Models of Curriculum Design | Crash Course for UGC NET Education PDF Download

Models of Curriculum Design

Curriculum Design

Curriculum design is a complex but systematic process. The curriculum designing is conducted stage by stage. Generally, all models stress the importance of considering a variety of factors that influence curriculum. It involves issues based on three basic ideas i.e. theoretical, philosophical and practical.

The term 'curriculum design' is used to describe the purposeful, deliberate, and systematic organization of curriculum (instructional blocks) within a class or course. In other words, it is a way for teachers to plan instruction. When teachers design curriculum, they identify what will be done, who will do it, and what schedule to follow. It refers to the arrangement of the components or elements of a curriculum

It is a very important part of creating a contextually relevant and responsive teaching and learning environment for both teachers and students. It is a process of critical questioning to frame learning and teaching. The main purpose of the process is to translate broad statements of intent into specific plans and actions.

According to Saylor and Alexander, curriculum design means "The pattern or framework or structural organization used in selecting, planning and carrying forward educational experiences in the school".

Johnson identified three notions of curriculum design as-

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an arrangement of selected and ordered learning outcomes intended to be achieved through instruction.

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an arrangement of selected and ordered learning experiences to be provided in an instructional situation.

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a scheme for planning and providing learning experiences. While designing the curriculum following factors should be considered.

While designing the curriculum following factors should be considered

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The design should facilitate and encourage all types of learning experiences essential for the achievement of the desired outcomes.

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The design should permit teachers to utilise principles of learning for guiding learning activities,

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The design should enable the teachers to develop those experiences that are most meaningful to a particular group of learners.

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The design should be in accordance to the developmental needs of the students,

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The design should be in such a way that there should be continuous flow of learning experiences.

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The design should be realistic, feasible, cost effective, accessible and widely acceptable.

Thus, designing curriculum means planning which the teachers follow for providing learning activities in the class and the school.

Curriculum Design Tips

The following curriculum design tips can help educators to manage each stage of the curriculum design process

Identify the Needs of Stakeholders (i.e. students) early on in the curriculum design process. This can be done through needs analysis, which involves the collection and analysis of data related to the learner. This data might include what learners already know and what they need to know to be proficient in a particular area or skill. It may also include information about the learner's perceptions, strengths and weaknesses.

Create a Clear List of Learning Goals and Outcomes This will help to focus on the intended purpose of the curriculum and allow to plan instruction that can achieve the desired results. Learning goals are the things teachers want students to achieve in the course. Learning outcomes are the measurable knowledge, skills and attitudes that students should have achieved in the course.

Identify Constraints That will impact curriculum design. For example, time is a common constraint that must be considered. There are so many hours, days, weeks and months in the term. If there isn't enough time to deliver all of the instructions that has been planned, it will impact learning outcomes.

Identify the Instructional Methods That will be used throughout the course and consider how they will work with the student's learning styles.

Establish Evaluation Methods That will be used at the end and during the year to assess learners, instructors and the curriculum, which will determine the success and failure of curriculum.

Types of Curriculum Design

There are three basic types of curriculum design and they are­

Subject-Centered

It revolves around a particular subject matter or discipline. It tends to focus on the subject rather than the individual. It describes what needs to be studied and how it should be studied.

A Core curriculum is an example of a subject-centered curriculum design, which can be standardized across schools, states and the country as a whole. In standardized core curricula,

teachers are provided a predetermined list of things that they need to teach their students, along with specific examples of how these things should be taught.

The primary drawback of subject-centered curriculum design is that it is not student-centered. In particular, this form of curriculum design is constructed without taking into account the specific learning styles of the students. This can cause problems with student's engagement and motivation and may even cause students to fall behind in class.

Learner-Centered

In this the center of the interest is the learner. The students are given more importance. In this the teacher's role is not that of a task master but that of a guide. In this, the child is treated as plant, the teacher as a gardener and the school as garden. It gives several options to the students. Students are actively involved in planning and evaluation of the options in general and for themselves in particular. Learner-centered curriculum points out that "the more experience in life a child has the more eager he will be to learn". Thus, the learner-centered broadly encompasses methods of teachers that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student.

