Chapter 1: Developing the Curriculum

Curriculum and Instruction Defined
Conceptions of Curriculum
While administrators administer, instructors instruct, and supervisors supervise, no school person curricules, and though we can find the use of the term curricularist, it is only a rare curricularist who curricularizes.

No one has ever seen a curriculum, not a real, total, tangible, visible entity called a curriculum.

Certification and Curriculum
There is not a certifiable field labeled curriculum.

Curriculum is built, planned, designed, and constructed.  It is imporved, revised, and evaluated.  It is also organized, structured, restructured, and reformed.

The curriculum planner can mold shape and tailor the curriculum

Interpretations of Curriculum
Field of utter confusion
Curriculum is...

• that which is taught at school
• a set of subjects
• content
• program of studies
• set of materials
• sequence of courses
• set of perfomance objectives
• a course of study
• everything that goes on within the school, including extra-class activities, guidance, and interpersonal relationships
• that which is taught both inside and outside of the school directed by the school
• everything that is planned by school personnel
• a series of experiences undergone by learners in school

Dr. King:  Written-Taught-Tested
My Definition:  What is taught and experienced in school.
Me: Write-Teach-Test-Rinse-Repeat

I tend to agree with Ronald C Doll:
...the formal and informal content and process by which learners gain knowledge and understanding, developing skills, and alter attitudes, appreciations, and values under the auspices of that school.

Instruction is the varying ways to teach the curriculum

Definitions by Purposes, Contexts, and Strategies
Purposes: The search for a definition of curriculum is clouded when they theoretician responds to the term not in the context of what curriculum is but what it does or should do, that is, its purpose.

Contexts: Definitions of curriculum sometimes state the settings within which it takes shape.  ie essentialist curriculum, child centered curriculum, or a reconstructionist curriculum.

Strategies:  While purpose and context are sometimes offered as definitions of curriculum, an additional complexity arises when the theoretician equates curriculum with instructional strategy.

In this text curriculum is perceived as a plan or program for all the experiences that the learner encounters under the direction of the school.  In practice

Relationships Between Curriculum adn Instructions
The simplest view:  Curriculum is "what" Instruction is "how"

Models of the Curriculum-Instruction Relationship
Dualistic Model: Curriculum sits on one side and instruction on the other side.  Between the two entities lies a great gulf.

Interlocking Model: When curriculum and instruction are shown as systems entwined, an interlocking relationship exists.

Concentric Models: Mutual Dependence.  One is the subsystem of the other or vise versa.

Cyclical Model: a system model that stresses the essential element of feedback.

Common Beliefs:  As newer developments occur in education, as research adds new insights on teaching and learning, as new ideas are developed, and as times change, beliefs about curriculum and instruction also undergo transformation.

• Curriculum and instruction are related but different
• Curriculum and instruction are interlocking and interdependent
• Curriculum and instruction may be studied and analyzed as separate entities but cannot function in mutual isolation.

Curriculum as a Discipline

The Characteristics of a Discipline

• Principles: Any discipline worthy of study has an organized set of theoretical constructs or principles that governs its.  
• Knowledge and Skills:  Any discipline encompasses a body of knowledge and skills pertinent to that discipline
• Theoreticians and Practitioners:  A discipline has its theoreticians and its practitioners.  

Curriculum Specialists
Curriculum specialists often make a unique contribution by creatively transforming theory and knowledge into practice.  They are also in the best position to stimulate research on curricular problems.  Charged with providing leadership to the teachers.

Supervisors
A supervisor is perceived as a specialist who works in three domains: instructional development; curriculum development; and staff.  A curriculum specialist is a particular type of supervisor, one with more limited responsibilities than a general supervisor.

Role Variations
Difficult arises in attempting to draw firm lines that apply under all conditions and in all situations.  To understand the roles and functions of educational personnel, we must examine local practice.