Trends

Trends and Issues on Curriculum
and Curriculum Development

ANDREA MAY H. POLVOROSA
What are the trends that you observed?
Researches on Curriculum Development
(Local)
Implementation of the Senior High School Curriculum
• A total of 13 years from kindergarten to grade 12 mandatory and free in the public
schools.
• Grade 11 to 12 classes in the private schools or universities/colleges are subsidized
through the voucher program.
• Students’ chosen SHS strands is used as a requirement for college admission. This is based
on aptitude, interests, and school capacity.
• Students will undergo standardized assessments (aptitude tests, national career
assessment examination – NCAE and occupational interest test to empirically determine their
strengths and interests leading to strand preference.
• Curriculum guides are distributed to elementary, junior and SHS teachers to use as a tool
for teaching instructions based on standards.
• Mass training was conducted to prepare prospective SHS teachers in the actual
implementation of the curriculum.
Implementation Challenges of SHS
Curriculum
• The resources of a particular area dictate what SHS strands will be
offered.
• Inadequacy of facilities. It is more glaring in the public schools
particularly for hard sciences and technical/vocational courses.
• Lack of qualified teachers. The teacher education curriculum does not
include preparing teachers to teach in the SHS level.
• Difficulty of the private schools in particular to apply for permission to
offer SHS levels because of the many very idealistic requirements.
• Lack of buildings, simulation spaces and laboratories especially for
technical and hard science courses in the different strands.
Curricular Policies
1. Globalization. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, globalization still prospers. This can be
evidenced by the country’s compliance to international standards such as the ASEAN Qualifications
Reference Framework (AQRF) which officially recognizes the Philippines version of Qualifications
Framework (PQF). The AQRF is predominantly benchmarked with prestigious global standards e.g.
Malcolm Baldridge quality framework, European and Australian qualifications framework.
2. Technological advances. With the advent of industrial revolution 4.0 (Internet of Things, Rise of
the Machines), teaching and learning are not just delivered face-to-face but other flexible modes as
well that are highly technology-integrated and embedded. The current health crisis has popularized
in the Philippines the use of learning management system (LMS) and open technologies to sustain
quality of teaching and learning processes.
3. Holistically developed lifelong learners. More than ever, education has over emphasized on
producing graduates who are equipped with 21st century competencies (e.g. critical thinking,
problem solving, decision making, global citizenship, ability to work in teams etc.).
4. Culturally sensitive curriculum and inclusivity.
This means education for all. Regardless of race, ethnicity, color, social economic status, religion, gender etc. all
students should be educated. This requirement makes contextualization or indigenization of curriculum an
important feature of the new curriculum.
5. Child protection policy (DepEd Order 40, series of 2012) which seeks to protect “children in school from
abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination, bullying, and other forms of abuse”. This procedure has
significantly affected the teacher’s classroom management and paved the way for differentiated instruction
which responds to the needs and interests of students.
6. Competency/outcome-based curriculum. There is now a heavier focus on the deployment of performance