Problem-Centered

It focuses on teaching students how to look at a problem and come up with a solution to the problem. Thus, students are exposed to real-life issues, which helps them to develop skills that are transferable to the real world.

It increases the relevance of the curriculum and allows students to be creative and innovate as they are learning. The drawback of problem-centered curriculum design is that it does not always take learning styles into consideration.

Dimensions of Curriculum Design

The curriculum design is a statement, reflecting the relationships between the curricular components. It has to be developed on the basis of certain dimensions like scope, integration, sequence, continuity, articulation and balance. These considerations will determine the shape of the curriculum and the kinds of learning experiences, it will provide.

The various dimensions of curriculum design are

Scope according to Saylor, scope is defined as "The care to be provided to pupil as they progress through the , cducational that school programme. It represents the latitudinal axis for selecting curriculum experiences". It determines the depth to which the subject matter has to be dealt with, the type of learning activities to be provided and decisions about the arrangement of curricular components.

Integration Learning becomes meaningful when content from one field is interrelated with content from another. The major task confronting a curriculum design is to integrate learning

experiences of the learner at a particular Jewel of the curriculum. "It is an attempt to inter-relate content with learning experiences and activities to ensure that students' needs are met".

Sequence While arranging the components of curriculum, a vertical sequence should be followed, i.e there should be a vertical relationship between the (curricular elements so as to enable continuous learning. Based on well accepted learning principles. Smith. Stanley and Shores (1957) have given four basis for sequencing content. These are

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Simple to Complex Learning For instance, teaching two-digit addition to five-digit addition.

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Part to Whole Like teaching digestive system to the entire human body system.

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Whole to Part Teaching the concept of animal and then giving an example of types of animal.

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(Chronological Learning Chronological occurrence of historical events.

Continuity It implies the repetition of such skills of ideas in the curriculum, about which the learners should have (in depth knowledge.

Articulation and Balance It refers to inter-relatedness of concepts of a curriculum. The relation can be either Horizontal or vertical. Vertical articulation occurs when certain topics, lessons or courses are related to those occurring later in the curriculum sequence. Horizontal articulation occurs between curricular components, Simultaneously

Curriculum designers are also concerned about an appropriate weightage to be given to every aspect of , so that a balanced curriculum emerges. A balanced curriculum is one that helps the learners to gain knowledge and utilize it, to achieve their goals.

Curriculum Design Models

The concept of curriculum design refers to the arrangement of elements of curriculum into holistic plans. It is a complex but systematic process. Here, are discussed a variety of models of curriculum design in order to make this complaint activity understandable and manageable.

Traditional Model

Ralph Tyler was the first to lay out the Traditional Model in 1949, in his influential book, 'Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction'. In general, his method is thought of to be the principal way to form a concept of curriculum development. Because of its wide use in schools. throughout the world, many teachers and students find it a familiar concept. The approach has a 'subject-centered' orientation, i.e. a set of experts, pre-determine subject matters that are mastered by students. The curriculum is structured around content's units and the sequence of what is taught follows the logic of the subject matter (Knowles, 1984).

The systemised ideologies, demonstrated in the introduction of Tyler's book, categorize the school as the controller of power in deciding what is taught

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"What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

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How can learning experiences be selected, which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives?

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How can learning experiences be organized, for effective instruction?

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How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?"(Tyler, 1971)

According to Tyler, "Curriculum is a growing process, over the course of the schooling years, educational experiences accumulate to exert profound changes in the learner, in the way water dripping upon a stone wears it away (Tyler, 1971)" He expresses that knowledge and skills cannot be photocopied, but instead, are taught in a sequence over time. A Spiral approach, in which learners return to topics, in more complexity over time, can also be considered a Traditional approach. Skills based or competency based instruction, common in adult basic education, often draws upon a Traditionalist approach to curriculum, with students mastering a given set of skills or procedures in a reasonable instructional cycle.

Advantages

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The main advantage of this model is that students easily adapt to various methods of teaching,

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Another advantage is that learning distinct skills in a systematic fashion provides itself to traditional testing. Test scores can be easily calculated, and explained to funders as program results.

