MOCCE Curriculum Studies

2021
THE CURRICULUM STUDIES
CONCEPTS OF CURRICULUM STUDIES
Definition of Terms
Education is defined as follows:
Farrant (1980) states that education is the total process of human learning by which
knowledge is acquired, faculties trained and skills developed.
Mbiti (1981) defines education as a deliberate attempt to acquire and to transmit the
accumulated, worthwhile skills, attitudes, knowledge and understanding from one human
generation to the next. He further asserts that education includes all activities which are
worthwhile and which can be taught or learned through a variety of meaningful ways.
Fafunwa (1984) defines education as “the aggregate of all the processes by means of which
a person develops abilities, skills and other forms of behaviour of positive and sometimes of
negative value to the society in which he lives
Thus, it can be said that; Education is a process of acquiring, developing and transmitting
desirable accumulated and new knowledge, wisdom, values, attitudes and skills as a result
of growth, maturation and learning which can be best utilized for life in a changing society.
Thus for someone to be seen as educated s/he should have admirable qualities.
Curriculum
Curriculum has been defined variably because of the diversity of perceptions of what
curriculum should be. Curriculum was considered by writers on education such as Plato,
Aristole, Comenius and Froebel. The use of the term has to a larger extent been popularised
this century. The following general definitions are associated to curriculum: Curriculum is
 What is taught in school.
 A set of subjects.
 Content.
 Taught both inside and outside of the school and directed by the school.
 That which an individual learner experiences as a result of schooling.
 Everything that is planned by the school.

Definitions by renowned scholars:

 Ralph Tyler (1949) – all the learning of students which is planned and directed by
the school to attain its educational goals.
 Taba (1962) - a plan for learning.
 Kerr (1968) – all the learning which is planned and guided by the school whether it is
carried on in groups or individually.
 Wheeler (1978) – the planned experiences offered to the learner under the guidance
of the school.
 Saylor (1981) – a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities for persons to be
educated.
 Oluochi (1982) - all that is planned to enable students acquire and develop the
desired knowledge, skills and attitudes.
 Print (1993) - all planned learning opportunities offered to learners by the
educational institutions and the experiences learners encounter when curriculum is
implemented.

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 Eisner (1985) - a course or a classroom can be conceived of as a series of planned
events that are intended to have educational consequences for one or more student
From the definitions above, it is possible to state that a curriculum has the following
characteristics:
• It comprises the experiences of children for which the school is responsible.
• It has content.
• It is planned.
• It is a series of courses to be taken by students.
In addition, a curriculum considers the learners and their interaction with each other, the
teacher and the materials. The output and outcomes of a curriculum are evaluated. Bringing
all these points together, the curriculum is viewed as a composite whole including the
learner, the teacher, teaching and learning methodologies, anticipated and unanticipated
experiences, outputs and outcomes possible within a learning institution.

CURRICULUM and SYLLABUS

A ‘syllabus’ is a summary statement about the content to be taught in course or unit, often
linked to an external examination. It is typically a list of content areas. A syllabus is clearly a
subsection of curriculum and as such is subsumed within the broader concept. The
emphasis on what content to be taught is a critical element of a syllabus but a curriculum
includes more than this. Characterizing curriculum as subject matter is the most traditional
image of curriculum which depicts it as the combining of subject matter to form a body of
content to be taught.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATION AND CURRICULUM

Curriculum is used to guide facilitation in education. No education can take pace without a
curriculum.

IMPORTANCE OF CURRICULUM
An effective curriculum provides teachers, students, administrators and community
stakeholders with a measurable plan and structure for delivering a quality education.
The curriculum identifies the learning outcomes, standards and core competencies that
students must demonstrate before advancing to the next level. Teachers play a key role
in developing, implementing, assessing and modifying the curriculum.
Impact on Administrators
Administrators follow a detailed curriculum to help students achieve national standards
of academic performance. The curriculum ensures that each school is teaching students
relevant material and monitoring the progress of students from all types of backgrounds.

Impact on Teachers
A school’s curriculum informs teachers what skills must be taught at each grade level to
ultimately prepare students for a career or employment. Understanding the big picture
helps teachers align the learning objectives of their own curriculum with the school’s
curriculum. In the absence of a curriculum, teachers wouldn’t know whether students
are building a solid foundation to support learning at the next level.

Impact on Students
A curriculum outlines for students a sequence of courses and tasks that must be
successfully completed to master a subject and earn a diploma or degree. Students may

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be more motivated to study if they understand why certain subjects are taught in the
curriculum. A curriculum reassures students that they’re on the right track to reaching
their goals and honing desired skills.

Other Considerations
In addition to teaching students academic skills, the curriculum is also intended to teach
students the importance of responsibility, hard work and responsible citizenship.
Teachers in partnership with educational stakeholders collaborate on the development
of a curriculum that will instill character in students and reinforce positive behaviour.
TASK
- What is the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC)?
- How does CDC define curriculum in the Curriculum Framework of 2013?

