statements of objectives of the school should be a statement of changes to take place in the students.
11.3 The attraction of this way of approaching curriculum theory and practice is that it is systematic and has considerable organizing power. Central to this approach is
the formulation of behavioural objectives- providing a clear notion of outcome so that content and method may be organized and the results evaluated.
12. Model Taba
12.1 Curriculum as a plan for action and it is a bottom-up approach to curriculum where the teacher has a major role to perform.
12.2 According to Taba, there is a definite order in creating a curriculum and held that teachers should help in tha development process. There are seven
steps in the development of a curriculum that is: -
diagnosis of needs -
formulation of objectives -
selection of content -
organization of content -
selection of learning experiences -
organization of learning activities -
evaluation
13. Curriculum as a process Stenhouse
Another way of looking at curriculum theory and practice is via a process. In this sense, curriculum is not a physical thing, but rather the interaction of teachers,
students and knowledge. In other words, curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate. It is an active
process and links with the practical form of reasoning set out by Aristotle. Stenhouse defined curriculum as ‘ an attempt to communicate the essential
principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice’
A curriculum should provide a basis for planning a course, studying it empirically and considering the grounds of its justification. It should offer:
Planning: -
principle for the selection of content- what is to be learned and taught -
principles for the development of a teaching strategy- how it is to be learned and taught
- principles for the making of decisions about sequence teachers
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- guidance as to the feasibility of implementing the curriculum in varying
school contexts, pupil contexts, environments and peer-group situations -
information about the variability of effects in differing contexts and on different pupils and understanding of the causes of the variation in relation
to justification: -
a formulation of the intention or aim of the curriculum which is accessible to critical scrutiny.
This process model looks into curriculum as a form of specification about the practice of teaching. It is a way of translating any educational idea into a
hypothesis testable in practice. It invites critical testing rather than acceptance. Given the uniqueness of each classroom setting, it means that any proposal,
even at school level, needs to be tested, and verifed by each teacher in hisher classroom. It is not like a curriculum package which is designed to be delivered
almost anywhere. Outcomes are no longer the central and defining feature. Rather than tightly
specifying behavioural objectives and methods in advance, what happens in this model of curriculum theory and practice is that content and means develop as
teachers and students work together. The learners in this model are not objects to be acted upon. They have a clear
voice in the way that the sessions evolve. The focus is on interactions. This can mean that attention shifts from teaching to learning. A process approach to
curriculum theory and practice tends towards making the process of learning the central concern of the teacher.
14. Factors influencing the formulation and changes in the curriculum
