FOUNDATIONS OF CURRICULUM

MARIA ABEGAIL A. BIEN

MAJOR FOUNDATIONS OF CURRICULUM
• Philosophical Foundations
• Historical Foundations
• Social Foundations
• Psychological Foundations
Philosophical Foundations
• It helps in answering what schools are
for, what subjects are important, how
students should learn and what
materials and methods should be
used.
Perennialism
• Aim of Education: To educate the rational
person; to cultivate the intellect
• Role of Education: Teachers help student think
with reason
• Focus in the curriculum: Classical subjects,
literally analysis and curriculum is constant
• Curriculum Trends: Use of great books and
return to liberal arts
Essentialism
• Aim of Education: To promote the intellectual
growth of the individual and educate a
competent person
• Role of Education: The teacher is the sole
authority in his or her subject area or field
specialization
• Focus in the curriculum: English, Science,
History, Math and Foreign Language
• Curriculum Trends: Excellence in education,
back to basics and cultural literacy
Progressivism
• Aim of Education: To promote democratic and
social living
• Role of Education: Knowledge leads to growth
and development of lifelong learners who
actively learn by doing
• Focus in the curriculum: Students’ interest,
human problems and affairs
• Curriculum Trends: School reforms, relevalt and
contextualized curriculum, humanistic
education
Reconstructionism
• Aim of Education: To improve and reconstruct
society education for change
• Role of Education: Teachers act as agents of change
and reform in various educational projects including
research
• Focus in the curriculum: Focus on present and
future trends and issues of national and
international interests
• Curriculum Trends: Equality of educational
opportunities in education, access to global
education
Historical Foundations
• The historical development shows
the different changes in the purposes,
principles and content of the
curriculum
FRANKLIN BOBBIT
(1876-1956)

• Presented curriculum as a science that

emphasizes an students’ need
• Believes that objectives with corresponding
activities should be grouped and sequenced
 WERRET CHARTERS
• Agrees with Bobbit’s point of view
• The subject matter and the
activities are planned by the
teacher
• Objectives and activities should
match. Subject matter or content
relates to objectives.
 WILLIAM KILPATRICK
• Curricula are purposeful activities
which are child-centered.
• He introduced the project method
where teacher and students plan the activities
• Believed that the curriculum develops social
relationships and small group instruction
HAROLD RUGG
• Believed that curriculum should
develop the whole child. It is child-
centered.
With the statement of objectives and
related learning activities, curriculum
should produce outcomes.
• Emphasized social studies and the
teacher plans curriulum in advance
HOLLIS CASWELL
• Sees curriculum as organized
around social functions of themes,
organized and learner’s interest

• Believes that curriculum is a

set of experiences

• Subject matter is developed around social

functions and learner’s interests
RALPH TYLER
• Curriculum is a science and an
Extension of school’s philosophy.
It is based on students’ needs and
Interest.
Curriculum is always related to
instruction. Subject matter is organized in terms
of knowledge, skills and values.
The process emphasizes problem solving.
Curriculum aims to educate generalists and not
specialists.
HILDA TABA
(1902-1967)
• She contributed to the theoretical
and pedagogical foundations of
concepts development and critical
thinking in social studies curriculum.
• She helped lay the foundation for
diverse student population.
 PETER OLIVA
(1992-2012)
• He described how curriculum
change is a cooperative endeavor.
• Teachers and curriculum specialist
constitute the professional core
of planners.
• Significant improvement is
achieved through group activity.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
• Psychology provides a basis for the teaching and
learning process. It unifies elements of the
learning process.
BEHAVIORIST PSYCHOLOGY
• Learning should be organized in
order that students can
experience success in the process
of mastering the subject matter.
BEHAVIORISM
• Education in the 20th century was dominated by
behaviorism. The mastery of the subject matter
is given more emphasis. So, learning is
organized in a step-by-step process. The use of
drills and repetition are common.
• For this reason, many educational psychologists
viewed it mechanical and routine. Though many
are skeptical about this theory, we cant deny the
fact the influences it had in our educational
system.
IVAN PAVLOV
• He is the father of the Classical
Conditioning Theory,
the S-R Theory.

• The key to learning is early years of life is to

train them what you want them to become.

