Curriculum Planning: Principles, Models, and Levels

Posted on Dec 31, 2024 in Physical Education

Curriculum: Concepts and Principles

Johnson defines the curriculum as follows: The curriculum is the sum of the experiences that students complete while working under the supervision of the school. Laura Shufelt states that the curriculum means the set of experiences that students have in class. From these definitions, we can see two parallel conceptions of what the curriculum is:

One appears to be restricted to the field of materials and classroom activities. In this view, the core curriculum would consist of the subjects of the curriculum.
The definition of Johnson offers a more open, panoramic view: The curriculum is the sum or totality of experience offered by the school. Consequently, it involves, horizontally, both the purely academic and extracurricular activities and training of any kind. And vertically, it includes the entire process of schooling, from when the child enters school until they leave.

Nassif defines the curriculum as a set of educational experiences planned by the school, depending on their goals and lived by the student under the responsibility of teachers. In summary, we can define the curriculum as a totality of educational experience (formative and instructive) that the school offers students systematically from entering until they leave.

Designing these experiences, organizing, enhancing, and updating the plan or program is the curriculum. There are some fundamentals of the curriculum, which come to be generally accepted sources from where goals and experiences are made and act:

A. They are the plasma zone because they are selected objectives and experiences that feed the curriculum.
B. They act as filters at the same time, indicating which are important.

And what are the objectives, according to Sperb, that nourish the curriculum?

The philosophical currents of the moment: Theoretical concepts, values, ideas, and ideologies can guide curriculum development.
Culture as an element that basically feeds the school activity in which it must transmit and improve the culture.
Society.
Socializing groups: Sperber speaks of the family, school, churches, industry, and peer groups.

Johnson adds another:

Historical: Collects various educational trends that exist in a given time.
Psychological: Provides data on the knowledge of students and the learning process.
Professionals: Consists of research on curriculum, practice, procedures, etc.

Finally, the synthesis that Wheeler makes is very valid to have a basic outline of the foundation curriculum. Three fonts can provide most of the goals and experiences:

The Company
The student and their behavior
The subjects or subjects

Models of Curriculum

There are several ways to organize the curriculum. According to Nassif:

Branched tree: Organized on isolated areas or subjects. College students are typical of this type.
By areas of education: The structure takes into account the interrelationship between related subjects.
By areas of life: Guided by the purpose of bringing school life to the forefront.
Of experience or active: A curriculum particularly concerned with accommodating the interests and needs of pupils’ problems.
Globalized or integrated: Makes an interdisciplinary approach. Tries to give a unified vision of reality and man.

It is difficult to find pure types of curriculum. More often than not, any of them participate in several of the dimensions identified by Nassif.

Curriculum Planning Levels

Curriculum planning is done on three levels, closely interrelated and interdependent:

Statewide: The Ministry formally establishes the general framework in which the curriculum must operate throughout the state. It is a skeleton that is later coated in multiple ways in planning at the school level and class. It mainly concerns the type of instructive experiences. In Spanish legislation, a curriculum is established for teaching areas. Instruction is understood as a process of interaction between the subject and the medium. The environment provides experiences from which they come from or learning. The subject not only assimilates those experiences but expresses them; it makes communication. The experiences the students basically get are from their contact with other human groups that have been or are in time and space (social area) or the actual physical or natural (natural area). Finally, individuals learn to express themselves using the four most universal languages: the word, number, their gestures, and shapes and colors. This instructional curriculum structure became more concrete with the renewed program.
Center Level: This is to flesh out the schemes of state curriculum policy in light of the objectives, needs, and characteristics of each school.
Class Level: At this level, the school curriculum is transformed into learning experiences for each student group. Programming requires the two previous levels, but these make no sense, in turn, whether each teacher puts into effect the principles and characteristics in the classroom. It is no use having an efficient policy that a school curriculum or renew your curriculum if every teacher in your class does not take those decisions into practice. This level is usually called “programming”.

Principles for Effective Curriculum Planning

Background

Any institution or any teacher that is willing to develop their curriculum should take into account, previously, some basic principles that facilitate success in this task. Richmond calls them “axioms” and, adapted to our context, they are:

The solution of any conflict between the ideological and academic teaching is a prerequisite for planning.
A prompt diagnosis of the starting point is needed, i.e., the existing situation and context before undertaking planning.
It is required to be done cooperatively. It is not a personal or isolated task.
Planning must be accompanied by the necessary material elements.
It implies the emphasis gradually shifts from the teacher as an instructor to the teacher as a manager and organizer of teaching situations.
The selection of targets takes precedence over the selection of content.
The major force for innovation and curriculum change comes from outside the school. Within it, there is usually strong resistance to change.
The current situation requires a reduction of knowledge to fundamentals.
Curriculum planning is a process in constant recession.