TYPES OF CURRICULA
What are the different kinds of curriculum?
Obviously the answer to this question is subject to interpretation. Since curriculum reflects
the models of instructional delivery chosen and used, some might indicate that curriculum
could be categorized according to the common psychological classifications of the four
families of learning theories “Social, Information Processing, Personalist, and
Behavioral.”

Longstreet and Shane have dubbed divisions in curricular orientations as: child-centered,
society-centered, knowledge-centered, or eclectic. Common philosophical orientations of
curriculum parallel those beliefs espoused by different philosophical orientations – Idealism,
Realism, Perennialism, Essentialism, Experimentalism, Existentialism,
Constructivism, Reconstructivism and the like.

Wilson, 1990 curriculum is: Anything and everything that teaches a lesson, planned or
otherwise.
The Ideal or Recommended Curriculum: This is what is proposed by scholars,
researchers and evaluators as a solution to meet a need or needs and consequently
perceived as the most appropriate curriculum for learners. It is what a nation aspires
to achieve.
The entitlement Curriculum: It refers to what society believes learners should
expect to be exposed to as part of their learning to become effective member of that
society.
The Intended Curriculum: This is what organisations develop for the learners in
their educational systems and what should be taught by the teachers in that system.
The term is also used to refer to the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that
curriculum developers would like students to learn in school.
The available or supported curriculum: that curriculum which can be taught in
schools through the provision of appropriate resources, both human and material.
The Implemented or Instructional Curriculum: This is what is actually taught by
teachers in their classrooms as they and their learners interact with the intended and
available curricula. The implemented curriculum is often described in teacher’s
scheme of work, lesson plans and student’s notebooks.
The achieved or experiential curriculum: This is what learners actually learn as a
result of their interaction with the implemented curriculum. It is what the learner
experiences through interaction with the teacher and the learning resources. The
achieved curriculum includes both the intended and unintended experiences of the

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learner.
The hidden curriculum: This is the type of learning that takes place in educational
institutions but is not explicit in curriculum documents. The hidden curriculum
includes unintended and negative outcomes from school settings, such as learning to dislike
a subject.

CURRICULUM DIMENTIONS

There are three curriculum dimensions which are formal non formal and informal.

1. Formal dimension
Refers to learning experiences and activities that students undertake formally in
class. This dimension is of the curriculum is prescribed by curriculum specialists.
2. Non-formal dimension
Consists of planned learning activities undertaken in school but not part of the formal
course of study.
3. Informal dimension
This is the unintended or emerging curriculum.

CURRICULUM COMPONENTS/ ELEMENTS

There are four elements of a curriculum. These include intent, content, learning activities and
evaluation.

Intent-Curriculum intent is the framework of assumptions about the learner and society. It is
made up of aims (purpose), goals (target) and objectives (specific outcomes).

Content-This involves the selection, scope and sequence. Content is the subject matter of
the teaching and learning process. Content includes facts, concepts, generalisations and
values.

Learning activities and experiences-Tyler (1949) defines learning as the interaction

between the learner and conditions within the external environment to which one can react
and respond. These are activities performed and experiences of the learner so as to move
towards the attaining of definite objectives.

Evaluation-This involves the judgement and worth of the quality of curriculum materials, the
teaching and learning process, implementation strategies and assessment procedures.

Relationship among curriculum components/ elements

It should be noted that curriculum elements do not exist in isolation. The figure (fig. 1)below
shows how the elements are related.

Evaluation Procedure

Curriculum intent Content

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Learning Activities
Figure 1: Interactive Relationship among components in curriculum design.

Activity

1. What is curriculum?
2. What are the elements of a curriculum?

CURRICULUM STUDIES

Curriculum studies is a concentration within curriculum and instruction concerned with

understanding curricula as an active force of human educational experience. Specific
questions related to curriculum studies include the following:
 What should be taught in schools?
 Why should it be taught? To whom should it be taught?
 What does it mean to be an educated person?

Curriculum studies is the name of an educational program in which students learn how to
design, develop, and improve curriculum — the set of courses and lessons used by teachers
or trainers to educate learners.
Curriculum studies also refer to research on the basic forces that influence and shape the
minds of the curriculum developers and the content structure of the subsequent curriculum.
There are three sources (foundations) from which studies are based and these include;
psychological( studies of learners and learning theories), sociological and cultural (studies of
life) and philosophy (studies of nature and value of knowledge )

Theory.
According to Glatthorn, Boschee and Whitehead (2006:74), ― “a curriculum theory is a set
of related educational concepts that affords a systematic and illuminating perspective on
curricular phenomena”.

Similarly, Beauchamp (1981:60) defined curriculum theory as ― “a set of related statements

that give meaning to a school‘s curriculum by pointing up the relationships among its
elements and by directing its development, its use, and its evaluation”.

Theory comes from the Greek word theoria meaning ―wakefulness of mind; it explains
reality, making people aware of their world and its interactions.