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Program administrators can use the results of traditional tests to defend their program's achievements. Students, tutors and teachers can direct to confirmed progress, and that is undoubtedly motivating.

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Where resources are limited, the traditional model is much more competent.

Disadvantages

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The traditional approach to syllabus design lacks integration.

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It focuses on one particular subject, without the students being able to understand how one subject implements another.

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It includes passivity and authority. Students within the traditional curriculum often become passive learners.

Contemporary Model

It indicates a close relationship between curriculum, planning goals, learning objectives and implementation. It is based on a Learner-Centered Approach. It places the child at the center of education. It begins with understanding the educational contexts from which a child comes. The curriculum is constructed based on the needs, interests, purposes and abilities of the learners.

Teacher tries to maximize student's productivity, knowledge acquisition, skills argumentation and development of personal and professional abilities. Teachers may use a variety of instructional tools and methods, as well as flexible arrangement of time and place.

The major difference between the two models is that, in the Contemporary Model the curriculum is a combined effort of teachers and learners, since learners are very much involved in the decision-making, regarding the content of the curriculum and the manner it is delivered. Whereas in the Traditional Model, the teacher has most, if not all authority when it comes to decisions.

Advantages

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Learning comes to be seen as a process of gradually reaching achievable goals.

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Students develop greater sensitivity to their role as learners, and their vague notions of what it is to be a learner can become much sharper.

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Classroom's activities can be seen to relate to the learner's real-life needs.

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Self-evaluation becomes more feasible.

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Greater emphasis on the student's needs.

Disadvantages

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Most of the outcomes rely on the teacher's ability to create material, appropriate to the learner's needs.

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It requires a skilled teacher, time and resources.

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Teachers find it difficult to strike a balance among the competing needs and interests of the child.

Competency Based Model

According to Anshari R Sastrawinata, "Competence is a statement which describes the appearance of a certain ability unanimously that is a blend of knowledge and skills that can be observed and measured". Elza Mylona said that competency is about integration and applications of learned facts, skills and effective qualities, needed to serve the patient, the community and the profession.

are on It refers to system of instructions, assessments, grading, and academic reporting that based students, demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills that they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.

a In other definition he says that "Competency Based concept is a focus on student's mastery of performance and learning outcomes through a set of pre-defined learning objectives".

It is a design, based on specific competencies characterized by specific, sequential, and demonstrable learning of the tasks, activities, or skills, which constitutes the act to be learned and performed by students.

It is a model that emphasizes the complex outcomes of a learning process (i.e. knowledge, skills and attitude to be applied by learners) rather than mainly focusing on what learners are expected to learn about in terms of traditionally defined subject content. In principle such a curriculum is learner-centered and adaptive to the changing needs of students, teachers and society. It implies that learning activities and environment are chosen, so that learners can acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitude to situations they encounter in everyday life. They are usually designed around a set of key competencies/competencies that can be cross-curricular and/or subject-bound.

There are some aspects that describe the concept of Knowledge Understanding

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Skill

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Value

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Attitude

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Interest

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Knowledge

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Understanding

Characteristics of Competency Based Model

Jobelle B Salvador wrote the characteristics of competency based

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Learning is measured according to how well the learner performs in relation to competencies (objectives).

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Instructional system in which performance based learning process is used.

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Focuses on the outcome of the learning.

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Addresses, what the learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about.

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Allows the student to learn at their own pace.

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Student's progress by demonstrating competence, which means they have to prove that they mastered the knowledge and skills required for a particular course.

Advantages

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The learning centers real world skills and competency development programs.

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Participants build confidence as they succeed in mastering specific competencies.

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Students' learning is enhanced because of the specification of expected outcomes and continuous feedback.

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The quality of assessment and teaching has improved.

Disadvantages

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It works well with the same learning environment and less well with others.

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It focuses on immediate needs and is less focused on preparing learners with the flexibility needed for a much uncertain future.

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It takes an objectivist approach to learning.

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It does not suit all kinds of learners.