over traditional assessment tasks. This means that the performance of students is matched with
established grade-level, content and performance standards.
7. Expectation vs reality. The curricular goals do not match with the realities of the classroom particularly
for the public schools.
What accounts as quality curriculum?
Researches on Curriculum Development (Foreign)
1. High expectations. All students including those academically struggling, when informed about the challenges and expectations of the
curriculum will result in the increase of academic achievement. In other words, a quality curriculum should be able to challenge the
intellectual, psychological and physical domains of the learners
2. Responsiveness. Since the curriculum is dynamic and continually evolving, the assessment, evaluation and continuous quality
improvement are designed to determine its relevance and significance to the needs of the learners and society in general.
3. Coherence. The principle of sequence and content curation of curriculum will help establish the chronology of topics, activities,
formative and summative assessment tasks. You may refresh yourself with the spiral curriculum of Bruner, where learning is premised on
prior learning.
4. Stakeholders involvement. One trademark of a quality curriculum is when key stakeholders such as the parents, teachers, students,
people from the relevant industries, representatives from government agencies and local government among others are actively involved
in the curriculum planning, assessment, evaluation and continuous quality improvement.
5. Flexibility. The centralized system of the Philippine education lessens the degree of flexibility of its curricular offerings. The review
of the curriculum typically is only done after 3-5 years based on the strategic plan of the government. However, in terms of
implementation, the schools and teachers are given freedom to exercise flexibility in terms of pace, criteria by which students’
performance will be assessed, the learning experiences, teaching strategies and methods and the completion time.
6. Learner-centeredness. In today’s pedagogical landscape, there is a general shift from teaching to learning, from instruction to
assessment, from what to how students learn, from cognition to metacognition, from direct instruction to guided discovery, from
individualized to collaborative problem learning among others. These shifts define the learner-centeredness principle of curriculum
design and development.
Quality Teacher’s Knowledge
1. Content knowledge. Pre-requisite to becoming a quality teacher is one’s expertise of the subject being taught. A
teacher with a trivial content knowledge is as good as not teaching at all. What separates teachers from pretending
to be teachers is expertise. This implies that should really prepare for the challenges of teaching. For pre-service
teachers, you can endlessly update yourself with the trends and developments of your subject through research.
For in-service teachers, deepening one’s content knowledge can be done through professional development
activities such as pursuing master’s or doctorate degree or attendance to training and seminars relevant with the
subject being taught.
2. Pedagogical knowledge. The set of skills on how to teach covers pedagogical knowledge. This includes the
seamless conduct of teaching-learning activities and classroom management skills. However, a teacher who is good
in pedagogical knowledge does not automatically mean the teacher also has content knowledge.
3. Pedagogical content knowledge. The competence of the teacher to choose appropriate and constructively
aligned teaching and learning activities or strategies in teaching the content is pedagogical content knowledge.
4. Technological pedagogical content knowledge. The advent of COVID-19 and advancement of technology in and
of education now requires teachers to be technologically-savvy. In today’s instructional landscape, the use of
learning management systems (LMS), open technologies, open educational resources, course wares and the
maximization of blended-online and other flexible learning delivery modes.
Contextualization of the Curriculum
Contextualization in the K to 12 Curriculum
What is K to 12?
• The K to 12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic
education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High
School, and two years of Senior High School [SHS]) to provide
sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong
learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level
skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Strengthening Early Childhood Education

• Every Filipino child now has access to early childhood education through
Universal Kindergarten. At 5 years old, children start schooling and are
given the means to slowly adjust to formal education.
• Research shows that children who underwent Kindergarten have better
completion rates than those who did not. Children who complete a
standards-based Kindergarten program are better prepared, for primary
education.
• Education for children in the early years lays the foundation for lifelong
learning and for the total development of a child. The early years of a
human being, from 0 to 6 years, are the most critical period when the
brain grows to at least 60-70 percent of adult size..[Ref: K to 12 Toolkit]. In
Kindergarten, students learn the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors
through games, songs, and dances, in their Mother Tongue.
Building Proficiency through Language
(Mother Tongue Based Education)
• Students are able to learn best through their first language, their Mother Tongue
(MT). Twelve (12) MT languages have been introduced for SY 2012-2013: Bahasa
Sug, Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko, Kapampangan,
Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and Waray. Other local
languages will be added in succeeding school years.
• Aside from the Mother Tongue, English and Filipino are taught as subjects
starting Grade 1, with a focus on oral fluency. From Grades 4 to 6, English and
Filipino are gradually introduced as languages of instruction. Both will become
primary languages of instruction in Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High
School (SHS).
• After Grade 1, every student can read in his or her Mother Tongue. Learning
in Mother Tongue also serves as the foundation for students to learn Filipino and
English easily.
Ensuring Integrated and Seamless Learning (Spiral Progression)
Subjects are taught from the simplest concepts to more complicated

concepts through grade levels in spiral progression. As early as
elementary, students gain knowledge in areas such as Biology,
Geometry, Earth Science, Chemistry, and Algebra. This ensures a
mastery of knowledge and skills after each level.
For example, currently in High School, Biology is taught in 2nd Year,
Chemistry in 3rd Year, and Physics in 4th Year. In K to 12, these subjects
are connected and integrated from Grades 7 to 10. This same method is
used in other Learning Areas like Math.

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Trends and Issues on Curriculum

and Curriculum Development

6. Competency/outcome-based curriculum. There is now a heavier focus on the deployment of performance

Subjects are taught from the simplest concepts to more complicated

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