Curriculum organization and design

Curriculum Organization

Process of selecting curriculum elements from the subject, the current social life and the
students experience then designing the selected curriculum elements appropriately so they can for the
curriculum structure and type.

Criteria for effective Curriculum Organization:

1. Continuity 2.Sequence 3.Integration

Curriculum Designs

A curriculum design is a framework or plan of action for preparing a course of study or a set of
students’ experiences .It is a deliberate process of devising, planning and selecting the elements,
techniques and procedures of curriculum. Curriculum design is a method of thinking.

Importance of Curriculum Designs

Curriculum design involves the creation of the set of operating principles or criteria, based on
theory, that guide the selection and organization of content and the methodology used to teach that
content. With the accelerated rate of social change, schools are preparing youth for adulthood in a
society not yet envisioned by its members .Hawley’s words still ring true: “it’s not a question of whether
or not to change , but whether or not we can control the way we are changing. We are living in an Alice
in a Wonderland world where you have to run just to stay where you are. To get anywhere you have to
run even faster than that. The pieces on the chess board keep changing and the rules are never the
same.”

Models of Curriculum Designs

An effective curriculum must be built on a solid philosophical foundation that answer the
question of what educational purposes the school should seek to achieve.

The classical model for curriculum design, proposed by Tyler in 1949, asked four questions of
curriculum planners:

1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

2.What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to help attain these purposes?

3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?

How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

Tyler’s steps for curriculum design included stating objectives, selecting learning experiences,
organizing the experiences, and evaluating results. Tyler’s model is most closely aligned with the
educational purposes of preserving the social order and teaching skills and competencies needed to
function effectively in society.

Principles of Curriculum Designs

1. The problems of curriculum change become the criteria for determining the desirability of a
curriculum. A list of the problems of curriculum development, recapped and stated as criteria, following:
Be consistent with the conceptual framework and implement the conceptual framework commitments.
Derive and test its concepts and theories in teaching process. Respond to the educational needs of
society and the immediate concerns of students. Cope with the knowledge explosion and the short
“half-life” of scientific knowledge

2. Use the logical, precise, effective, and efficient educational technology that is currently available. Use
teaching personnel in the most economical and efficient way (time, energy and money). Enable
utilization of cognitive teaching input. Provide for student testing of learned behaviour in real situation.
Produce a graduate capable of delivering creative teaching care for the next fifteen to twenty years.
Spend a reasonable length of the time accomplishing the goals of the curriculum.

Steps in Curriculum Design

Fiorno and Nowak suggest the following steps in curriculum design:
1. Identification of the problem.
2. Diagnosis of the problem.
3. Search for alternative solutions.
4. Selection for the best solutions.
5. Ratification of the solution by the organization.
6. Authorization of the solution.
7. Preparation for adopting of the solution.
8.Adoption of the solution.
9. Direction and guidance of the staff.
10. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the solution

Categories of Curriculum Designs

a. Subject-Centered Curriculum b. Activity/Experience based curriculum c. Core curriculum

Subject Centered Designs

Subject centered curriculum is a rigid curriculum, based on specific courses, which mandates
specific amounts of material to be covered over special periods of time regardless of student abilities or
interests. Subject centered curriculum assign the greatest importance to subject matter rather than to
the students. It consists of having students in classes for one subjects at a time such as mathematics for
45 minutes, science for 45 minutes. And history for 45 minutes. Three related designs have emerged
from subject centered designs: 1) Subject design 2).Academic Disciplines design 3) Broad Fields design

This is probably the oldest and most widely used form of curriculum organization found in schools and
educational systems .This is based on the classification and organization of subjects matter into discrete
groups, which we have called subjects .These groupings, which have become known as school subjects,
were initially based on evolving divisions of labor in research that produced physics , history, literature
and mathematics and so forth. In more recent times practical areas such as typing , home economics
and industrial arts have become accepted as subjects.
Academic Discipline Design

This approach to organizing curriculum is essentially a post second world war phenomenon ,gaining
greatest support in the inherent organization of content, as is the subject design, the academic discipline
design emphasizes the role played by those distinct entities called academic disciplines .In a school
setting, the content of this design would focus on what an academician does, that is ,how a biologist ,
historian , or a mathematician research is done , how that research is carried out , how data are
analyzed, how research is reported , and so forth. The result, it is hoped, is that the school would
produce mini versions of academic disciplinarians.

