MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Discuss process for unpacking curriculum standards and competencies; and
2. Experience unpacking curriculum competencies to identify appropriate instructional
strategies and assessment tools.

INTRODUCTION:
Standards describe what students should know and be able to do with established
criteria. They have defined statements and provide the building blocks for competencies.
Competencies describe how students apply and transfer their learning to new contexts and
situations. They encompass multiple standards, are assessed for the transfer of knowledge and
skills across content areas. In this lesson, you will experience unpacking the curriculum to
evaluate which appropriate strategies and assessment tools will be employed and utilized.
Education helps develop an individual’s attitude as well as encourage the acquisition of new
skills. Teacher education students must know specific standards and competencies in
curriculum development and innovation as future curriculum leaders.

Definition and Examples of Curriculum Standards and Competencies

Content Standards – identify and set the essential knowledge and understanding that should be
learned by the students.
Performance Standards – describe the abilities and skills that the learners are expected to
demonstrate in relation to the content standards and integration of 21st century skills
Learning Competencies – refer to the knowledge, skills, and understanding that learners need to
demonstrate in every lesson or activity.

Processes for Unpacking Curriculum Competencies

Step 1: Classify standards as knowledge, skills, and values
Knowledge – if the learning competency calls for remembering and basic
comprehension of a concept or a skill
Skill – if the learning competency calls for the learner to demonstrate or apply a skill or
desired behavior
Values – if the learning competency calls for valuing and appreciation
Step 2: Identify the prerequisite knowledge, skills, and values for each learning competency.
Example:
 Describe changes in materials based on the effect of temperature:
Solid to liquid,
Liquid to solid,
Liquid to gas, or
Solid to gas.
 Before the students can actually describe changes in materials based on the effect of
temperature, they should be able to do the following:
Describe temperatures as hot or cold
Observe the effect of temperature on the materials
Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum
1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

Step 3: Look for the desired skills or behavior in every competency. Identify the most suitable
activity for each desirable behavior.
Example:
Create crafts that can be locally assembled with local materials, guided by local
traditional techniques (e.g., habi, lilip, etc).
 The desired behavior or skill in this learning competency is for students to create
crafts assembled with local materials, guided by local traditional techniques.
 This could be done through the following activities:
Lecture-Workshop; and
Project-based Approach (Individual or group project).
Step 4: Classify learning competencies to determine appropriate assessment tools.
This process is based on the works of Glatthorn (1998).
 Standard with Conventional Testing (SCT) – these are learning competencies that
require traditional assessment tools like quizzes and exams.
Examples:
Describe characteristics of sounds.
Identify primary colors.
Discuss the judicial system in the Philippines.
Explain different communication models.
 Standards with Performance Tasks (SPT) – these are learning competencies that require
performance tasks for assessment or authentic assessment
Examples:
Perform examples of Philippine Folk dance.
Write an essay about a selected topic.
Demonstrate how to dissect an insect.
Paint using natural and indigenous materials.

 Standards for Continuing Development (SCD) – these are competencies that focus on
values and attitudes that cannot be assessed.
Examples:
Recognize basic human rights of a person.
Appreciate the role of mathematics in everyday life.
Develop healthy eating habits.
Respect different cultural practices.

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

Unpacking Competencies Using Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Creat
e

Evaluate

Analyze

Apply

Understand

Knowledge

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy by Anderson & Krathwohl (2001)

Cognitive Domain

1. Knowledge- recall, remembering of prior learned materials in terms of facts, concepts,

theories and principles. It is the lowest cognitive level.
2. Comprehension-ability to grasp the meaning of material. It indicates the lowest form of
understanding.
3. Application-the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situation.
4. Analysis-ability to break down material into component parts so that its organizational
structure may be understood.
5. Synthesis-ability to put parts together to form a new whole
6. Evaluation- Ability to pass judgment on something based on given criteria.

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

The cognitive domain aims to develop the mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge of the
individual. The cognitive domain encompasses six categories which include knowledge;
comprehension; application; analysis; synthesis; and evaluation. Knowledge includes the ability
of the learner to recall data or information. This is followed by comprehension which assesses
the ability of the learner to understand the meaning of what is known. This is the case where a
student can explain an existing theory in his or her own words (Anderson et al, 2011). This is
followed by application which shows the ability of the student to use the abstract knowledge in
a new situation. A typical case is when an Economics student can apply the theory of demand
and supply to the changing market trend of clothing during a particular season. The analysis
category aims to differentiate facts and opinions. The synthesis category shows the ability to
integrate different elements or concepts to form a sound pattern or structure to help establish a
new meaning. The category of evaluation shows the ability to come up with judgments about
the importance of concepts. A typical scenario is when a manager can identify and implement
the most cost-effective methods of production in a bid to increase profits whilst sustaining a
high level of competitive advantage.

