Foundations of Curriculum

1. Philosophical Foundations
Educators, teachers, educational planners and policy makers must have a
philosophy or strong belief about education and schooling and the kind of curriculum in
the teachers' classrooms or learning environment. Philosophy of the curriculum answers
questions like: What are schools for? What subjects are important? How should students
learn? What methods should be used? What outcomes should be achieved? Why?
The various activities in school are influenced in one way or another by a
philosophy. John Dewey influenced the use of learning by doing", he being a pragmatist.
Or to an essentialist, the focus is on the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic,
the essential subjects in the curriculum. There are many philosophies in education but
we will illustrate only those as presented by Ornstein and Hunkins in 2004.

Aim: To educate the rational person; cultivate intellect

Perennialism Role: Teachers assist students to think with reason (critical
thinking: HOTS)
Plato, Aristotle Focus: Classical subjects, literary analysis, Curriculum is
or Thomas enduring
Aquinas) Trends: Use of great books (Bible, Koran, Classics) and
Liberal Arts
Aim: To promote intellectual growth of learners to become
Essentialism competent
Role: Teachers are sole authorities in the subject area.
Wiliam Bagley Focus: Essential skills of the 3Rs; essential subjects
(1974-1946) Trends: Back to basics, Excellence in education, cultural
literacy
Aim: Promote democratic social living
Role: Teacher leads for growth and development of lifelong
Progressivism
learners
Focus: Interdisciplinary subjects. Learner-centered.
John Dewey
Outcomes-based
(1859-1952)
Trends: Equal opportunities for all, Contextualized
curriculum, Humanistic education
Reconstruction Aim: To improve and reconstruct society. Education for
ism change
Role: Teacher, acts as agent of change and reforms
Theodore Focus: Present and future educational landscape
Brameld Trends: School and curricular reform, Global education,
(1904-1987) Collaboration and Convergence, Standards and Competencies

2. Historical Foundations
Where is curriculum development coming from? The historical foundations will
show to us the chronological development along a time line. Reading materials would tell
us that curriculum development started when Franklin Bobbit (1876-1956) wrote the
book "The Curriculum." Let us see how each one contributed to curriculum development
during his own time. Here are eight among the many whom we consider to have great
contributions.

Persons Contributions/ Theories and Principles

 He started the curriculum development movement.
Franklin  Curriculum as a science that emphasizes students’ needs.
Bobbit  Curriculum prepares learners for adult life.
(1876-1956)  Objectives and activities should group together when tasks
are clarified.
Werret  Like Bobbit, he posited that curriculum is science and
 emphasizes students' needs.
Charters
 Objectives and activities should match. Subject matter or
(1875-1952)
content relates to objectives.
 Curricula are purposeful activities which are child-centered.
 The purpose of the curriculum is child development and
William
growth. He introduced this project method where teacher
Kilpatrick
and student plan the activities.
(1875-1952)
 Curriculum develops social relationships and small group
instruction.
 Curriculum should develop the whole child. It is child-
centered.
Harold Rugg  With the statement of objectives and related learning
(1886-1960) activities, curriculum should produce outcomes.
 He emphasized social studies and suggested that the
teacher plans curriculum in advance.
 Curriculum is organized around social functions of themes,
Hollis organized knowledge and learner's interest.
Caswell  Curriculum, instruction and learning are interrelated.
(1901-1989)  Curriculum is a set of experiences. Subject matter is
developed around social functions and learners interests.
 Curriculum is a science and an extension of school's
philosophy. It is based on students' needs and interest.
Ralph Tyler  Curriculum is always related to instruction. Subject matter is
(1902-1994) organized in terms of knowledge, skills and values.
 The process emphasizes problem solving.
 Curriculum aims to educate generalists and not specialists.
 She contributed to the theoretical and pedagogical
foundations of concepts development and critical thinking in
Hilda Taba
social studies curriculum.
(1902-1967)
 She helped lay the foundation for diverse student
population.
 He described curriculum change as a cooperative endeavor.
Peter Oliva  Teachers and curriculum specialist constitute the
(1992-2012) professional core of planners.
 Significant improvement is achieved through group activity.

3. Psychological Foundation of Curriculum

Psychology provides a basis to understand the teaching and learning process. It
unifies elements of the learning process. Questions which can be addressed by
psychological foundations of education are: How should curriculum be organized to
enhance learning? What is the optimal level of students’ participation in learning the
various contents of the curriculum? In this lesson, we shall consider three groups of
learning theories: behaviorism or association theories; cognitive-information
processing theories and humanistic theories (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004).

