Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES

Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Reporter: Levie D. Marzan (BTLED HE-2)

Module 1: Curriculum and The Teacher

Module Overview:
 Module 1 is all about school curricula and the teacher. This introductory module identifies the dif
ferent types of curricula that exist in the teacher's classroom and school. Further, Module 1 descri
bes the important roles of the teacher as a curricularist who engages in the different facets of curr
iculum development in any educational level.

LESSON 1: CURRICULUM IN SCHOOLS

Desired Learning Outcomes

 Discuss the different curricula that exist in the schools
 Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist
 Analyze the significance of curriculum and curriculum development in the teacher's classroom

No formal, non-formal or informal education exists without a curriculum. Classrooms will be empty
with no curriculum. Teachers will have nothing to do, if there is no curriculum. Curriculum is at the h
eart of the teaching profession. Every teacher is guided by some sort of curriculum in the classroom a
nd in schools.

In our current Philippine educational system, different schools are established in different educational
levels which have corresponding recommended curricula. The educational levels are:

1. Basic Education. This level includes Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 6 for elementary, and for sec
ondary, Grade 7 to Grade 10, for the Junior High School and Grade 11 and 12 and for the Senior High
School. Each of the levels has its specific recommended curriculum. The new basic education levels a
re provided in the K to 12 Enhanced Curriculum of 2013 of the Department of Education.

2. Technical Vocational Education. This is post-secondary technical vocational educational and trai
ning taken care of by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). For the Tech
Voc track in SHS of DepEd, DepEd and TESDA work in close coordination.

3. Higher Education. This includes the Baccalaureate or Bachelor Degrees and the Graduate Degrees
(Master's and Doctorate) which are under the regulation of the Commission on Higher Education (CH
ED)

Content Focus
-In whatever levels of schooling and in various types of learning environment, several curricula exist.
Let us find out how Allan Glatthorn (2000) as mentioned in Bilbao, et al (2008) classified these:
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Types of Curricula in Schools

Have you realized that in every classroom there are several types of curricula operating? Let us look i
nto each one.

 Recommended Curriculum. Almost all currricula found in our schools are recommended. For
Basic Education, these are recommended by the Department of Education (DepEd), for Higher E
ducation, by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and for vocational education by TES
DA. These three government agencies oversee and regulate Philippine education. The recommen
dations come in the form of memoranda or policies, standards and guidelines. Other professional
organizations or international bodies like UNESCO also recommend curricula in schools.

 Written Curriculum. This includes documents based on the recommended curriculum. They co
me in the form of course of study, syllabi, modules, books or instructional guides among others.
A packet of this written curriculum is the teacher's lesson plan. The most recent written curriculu
m is the K to 12 for Philippine Basic Education.

 Taught Curriculum. From what has been written or planned, the Tauculum has to be implement
ed or taught. The teacher and the curriers will put life to the written curriculumen the skill of the l
eacher to facilitate learning based on the written curriculum with the aid of instructional materials
and facilities will be necessary the taught curriculum will depend largely on the teaching style of
the teacher and the learning style of the learners.

 Supported Curriculum. This is described as support materials that the teacher needs to make le
arning and teaching meaningful. These include print materials like books, charts, posters, worksh
eets, or non-print materials like Power Point presentation, movies, slides, models, realias, mock-u
ps and other electronic illustrations. Supported curriculum also includes facilities where learning
occurs outside or inside the four-walled building. These include the playground, science laborator
y, audio-visual rooms, zoo, museum, market or the plaza. These are the places where authentic le
arning through direct experiences occur.

 Assessed Curriculum. Taught and supported curricula have to be evaluated to find out if the tea
cher has succeeded or not in facilitating learning. In the process of teaching and at the end of ever
y lesson or teaching episode, an assessment is made. It can either be assessment for learning, asse
ssment as learning or assessment of learning. If the process is to find the progress of learning, the
n the assessed curriculum is for learning, but if it is to find out how much has been learned or ma
stered, then it is assessment of learning. Either way, such curriculum is the assessed curriculum.

 Learned Curriculum. How do we know if the student has learned? We always believe that if a s
tudent changed behavior, he/she has learned. For example, from a non-reader to a reader or from
not knowing to knowing or from being disobedient to being obedient. The positive outcome of te
aching is an indicator of learning. These are measured by tools in assessment, which can indicate
the cognitive, affective and psychomotor outcomes. Learned curriculum will also demonstrate hi
gher order and critical thinking and lifelong skills.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

 Hidden/Implicit Curriculum. This curriculum is not deliberately planned, but has a great impac
t on the behavior of the learner. Peer influence, school environment, media, parental pressures, so
cietal changes, cultural practices, natural calamities, are some factors that create the hidden curric
ulum. Teachers should be sensitive and aware of this hidden curriculum. Teachers must have goo
d foresight to include these in the written curriculum, in order to bring to the surface what are hid
den.

