CHAPTER 2: PRINCIPLES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

1. CHAPTER 2: PRINCIPLES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT Developing the Curriculum Eighth Edition Peter F. Oliva William R. Gordon II

2. AFTER STUDYING THIS CHAPTER YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO: • Describe the ten axioms for curriculum development discussed in this chapter. • Illustrate in what way the curriculum is influenced by changes in society. • Describe limitations affecting curriculum changes in a school system and within which curriculum workers must function.

3. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS • Education is one of the institutions the human race has created to serve certain needs, and, like all human institutions, it responds or should respond to changes in the environment. The institution of education is activated by a curriculum that itself changes in response to forces affecting it.

4. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS • The curriculum is perceived as a plan for the learning experiences that young people encounter under the direction of the school. • This process of keeping the curriculum running smoothly is commonly known as curriculum development. • The preliminary phase, when the curriculum workers make decisions and take actions to establish the plans that teachers and students will carry out, is known as curriculum planning.

5. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS • Curriculum implementation is defined as the translation of plans into action. • Those intermediate and final phases of development in which results are assessed and successes of both the learners and the programs are determined is known as curriculum evaluation.

6. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS • Curriculum revision is used to refer to the process for making changes in an existing curriculum or to the changes themselves and is substituted for curriculum development or curriculum improvement.

7. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS • Key Point: Through the process of curriculum development we can discover new ways for providing more effective pupil learning experiences. The curriculum developer continuously strives to find newer, better, and more efficient means to accomplish this task.

8. TYPES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS • Some curriculum developers excel in the conceptualizing phase (planning), others in carrying out the curricular plan (implementation), and still others in assessing curriculum results (evaluation).

9. TYPES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS • To the weary professional curriculum worker, it sometimes seems that every federal, state, and local legislator is a self-appointed, self-trained curriculum consultant who has his or her own pet program to promulgate.

10. TYPES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS • What has led so many people to be dissatisfied with so much of what education is all about? Why is the status quo rarely a satisfactory place to be? And why does it turn out, as will be illustrated, that yesterday’s status quo is sometimes tomorrow’s innovation? For answers to these questions some general principles of curriculum development should be considered by teachers and specialists who participate in efforts to improve the curriculum.

11. SOURCES OF CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES • Principles serve as guidelines to direct the activity of persons working in a particular area. • Curriculum principles are derived from many sources: • Empirical data • Experimental data • The folklore of curriculum, composed of unsubstantiated beliefs and attitudes • Common sense

12. SOURCES OF CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES • Unless a principle is established that is irrefutable by reason of objective data, some degree of judgment must be brought into play. Whenever judgment comes into the picture, the potential for controversy arises. • Consequently, some of the principles for curriculum development provoke controversy, while others are generally accepted as reasonable guidelines.

13. TYPES OF PRINCIPLES • Curriculum principles may be viewed as whole truths, partial truths, or hypotheses. While all function as operating principles, they are distinguished by their known effectiveness or by degree of risk.

14. TYPES OF PRINCIPLES • Types of guiding principles for curriculum development: • Whole Truths • Partial Truths • Hypotheses

15. TEN AXIOMS • Axiom 1. Change is both inevitable and necessary, for it is through change that life forms grow and develop. • Axiom 2. A school curriculum not only reflects but also is a product of its time. • Axiom 3. Curriculum changes made at an earlier period of time can exist concurrently with newer curriculum changes at a later period of time.

16. TEN AXIOMS • Axiom 4. Curriculum change results from changes in people. • Axiom 5. Curriculum change is effected as a result of cooperative endeavor on the part of groups. • Axiom 6. Curriculum development is basically a decision-making process. • Axiom 7. Curriculum development is a never-ending process

17. TEN AXIOMS • Axiom 8. Curriculum development is a comprehensive process. • Axiom 9. Systematic curriculum development is more effective than trial and error. • Axiom 10. The curriculum planner starts from where the curriculum is, just as the teacher starts from where the students are.

18. TEN AXIOMS • Key Point: The investment of thought, time, money, and work by previous planners cannot be thrown out even if such a drastic remedy appeared valid to a new set of planners since most curriculum planners begin with already existing curricula.

19. A FINAL THOUGHT: • Curriculum change is a normal, expected consequence of changes in the societal environment. It is the responsibility of curriculum workers to seek ways of making continuous improvement in the curriculum.