The Teacher and the School Curriculum

Designing the Curriculum

The Teacher as a Curriculum Designer

The teacher’s task is to design a lesson
and use a curriculum that has been made
or previously written, which is a very
challenging task. This is where the style
and creativity of the teacher come in. This
module provides concepts that a teacher
can refer to in designing lesson plans and
curricula.
Ten Axioms About Curriculum that
Teachers Need as Reminders
1. Curriculum change is inevitable,
necessary, and desirable. Teachers
respond to the changes and address
the changing conditions with new
curriculum designs.
2. Curriculum is a product of its time.
A relevant curriculum should
respond to changes brought about
by current forces, positions,
principles, knowledge, and reforms.
This is also called timeliness.
3. Curriculum changes made earlier
can exist concurrently with newer
curriculum changes.
4. Curriculum revision is slow and
gradual; thus the changes that occur
can coexist and oftentimes overlap
for long periods of time.
5. Curriculum change depends on
people who will implement the
change. Teachers who will
implement the curriculum should
design and own the changes. This
will ensure an effective and long-
lasting change.
6. Curriculum development is a
cooperative group activity. Group
decisions in some aspects of
curriculum development are
suggested. Consultations with
stakeholders and participation of
learners should be part of the
design. The involvement of a broad
range of stakeholders will ensure
understanding, support, and input.
7. Curriculum development is a
decision-making process made
from choices of alternatives. A
curriculum developer or designer
must decide what content to teach,
philosophy or point of view to
 support, how to provide for
multicultural groups, what methods
or strategies, and what type of
evaluation to use.
8. Curriculum development is an
ongoing process. Continuous
monitoring, examination,
evaluation, and improvement of
curricula are to be considered in the
design of the curriculum. As the
needs of learners change, as society
changes, and as new knowledge and
technology appear, the curriculum
must change.
9. Curriculum development is more
effective if it is a comprehensive
process, rather than a "piecemeal.”
A curriculum design should be based
on a careful plan, should clearly
establish intended outcomes,
support resources and needed time
available and should equip teaching
staff pedagogically.
10. Curriculum development is
more effective when it follows a
systematic process. A curriculum
design is composed of desired
outcomes, subject matter content
complemented with references set
of procedures, needed materials
 and resources and evaluation
procedure which can be placed in a
matrix.
11. Curriculum development
starts from where the curriculum is.
Curriculum planners and designers
should begin with existing
curriculum. An existing design is a
good starting point for any teacher
who plans to enhance and enrich a
curriculum.

Building upon the ideas of Oliva, let us

continue learning how to design a
curriculum by identifying its components.
For most curricula, the major components
or elements are answers to the following
questions:
1. What learning outcomes need to
be achieved? (Intended Learning
Outcomes)
2. What content should be included
to achieve the learning outcomes?
(Subject Matter)
3. What learning experiences and
resources should be employed?
(Teaching-Learning Methods)
4. How will the achieved learning
outcomes be measured?
 (Assessment of Achieved Learning
Outcomes)
Elements or Components of a Curriculum
Design
There are many labels or names for
curriculum design. Some would call it a
syllabus or a lesson plan. Some would call
it a unit plan or a course design. Let us
take the Lesson Plan as a miniscule
curriculum. A lesson plan or teaching
guide includes: intended learning
outcomes (ILO) or the desired learning
outcome (DLO) formerly labelled as
behavioral objectives, subject matter or
content, teaching and learning methods,
and assessment evaluation.

1. Behavioral Objectives or Intended

Learning Outcomes
 They are the learning outcomes that
are to be accomplished in a
particular learning episode, engaged
in by the learners under the
guidance of the teacher.
 Expressed in action words found in
the revised Bloom's Taxonomy of
Objectives (Andersen and
Krathwohl, 2003) for the
development of the cognitive skills.
  Affective skills taxonomy by
Krathwohl
 Psychomotor domain by Simpson
 The statement should be SMART:
Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Result-oriented, and Time-bounded
 Cognitive objectives (learning facts,
theories, formulae, principles etc.)
 Performance outcomes (learning
how to carry out procedures,
calculations, and processes, which
typically include gathering
information and communicating
results).
 Affective outcomes are important
too (for developing attitudes or
values, e.g. those required as a
person and for a particular
profession).

2. Content/Subject Matter
Principles in selecting content
 Subject matter should be relevant,
purposive, and clearly focused on
the planned learning outcomes.
 Subject matter should be
appropriate to the level of the
lesson or unit.
 An effective curriculum is
progressive, leading students
towards building on previous
lessons.
  Subject matter should be up-to-date
and, if possible, should reflect
current knowledge and concepts.

3. References
The reference follows the content. It tells
where the content or subject matter has
been taken. The reference may be a book,
a module, or any publication. It must bear
the author of the material and, if possible,
the publications.

4. Teaching and Learning Methods

 Activities where the learners derive
experiences
 Teaching strategies that students
will experience (lectures, laboratory
classes, fieldwork etc.) and make
them learn
 Methods should allow cooperation,
healthy competition, as well as
individualism or independent
learning among the students
 Use of various delivery modes:
Online learning and similar modes
are increasingly important in many
curricula, but these need to be
planned carefully to be effective.