LESSON 2: THE TEACHER AS A CURRICULARIST

Desired Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the discussion the learners must be able to;

 Enhance understanding of the role of the teacher as a curricularist in the classroom and school.

This lesson will bring all of you to an enhanced understanding realization of the multifaceted roles of t
he teacher which relate to curriculum.

Curricularists in the past, are referred only to those who developed curriculum theories. According t
o the study conducted by Sandra Hayes (1991), the most influential curricularist in America include J
ohn Dewey, Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba and Franklin Bobbit. You will learn more of them in the later pa
rt of the module.

Content Focus

In this lesson, we will start using the word curricularist to describe a professional who is a curriculum
specialist (Hayes, 1991; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Hewitt, 2006). A person who is involved in curric
ulum knowing, writing, planning, implementing, evaluating, innovating, and initiating may be designa
ted as curricularist. A TEACHER'S role is broader and inclusive of other functions and so a teacher is
a curricularist.

The teacher as a curricularist

1. knows the curriculum. Learning begins with knowing. The teacher as a learner starts with knowin
g about the curriculum, the subject matter or the content. As a teacher, one has to master what are incl
uded in the curriculum. It is acquiring academic knowledge both formal (disciplines, logic) or informa
l (derived from experiences, vicarious, and unintended). It is the mastery of the subject matter. (Know
er)

2. writes the curriculum. A classroom teacher takes record of knowledge concepts, subject matter or
content. These need to be written or preserved. The teacher writes books, modules, laboratory manual
s, instructional guides, and reference materials in paper or electronic media as a curriculum writer or r
eviewer. (Writer)
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

3. plans the curriculum. A good curriculum has to be planned. It is the role of the teacher to make a
yearly, monthly or daily plan of the curriculum. This will serve as a guide in the implementation of th
e curriculum. The teacher takes into consideration several factors in planning a curriculum. These fact
ors include the learners, the support material, time, subject matter or content, the desired outcomes, th
e context of the learners among others. By doing this, the teacher becomes a curriculum planner. (Pla
nner)

4. initiates the curriculum. In cases where the curriculum is recommended to the schools from DepE
d, CHED, TESDA,UNESCO, UNICEF or other educational agencies for improvement of quality educ
ation, the teacher is obliged to implement. Implementation of a new curriculum requires the open min
dedness of the teacher, and the full belief that the curriculum will enhance learning. There will be man
y constraints and difficulties in doing things first or leading, however, a transformative teacher will ne
ver hesitate to try something novel and relevant. (Initiator)

5. innovates the curriculum. Creativity and innovation are hallmarks of an excellent teacher. A curri
culum is always dynamic, hence it keeps on changing. From the content, strategies, ways of doing, blo
cks of time, ways of evaluating, kinds of students and skills of teachers, one cannot find a single etern
al curriculum that would perpetually fit. A good teacher, therefore, innovates the curriculum and thus
becomes a curriculum innovator. (Innovator)

6. implements the curriculum. The curriculum that remains recommended or written will never serv
e its purpose. Somebody has to implement it. As mentioned previously, at the heart of schooling is the
curriculum. It is this role where the teacher becomes the curriculum implementor. An implementor gi
ves life to the curriculum plan. The teacher is at the height of an engagement with the learners, with su
pport materials in order to achieve the desired outcome. (Implementor)

7. evaluates the curriculum. How can one determine if the desired learning outcomes have been achi
eved? Is the curriculum working? Does it bring the desired results? What do outcomes reveal? Are the
learners achieving? Are there some practices that should be modified? Should the curriculum be modi
fied, terminated or continued? These are some few questions that need the help of a curriculum evalua
tor. That person is the teacher. (Evaluator)

The seven different roles are those which a responsible teacher does in the classroom everyday! Doing
these multi-faceted work qualifies a teacher to be a curricularist.

To be a teacher is to be a curricularist even if a teacher may not equal the likes of John Dewey, Ralph
Tyler, Hilda Taba, or Franklin Bobbit. As a curricularist a teacher will be knowing, writing, implemen
ting, innovating, initiating and evaluating the curriculum in
the school and classrooms just like the role models and advocates in curriculum and curriculum devel
opment who have shown the way.

Module 2: The Teacher as a Knower of Curriculum

 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Module Overview:
-Module 2 describes the school curriculum in terms of its definition, its nature and scope, which are n
eeded by the teacher as a knower. This module provides a wider perspective for the teachers about the
curriculum, in terms of curriculum approach, curriculum development process, some curriculum mod
els and the foundations upon which curriculum is anchored.

