Representative Curriculum Designs Notes

Introduction:

This section is looking at the core designs of a curriculum. These are designs upon
which curriculum may be framed after in one way or another and these include:
a) Subject-centered Designs
b) Learner-centered Designs
c) Problem-centered designs and,
d) Broad fields design

NB:
Each core design has a number of subsidiary models.

Objectives:

By the end of the reading, students should be able to:

 Analyze each core model and its subsidiary models under it.
 Discuss the strengths for each curriculum design model
 Describe the weaknesses for each curriculum design model represented in the
notes.
 Suggest two key curriculum design models most suitable for Malawi
 Analyze any two weakest curriculum models that may not be relevant for Malawi

Representative curriculum designs

This section looks at the core designs of a curriculum which includes: Subject-Centered
Designs, Learner-Centered Designs, Problem-Centered Designs and Broad fields
design.

i. Subject-Centered Designs
 Knowledge and content are well accepted as integral parts of the curriculum.
 Curriculum is organized according to how essential knowledge has been
developed in the various subject areas
  Based on the belief that there is essential knowledge needed to make humans
unique and distinctive to function in their respective societies.

Strengths of Subject Design

- Emphasis is on verbal activities
- Introduces students to the essential knowledge of society
- Easy to deliver

Weaknesses of Subject Design

- Traditional and rigid to creativity and knowledge ad-ons.
- Prevents individualization
- Disempowers students
- Fails to foster social, psychological, and physical development
- Compartmentalizes learning
- Neglects students’ needs, interests, experiences
- Fosters passivity
 Subject centred designs can be further categorized into:
a) Discipline Design
b) Broad Fields Design
c) Correlation Design
d) Process Design
a) Discipline Design
 Based on the essential organization of content as per acceptable
disciplines i.e. sciences, applied sciences, humanities, social sciences,
languages, e.t.c
 The manner in which content is learned is suggested by the methods
scholars employ to study the content of their fields.
Discipline Design-Strengths & Weaknesses

Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses of Discipline based curriculum design

Strengths Weakness
  Students attain mastery of  Ignores information that cannot
content and independent be classified as disciplined
learning knowledge
 Subjects to be taught to any  Addresses only the interests of
child at any stage of the college bound not learners
development interests
 Students must adapt to the
curriculum

b) Broad Fields Design (Interdisciplinary)

 Attempts to integrate content that appears to fit together logically
 Allows students to discern relationships among the various aspects of the
curriculum content, as well as wholeness of meaning
 Students are invited to participate through the construction of meaning in
grasping the meaning or meanings of the whole

Table 2:Table 4.2: Strengths and weaknesses of Broad fields based curriculum design

Strengths Weakness
 Allows students to recognize  Issues of breadth vs depth.
relationships among various Mostly curriculum is shallow but
aspects of curriculum content too spread.
 Students participate in the
construction of meaning

c) Correlation curriculum Design

 Is a design that allows for some linkage of separate subjects in order to
reduce fragmentation of the curricular content
Table 3: Correlation Design- Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Allows linkage of some  Requires alternative forms of
subjects to reduce scheduling
fragmentation  Requires teachers to plan
differently (cooperatively)
 d) Process Design
 is a design that focuses on procedures and processes by which individuals advance
knowledge, either in specific disciplines or in general
 Emphasizes those procedures and dispositions to act that enable students to
analyze their realities and create frameworks by which the knowledge derived can
be arranged

Table 4: Process- Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Teaches how to learn and  Lacks emphasis on content
think critically

ii. Learner-Centered Designs

 Students are the center or focus of the program
 Students must be active in their environments if we are to optimize
learning
 Curriculum should be based on students’ lives, needs, and interests

Table 5: Child-Centered Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Empowers students through  Content not specific
ownership of knowledge
 Allows for constructivist
learning

 Learner-centred design can be broken further into:

a) Child Centered Designs
b) Experience-Centered Designs
c) Romantic (Radical) Designs
d) Humanistic Designs
 a) Experience Centered Designs
 Everything has to be done “on the spot”---we cannot anticipate the
interests and needs of children
Table 6: Experience Centered Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Learners acquires the  Based on natural experiences of
prescribed experiences children. Hence, a shallow
curriculum is inevitable.
 Not specific since learners are
diverse. Difficult to integrate the
varying needs

b) Romantic (Radical) Designs

 Emancipation/Liberation is the goal of education
 Individuals should gain those awarenesses, competencies, and attitudes
to enable them to take control of their lives
 Learning results from the interaction among people; by challenging
content and permitting different views about the content, as well as from
critiquing the purposes of the information presented

