Types of
Curriculum Design
Presented by: Judith B. Pacheco
The curriculum components can be arrange in
various ways. But, in spite all the discussion about
postmodern beliefs of knowledge and making
curricula for social awareness and freedom. Most
curricula design are interpretations or versions of
three basic design, they are: (1) subject-centered,
(2) learner-centered design, and (3) problem-
centered designs. Each category comprises
several examples as cited in the chart below.
SUBJECT-
CENTERED
DESIGNS
Among the curriculum designs, the most popular and
widely used is the centered designs. Its knowledge and
content are well accepted as integral parts of the
curriculum and it has the most classifications. Concepts
dominant to a culture are mostly emphasized than weak
ones. Content is to schooling in our culture, thus, we
have many concepts to interpret for our society.
1. SUBJECT DESIGN
-The oldest and best known design to both teachers
and laypeople.
-Reflects a mental discipline approach to learning.
-Subject that comprise this curriculum design include
language (reading,writing, grammar, literature,
mathematics, science, history, and foreign langauges.
-Current attention on “standards” reflects the subject
design.
-Assume that the subjects are best outlined in
textbooks.
-Crtics say the design stresses content and neglects
students needs, and experience.
2. DISCIPLINE DESIGN
- Became popular during the 1950s and reached its
zenith in the mid-1960s.
- Advocates of this approach believe that the school is a
microcosm of the world of intellect and that the
diciplines reflect that world.
- The manner in which content is to be learned is
suggested by the methods schoolars use to study
information in their fields(e.g., students in history
would approach the subject matter as would a
historian).
- Emphasis on discipline reflects Jerome Bruner’s
classic book, The process of Education. One should
organize the curriculum according to the
structure of the discipline. Bruner argued that
students are able to comprehend the
fundamental priciples of any subject at almost
any age- such understanding does not need to
wait until adolescence or adulthood.
- Critics state that the greatest shortcoming of
this design is that is the causes of the schools
to ignore the vast amount of information that
cannot be classified as discipiline knowledge
(e.g.. Cocational education aesthics).
3. BROAD- FIELDS DESIGN
This design is also known to others as the
interdisciplinary design. This is another type of
subject-centered design. Many educators
decided to correct the division and classification
caused by the subject design which is limiting.
For example, separate social science of geography,
economics, political science, anthropology,
sociology, and history were fused into social
studies. Linguistics, grammar, literature,
composition, and spelling were collapsed into
laguage arts.
- This design allows ‘hybrid” types of knowledge to
be created and incorporated into the curriculum.
- Critics view the issue of breadth versus depth as a
problem.
[Link] DESIGN
- This design attemps to identify ways in which subjects
can be related to one another while still maintaining their
identity as subjects.
For example, the two most frequent correlated subject are
English literature and history at the secondary level and
language arts and social sciencestudies at the elementary
level. While studying a period in history, students in their
English class read novels that relate to the same time
period.
- The greatest challenge lies in finding time for teachers to
plan lessons cooperatively.
[Link] DESIGN
- This design stresses the learning of general
procedures, general processes not specific to any
particular discipline, but applicable to all. The
nunumerous curricula for teaching critical and
creative thingking exemplifies this procedural design.
- There exists a belief that a certain set of skills or
processes are common to thingking, regardless of
subject, domain, or purpose.
- The common goal of the curricula is to teach those
processes.