The Architectonic of Curriculum

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D. The Architectonic of Curriculum

An orderly and rational scheme of programming or organizing content facilities effective curriculum development, we have to analyze the architectonic of content as they apply to a school situation. Architectonic in selecting the content in curriculum refers to ordering and arranging content into systematic categories for the purpose of facilitating learning to achieve maximum effectiveness for students. Print 1988 states that the term of architectonic related to the structures needed to present a curriculum and the principles which assist the curriculum developer to organize the content of a curriculum in such a way so as to achieve maximum effectiveness for students. For these purposes we have to consider the two most important principles of the architectonics of content, they are scope of curriculum content and sequence of curriculum content. The scope of curriculum content refers to breadth and depth of content to be studied Print, 1988. A useful starting point when dealing with the scope of content in a curriculum is to pose questions about the nature and balance of that content. According to Print, some questions that we have to ask for instances; how much of each content area should students study at any one time, is there a body of common content that all students should know, what should be the role of elective content, what content should be excluded in the curriculum, etc. Furthermore, there are some concepts which are helpful in determining the scope of content for a curriculum: 1. Time, refers to the balance that occurs between breadth and depth where the breadth may be greater time spent on a particular subject theme or may represent more subject to be taught in a given time period. 2. The notion of a core or common content appear acceptable to educators and society. The core concept suggests that there is a body of content that all students should acquire as a result of their schooling experience. 3. The scope of content may also be influenced by the notion that schools should provide content to meet the special needs of children and adolescent. 4. Integration of content is to be encouraged in order to provide some sense of reality to the learners. The sequence of curriculum refers to the order in which content is presented to learners. To know how content should be arranged for learners, there are several important related questions to be posed as suggested by Zais 1976 cited by Print 1988: 1 what criteria should determine the order of content, 2 what should follow what and why, 3 when should learners acquire certain content. The Sequence may be influenced by some principles: 1. Simple to complex In this situation, sequence is seen as a progression from simple, subordinate components to complex structures, which in turn are subordinate components of even more complex superordinate structures. 2. Prerequisite learning This principle is followed in subjects which consist largely of laws and principles such as physic, grammar, and geometry. 3. Whole to part learning The rationale for this principle is that understanding the whole makes possible the understanding of partial or constituent phenomena. 4. Chronology 100 This principle suggests sequencing content according to the chronology of recorded events. 5. Increasing abstraction In this situation, content can be sequenced according to the idea that one learners most effectively what is closer or more meaningful to the learners. 6. Spiral sequence In connection with the whole curriculum organization, the students should be exposed to the contents’ basic ideas repeatedly, thus building on basic understanding until the whole concept or lot of learning has been acquired.

E. The Conclusion