Table 7: Romantic Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Emancipates the learner from  Threatens status quo of stable
oppression. society

Humanistic Designs
 The focus of attention should be on the subject nature of human
existence; there is a relationship between learning and feeling
 Empowering individuals
 Stress the development of positive self-concept and interpersonal skills
Table 8: Humanistic Strengths &Weaknesses

Strengths Weakness
 Promotes self esteem  Inadequate consideration of
 Empowers individuals methods in light of
consequences for learners
 Inconsistent emphasis on
uniqueness of individuals and
activities that all students
experience
 Too much emphasis on the
needs of the individual over the
overall society
 Does not integrate what is
known about human learning
and development

iii. Problem-Centered Designs

 Focus on the problems of living-- on the perceived realities of institutional
and group life-- for the individual and the society in general
 Are organized to reinforce cultural traditions and also to address those
community and societal needs that are currently unmet.

Table 9: Strengths and weaknesses of Problem-Centered Designs

Strengths Weakness
 Uses the past and current  Teachers lack adequate
experiences of learners as a preparation
means of getting them to  Difficult to determine scope and
analyze the basic areas of sequence of essential areas of
living learning
 Presents subject matter in an  Does not expose student
integrated from by cutting adequately to their cultural
across the separate subjects heritage
and centering on related
categories of social life
 Presents subject matter in an
integrated manner
 Encourages students to learn
and apply problem solving
 procedures
 Relevant since in tailor made to
life situations. Focuses on
problem solving
 procedures for learning
 Nontraditional. Thus flexible for
emerging problems in a
society.
 Emancipates the learner from
oppression.

 Problem Centred Designs can further be broken down into:

a) Life-Situations Design
b) Core Design
c) Social problems and Reconstructionist Designs
a) Life Situation Design
 Persistent life situations are crucial to a society’s successful functioning; it
makes sense to organize a curriculum around them
 Students will see direct relevance to what they are studying if the content
is organized around aspects of community life
 By having students study social or life situations, they not only study ways
to improve society but become directly involved in that improvement

Table 10: Strengths and weaknesses of life Situation design

Strengths Weakness
 Promotes problem solving  Inadequate consideration of
 Empowers individuals to be methods in light of
creative and innovative consequences for learners
 Too much emphasis on the
needs of the individual over the
overall society

b) Core Design
  Centers on general education and is based on problems arising out of
common human activities
 Emphasizes on subject matter as core knowledge accommodates for
areas of living as core designs
Table 11: Strengths and weaknesses of core curriculum design

Strengths Weakness
 fosters intrinsic motivation in  Departs significantly from a
students traditional curriculum
 fosters democratic practices  Ignores fundamentals
in the classroom through  Materials hard to find
cooperative learning  Requires an exceptional teacher
 Unifies content
 Provides relevant subject
matter
 Encourages active
processing of information
 Nontraditional, creativity is
cushioned.

c) Social Problems and Reconstructionist Design

 Curriculum should address contemporary social problems and social
action projects aimed at reconstructing society
 Curriculum design focuses on effecting social change and creating a more
just society
 The social Reconstructionist curriculum has the primary purpose of
engaging the learner in analyzing the many severe problems confronting
humankind
Table 12: Strengths and weaknesses of Social Problems and Reconstructionist
Design

Strengths Weakness
 fosters problem solving skills  Departs significantly from a
 Nontraditional, creativity is traditional curriculum
cushioned.  Ignores fundamentals
knowledge that has no
immediate relevance to the
society.

iv. Broad Fields curriculum design

 Another method of organizing curricular components is combining two or
more subjects from related fields into a broader field.
 The popularity of this approach in recent times is due to the following
reasons:
- Curriculum is not compartmentalized into rigid subject boundaries.
Hence the information becomes more meaningful to the learners.
- Teachers have greater flexibility to choose content.
- Learners can see the interrelatedness of various subject areas in the
curriculum. They can generalize knowledge across broad areas.
- It meets the learner, the teacher and the needs of the society at the
same time.
 The Broad Fields design combines separate subjects from within a domain of
knowledge. For instance, Humanities program may combine Literature, Art,
History, and Music.
 or sometimes knowledge from two entirely different fields could be blended
e.g. multicultural education is a broad field area, which draws information
from Sociology, Psychology, History and Anthropology.
 However, the field learner would learn concepts from the interrelated
disciplines, i.e. breadth of knowledge would be more, but may not attain
depth.
 Curricularists do agree that correlation among some subjects is required
to establish linkage among them and avoid rigid compartmentalization of
the curriculum e.g. Science and Maths can be correlated because Maths
forms an important tool for dealing with scientific content.