Broad Fields Design

This third design was developed to overcome a perceived weakness in the subject design that was
evident in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries .Broad field design was deemed more suited
to younger learners. The broad fields design is commonly found in primary and lower secondary schools.

Common Feature in 3 Subject Center Designs:

Collection and organization of all contents into subjects or subjects-like groupings.

Subjects are clearly defined and distinguished.
A hierarchy of subjects is commonly found according to their perceived value.
Methodology applied and practiced is largely teacher centered and expository in nature

Advantages:
The advantages of subject-centered curriculum are:
Students like it , they are used to it and it fits their idea of what school should be.
What students learn , they learn well.  This approach is efficient in a field in which resources for
staff development are scant.

Disadvantage
The disadvantages of subject-centered curriculum are:
Teachers wouldn’t be able to innovate their teaching style to help students learn in a creative
way.
Students simply memorize what they need to know in order to pass a test , instead of actually
learning it.
Teachers are teaching the students to think inside the box in order to pass the exams.

Activity/ Experienced Based Curriculum:

This approach is based on determine the genuine needs and interests of learner , which in turn
form the basis of the curriculum. An important claim of this approach is that “people only learn what
they experience”. According to M.K Gandhi ,education is the development of all the aspects i.e. body
mind and spirit . So mind without activities can not develop the personality perfectly .so education must
give importance to activities. Education ,which has no link with life is meaningless.

Activities:
Physical Activities:

These activities aim at physical development of the child .it includes physical training ,games
and sports.

Environmental Activity: These activities includes nature study ,excursion, survey, social visit.
These activities develop civic sense and love for nature in children.

Constructive Activity: With these activities love for work dignity of labor , production efficiency
may be developed. Handwork craft repairing of tools belong to this category of activities.

Aesthetic activity: Music ,arts creative crafts are included in this type of activities. These provide
opportunities for self expression and development of inborn creative faculties.

Community Activity: These Activities aim at community development and include community
projects ,first aid ,social service , etc these activities also help in the socialization of the child. The
teacher can provide information regarding history, geography ,and economics with the help of these
activities.

Advantages:
Advantages of Activity based curriculum are:
The most important feature of Activity based curriculum is learning by doing .so this method can
fulfill the natural urge of a growing child on one hand also can help them learn their lesson.
The method also promote better understanding of a lesson among students as they learn the
lesson by practicing the task themselves.
It inspires the students to apply their creative ideas ,knowledge and mind in solving problems.
It also helps learner psychologically as the can express their emotions through active
participation in something useful.

Disadvantage:
Activity curriculum method require long term planning with details of the whole process before
engaging the learners, the teacher has to make sure that all students have sufficient knowledge and
skills regarding the task they are going to perform .so this method can not be used on a regular and daily
basis as it involves a lengthy procedure.  The objective of this method can be only be fulfilled if the
planning of the lesson is flawless.

Limitations
Activity curriculum attaches too much importance on activities. It neglects other activities
needed for intellectual development of the child.
Personal supervision is needed for every activity which is not possible in school.
Activity curriculum is not applicable to all stages of education.

Core Curriculum
The notion behind a core design, usually called a core curriculum, is that there exists a set of
common learnings (knowledge, skills and values) that should be provided to all learners in order to
function effectively in a society .The core concept, however, does vary considerably in interpretation
and one writer has suggested that it is possible to distinguish no less than six forms of the core design.
For our purposes, it is sufficient to understand that a curriculum may be organized around the idea of a
core as a set of learnings essential for all students. The emphasis of this approach to core curriculum was
that all students would experience a set of common and essential learnings that were necessary for
learners to function effectively in society.

Benefits of Curriculum Design

It Focuses Attention On Goal.

It Improves the Probability of Success.
It Improves economy of Time and efforts.
It Facilitates Communication And Coordination of Projects.
It Reduces Stress.