3.1 Association and Behaviorism

Persons Contributions/ Theories and Principles
 He is the father of the classical conditioning theory, the S-R
theory
Ivan Pavlov  The key to learning in early years of life is to train them
(1849-1936) what you want them to become.
 S-R Theory is a foundation of learning practice called
indoctrination.
Edward  He championed the connectionism theory.
Thorndike
  He proposed the three laws of learning:
- Law of readiness
(1874-1949) - Law of exercise
- Law of effect
 Specific stimulus has specific response.
 He proposed the hierarchical learning theory. Learning
Robert Gagne follows a hierarchy.
(1916 - 2002)  Behavior is based on prerequisite conditions.
 He introduced tasking in the formulation of objectives.

3.2 Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Persons Contributions/ Theories and Principles
 Theories of Jean Piaget
 Cognitive development has stages from birth to maturity.
 Sensorimotor stage (0-2), preoperational stage (2-7),
concrete operations stage (7-11) and formal operations (11
Jean Piaget - onwards).
(1896-1980)
 Keys to learning
 Assimilation (incorporation of new experience)
 Accommodation (learning modification and adaptation)
 Equilibration (balance between previous and
 later learning)
 Theories of Lev Vygotsky
 Cultural transmission and development stage. Children
could, as a result of their interaction with society, actually
perform certain cognitive actions prior to arriving at
developmental stage.
Lev
 Learning precedes development.
Vygotsky
 Sociocultural development theory.
(1896-1934)
 Keys to Learning
 Pedagogy creates learning processes that lead to
development.
 The child is an active agent in his or her educational
process.
 Gardner's multiple intelligences
 Humans have several different ways of processing
information and these ways are relatively independent of
Howard
one another.
Gardner
 There are eight intelligences: linguistic, logico-
mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic
Daniel  Emotion contains the power to affect action.
Goleman  He called this Emotional Quotient.

3.3 Humanistic Psychology

Persons/
Contributions/ Theories and Principles
Symbols
Gestalt  Gestalt Theory
 Learning is explained in terms of "wholeness" of the
problem.
 Human beings do not respond to isolated stimuli but to an
organization or pattern of stimuli.
 Keys to learning
 Learning is complex and abstract.
 Learners analyze the problem, discriminate between

essential and nonessential data, and perceive
relationships.
 Learners will perceive something in relation to the whole.
What/how they perceive is related to their previous
experiences.
 He advanced the Self-Actualization Theory.
 Classic theory of human needs
 A child whose basic needs are not met will not be
Abraham interested in acquiring knowledge of the world.
Maslow  He put importance to human emotions, based on love and
(1908-1970) trust.
 Key to learning
 Produce a healthy and happy learner who can accomplish,
grow and actualize his or her human self.
 Nondirective and therapeutic learning
 He established counseling procedures and methods for
facilitating learning.
 Children's perceptions, which are highly individualistic,
Carl Rogers
influence their learning and behavior in class.
(1902-1987)
 Key to learning
 Curriculum is concerned with process, not product;
personal needs, not subject matter, psychological
meaning, not cognitive scores.

4. Social Foundations of Curriculum

Persons/
Contributions/ Theories and Principles
Symbols
 Society as a source of change
Schools and
 Schools as agents of change
Society
 Knowledge as an agent of change
 Influence of society and social context in education
Emile  Things that surround individuals can change, develop their
Durkheim behavior.
(1858-1917)  Considered two fundamental elements which are schools
and civil society
 Wrote the book Future Shock
 Believed that knowledge should prepare students for the
future
 Suggested that in the future, parents might have the
Alvin Toffler
resources to teach prescribed curriculum from home as a
result of technology, not in spite of it. (Home Schooling)
 Foresaw schools and students worked creatively,
collaboratively, and independent of their age

Other Theorists
 Persons Contributions/ Theories and Principles
 Education as a means of shaping the person and society
through critical reflections and “conscientization"
 Teachers use questioning and problem posing approach to
Paolo Freire
raise students' consciousness
1921-1997
 Emphasis on questioning problem posing and critical
thinking
 Major book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968
 Curriculum organized around needs of society and the
students
 Reduce student conformity in classroom
 Constant need for school improvement
John Goodlad  Emphasis on active learning and critical thinking
1920-2014  Involvement of students in planning curriculum content and
instructional activities
 Need to align content with standards
 Major book: A Place Called Schools, 1984; What Are Schools
For? 1989
 Broaden the conception of curriculum to enrich the practice
 Understand the nature of the educational experience
William Pinar  Curriculum involves multiple disciplines
1947  Curriculum should be studied from historical, racial,
gendered, phenomenological, postmodern, theological and
international perspectives.