Curriculum Theory and Development Flashcards

Ralph Tyler's rationale for curriculum development is best summarized as organizing curriculum around which four questions?

Answer: Purposes, experiences, organization, and evaluation

Tyler's 1949 'Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction' proposed building curriculum around four questions: educational purposes, learning experiences, organization, and evaluation.

The term 'null curriculum' refers to:

Answer: Subject matter that schools do not teach, implicitly communicating what is unimportant

Elliot Eisner coined 'null curriculum' to describe the knowledge and ways of thinking that schools exclude, which by omission signal their lack of value.

Backward design, as advocated by Wiggins and McTighe in 'Understanding by Design,' starts curriculum planning by:

Answer: Beginning with desired learning outcomes and assessments, then planning instruction

Backward design reverses traditional planning by first identifying what students should know and understand (goals), then designing assessments, and finally planning learning experiences.

Which curriculum approach emphasizes integrating subject areas around real-world themes or problems rather than teaching them as separate disciplines?

Answer: Interdisciplinary or integrated curriculum

Interdisciplinary curriculum integration connects content from multiple subjects around meaningful themes or problems, reflecting how knowledge is applied in real life.

The concept of 'scope and sequence' in curriculum development refers to:

Answer: The breadth of content covered (scope) and the order in which it is taught (sequence)

Scope defines the range and depth of content to be covered; sequence specifies the order in which topics are introduced and developed across grade levels.

Hilda Taba's approach to curriculum development is distinguished by its emphasis on:

Answer: Teacher-driven, grassroots curriculum creation beginning with specific units

Taba advocated an inductive, bottom-up approach where teachers develop specific units first and then generalize to broader curriculum design, reversing Tyler's top-down model.