Elements/Components of the Curriculum
The nature of the elements and the manner in which they are
organized may comprise which we call a curriculum design.
Component 1: Curriculum Aims, Goals and Objectives
Aims: Elementary, Secondary, and Tertiary
Goals: School Vision and Mission
Objectives: educational objectives
Domains:
1. Cognitive – knowledge, comprehension, application,
analysis, synthesis, evaluation
2. Affective – receiving, responding, valuing, organization,
characterization
3. psychomotor – perception, set, guided response,
mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, origination
Component 2: Curriculum Content or Subject Matter
Information to be learned in school, another term for
knowledge ( a compendium of facts, concepts, generalization, principles,
theories.
1. Subject-centered view of curriculum: The Fund of human
knowledge represents the repository of accumulated discoveries and inventions
of man down the centuries, due to man’s exploration of his world
2. Learner-centered view of curriculum: Relates knowledge to
the individual’s personal and social world and how he or she defines reality.
Gerome Bruner: “Knowledge is a model we construct to give
meaning and structure to regularities in experience”
Criteria used in selection of subject matter for the
curriculum:
1. self-sufficiency – “less teaching effort and educational
resources, less learner’s effort but more results and effective learning
outcomes – most economical manner (Scheffler, 1970)
2. significance – contribute to basic ideas to achieve
overall aim of curriculum, develop learning skills
3. validity – meaningful to the learner based on maturity,
prior experience, educational and social value
4. utility – usefulness of the content either for the
present or the future
5. learnability – within the range of the experience of the
learners
6. feasibility – can be learned within the tile allowed,
resources available, expertise of the teacher, nature of learner
Principles to follow in organizing the learning contents
(Palma, 1992)
1. BALANCE . Content curriculum should be fairly distributed
in depth and breath of the particular learning are or discipline. This will
ensure that the level or area will not be overcrowded or less crowded.
2. ARTICULATION. Each level of subject matter should be
smoothly connected to the next, glaring gaps or wasteful overlaps in the
subject matter will be avoided.
3. SEQUENCE. This is the logical arrangement of the subject
matter. It refers to the deepening and broadening of content as it is taken up
in the higher levels.
The horizontal connections are needed in subject areas that
are similar so that learning will be elated to one another. This is
INTEGRATION.
Learning requires a continuing application of the new
knowledge, skills, attitudes or values so that these will be used in daily
living. The constant repetition, review and reinforcement of learning is what
is referred to as CONTINUITY.
Component 3 – Curriculum Experience
Instructional strategies and methods will link to curriculum
experiences, the core and heart of the curriculum. The instructional strategies
and methods will put into action the goals and use of the content in order to
produce an outcome.
Teaching strategies convert the written curriculum to
instruction. Among these are time-tested methods, inquiry approaches,
constructivist and other emerging strategies that complement new theories in
teaching and learning. Educational activities like field trips, conducting
experiments, interacting with computer programs and other experiential learning
will also form par of the repertoire of teaching.
Whatever methods the teacher utilizes to implement the
curriculum, there will be some guide for the selection and use, Here are some
of them:
1. teaching methods are means to achieve the end
2. there is no single best teaching method
3. teaching methods should stimulate the learner’s desire to
develop the cognitive, affective, psychomotor, social and spiritual domain of
the individual
4. in the choice of teaching methods, learning styles of the
students should be considered
5. every method should lead to the development of the
learning outcome in three domains
6. flexibility should be a consideration in the use of
teaching methods
Component 4 – Curriculum Evaluation
To be effective, all curricula must have an element of
evaluation. Curriculum evaluation refer to the formal determination of the
quality, effectiveness or value of the program, process, and product of the
curriculum. Several methods of evaluation came up. The most widely used is
Stufflebeam's CIPP Model. The process in CIPP model is continuous and very
important to curriculum managers.
CIPP Model – Context (environment of curriculum), Input
(ingredients of curriculum), Process (ways and means of implementing), Product
accomplishment of goals)- process is continuous.
Regardless of the methods and materials evaluation will
utilize, a suggested plan of action for the process of curriculum evaluation is
introduced. These are the steps:
1. Focus on one particular component of the curriculum. Will
it be subject area, the grade level, the course, or the degree program? Specify
objectives of evaluation.
2. Collect or gather the information. Information is made up
of data needed regarding the object of evaluation.
3. Organize the information. This step will require coding,
organizing, storing and retrieving data for interpretation.
4. Analyze information. An appropriate way of analyzing will
be utilized.
5. Report the information. The report of evaluation should
be reported to specific audiences. It can be done formally in conferences with
stakeholders, or informally through round table discussion and conversations.
6. Recycle the information for continuous feedback,
modifications and adjustments to be made.
Source: Curriculum Development by Purita Bilbao, et. al.
LoreMar Pub., 2008)
