By: NETI & AINUN

ECONOMIC SITUATION

CULTURAL SITUATION

W H O ?

CURRICULU M

W H Y ?

POLITICAL SITUATION

SOCIAL SITUATION

UNDERSTANDING CURRICULUM

context

why?

CHARACTERISTICS OF CURRICULUM

TIMELESS

AUTHORITATIVE

OBJECTIVE

ABSOLUTE

CURRICULA

DIFFERENT BELIEFS& COMMITMENTS TO EDUCATION& WHAT PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN TO DO IN SCHOOL

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CURRICULUM
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Understand the thinking behind a curriculum by considering the situation leading up to its formulation.

Understanding Curriculum

CURRICULUM
is the product of a group of people faced with a series of technical, economic, and political decisions, guided and constrained by their own personal belief systems.

Therefore, to understand & analyze Curriculum:

Determine:
Motivate
guide
Curriculum Developers

Understanding Curriculum
2nd

The Historical Context of Curriculum

STEP

The Historical Context:

Who were the architects? What were their guiding principles study of the ? What existing educational situation addressed?

The

past , by:

What was the focus of the curriculum development effort?

what social & political pressures being responded

By understanding The Historical Context, we will be able to:

1. The theory behind a curriculum by considering the situation leading up to its formulation. 2. Understanding the background of the curriculum document.

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS: 1ST step find out who were involved. Schwab (1971) contends that 5 sorts of people should be involved in a curriculum deliberations.

Each member should be the representative of the 4 commonplaces of education.

CURRICULUM

Someone with a background of psychology who understand students, how they learn, and what they need. EXPERT: psychologist, social workers, or students themselves.

Someone who understands teachers and the complexities of classrooms, the demand teachers face, and the constraints under which the curriculum was to be implemented.

Consult EXPERTS: individual teachers, teachers unions, education professors.

Someone who understands the subject matter, how people generate new knowledge, and theories in that discipline, what criteria of excellence apply, what the key concepts, knowledge claims, and telling questions are, what counts as evidence, and what values are implicit in the subject matter? EXPERTS: teachers, university of researchers; knowledge producers, practitioners;i.e.,people that usethe knowledge; or philosophers.

Someone who understand the economic and political realities of the community and the social problems related to these realities.

To understand the context consult: 1. sociologists. 2. Elected officials; international, national, state, or local community groups. Employers, parents group, or individual community members.

THE STORY BEHIND THE CURRICULUM: PROBLEM FORMULATION To understand the story behind a curriculum: 1. Interview the developers. 2. Library research-on any article written about the curriculum by one of the developers. Target: to get the situational factors that lead them to become involved with the project.

One approach to understand the curriculums story is to focus on the curriculums formulation of a problem. Any new curriculum can be thought as an attempt to respond to a problem. e.g.: 1. Computer Education curricula are responding to the need of computer literacy in our daily life and as one characteristics of being well educated. 2. Character Education; responding to the moral bankruptcy claimed by the religion leaders and the actual moral problems in Indonesia.

Curriculum development team

The choice , No curriculum is fortunate enough. Tp interpret it means having to know who involved in it.

A Nation At Risk:
THE IMPERATIVE FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM

The formulation of the problem of NCEEs report has the underlying assumptions:
The major threat to America was an external economic threat. Education was one of the causes of this problem. Indicators of the problem included the declined and poor test scores compared to other countries. One of the causes of the loss of excellence is the schools attempt to take on too much responsibility, losing its sense of purpose and diluting its efforts. Reform would come when educators improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the educational system, through attention to issues like graduation standards, amount of instructional time, and teacher qualifications.

High school Math and physics curriculum revision (1950s)

Soviet Unions launching of first satellite in 1957

Soviets technological achievement

Anthropolog y, ethnography , social psychology Cast of Characters : only university scholars

problem formulatio n

M:ACO S

Replaceme nt of the traditional curriculum

Federal government considered the reform of school curriculum to be a matter of national defense

Academic disciplines = primary significanc e

Warnings from educational critics, Admiral Hyman Rickover (1959) and Arthur Bestor (1953) that Americas military superiority was at risk and the schools intellectual flabbiness was to blame

We can infer the thinking behind the curriculum from the curriculum materials themselves. Pay attention to the elements.

Table 2.1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Planning Elements

Objectives: What knowledge, skills, or attitudes should students acquire? Rationale or educational philosophy behind the curriculum: Why should they learn this? What is the value of this? Content: What content, i.e., what topics, concepts, skills, etc., should be covered? Characteristics of target audience: Who is this for? (Consider interests, abilities, background knowledge.) Activities: What should they do? Materials: What resources will they need? Sequencing principles: In what order should this be done? Schedule: How long will each part take? Teacher training and attitudes: What do the teachers need to know, be able to do, and be committed to? Evaluation: How will success be determined? What will count as success? Administrative structure, school facilities, and financial constraints: How will it be implemented in a school?

12.

Other parts of curriculum: How will it relate to other subjects?

We can infer the priorities of the developers from the format and the emphasis
Each element can constitute preoccupation to the exclusion of other important planning elements.