Some Behaviorist Teaching Learning

Methods
A. Direct Instruction: Barak
Rosenshine Model (in Ornstien &
Hunkins, 2018)
Detailed Steps:
1. State Learning
Objectives/Outcomes. Begin the
lesson with a short statement of
objective or desired lesson
learning outcomes.
2. Review. Introduce short review of
previous or prerequisite learning.
3. Present new materials. Present
materials in small, sequenced
manner.
4. Explain. Give clear and detailed
instructions and explanations.
5. Practice. Provide active practice
for all students.
6. Guide. Guide students during
initial practice; or provide
seatwork activities.
7. Check for understanding. Ask
several questions, and assess
students comprehension.
8. Provide Feedback. Provide
systematic feedback and
corrections.
9. Assess performance. Obtain
student success rate of 80 percent
or more during practice session.
10. Review and test. Provide for
spaced review and testing.
B. Guided Instruction: Madeline
Hunter Model (in Ornstein &
Hunkins, 2018)
1. Review. Focus on previous lesson,
ask students to summarize main
points.
2. Anticipatory set. Focus student's
attention on new lesson.
Stimulate interest in the new
materials.
3. Objective. State explicitly what is
to be learned; state the rationale
or how it will be useful.
4. Input. Identify needed knowledge
and skills for learning new lesson;
present materials in sequenced
steps.
5. Modeling. Provide several
examples or demonstrations
throughout the lesson.
6. Check for understanding. Monitor
students' work before they
become involved in lesson
activities, check to see the
understand directions or tasks.
7. Guided practice. Periodically ask
students questions and their
answers. Again monitor
understanding.
8. Independent practice. Assign
independent work or practice
when it is reasonably sure that
 students can work on their own
with understanding and minimal
frustration.
C. Mastery Learning; JH Block and
Lorin Anderson Model (in Ornstein
& Hunkins, 2018)
1. Clarify. Explain to students what
they are expected to learn
2. Inform. Teach the lesson, relying
on the whole group instruction.
3. Pretest. Give a formative quiz on a
no fault-basis, students can check
their own paper.
4. Group. Based on results, divide
the class into mastery and non-
mastery groups (80% is
considered mastery)
5. Enrich and correct. Give
enrichment instruction to mastery
group. Give corrective
(practice/drill) to non-mastery
group.
6. Monitor. Monitor student
progress; vary amount of teacher
time and support for each group
based on group size and
performance.
7. Posttest. Give a summary test for
non-mastery group.
8. Assess performance. At least 75%
of the students should achieve
mastery by the summative test.
 9. Reteach. If not, repeat
procedures; starting with
corrective instructions (small
study groups, individual tutoring,
alternative instructional materials,
extra homework, reading
materials practice and drill).
D. Systematic Instruction: Thomas
Good and Jere Brophy (in Ornstein
and Hunkins, 2018)
1. Review. Review concepts and
skills related to homework.
provide review exercises.
2. Development. Promote students
understanding, provide
controlled practice.
3. Assess comprehension. Ask
questions, provide controlled
practice.
4. Seatwork. Provide uninterrupted
seatwork; get everyone involved,
sustain momentum.
5. Accountability. Check the
students work.
6. Homework. Assign homework
regularly; provide review
problems.
7. Special reviews. Provide weekly
reviews to check and further
maintain and enhance learning.

Teaching-Learning Environment
In the choice of teaching-learning
methods, equally important is the
teaching-learning environment. Brian
Castaldi, in 1987, suggested four criteria
in the provision of the environment or
learning spaces in designing a curriculum.
1. Adequacy. Space, conducive and
safe learning, light, ventilation, and
technology to provide optimum
learning conditions.
2. Suitability. planned activities;
should consider the chronological
and developmental ages of learners;
socio-cultural, economic even
religious background of the learners.
3. Efficiency. This refers to operational
and instructional effectiveness.
4. Economy. This refers to cost
effectiveness. How much is needed
to provide instructional materials?

VI. Assessment/Evaluation
Learning occurs most effectively when
students receive feedback, i.e. when they
receive information on what they have
already (and have not) learned. The
process by which this information is
generated is assessment. It has three
main forms:
1. Self-assessment. Students monitor
and evaluate their own learning to
be more reflective and self-critical.
 2. Peer assessment. Students provide
feedback on each other's learning;
an extension of self-assessment and
presupposes trust and mutual
respect. Research suggests that
students can learn to judge each
other's work as reliably as staff.
3. Assessment may be formative
(providing feedback to help the
student learn more; assessment
tasks that are marked and returned
with detailed comments) or
summative (expressing a judgment
on the student's achievement by
reference to stated criteria;
allocation of marks and grades).

Summary

Based on the curriculum models we

have learned, the fundamental
components include the following:
Major components of a course design
or syllabus
1. Intended Outcomes (or Objectives)
2. Content/Subject Matter (with
references)
3. Methods/Strategies (with needed
resources)
4. Evaluation (means of assessment)

Curriculum design is the organization of

curriculum components. All other
additional components are trimmings that
each designer may add. This may be an
institutional template or suggestions by
other curriculum experts or required by
educational agencies like the Department
of Education, Commission on Higher
Education, Accrediting Agencies,
Professional Regulation Commission to
achieve a specific purpose of such agency.