• S-R Theory is a foundation of learning practice

called indoctrination.
EDWARD THORNDIKE
• He championed the
Connectionism Theory
• He proposed the three
laws of learning:
▫ Law of readiness
▫ Law of exercise
▫ Law of effect
• Specific stimulus has specific response
ROBERT GAGNE
• He proposed the
Hierarchical Learning Theory.
Learning follows a hierarchy.
• Behavior is based on prerequisite conditions.
• He introduced tasking in the formulation of
objectives.
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
• Learning constitutes a logical
method for organizing and
interpreting learning.
COGNITIVISM
• Cognitive theorists focus on how individuals
process information, monitor and manage their
thinking. The basic question that cognitive
psychologists zero in on are:
-How do learners process and store
information?
-How do they retrieve data and generate
conclusions?
-How much information can they absorb?
• With their beliefs, they promote the
development of problem-solving and thinking
skills and popularize the use of reflective
thinking, creative thinking, intuitive thinking,
discovery learning, among others.
JEAN PIAGET
• 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-onwards)
• Keys to Learning
 Assimilation (incorporation of new
experience)
 Accomodation (learning modification
and adaptation)
 Equilibration (balance between
previous and later learning)
LEV VYGOTSKY
• Theories of Lev Vigotsky
 Cultural transmission and
development:
 Children could, as a result of
their interaction with society,
actually perform certain cognitive
actions prior to arriving at developmental
stage
 Learning precedes development
 Sociocultural development theory
HOWARD GARDNER
• Gardner’s multiple intelligences
▫ Humans have several different
ways of processing information
and these ways are relatively
independent of one another.
▫ There are eight intelligences:
 Linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial,
bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
naturalistic
DANIEL GOLEMAN
• Emotion contains the
power to affect action
 He called this emotional
content.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
• Curriculum is concerned with the process not
the products; personal needs not subject matter;
psychological meaning and environmental
situations.
HUMANISM
• In this theory, curriculum is after the process, not
the product; focuses on personal needs, not on the
subject matter; and clarifying psychological
meanings and environmental situations. In short,
curriculum views founded on humanism posits that
learners are human beings who are affected by their
biology, culture, and environment. They are neither
machines nor animals.
• A more advanced, more comprehensive curriculum
that promotes human potential must be crafted
along this line. Teachers don’t only educate the
minds, but the hearts as well.
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.
GESTALT THEORY
• 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.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• He advanced the Self-Actualization
Theory and classic theory of
human needs.
• A child whose basic needs are not met will not be
interested in acquiring knowledge of the world.
• He put importance to human emotions, based
on love and trust.
KEY TO LEARNING:
Produce a healthy and happy learner who
can accomplish, grow and actualize his or her
human self.
CARL ROGERS
- Nondirective and
Therapeutic Learning
- He established counselling
procedures and methods for
facilitating learning,
- Children’s perceptions, which are highly individualistic,
influence their learning and behaviour in class
KEY TO LEARNING:
Curriculum is concerned with process, not
product; personal needs, not subject matter,
psychological meaning, not cognitive scores
SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS
• Societal culture affects and shapes the
schools and their curricula.
•Schools are not the only
institution that educate the
society.
• School curricula should address diversity,
explosion of knowledge, school reforms
and education for all.
• Curricula should preserve the culture of
the society and its aspirations.

• Society should also imbibe the changes

brought about by the formal institutions
called schools.
• There is a mutual and encompassing
relationship between society and curriculum
because the school exists within the societal
context. Though schools are formal institutions
that educate the people, there are other units of
society that educate or influence the way people
think, such as families and friends as well as
communities.
SCHOOLS AND SOCIETY
• Society as a source of change
• Schools as agents of change
• Knowlede as an agent of change
 JOHN DEWEY
• Considered two fundamental
elements - schools and civil society-
to be major topics needing attention
and reconstruction to encourage experimental
intelligence and plurality
ALVIN TOFFLER
• Wrote the book Future Shock
• Believed that knowledge should
prepare students for the future
• Suggested that in the future, parents might have
the resources to teach prescribed curruiculum
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.
• THE FOUNDATION UPON WHICH
CURRICULUM IS BASED ARE
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES,
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS,
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS,
AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES. ALL OF
THESE FOUNDATIONS ARE
INTERRELATED TO EACH.