Meaning and Categorization of Curriculum Design
Curriculum design is the planning period when teachers organize the instructional units for their subjects. It involves planning activities, readings, lessons, and assessments that achieve educational goals.
Curriculum design can be segmented into three forms. These include subject-centered design, learner-centered design and problem-centered design.
Subject-centered design focuses on a specific discipline while learner-centered design focuses on students’ own interests and goals. Problem-centered design focuses on specific issues and how to source solutions.
However, the conception of curriculum as the cumulative tradition of knowledge has been with many educators years back and even to date. Thus, curriculum was seen as the aggregate of all school subjects (Ughamadu, 2006).
The Different Categories Of Curriculum Design
Current curriculum can be categorized into two: the Product Category and the Process Category. The Product Category is results-oriented. Grades are the prime objective, with the focus lying more on the finished product rather than on the learning process.
The Process Category, however, is more open-ended, and focuses on how learning develops over a period of time. These two categories need to be taken into account when designing curriculum.
SUBJECT-CENTERED CURRICULUMS DESIGN
This revolves around a particular subject matter or discipline, such as mathematics, literature or biology. This model of curriculum design tends to focus on the subject, rather than the student. It is the most common model of standardized curriculum that can be found in K-12 public schools.
Instructors compile lists of subjects and specific examples of how they should be studied. In higher education, this methodology is typically found in large university or college classes where teachers focus on a particular subject or discipline.
Subject-centered curriculum design is not student-centered, and the model is less concerned with individual learning styles compared to other forms of curriculum design. This can lead to issues with student engagement and motivation and may cause students who are not responsive to this model to fall behind.
BROAD FIELDS CURRICULUM DESIGN
Broad-fields curriculum design is generally considered to be expanded version of the idea of fusion. In this approach, two, three or more subjects are unified into one broad-course of study. This organization is actually a system of combining and regrouping subjects that are related in the curriculum into separate broad fields of study.
The broad-fields approach attempts to develop some kind of synthesis or unity for the entire branch of knowledge. It may even involve synthesizing two or more branches of knowledge into new fields. Good examples would be:
3. Family Life Education
Advocates of broad fields design believe that the approach would bring about unification and integration of knowledge. However, looking at the trend of events in curriculum practice in this country, this has not materialized. Several reasons could be given for this drawback. Three of them will be discussed here with reference to the present situation in Nigeria.
First, teachers trained at the university, and diploma teachers colleges are expected to specialize in two or three subjects taught in secondary schools. A teacher who specialized in history, geography or any other subject finds it difficult to teach in an integrated curriculum.
A good example can be drawn from the teaching of social studies in our schools. Most teachers would be comfortable to teach history and geography as separate subjects on the school timetable.
The same problems are experienced in the teaching of general science. Secondly, universities and diploma colleges in this country still return their subject- centered curriculum.
Before 1985, candidates for admission to universities and diploma colleges in this country are expected to have studies three or four subjects at form 5 and 6. Aggregate points obtained in the final advanced level examination were then used for selection into university.
Students tended to specialize in their later years of secondary education. Thirdly, the Kenya National Examination Council has in 1985 come up with a unified syllabus to be adapted for integrated studies in schools. All national examinations are still set on subject basis (Source:www.edadvocate.com/broadfield-design).
Advantages of Broad Fields Design
The advocates of broad-fields design argue that;
1. It is based on separate subjects, so it provides for an orderly and systematic exposure to the cultural heritage.
2. It integrates separate subjects into a single course.
3. This enables learners to see the relationship among various elements in the curriculum.
4. It saves time on the school timetable.
Prepares a student for self-reliance and survival skills.
Criticisms of Broad fields Design
Opponents of broad-fields curriculum design claim that;
1. It lacks depth and cultivates shallowness.
2. It provides only bits and pieces of information from a variety of subjects.
3. It does not account for psychological organization by which learning takes place.
CORE CURRICULUM DESIGN
The concept, core-curriculum is used to refer to areas of study in the school curriculum that are required by all students. The core-curriculum provides students with “common learning” or general education that will be necessary. Therefore the core-curriculum constitutes the segments of the curriculum that teaches common concepts, skills and attitudes needed by all individuals in order to function effectively within the society.
Two definitions of core-curriculum design will be adapted for use in this section:
The core-curriculum is a way of organizing some important common learning in the high school or college using a problem solving approach as its procedure, having social and personal significance to youth “as its content, and the development of the behaviours needed in a democratic society as its purpose”.