LESSON 1: THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM: DEFINITION, NATURE AND SCOPE

Desired Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the discussion the learners must be able to;

 Define curriculum from different perspectives

 Describe the nature and scope of curriculum

Content Focus

Whether curriculum is taken in its narrow view as a listing of subjects to be taught in schools or broad
ly as all learning experiences that individuals undergo while in school, we cannot deny the fact that cu
rriculum should be understood by teachers and other stakeholders for curriculum affects all teachers, s
tudents, parents, politicians, businessmen, professionals, government officials or even the common pe
ople.

The New International Dictionary defines curriculum as the whole body of a course in an educational
institution or by a department while the Oxford English Dictionary defines curriculum as courses taug
ht in schools or universities.

Some Definitions of Curriculum

1. Curriculum is a planned and guided set of learning experiences and intended outcomes, formulated
through the systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experiences under the auspices of the school,
for the learners' continuous and willful growth in personal social competence." (Daniel Tanner, 1980)

2. It is a written document that systematically describes goals planned, objectives, content, learning ac
tivities, evaluation procedures and so forth. (Pratt, 1980)

3. The contents of a subject, concepts and tasks to be acquired, planned activities, the desired learning
outcomes and experiences product of culture and an agenda to reform society make up a curriculum.
(Schubert, 1987)

4. A curriculum includes "all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of educatio
n whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms o
f a framework of theory and research or past and present professional practice." (Hass, 1987)
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

5. It is a programme of activities (by teachers and pupils) designed so that pupils will attain so far as p
ossible certain educational and other schooling ends or objectives. (Grundy, 1987)

6. It is a plan that consists of learning opportunities for a specific time frame and place, a tool that aim
s to bring about behavior changes in students as a result of planned activities and includes all learning
experiences received by students with the guidance of the school. (Goodland and Su, 1992)

7. It provides answers to three questions: 1. What knowledge, skills and values are most worthwhile?
2. Why are they most worthwhile? 3. How should the young acquire them? (Cronbeth, 1992)

Some Points of View of Other Curricularists

Since the concept and meaning of curriculum are shaped by a person's point of view, this has added to
fragmentation, and some confusion. However when put together, the different definitions from diverse
points of view, would describe curriculum as dynamic and perhaps ever changing.

Curriculum from Traditional Points of View

The traditional points of view of curriculum were advanced by Robert Hutchins, Arthur Bestor, and Jo
seph Schwab.

 Robert M. Hutchins views curriculum as "permanent studies" where rules of grammar, reading,
rhetoric, logic and mathematics for basic education are emphasized. The 3Rs (Reading, Writing,
'rithmetic) should be emphasized in basic education while liberal education should be the empha
sis in college.

 Arthur Bestor as an essentialist believes that the mission of the school should be intellectual trai
ning, hence curriculum should focus on the fundamental intellectual disciplines of grammar, liter
ature and writing. It should include mathematics, science, history and foreign language.

 Joseph Schwab thinks that the sole source of curriculum is a discipline, thus the subject areas su
ch as Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, English and many more. In college, academic discipl
ines are labelled as humanities, sciences, languages, mathematics among others. He coined the w
ord discipline as a ruling doctrine for curriculum development.

 Phillip Phenix asserts that curriculum should consist entirely of knowledge which comes from v
arious disciplines.

Collectively from the traditional view of theorists like Hutchins, Schwab, Bestor and Phenix, curricul
um can be defined as a field of study. Curriculum is highly academic and is concerned with broad hist
orical, philosophical, psychological and social issues. From a traditional view, curriculum is mostly w
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Tamag, Vigan City

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

ritten documents such syllabus, course of study, books and references where knowledge is found but i
s used as a means to accomplish intended goals.

Curriculum from Progressive Points of View

On the other hand, a listing of school subjects, syllabi, course of study, and specific discipline does no
t make a curriculum. In its broadest terms, a progressive view of curriculum is the total learning exper
iences of the individual. Let us look into how curriculum is defined from a progressive point of view.

• John Dewey believes that education is experiencing. Reflective thinking is a means that unifies curri
cular elements that are tested by application.

• Holin Caswell and Kenn Campbell viewed curriculum as all experiences children have under the g
uidance of teachers.

• Othaniel Smith, William Stanley and Harlan Shore likewise defined curriculum as a sequence of
potential experiences, set up in schools for the purpose of disciplining children and youth in group wa
ys of thinking and acting.

• Colin Marsh and George Willis also viewed curriculum as all the experiences in the classroom whi
ch are planned and enacted by the teacher and also learned by the students.

The nature of curriculum has given rise to many interpretations, depending on a person's philosophica
l beliefs. Let us put all of these interpretations in a summary.

CURRICULUM is what is taught in school, a set of subjects, a content, a program of studies, a set of
materials, a sequence of courses, a set of performance objectives, everything that goes within the scho
ol. It is what is taught inside and outside of school directed by the teacher, everything planned by scho
ol, a series of experiences undergone by learners in school or what individual learner experiences as a
result of school. In short, Curriculum is the total learning experiences of the learner, under the guidanc
e of the teacher.