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

Curriculum vs Instruction (1) Definitions

Oliva, P. F. (2004). Developing the curriculum (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Part I. The curriculum: Theoretical dimensions

Chapter 1. Curriculum and instruction defined

1. Conceptions of curriculum
A discipline of study and a field of practice, elusive, esoteric, lacking clean boundaries, not action-oriented (like supervision, administration, instruction). Not a real, total, tangible, visible entity.

2. Certification & curriculum
There is not a certifiable field labeled curriculum (seems that curr. can't exist by itself. It has to be with a subject area or one of more fields)

3. Interpretations of curriculum
A "field of utter confusion" (Grumet, 1988). Can be conceived in a narrow way (as subjects taught) or in a broad way (as all the experiences of learners, both in school and out, directed by school).

• "...that series of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult life; and to be in all respects what adults should be. " (Bobbit, 1918)
• "all the experiences children have under the guidance of teachers." (Caswell & Campbell, 1935)
• "...a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities for persons to be educated." (Saylor, Alexander, & Lewis, 1981)
• "...a plan for learning." (Taba, 1962) - it contains
  
  • a statement of aims and of specific objectives
  • selection and organization of content
  • patterns of learning and teaching
  • a programs of evalution
    
• "...the formal and informal content and progress by which learners gain knowledge and understanding, develop skills, and alter attitudes, appreciations, and value under the auspices of that school." (Doll, 1996)
• "...that reconstruction of knowledge and experience that enables the learner to grow in exercising intelligent control of subsequent knowledge and experience." (Taner & Taner, 1995)
• Oliver's (1977) four basic elements
  
  • The program of studies
  • The program of experiences
  • The program of services
  • The hidden curriculum (school values, teacher emphases, enthusiasm, physical & social climate, etc)
    
• Gagne's (1967) four elements
  
  • Subject matter (content)
  • The statement of ends (terminal objectives)
  • Sequencing of content
  • Preassessment of entry skills required of students
    
• a "structured series of intended learning outcomes." "the output of a 'curriculum development system' and as an input into an 'instructional system'." (Johnson, 1967)
• "If we are to achieve equally, we must broaden our conception to include the entire culture of the school - not just subject matter content." (Gay, 1990)
• "what is taught to students, both intended and unintended information, skills, and attitudes." (Sowell, 1996)
• "an assemblage of competing doctrines and practices." (Kliebard, 1998)
• "a desired goal or set of values that can be activated through a development process culminating in experiences for students." (Wiles & Bondi, 2002)
• "a course of life" led by teachers as curriculum makers (Clandinin & Connelly, 1992)
• "Curriculum understood as symbolic representation refers to those institutional and discursive practices, structures, images, and experiences that can be identified and analyzed in various ways, i.e., politically, racially, autobiographically, phenomenologically, theologically, internationally, and in terms of gender and deconstruction." (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, & Taubman, 1996)

4. Definitions by purposes, contexts and strategies

• Purposes: a statement of what the curriculum is meant to achieve does little to help us sharpen a definition of what curriculum is
• Contexts:
  
  • Essentialistic: transmit the cultural heritage, prepare pupils for the future
  • Progressive: child-centered, the development of the individual learner
  • Reconstructionist: educate youth to solve social problems and change society for better
  • Feminist: curriculum as a "project of transcendence, our attempt while immersed in biology and ideology to transcend biology and ideology." (Grumet, 1988)
    
• Strategies: misconceptions when the theorist equates curriculum with instructional strategies, for example --
  
  • the curriculum as a problem-sovling process: define curriculum in terms of an instructional process (problem-solving techniques, the scientific methods, or reflective thinking
  • the curriculum as group living: define curriculum around ins. techniques providing opportunities for group living
  • the curriculum as individualized learning/programmed ins. - specifications of systems by which learners encounter curricular content through the process of ins.

Overall, neither purpose, context, nor strategy provides a clear basis for defining curriculum.
Curriculum - ends
Instruction - means