The development of the curriculum is highly collaborative work rather than isolated individuals. The best way, according to Shufelt, is for group activities to be governed by democratic principles and practices. The most common pattern is a group of teachers working together with others. They are basically the teachers, parents, and pupils. Although it is desirable, the presence of an expert in the curriculum is beneficial.

Simultaneous

Already in the process, these groups should have in mind some basic principles to make your work effective:

One can work in groups or committees, provided that those functions are well defined: It is not necessary that all those involved in curriculum development always work in plenary sessions. The full delegate in small groups or commissions studies, reports, or specific tasks. In any case, these committees should have well-defined roles, self-insured in the assigned work, and share responsibilities among members.
It should be sought, through discussion, that the goals are unambiguous, i.e., having the same meaning for all members of the center.
The curriculum decisions taken should involve all group members.
For both the objectives and decisions to be a group, it is necessary to provide adequate channels of communication.
The director in charge of planning the school curriculum must be a leader.

Alexander learned from these are the most important skills necessary for a leader to bring a curriculum planning group:

a. Being able to create a stimulating environment.
b. Creating a group environment in which everyone’s ideas will be considered without ridicule or reluctance.
c. Having demonstrated effective implementation of previous group agreements, i.e., agreeing not only with words on earlier decisions.
d. Knowing the difference between the group’s proposals which are significant in that they are not.
e. Delegating responsibilities, even if you think others are wrong.
f. Ability to synthesize from time to time the progress the group is reaching.
g. Suggesting new alternatives when the group has exhausted the current ones.

The Planning Process

Curriculum planning is a process that has two dimensions: one refers to what to do or to plan. It is the material dimension of the process. The other relates to how to do or how to plan. It is the formal dimension.

Material Process

Planning the curriculum material is to perform a series of tasks that are closely related. Unless differences of emphasis, there is agreement among authors in pointing out what those tasks are. As shown in the proposal of Wheeler in five stages:

Stating purposes, goals, and objectives: In every project, theory, or technological model, the first thing to determine is the objectives to be achieved. Goals and objectives are not synonymous terms. They are final, varying degrees of proximity, whose interplay will be discussed in subsequent issues.
Selection of learning experiences: Writing objectives is to specify behaviors that are desirable or desired by students for students. Acquiring or modifying some behaviors requires exercise, activity.
Selection of content: Conduct is not acquired in a vacuum but, especially in the academic field, driving some subjects, units, or content.
Organization and integration of learning experiences and content: This is to distribute the above tasks depending on the context in which they will be put into practice: what means are necessary or possible, when it was going to do, what type of group of students is the ideal, etc.
Evaluation: The last phase is to measure and assess the degree of attainment of the objectives and effectiveness of experiences, content, and organization, i.e., each and every one of the above tasks.

Formal Process

The formal process might look like:

The objectives proposed by the students are channeled through their representatives who are the delegates of the course. They may also be attended by representatives of all organized groups operating in the center. Their contributions in these specific aspects can be valuable.
The parents represent the interests of the community in which the school is embedded. However, neighborhood associations, youth associations, etc., could also be involved. It is also difficult to channel their participation because knowing what the curriculum is and its phases is almost exclusively for professionals.
Teachers, for their part, are primarily responsible for carrying out the students’ practice of these objectives. It is, therefore, advisable to involve all. Nobody is interested in practicing something that has been proposed on their backs. The cloister is the most appropriate body for this task.
The developer team comprising representatives of the three previous groups must achieve the goals when necessary and assemble, structure, and grade into one list the objectives proposed by each group.

The same group should now select the experience, resources, content, and responsible for each objective. The question is on paper the second, third, and fourth phases. The departments are responsible for instruction and the academic curriculum. Teams may be run by several teachers, parents, or students. The possibilities are limitless to manage the library, cafeteria, duplicator, etc. For each objective, the criteria that will be used in its assessment must be specified: number of approved participants, etc. When necessary, they should have prepared the instruments to evaluate these criteria: scales, factual evidence, surveys, etc. A person or team must also be made to assess each objective. With their input, an overall assessment will be made by the developer’s own computer curriculum. From their conclusions, the process will restart for the next year. The proposed model, therefore, requires a permanent restructuring of the curriculum.