Academic/Discipline Based Model

It is model of curriculum in which content is divided into separate and distinct subjects or disciplines, such as language, science, mathematics, and social studies. The term 'discipline based' or 'subject based' covers the full range of distinct subjects or fields of study, including the more traditional usage in areas such as mathematics or physics , in areas of study with a strong professional focus such as molecular biology and in newer areas of study such as media education.

Learners must have frequent and recurring opportunities to practice their disciplinary skills throughout their fields that allows later courses to build on the work study, in a way of earlier ones.

The instructional emphasis of it tends to be on specific, current, and factual information and skills, as it emerges from the discipline experts. Its approach characterizes teaching practice within one subject and encourages teachers for specialization, depth of content knowledge, and integrity to the conventions of their disciplines.

Activity Module

It is a format for curriculum design developed to meet unique needs, contexts and purposes. In order to address these goals, curriculum developers design, reconfigure or rearrange one or more key curriculum components. Activity is the natural urge of the child. It is used as a media or means for imparting knowledge and skills. In this model, activity is the greatest motivation, provided to the child to enjoy the freedom of expressing himself fully. Its core premises include the requirement that learning should be based on doing some hands on experiments and activities. In short, it is anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. According to Tanner and Tanner, "Activity Model is an attempt to treat learning as an active process".

It discards the boundaries and the model was centered largely on areas of child's interest. It's objective was child growth through experience. According to Beans, "the major premise of activity movement was that the learner ought to be an active rather than a passive participant in learning". However the title "activity curriculum' did not come into general use before 1920. In 1944, David Horsburgh started his school Neel Bagh in India. It was based on an innovative

idea of Horsburgh. It was known for its creative methods in teaching and well-planned learning materials. Later, this initiative of Horshburgh was proved to be one of the pioneer and milestones in Activity Based model.

Requirement of Activity Model

School must have proper infrastructure, ample facilities or displays and decorations, well lighted and there must be separate ground for gardening.

Training of teachers, classroom equipment, activity rooms, transportation facilities, students grouping and flexibility in administrative arrangements.

Advantages

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It revolves around those childrens who are either not academically talented or have not shown interest in school. It tends to stimulate these type of students into participating and eventually absorbing information.

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It makes the teaching fun.

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Students feel a sense of accomplishment, when the task is completed

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Students are able to transfer that experience easier to other learning situations.

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Students who are involved in activities are empowered in their own learning experiences.

Disadvantages

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A radical departure from traditional ways of learning and teaching

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It has no assurance of learning cultural heritage.

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The facts and principles that are learned are not permanently retained.

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Teachers are not prepared to carry on an activity program

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Schools are also not equipped completely.

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There is no adequate provision for logical organization.

Social Reconstruction Model

Social reconstructionists are interested in the relationship between curriculum and the social, political and economic development of society. They are convinced that education can affect social change, curriculum, for example, literacy campaigns that have contributed to successful political revolutions.

Aspects of reconstructionism appeared in American curriculum thought in the 1920s and 1930s.

Rugg's textbooks, teachings and professional leadership had one over riding quality i.e. the spirit of social criticism. He wanted learners to use newly emerging concepts from social science and aesthetics to identify and to solve current problems.

The reconstructionists seek a curriculum that emphasizes cultural pluralism, equality and futurism. They critically examine the cultural heritage of a society as well as entire civilisation. It is deliberately committed to bring about social and constructive change. It cultivates a future planning attitude that considers the realities of the world. It enlists students and teachers in a definite program to enhance cultural renewal and interculturalism.

It strengthens the control of the schools by and for goal seeking interests of the overwhelming majority of mankind. For reconstructionism analysis, interpretation and

evaluation of problems are insufficient, commitment and action by students and teachers are needed. The teacher should measure up to their social responsibilities . The reconstructionist design provides students with learning requisite for altering social, economical and political realities. The curriculum should foster social action, aimed at reconstructing society. It encourages industrial and political changes. The students should be involved in creating a more equitable society.

