Curriculum development has been looked at in two ways. These are basically‘process’ and ‘product’. As the terms imply ‘process’ is concerned with the methodsand means ‘how’ whereas the ‘product’ looks at the outcomes, the end product‘what’. There are two approaches that have been developed: normative anddescriptive. The first approaches are called normative – Objectives (Tyler 1949) and the rational(Taba 1962 and Wheeler 1967) because they provide a sequence of steps. Thesehave technical interests of control. The procedural approach (Stenhouse 1975,Walker 1972, Skilbeck 1976, Olivia 1976) which is discussed later in the lecture fallsinto the second category of descriptive approaches because it an interactive model.
Differentiation between Process and Model:Process:
Some synonyms include. Procedure, development, method, progression, practice,course of action. A process is very simply the steps from the beginning of somethingto its end. We have said that Curriculum Development is a process because it has abeginning and it is continuously changing or being developed.
Model:
Some synonyms: representation or reproduction.In education when we talk about models we are talking about a diagrammaticrepresentation of something. (See Figure 5.2 A simple Model of CurriculumDevelopment – course book).In the curriculum development process, the term model is used to represent
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the different elements or stages and
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how they relate to one another.Models are usually abstract pr conceptual. This means that they exist in people’sminds. They are very useful in the task of theory building. (Sharma: 2003: 5.6)
A continuum of Curriculum Development Models:
Objectives/ Rational Models Cyclical/ Rational Models Dynamic/Interaction Models TylerWheelerWalker Taba Nicholls Skilbeck(Print: 1993, In Sharma: 2003: 5.8)
QUESTION:Can you distinguish between aims, goals and objectives? (Refer to pages 5.8 – 5.11of