Curricurum Development
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION (CT: 102) Lecture One Curriculum Concepts and their Relationships
1.0 Introduction/ Background
In the history of educational theory and practice, different scholars have differently defined curriculum. The main reason behind this scenario is that curriculum is relatively based on practice rather than theory. That is, the practical experience of the educationists which vary from one background/context to another, has greatly influenced the varying definitions of the term.
No wonder that curriculum can be viewed in various window. * The experience window for instance, looks at curriculum as a set of planned learning activities that learners experience in a classroom e.g. experiments, role plays, group discussions, stimulation and debates. * Curriculum as a cultural reproduction one can say curriculum is concerned with passing on socially accepted knowledge, skills, values, behaviours and norms of a given field, profession or society from one generation to another. * Whereas the content window potrays curriculum as topics and subject matter to be taught in different courses. * The intention window denotes curriculum as predetermined aims, goals and objectives that describe what learners should learn and expected learning outcomes/behaviours. * Another window portrays curriculum as a process of providing personal meaning to learners. What is emphasized here is personal growth and self actualization through experiential learning. So, it is not easy to strike a balance on the definition of the curriculum because the term means differently to different people and different educational institutions.
1.1 Curriculum Outlook
1.1.1 The broader (holistic) view
This view was propounded by Franklin Bobbit (1918) and seems to be shared by different curriculum specialists like Tanner et al (1980), Kelly (1989) and Kerr (1968). To them curriculum is regarded as a
1.0 Introduction/ Background
In the history of educational theory and practice, different scholars have differently defined curriculum. The main reason behind this scenario is that curriculum is relatively based on practice rather than theory. That is, the practical experience of the educationists which vary from one background/context to another, has greatly influenced the varying definitions of the term.
No wonder that curriculum can be viewed in various window. * The experience window for instance, looks at curriculum as a set of planned learning activities that learners experience in a classroom e.g. experiments, role plays, group discussions, stimulation and debates. * Curriculum as a cultural reproduction one can say curriculum is concerned with passing on socially accepted knowledge, skills, values, behaviours and norms of a given field, profession or society from one generation to another. * Whereas the content window potrays curriculum as topics and subject matter to be taught in different courses. * The intention window denotes curriculum as predetermined aims, goals and objectives that describe what learners should learn and expected learning outcomes/behaviours. * Another window portrays curriculum as a process of providing personal meaning to learners. What is emphasized here is personal growth and self actualization through experiential learning. So, it is not easy to strike a balance on the definition of the curriculum because the term means differently to different people and different educational institutions.
1.1 Curriculum Outlook
1.1.1 The broader (holistic) view
This view was propounded by Franklin Bobbit (1918) and seems to be shared by different curriculum specialists like Tanner et al (1980), Kelly (1989) and Kerr (1968). To them curriculum is regarded as a