Curriculum theories are classified in terms of what they deal with. Ornstein and Hunkins
(1993) identify two major categories of curriculum theories: design theories and engineering
theories.

 Design theories are concerned with basic organization of the curriculum plan, that is, with
the establishment of curriculum frameworks. The pillars of design theories are philosophy as
well as social and psychology theories. Philosophical and humanistic theories are normative.
Basing on values, their main function is to guide decisions about:

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- What should be included in the curriculum.

- What to do or not to do in creating the curriculum, addressing coherence and methodology
of acquiring the knowledge, integration of the emotional and physical with the intellectual.

 Engineering theories are designed to aid a search for strategies to guide curriculum
development activities, explaining, describing and predicting them through plans, principles
and/or methods or procedures. They are partially based on principles relating to
measurement and statistics.

Theories of curricula are important sources of curriculum decisions. What goes into the
curriculum seriously depends on the types of theories. There are a number of theories that
students need to be familiar with. This part will explore the following four:
Rationalists say:
 True knowledge is achieved by the mind.
 Knowledge is a series of revelations.

Empiricists think:
 True knowledge is derived from evidence.
 Authentic knowledge comes through the senses.

Pragmatists believe that:

 Knowledge is hypothetical and changing constantly.
 Knowledge is experienced.
 Knowledge cannot be imposed on the learner.
 Knowledge is a personal activity.
 Knowledge is socially constructed.

Existentialists or phenomenologists conclude that:

 Knowledge is personal and subjective.
 Knowledge is one’s own unique perception of one’s world.
 Education should be less formal.
 Curricula should be diverse, not common for all.
 Curriculum includes skills and subjects that physical and social reality.
 The important learning phase is not in the structure of knowledge nor in curriculum
organization but in the student’s construction of its meaning.

Famous Curriculum Theorists

1. John Dewey
John Dewey's theory of curriculum focuses on the idea that education should incorporate
how a child views his or her world. This theory uses four instincts to categorize a child's
behaviour. These instincts are expressive, constructive, artistic and social. His theory
connects the subjects that are taught to a child's every day life.
 Dewey advocated for an educational structure that makes a balance between the
child and the curriculum, that is to say, delivering knowledge while also taking into
account the interests and experiences of the student.
 He also rejected curriculum-centered view of education rather than student centered
education.

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 Active curriculum should be integrated, rather than divided into subject-matter
segments (Brewer, 43)
 Flexible and Changeable in according to Child’s Interest.
 Reflect social life and social activities- utilities.

2. Franklin Bobbit (1876-1956)

Bobbit believed that the learning objectives, together with the activities, should be grouped
and sequenced after clarifying the instructional activities and tasks. He also viewed
curriculum as a science that emphasizes the needs of the students. This viewpoint explains
why lessons are planned and organized depending on the needs of the students and these
needs must be addressed by the teachers to prepare them for adult life.

3. Werret Charters (1875-1952)

Aside from emphasizing the students’ needs, he believes that the objectives, along with the
corresponding activities, should be aligned with the subject matter or content. For that
reason, department chairpersons or course coordinators scrutinize the alignment or
matching of objectives and subject matter prepared by the faculty members.

4. William Kilpatrick (1871-1965)

He stated that the purpose of curriculum is child development, growth, and social
relationship. He also introduced the use of small group interaction, and the project method in
which the teacher and students plan together. Thus, it is called as the child-centered
curriculum.

5. Harold Rugg (1886-1960)

He introduced the concept of the development of the whole child (holistic development), the
inclusion of social studies, and the importance of curriculum planning in advance.

6. Hollis Caswell (1901-1989)

He believed that subject matter is developed around the interest of the learners and their
social functions. So, the curriculum is a set of experiences. Learners must experience what
they learn.

7. Ralph Tyler (1902-1994)

Ralph Tyler believed that curriculum should revolve around the students’ needs and
interests. The purpose of curriculum is to educate the generalists and not the specialists,
and the process must involve problem solving. Likewise, subject matter is planned in terms
of imparting knowledge, skills and values among students.

All theorists share similar views and believe that the curriculum should be learner-centered
– addressing the needs and interests of the students.

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Rationalists say:
 True knowledge is achieved by the mind.
 Knowledge is a series of revelations.

Empiricists think:
 True knowledge is derived from evidence.
 Authentic knowledge comes through the senses.

Pragmatists believe that:

 Knowledge is hypothetical and changing constantly.
 Knowledge is experienced.
 Knowledge cannot be imposed on the learner.
 Knowledge is a personal activity.
 Knowledge is socially constructed.

Existentialists or phenomenologists conclude that:

 Knowledge is personal and subjective.
 Knowledge is one’s own unique perception of one’s world.
 Education should be less formal.
 Curricula should be diverse, not common for all.
 Curriculum includes skills and subjects that physical and social reality.
 The important learning phase is not in the structure of knowledge nor in curriculum

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