Chapter 7

CURRICULUM THEORY & PRACTICE.
       

                       

• "All the learning which is planned and guided by the school,whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. (Quoted in Kelly 1983).

CURRICULUM THEORY AND PRACTICE

• Four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice:

1. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted.
2. Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students - Product.
3. Curriculum as process
4. Curriculum as praxis

                      

CURRICULUM AS A SYLLABUS TO BE TRANSMITTED

• Syllabus,naturally, originates from the Greek.
• Basically it means a short and clear statement or list of topics for discourse (to communicate in writing or speech), the contents of a treatise (a piece of writing to examine a particular subject), the subjects of a series of teaching.

                         

STEPS IN GETTING THE 'PRODUCT'

• Step 1 : Diagnosis of need
• Step 2 : Formulation of objective
• Step 3 : Selection of content
• Step 4 : Organization of content (educators to prepare the content)
• Step 5 : Selection of learning experiences.
• Step 6 : Organization of learning experiences
• Step 7 : Determination of what to evaluate and of the ways and means of doing it. (Taba 1962)

    

                      

• This approach of curriculum theory and practice is systematic and has considerable "organizing power".
• Central to the approach is the formulation of behavioral objective-providing a clear notion of outcome so that content and method may be organized and the results evaluated. 

  

                          

• The problem here is that such programmes outside the learning experiences of learners. This takes much away from learners.
• Learners can end up with little or no voice. They are told what they must learn and how they will do it
• The success and failure of both the programme  and the individual learners is judged on the basis of whether pre-specified changes occur in the behavior and person of the learner (the meeting of behavioural objective).
• The "behaviour" has to be some uncertainly about what is being measured.
• There are questions around the nature of objective. This model is hot on measurability. It implies that behavior can be objectively, mechanistically measured.

                       

• Another way of looking of curriculum theory and practice is via process.
• Curriculum is the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge.
• Curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate.

STENHOUSE ON CURRICULUM

• Curriculum should provide a basis for planning a course:

IN PLANNING:

1. Principle for the selection of content-what is to be learned and taught.
2. Principles for the development of a teaching strategy (how it is to be learned and taught)
3. Principles for the making od decisions about sequences.
4. Principles on which to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.

EMPIRICAL STUDY

• Principles on which to study and evaluate the progress of students.
• Principles on which to study and evaluate the progress or teachers.
•  Guidance as to the feasibility of implementing the curriculum in varying school contexts, pupil contexts, environments and peer-group situations.
• Informations about the  variability of effects in differing contexts and on different pupils and an understanding of the causes of the variation.

                             

• The first is a problem for those who want some greater degree of uniformity in what is taught.
• This approach to the theory of curriculum, places thinking at its core and treats learners as subjects rather than objects, can lead to very different means being employed in classrooms and high a degree of variety in content.
• The major weakness and strength of the process model rests upon the quality of teachers.

- Prescribed curriculum materials

- Dependent on the wisdom and meaning-making in the classroom.If the teacher is not up to this,then   there will be severe limitations on what can happen educationally. 

                               

CURRICULUM AS PRAXIS 

• The pedagogy goes beyond the learning experiences of the learner:

-It is a process of learning the experiences by learners through 'dialogue and negotiation', recognizes them both as problematic.

-Allows students and teachers together to confront the real problems of their relationship (Grundy 1987:105)

• This approach the curriculum itself develops through the dynamics interaction of action and reflection.
• At its centre is praxis : informed, commited action.

CURRICULUM CONTENT

• Curriculum is what actually happens in classrooms,that is "an ongoing social process comprised of the interactions of students,teachers,knowledge and milieu" (1990;5).
• In contrast,Stenhouse defines curriculum as the attempt to describe what happens in classrooms rather than what actually occurs.