The Curriculum Theory

Paper Summary:

The paper explains the origin of the word curriculum and concentrates on one approach, specifically "curriculum as process" which it discusses extensively. The paper states that different types of schools in the U.S. and other parts of the world are enticing students to enroll by offering a more effective curriculum than other schools. The paper then poses the following questions and attempts to answer them: 1. What exactly is a curriculum? 2. What are the approaches used in curriculum theory and practice? This paper explains all this and enumerates the different approaches in curriculum theory and practice and gives a brief description to each approach.

Outline:
Curriculum As Process
Strong Points
Weak Points
Curriculum Designing

From the Paper:

"Curriculum as Process" approach has its weaknesses. First, this approach does not guarantee a degree of uniformity in what is being taught in the classrooms. Since this approach encourages interactions and discussions among students and teachers, interactions might take most of the time and that the real subject matter is not properly taken up. Secondly, this approach may lead to different means of teaching in different classrooms and may vary greatly in terms of the content being learned. Another weakness of this approach is that it entirely depends on the quality of the teachers being employed by the school. If the teacher is not well-prepared in his/her lessons, discussions and interactions may greatly deviate from what the teacher actually wants to achieve educationally."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fred Mednick. Curriculum Theories. http://cnx.org/content/m13293/latest/
• Smith, M. K. (1996, 2000) 'Curriculum theory and practice' the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm.
• Trishia Ellis-Christensen (2007). What is Curriculum? WiseGeek. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-curriculum.htm
• John Ritz. (02/13/2006). Notetaking Guides: Curriculum Theory. Old Dominion University. http://www.odu.edu/~jritz/oted885/ntg3.shtml
• Stenhouse, L. (1975) An introduction to Curriculum Research and Development, London: Heineman.

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• Research Proposal # 25976 : "The Role of the Curriculum Coordinator"

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