It would include bringing students into their community. Ideally, students would spend half of their time in the classroom and the other half, outside of the curriculum in different settings. It would encourage students to directly apply what they are learning through social activism reforms and change. As part of this model, the curriculum would use service learning and discussion groups to teach, while also bringing the world into the classroom and the students out into their community.

In the early 1950s, Theodore Brameld outlined the distinctive features of the social reconstructionism model. They are

First, he believed in a commitment to building a new culture. He was infused with the conviction that people are in the midst of a revolutionary period from which the common people will emerge as controllers of the industrial system. public services, and of cultural and natural resources.

Second, he felt that the working people should control all principal institutions and resources if the world is to become genuinely democratic. Teachers should ally themselves with the organized working people. A way should be found to enlist, the majority of people of all races and religions into a I great democratic body with power to enforce its policies. Third, he believed that the school should help an

individual, not only to develop socially, but to learn how to participate in social planning as well.

There are many premises of social reconstruction and the different directions taken by different reconstructionist such as revolution, critical inquiry, and futurism. A distinction is also made between a curriculum of reconstruction, which attempts to change the social order, and a curriculum of social adaptation, which helps students to fit into a world they never made. social

Social Function Model

It focuses heavily on society. Social processes, functions of problems become the center for the design of the curriculum. One way to look at this approach is to see it as using social studies to become the general background of the entire curriculum.

the curriculum is more flexible. The curriculum is structured around the various aspects of areas subservient to the problem. This design is more subjective than is either the subject-centered or broad field. Cooperative planning occurs more frequently. The

The curriculum developed through this model creates an Awareness among the learners regarding social problems and enables them to solve the problems,.

lndividuals's Model Individual's Needs and Interest

It takes each individual's needs, interests and goals into consideration. In other words, it acknowledges that students are not uniform and adjusts to those student's needs. It is meant to empower learners that allows them to shape their education through choices.

The instructional plans in this model are differentiated, giving students the opportunity to choose assignments, Learning experiences and activities. This can motivate the students and helps them to stay engaged in the material that they are learning

The drawback of it is that it is labor intensive. Developing differentiated instruction, puts pressure on the teacher to create instruction or to find materials that are conducive to each student's learning needs. Teachers may not have the time or may lack the experience or skills to create such plans.

It requires that teachers balance student's wants and interests with student's needs and required outcomes, which is not an easy balance to obtain.

Outcome Based Integrative Model

It was designed to help students to develop a deep understanding of organized bodies of knowledge while simultaneously developing critical thinking skills. It is closely related to the Inductive Model and based on the work of Hilda Taba (1965-67). It uses organized bodies of knowledge that combine facts, concepts, generalizations and the relationships among them.

It has two learning objectives

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Deep and thorough understanding of organized bodies of knowledge.

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Use of critical thinking skills.

In this model, the teacher facilitates the student's analysis of information about a topic in an organized way. This model relies on formal strategies that teach students how to analyze and

interpret information. The model supports student's learning across the academic subject area while also empowering them to become independent learners. This model is one of the best models for teaching conceptual knowledge, the interrelationship of facts, concepts and effectively addressing learning goals related to students' development and critical thinking skills required to understand information presented in organized bodies of knowledge.

Implementing Lessons with Outcome Based Integrative Model

Phase 1: The Open ended Phase In this phase, learners describe, compare and search for patterns in data. It promotes involvement and ensures success. The teacher starts with one cell of information and moves to other cells. Teacher records student's observations or comparisons on the board.

Phase 2: The Casual Phase In this phase, students explain similarities and differences, using data to justify conclusions (documenting assertions). In this, students develop perception of competence,

Phase 3 : Hypothetical Phase In this phase, learners hypothesize outcomes for different conditions (as suggested by the teacher). It facilitates transfer and student's self-efficacy increases as they learn to respond successfully.

Phase 4 : Closure and Application Phase In this phase, students generalize to form broad relationships which summarizes the content.

Intervention Model

It is designed to meet the complex needs of children with mild disabilities. The interventions developed through this are called the Strategies Interventions Model. They can be grouped into three major categories according to Deshler and Schumaker. The first category of interventions, called learning strategy interventions, were developed because many students with disabilities are ineffective learners, who lack information processing skills to cope with wide range of content and complexity of tasks they encounter in secondary classes.