Affective Domain
1. Receiving- students willingness to pay attention to an event, stimuli or classroom
activities
2. Responding- active participation on the part of the students
3. Valuing-concerned with the worth or value a student attaches

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

4. Organizing-concerned with bringing together different values and building a value

system
5. Internalizing Values-developing a lifestyle based on a value system

The affective domain includes the feelings, emotions, and attitudes of the individual. The
categories of affective domain include receiving phenomena; responding to phenomena;
valuing; organization; and characterization (Anderson et al, 2011). The subdomain of receiving
phenomena creates the awareness of feelings and emotions as well as the ability to utilize
selected attention. This can include listening attentively to lessons in class. The next subdomain
of responding to phenomena involves active participation of the learner in class or during group
discussion (Cannon and Feinstein, 2005). Valuing involves the ability to see the worth of
something and express it. This includes the ability of a learner to share their views and ideas
about various issues raised in class. The ability of the student to prioritize a value over another
and create a unique value system is known as organization. This can be assessed with the need
to value one’s academic work as against their social relationships. The subdomain of
characterization explains the ability to internalize values and let them control the behavior of
the individual. Given this, a student considers the academic work highly important as it plays an
important role in deciding the career path chosen rather than what may be available.

Psychomotor Domain

1. Perception-use of sense organs to guide motor activities

2. Set-refers to the readiness to take an action
3. Guided Response- concerned with early stages in learning complex skills imitation and
trial and error are some of the ways of doing.
4. Mechanism-responses become habitual. Performance skills are executed with ease and
confidence
5. Complex overt responses-skilful performance and with complex movement patterns
6. Adaptation-well developed skills are now very easy to use

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

7. Origination-refers to creating new movements and patterns to fit the situation, showing
creativity

The psychomotor domain includes utilizing motor skills and the ability to coordinate them. The
subdomains of psychomotor include perception; set; guided response; mechanism; complex
overt response; adaptation; and origination. Perception involves the ability to apply sensory
information to motor activity. For instance, a student practices a series of exercises in a
textbook to score higher marks during exams. Set, as a subdomain, involves the readiness to act
upon a series of challenges to overcome them. Guided responses include the ability to imitate a
displayed behavior or utilize a trial and error method to resolve a situation (Sousa, 2016). The
subdomain of the mechanism includes the ability to convert learned responses into habitual
actions with proficiency and confidence. Students can solve exams questions after they have
confidently been able to answer some past questions. Complex Overt responses explain the
ability to skilfully perform complex patterns of actions. A typical instance has to do with the
ability of a student to have an increased typing speed when using a computer. Adaptability is an
integral part of the domain which exhibits the ability to modify learned skills to meet special
events. An instance is when a student who has learned various underlying theories can invent or
make a working model using everyday materials. Origination also involves creating new
movement patterns for a specific situation (Sincero, 2011).

Fink’s Taxonomy of significant Learning

SUMMARY:

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL
 MODULE 9- UNPACKING CURRICULUM STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES

Curriculum standards set clear and measurable goals on the knowledge, skills, and values
needed to develop in the learners. Standards inform the educators about what the outcomes of
a course of study should be. It gives informed instruction to the teacher and supports to
achieve successful outcomes in educating the learners. It helps in developing content and
utilizing more understanding for a defined level of rigor for students to reach their high
performance. It also helps measure achievement of the common set of goals that can be
measured within a state or across the country to determine student success. With the
continually increasing need to ensure that students are taught with varying strategies and
techniques, teachers need to adopt a teaching strategy that combines various domains of
learning to enable teaching and learning to be considered effective.

Curriculum competencies are specific knowledge, skills, and values that students need to
master.

Unpacking curriculum standards and competencies is essential in the selection of curriculum

content, learning activities, and assessment tools.

Teachers need to have strong pedagogical-content knowledge in order to unpack curriculum

standards and competencies effectively.

Think critically!
1. Examine the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum, how content standards, performance
standards and learning competencies as written? Evaluate the nature of competencies
using the Bloom’s Taxonomy over the descriptions of the various levels of expertise.

REFERENCES:
The Teacher and the School Curriculum by Greg Tabios Pawilen
[Link]
Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J.,
Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon
Cannon, H. M. and Feinstein, A. H (2005). Bloom Beyond Bloom: Using the Revised Taxonomy to
Develop Experiential Learning Strategies, Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential
Learning, Vol. 32, 2005
Sincero, S. M (April 18, 2011). Domains of Learning. Accessed from [Link]
learning Date accessed 8th October 2018.
Sousa, D. A (2016). How the Brain Works. Crowin Press. 2016.
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

Educ 3- The Teacher and The School Curriculum

1st Semester 2021-2022
FHRL