Questions and Exercises Curriculum Planning Models: Theory and Practice

1.      What do you believe are the major strengths and weaknesses of the objectives model?

The major strengths of objectives model:

-          It involves the active participation of the learner.

-          Objectives are clearly defined in the purposes. These purposes are translated into educational objectives.

-          Simple linear approach to development of behavioral objectives.

The major weaknesses of objectives model:

-          Difficult and time consuming construction of behavioral objectives.

-          Curriculum restricted to a constricted range of student skills and knowledge.

-          Critical thinking, problem solving and value acquiring processes cannot be plainly declared in behavioral objectives

2.      When might you use this model?

The curriculum developer or even teacher might use this model of curriculum when they are going to expand and change to accommodate learning styles of students, teaching methods of instructors and to reflect new information and technologies in certain academic fields. The objectives model for classroom instruction presented a novel approach to educational assessment, planning and evaluation that broke from the tradition of simply lecturing students then assessing knowledge through a series of tests. The objectives model proposed that instructors spend equal amounts of time assessing instructional plans and evaluating student learning. The four sections of the book include chapters on establishing objectives, focusing on learning experiences, planning and organizing short-term and long-term instruction tutorials and evaluating student and teacher progress.

3.      What do you believe are the major strengths and weaknesses of the interaction model?

The major strengths of interaction model:

-          Curriculum developer can begin with any of the elements.

-          The model allows curriculum developer to change the order of planning.

-          The model offeres flexibility.

The major weaknesses of interaction model:

-          The model doesn’t necessarily specify objectives.

-          The model offers so little direction.

-          The curriculum developers need a lot of time to determine the beginning stage in curriculum development.

4.      When might you use this model?

This model of curriculum considered a more grassroots, inductive approach than other traditionalist models, such as objectives model, or rational model, of curriculum design. Interaction model might be used by teachers to design the curriculum, rather than higher authorities dictating the curriculum to the teachers. She also believed curriculum was best designed inductively, starting with specifics and building up to a more general design.

5.      Argue the view that an effective curriculum is to be judged more by the consistency between the curriculum elements than by the ways that consistency is achieved.

The two main curriculum development models used in education are the objectives model and interaction model. They are named after the educators who developed them, Ralph Tyler and Hilda Taba. The intent of the models is to serve educational purposes with the structure of curriculum. The two models have similarities, but approach education from different premises. The objectives model is deductive and works from a basis of scientific management, with a preference for education administrators developing the curriculum and having the teachers implement it. The interaction model instead is inductive, encouraging significant amounts of input from teachers in creating the curriculum because they are the ones interacting on a daily basis with students. The interaction model of curriculum approach uses seven steps, the first being a diagnosis of needs, followed by an identification of the objectives and implementation based on those objectives. The following steps involve organizing the content by the teachers, selecting the learning experiences, organizing the activities and evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum. The objectives model uses only four steps, with a statement of the objectives coming first, followed by choosing learning experiences to attain those objectives, organizing material for effective instruction and, finally, evaluating the effectiveness and revising ineffective areas

6.      The structure of knowledge is such that it cannot be expressed in terms of pre-specified performance. What does this statement mean for models of curriculum development, particularly in the Australian context which endorses the value of outcomes?

The structure of knowledge is such that it cannot be expressed in terms of prespecified performance. This statement claims that it is possible to select content irrespective of its instrumental value in achieving ends or objectives in terms of curriculum model development. It argues that each form of knowledge possesses its own structure and therefore requires a distinctive methodological approach to acquiring it. This process approach, particularly in the Australian context acknowledges the inherent worth of certain content and accents those procedures that are appropriate for discerning the knowledge implicit in that content.

While in Indonesian context, as we know, Indonesia is a country made up of thousands of islands with different cultures and ethnicities. For that reason it needs adjustment or equalization vision, mission, and strategy to progress and develop simultaneously. In this case, the national education system has one important component in the implementation of the curriculum, since the curriculum is an educational component referenced by each educational unit. Curriculum created by a centralized government and applied to all children across the country nation of Indonesia.  School is an educational unit in each area with a wealth of diverse natural, and with the potential of differen regions. As a component of school teachers who are competent in a particular subject and adjust the duty outlined curriculum, and develop appropriate local potential and the potential of the school and students.

7.      Argue the importance of platform and deliberation in curriculum planning.

Teachers have to face curriculum problems everyday. Most often these curriculum problems are practical problems. When decisions have a clear, single solutions, deliberation is not necessary. However, there are very fecases of this kind of problems. Complicated practical problems with multiple solutions may be best treated through the process of deliberation. Curriculum problems are clearly of this sort. Moreover, curriculum problems that arise out of a difference between stakeholders’ beliefs and practice particularly lend themselves to a deliberative mode of curriculum development.

The platform and deliberative phase involve intensive exchange of ideas and beliefs. Reaching consensus is essential for moving into the 'design-phase'. This phase can become an extremely difficult task, especially when participants hold to their fixed perceptions, or when they feel uncomfortable when the chaos of conflicting ideas, and images can not be resolved in time. When the planning group does reach consensus about the basic principles of the curriculum, they move into the design activities, which include the decision making about specific content, instructional strategies and materials. In this process of curriculum design it is extremely important that participants make their individual beliefs and values explicit as well as their perceptions of the instructional task and their assertions about how to proceed.