The critical features of successful strategy instruction includes

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daily and sustained instruction.

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multiple opportunities to practice the strategy of variety of situations

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individualized feedback and

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required mastery of the strategy.

The second category of interventions called content enhancement routines, are instructional routines use to enhance their delivery of content information and improve their student's understanding and recall of the content Many cognitively and emotionally challenged students have difficulty in organizing, understanding, storing and remembering of information, presented during large group instruction, in general education classroom.

The third category of intervention called empowerment interventions, which are geared towards empowering students to perform at their best and to create positive relationships with others, in the school setting For instance, several social and motivational strategies have been developed to enable students to interact in a positive way with peers and teachers as well as to engage in self-advocacy,

Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, Product Model/CIPP Model

The weaknesses in the Tyler's Model led several evaluation experts in the late 1960s and early 1970s to attack the Tyler's Model and to offer their own alternatives.

The alternative that had the greatest impact was that developed by a Phi Delta Kappa Committee, chaired by Daniel Stufflebeam (1971). This model seemed to appeal to educational leaders because it emphasized the importance of producing evaluative data for decision-making. lnfact, decision-making was the sole justification for evaluation, in the view of the Phi Delta Kappa Committee.

To serve the needs of decision makers, the Stufflebeam's model provides a means for generating data relating to four stages of program; operation, which continuously assesses needs; problems in the context to help decision makers to determine goals and objectives; input evaluation, which assesses alternative means for achieving those goals to help decision makers to choose optimal means; process evaluation, which monitors the processes, both to ensure that the means are actually being implemented and to make the necessary modifications; and product evaluation, which compares actual ends with intended ends and leads to a series of recycling decisions,

During each of these four stages, specific steps are been taken and they are :

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Kind of decisions are identified.

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Kinds of data needed to make those decisions, are identified

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That data was collected.

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Criteria for determining quality were established, Data was analysed on the basis of those criteria,

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Needed information was provided to decision makers (as cited in Glatthorn 1987, pp. 273-274).

Stufficheam's CIPP model is described below in detail

Context According to his the curriculum evaluator is engaged in studying the environment (context) in which the

curriculum is transacted. It provides the rationale for selection of objectives Content evaluation is not a one time activity. It is a continuous process for furnishing baseline information for the operation of the total system,

Input The purpose of input evaluation is to get information for how to utilise resources optimally to meet the objectives of the curriculum. It includes evaluation of some sort of physical and non-physical inputs such as availability of physical and human resources, time and budget. It also includes previous achievements, education and aspiration of pupil.

Process It is the most critical component of the overall model. Quality of the product largely depends on it. It addresses the curriculum implementation decisions. Stuffcbcam presents the three strategies for process evaluation and

they are

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To detect or predict defects in the procedural design of it's implementation during the diffusion stage. In dealing with or curriculum defects one should identify and monitor continually the potential sources for the failure of the curriculum.

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To provide information for curriculum decisions. Here the decisions should be regarding test development prior to the actual implementation of the curriculum.

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To maintain a record of procedures as they occur. It addresses the main features of the project design. For example, the content selected, the instruction strategies planned or the time allotted to the planning for such activities.

Product It helps to determine whether the curriculum objectives have been achieved or not. On the basis of collected data, we can decide whether to continue, modify, change or terminate our curriculum.

It has several features for those interested in curriculum evaluation. Its emphasis on decision making, seems appropriate for administrators concerned with improving curricula. It concerns the formative aspects of evaluation remedies, a serious deficiency in the Tyler's model. Finally, the detailed guidelines and forms created by the committee provides step by step guidance for users.

However, it has some serious drawbacks also that are associated with it. It's main weakness seems to be it's failure to recognise the complexity of the decision-making process in organizations. It assumes more rationality than exists in such situations and ignores the political factors that plays a large part in these decisions. Also, as Cuba and Lincoln (1981) noted, it seems difficult to implement and expensive to maintain.