What is Curriculum?

 

Curriculum "is a master plan for selecting content and organizing learning experiences for the purpose of changing and developing learners' behaviors and insights" (Armstrong,1989)

The curriculum is a model for selecting content and organizing learning experiences for the purpose of modifying and developing students' behaviors and perceptions in order to achieve desired goals and objectives in which students must reflect their understanding and knowledge of the unit or subject they are learning in an order that must always be carried.

According to Lake and Winter bottom (2010) in Kattington (2010), Curriculum is a set of rule that benefits students by providing them with practice in both content and social curriculum through the use of active learning, exploration of interests, civic responsibility, character building, and recognizing and helping the community.

The curriculum consists of the instructions used by educational institutions to provide practice through the use of active learning that can be developed with formal and informal content. It varies according to place, culture, society, needs and application. But it has the same objective, it helps students to develop and improve their skills that will serve them throughout their lives and also helps teachers to organize teaching, time their ideas and learning at a given age level.

Approaches to mastering the curriculum

The curriculum approaches are discussed in this section with a view to provide insights into the nature of the new Basic Education Curriculum in Mozambique. According to Marsh and Willis (1999:18) curriculum approaches are different ways of thinking about curriculum and of connecting thought with practice, whether the many beliefs and ideas that constitute any particular curriculum approach are made explicit or remain implicit.

According to Ornstein and Hunkins (1993) the main curriculum approaches are the following:

· Behavioral

It is a based on the behavioral principle, goals and objectives are specified, content and activities are also arranged with learning objectives.

· Managerial

Based on the following principle:

General Leader: Sets the policies and priorities

Curriculum Leader: The curriculum changes

· Systems

The whole system is approached by system theory

· Academic

This approach to curriculum is based on centering curriculum that is nontraditional, such as historical knowledge, philosophical, social, and political.

· Humanist

It is rooted in progressive philosophy and follows the child-centered

· Reconceptualist

Consider an extension of the humanistic approach, target learning through political, economic, social, and artistic endeavors.

MODELS OF CURRICULUM

There are several models of Curriculum to guide the process.

Ralph Tyler’s Model (1940´s)

Tyler’s Model is one of the most popular curriculum that is deductive.

This process starts with analyzing information from various data sources.

Data sources for curriculum according to Tyler include:

Ø  Contemporary society/life

Ø  Learner’s needs and interests

Ø  Subject specialists/subject matter

From these sources, the designer develops general objectives. Then specific objectives are then derived from the general objectives. For each of the specific objectives, learning experiences are identified. 

The next step is the organization of learning experiences, and the final step involves evaluation, to determine the extent to which the objectives have been met.

Tyler’s model is presented in the following way:

John Goodlad’s Model (1969)

The Goodlad model deviates a bit from the Ralph Tyler’s model. It is particularly unique in its use of social values.

Goodlad proposes four data sources:

ü  Values

ü  Funded knowledge

ü  Conventional wisdom, and

ü  Student needs and interests.

In this model the basis of formulating educational aims is the analysis of values of the existing culture. These aims are translated into educational objectives, which are stated in behavioral terms.

According to Goodlad, educational planners deduce specific educational objectives from these learning opportunities and general objectives. From these objectives, the curriculum planners design and/or select organizing centers, which provide learning opportunities for a group of students or a student

John Kerr’s Model (1968)

John Kerr, a British Curriculum specialist in the 1960s, was particularly concerned with the following issues: objectives, knowledge, school learning experiences, and evaluation.

 

Kerr’s model is in many ways similar to that of Ralph Tyler. The difference is the emphasis on the interrelatedness of the various components in terms of the flow of the data between each component.

Hilda Taba´s Model (1962)

The Taba Model is an inductive model.

This type of model begins with the development of curriculum begins with the development of curriculum by teachers which then leads more generalized ideas.

Ø  Curriculum should be created by teachers

Ø  Teacher is facilitator

Hilda Taba, on her part, was also influenced by Ralph Tyler. The interrelatedness of the curriculum elements from both models suggests the process is continuous.