CONCEPTS OF CURRICULUM AND PURPOSES OF CURRICULUM STUDY

GITA RAHMI

Materials for Presentation

A. B. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. C. D. E. Introduction Concepts of Curriculum and Purposes of Curriculum Study Curriculum Study The Meaning of Curriculum Curriculum Models Frameworks for Curriculum Analysis Why Do a Curriculum Analysis? Overview of a Curriculum Analysis-The Case of Man: A Course of Study How to choose a Curriculum for Analysis Synthesis and Comments Conclusion References

Introduction
Concepts of curriculum and purposes of curriculum study are the important topics to be discussed because teachers use curriculum in teaching process and they need to know the concepts and the purposes of the curriculum itself.

Concepts of Curriculum and Purposes of Curriculum Study

Curriculum Study A graduate student says: Im totally confused! I came to Cornell to find out how to make curriculum decisions, and all I am learning is that different experts have different answer to basic questions. Now, I have more problems than when I started. What are we supposed to do when the so-called experts disagree?

What the students commonly do:

Ignore all experts and just use ones own common sense. Follow one authoritys ideas. Borrow from all experts as long as their ideas work. What the students should do: Understand the reflective eclecticism and myriad curriculum alternatives.

The Meaning of Curriculum

Definitions of Curriculum (Posner, 1992:4)

Curriculum is the content or objectives for which schools hold students accountable

Curriculum is the set of instructional strategies teachers plan to use.

Curriculum as the expected ends of education. E.g., the intended learning outcomes

curriculum as the expected means of education. E.g., instructional plans

Six Common Concepts of Curriculum

Scope and sequence: the depiction of curriculum as a matrix of objectives assigned to successive grade levels (i.e., sequence) and grouped according to a common theme (i.e., scope). Syllabus: A plan for an entire course, typically including rationale, topics, resources, and evaluation.

 Content outline: a list of topics covered organized in outline form. Textbooks: instructional materials used as the guide for classroom instruction. Course of study: a series of courses that the student must complete Planned experiences: all experiences students have that are planned by the school, whether academic, athletic, emotional, or social.

The Five Concurrent Curricula

Official curriculum: The curriculum described in formal documents. Operational curriculum: the curriculum embodied in actual teaching practices and tests. Hidden curriculum: institutional norms and values not openly acknowledged by teachers or schools officials. Null curriculum: the subject matters not taught. Extra curriculum: the planned experiences outside the formal curriculum.

Curriculum Models
A curriculum analysis is an attempt to tease a curriculum apart into its component part, to examine those parts and the way they fit together to make a whole, to identify the beliefs and ideas to which the developers were committed and which either explicitly or implicitly shaped the curriculum, and to examine the implications of these commitments and beliefs for the quality of the educational experience. A curriculum model provides such a framework by identifying a set of categories useful for sorting out curriculum decisions, documents, and assumptions.

The Tyler Rationale

Tylers four questions 1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? 2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? 3. How can these experiences be effectively organized? 4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

 Tyler Rationales has dominated thought on curriculum planning for about forty years. Tyler Rationales assumptions: 1) schooling is assumed to be a process whose main purpose is to promote or produce learning. 2) Students are termed learners. 3) Objectives are conceived as desirable learning. 4) Evaluation is targeted at achievement of the scores 5) educational goals are distinguished from noneducational goals. 6) Curriculum is defined as intended learning outcomes. So, schooling is conceived as production system in which individual learning outcomes are the primary product.

 Curriculum planning is assumed to be an enterprise in which the planner develops the means necessary to produce the desired learning outcomes. Means-ends rationality leads to the assumption that decisions on such issues as instructional method and content are technical ones. Curriculum decisions are best reserved for people with technical expertise about the methods and content optimally suited for particular objectives.

Technical production systems

 Curriculum is a structured series of intended learning outcomes. The definitions of curriculum and instruction are distinguished. Curriculum describes what is to be learned. Instruction is the process by which it is taught to students. Curriculum is not a process, but curriculum development is a process. This processes consists of selecting and structuring the intended learning outcomes from the available and teachable culture to produce people with certain intended characteristics. The curriculum guides the instructional system, which consists of both content and strategies.

The Johnson Model

Education consists of various processes: goal setting, curriculum development, instructional planning, instruction, and development. The products of each process: goals, curriculum, instructional plans, learning outcomes, educational result

Comparison of Johnson and Tyler Models

Johnson (1977) Goal setting Curriculum selection Curriculum structuring Instructional planning Tyler (1950) What educational purpose?

Technical evaluation

What educational experiences? How organize educational experience? How determine whether purposes attained?

Frameworks for curriculum analysis

What situation resulted in the developme nt of the curriculum ? What perspectiv e does the curriculum represent ? What are the purposes and content of the curriculum ? How is the curriculum organized ? How should the curriculum be implement ed? What can be learned from an evaluation of the curriculum ?

How is the curriculum documente d?

What are the curriculum s strengths and limitations ?

Curriculum documentation and origins (set 1)

Curriculum proper (set 2)

Curriculum in use (set 3)

Curriculum critique (set 4)

Why do a curriculum analysis?

Curriculum analysis is necessary because of its centrality to two important tasks performed by teachers and administrators: curriculum selection and curriculum adaptation. Determining whether or not the curriculum is appropriate for the situation. Determining the extent to which the assumptions underlying the curriculum are valid for particular class, school, or district.

How to choose a curriculum for analysis

Choose a curriculum for the project. The curriculum documents should contain kinds of information. The curriculum should have amount of information.

Information provided by ideal curriculum documents

Some clues about the problem to which the curriculum was responding and the kinds of experts included in the development process. A clear idea of what students are supposed to learn, what teachers are supposed to teach, and in what order it should be taught and learned. A clear idea about why these learning objectives and content are important. Some guidance, whether in the form of suggestions or prescription, as to how to teach the objective and content An indication of how the curriculum and the students should be or have been evaluated and what the results were. An indication of whether the curriculum has been implemented.

Conclusions
Curriculum experts. Curriculum be done determine curriculum context. is defined differently by
analysis is very necessary to because it can help to whether or not the is appropriate for particular

Bibliography
Posner, G. J. 1992. Analyzing the curriculum. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

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