Curriculum vs Instruction (2) Relationships

5. Relationships between curriculum & instruction
Curriculum - what (that which is taught); a program, a plan, content, and learning experiences
Instruction - how (the means used to teach the above); methods, the teaching act, implementation, and presentation

• Models of the curri.-ins. relationship
  
  • Dualistic model: separated; a gulf between classroom practice and the master plan. The planner and instructors ignore each other - bad
    
  • Interlocking model: integrated; but different focus/priorities - good
    
  • Concentric model: hierarchical; one is superordinate while the other is subordinate - bad
    
  • Cyclical model: continuous adaptations and improvements of both entities; instructional decisions are made after curricular decisions, which in tern are modified after instructional decisions are implemented and evaluated - very good
    
• Common beliefs - curri. & ins.
  
  • are related but different
  • are interlocking & interdependent
  • may be studied and analyzed as separate entities but cannot function in mutual isolation

6. Curriculum as a discipline

• The characteristics of a dicipline
  
  • Principles: an organized set of theoretical constructs or principles; can be generalized and applied in more than one situation; Curr. itself is a construct or concept, a verbalization of an extremely complex idea or set of ideas
    
  • Knowledge and skills
    
    • Selection of content: sociology, psychology, subject areas
    • Organization/administration: organizational theory, management
    • Curr. development: supervision, systems theory, technology, communication theory
    • Child-centered: psychology and biology (learning, growth, development), philosophy (progressivism), sociology
    • Essentialist curr.: philosophy, psychology, sociology, the academic disciplines
    • Others: cooperative learning, computer literacy, character education
    • "a curr. changes only when the people affected have changed": social psychology (e.g., Western Electric research; the Hawthorne Effect)
    • Cyclical interaction: curr. - subject areas; learning theories; admin. & supervisory techniques; philosophical positions
  • Theoreticians and practitioners: planners, consultants, coordinators, directors, professors of curriculum - curriculum worker/specialist
    e.g. core curriculum concept from the 1930s & 1940s - the adolescent-needs base followed in some core prog. came from student-centered, progressive learning theories, as did the problem-solving approach used in instruction
    

7. Curriculum practitioners (workers in the curr.-ins. continuum)

• Curriculum specialists: must be a philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, human relations expert, theoretician, historian, scholar in one or more disciplines, evaluator, researcher, instructor, systems analyst, technology expert
  
• Teachers
• Supervisors: works in three domains
  
  • instructional development
  • curriculum development
  • staff (teacher) development
    
• Role variations: no firm lines
  

8. Summary