of education has become a seeker of special grants or leans to improve curriculum. When this money has
been acquired, the government through the ministry of education still has something to say about ways in which funds
are to be used for supporting and expanding the curriculum.

On the other hand foreign donors in recent years have frequently earn marked, designated, or categorically controls the
precise nature of curriculum reform they want. This has been viewed by the country receiving the aid as stifling
creativeness and holding back development in the third world among which Kenya is one, as well causing excessive
dependence on the developed countries.
While grants or loans have emphasized, for example, particularized the teaching of new mathematics, material
developers have demanded financial profits through new
educational ideas and increase in child population. Because of the appeal of the shilling the producers of educational
materials has flooded the market with these materials which are conditioning, increasingly, what children learn. Thus
one can say that both the curriculum package sealers from foreign countries and the sales promotion schemes
of businessman here in Kenya are having unprecedented impact on curriculum decision making.

Growth of Knowledge
A third force persistently affecting curriculum change in growth in knowledge, which is the past occurred slowly and
quite steadily but now shows marked erratic burst of speed. The teacher is no longer able to recover the book. Instead
many books now cover the teacher. Nowadays knowledge filters in all fields, so that Herbert Spencer’s question
of “what knowledge is of most worth?” becomes more and more pertinent. Against a backdrop of
educational objectives curriculum planners are forced to seek new answers to Spencer’s question.

Summary
This lecture has explored various issues and changes that have taken place in Kenya before and after independence.
Among those issues and changes which took place before independence was the Phelps stokes report which
recommended separate education for
Africans. Asians and white children allowed to proceed to secondary schools.

The post-independence curriculum changes are discussed starting from the Ominde report (1964) the Gachathi report
(1976) and Mackey report of 1981. All these education commissions and committees did recommended that the Kenyan
education should be made more practical for the Kenyan child whose education is likely to end at primary school levels.
Curriculum change as through as they have wished, in part they have been able to showinterests in ideas that can now
be seen in the newly introduce 8-4-4 system of education Experience has shown tat to organize human knowledge for
teaching there is a need for academic scholars to team up with curriculum specialist, behavioral scientists, and
specialists, behavioral scientists, and specialists in research and evaluation of curriculum aspects.

With the increasing growth of knowledge definite attitudes towards the of its growth have emerged. While one of those
attitudes has been concerned with how to sort out elements of knowledge and place them with the curriculum, another
attitude has been fear that even the former elements are not being understood and learned.

Needs of the People in School

A fourth force affecting curriculum change is the need and concerns of pupils, teachers, parents and administration for
children .
The real needs and concerns of people have part of their foundation in society and community. Therefore, parents and
other community members should be expected to ontribute to in-school education. This is not the case with our Kenyan
community where most parents feel that the school is an independent institution away from the society in which they
live. The present economic order in Kenya assisted by a new technology requires that Pupils be introduced to new sets
of skills to deal with it. The experience in the urban and the rural call for school curriculum to face live social problems
Furthermore, the current crisis in unemployment and values among our youth makes us seek better ways of educating
in the effective domain.
A major concern of teaching and administrators is for pre-service and in-service development of teaching skills which
will help teachers do their best in classrooms.
Because of not providing better training facilities to out teachers it has bees difficult for these curriculum change.

Some Curriculum Development Tips

Role of curriculum agents, steps in curriculum development process, translation of theory into practice, recognizing and
rewarding academic excellence, affecting methods to enhance learning, the need for foundation of curriculum,
classification of curriculum objectives, behaviorism in class-room situation, teaching critical thinking, deciding
and applying teaching methods, understanding curriculum designs and sharing curriculum activities.