In modern education, the term core has come to be that part of the curriculum which is concerned with those types of experiences thought to be necessary to all learners in order to develop certain behaviour competencies considered necessary for effective living in our democratic society.
Some Characteristics of Core Curriculum Design;
The core-curriculum design constitutes the following features:
1. They constitute a section of the curriculum that all students are required to take.
2. They unify or fuse subject matter, especially in subjects such as English, Social Studies, etc.
3. Their content is planned around problems that cut across the disciplines. In this approach, the basic methods of learning is problem solving using all applicable subject matter.
4. They are organized into blocks of time. Two or three periods under a core teacher may be organized. Other teachers may be utilized where it is possible.
5. They encourage teachers to plan with students in advance.
6. They provide pupils with the necessary guidance
THE ACTIVITY/EXPONENCE CURRICULUM
Activity curriculum is a modern approach in curriculum development. It is a reaction against the traditional curriculum which was subject- centered or teacher dominated. Child centered education and activity movement led to the concept of activity-centered curriculum.
The focus of an activity-curriculum is teaching skills and knowledge to your students through creative tasks and activities. Rather than students passively listening to a teacher, students will complete tasks that practice key skills and allow them to absorb information in an active way.
An activity curriculum might also focus on learning through play. For example, teachers might use interactive games to develop key skills in English or Maths, like our KS2 Maths Escape Room which revises Roman numerals, fractions and graphs.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUBJECT CENTERED AND CORE CURRICULUM DESIGN SUBJECT CENTERED CURRICULUM
Subject centered curriculum is the oldest and the most widely accepted form of curriculum organization.
The earliest example of this sort of organization is the seven liberal arts in the schools of ancient Greece and Rome and in the monastery and Cathedrals of the middle ages in the Medieval Era.
The seven liberal arts consisted of two divisions:
Trivium: Its lower division consisting of: i. Grammar ii. Rhetoric iii. Dialectic (logic)
Quadrivium consists of Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music.
These subjects were broad.
The seven liberal arts do not conform precisely to modern subjects having the same titles: In the modern period the Trivium was further divided to include literature and history and the quadrivium to include algebra, trigonometry, geography, botany, zoology, physics and chemistry.
In this manner subjects went on being added one after the other so much so that in 1930 there were over 300 distinct subjects of instruction. Despite all this the seven liberal arts are still the nucleus of the subject curriculum.
In subject curriculum each subject is taught as a separate unit. In this pattern of curriculum organization a student may take four or five different subjects each taught by a different teacher and at a separate period of the school day.
While CORE CURRICULUM DESIGN refers to a series or selection of courses deemed essential and that all students are required to complete before they can move on to the next level in their education or earn a diploma, typically including, but not limited to, various reading, writing, math, and science courses.
It is the body of knowledge, skills and attitudes expected to be learned by all students, generally related to a set of subjects and learning areas that are common to all students, such as languages, mathematics, arts, physical education, science and social studies.
The purpose of the core curriculum at universities is supposed to be to provide students with the skills of critical thinking, writing efficiency, mathematical literacy, physical education, service learning and community engagement.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROAD FIELD AND SUBJECT CENTERED
The broad fields design combines two or more related subjects into a single broad field of study, for example, Language Arts combines the separate but related subjects of Reading, Spelling, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Composition. A broad field curriculum is a structure for achieving educational outcomes that combines related subjects into one broad field of study.
The purpose of a broad field curriculum is to highlight relationships between subjects and to integrate the learning experience. While Subject Centered is a traditional curriculum design that consists of students receiving lectures from teachers, reading textbooks, and regurgitating information on an assessment within a very specific timeframe.
The central objective for any subject-centered approach to curriculum is student mastery of content knowledge. The teacher presents content and skills to students in a logical sequence. This step-by-step approach ensures that students gain all the information and skills needed to master this content area.
Developing, designing and implementing an education curriculum is no easy task—especially with online and hybrid learning. With educational technology playing an increasingly essential role in higher education and with today’s diverse student body, instructors have their work cut out for them. But by following the fundamental guidelines and framework of curriculum development, educators will be setting themselves—and their students—up for long-term success.
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5.Ughamadu, K.A (2006), Curriculum: Concept, Development And
Implementation, Onitsha: Lincel Publishers.