Educational Curriculum Typology (PDF)

**3.3.1 Typology Based on Design** The curriculum is designed to meet educational goals and to ensure that learners are prepared and equipped to face challenges that may come from their live activities. It also addresses the issues of cultural heritage, norms, values and facts the society considere...

**3.3.1 Typology Based on Design** The curriculum is designed to meet educational goals and to ensure that learners are prepared and equipped to face challenges that may come from their live activities. It also addresses the issues of cultural heritage, norms, values and facts the society considered as necessary for youths to function effectively. There are four major Organization of curriculum design, they are as follows: a. Subjects/Discrete Curriculum b. Broad field Curriculum c. Core Curriculum d. Activity/Experience Curriculum **3.3.2 The Subject/Discrete Curriculum** The subject curriculum is the oldest form of curriculum Organization. It is in line with perennialist approach which holds the view that curriculum contents should contain essentials of subjects to be mastered by the learners. Its origin is traced back to the seven liberal arts: Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometric, Astronomy and Music. All these subjects are now transformed into modern subjects like physics, chemistry, biology and language arts. Each subject is peculiar and unique for the fact that it presents a particular type of knowledge that differs from others. Collectively, the subjects have unique goals that are to construct the mind and the personality of the leaner. The curriculum presents the most systematic and logical way of organizing learning experiences. **The Advantages** i. It is the most systematic and effective way of presenting knowledge to learners ii. It makes evaluation of the programme easier. iii. Leaners' progress can be ascertained either by the parents or the society. iv. It is easy for teachers to implement. v. It encourages research and specialization. **The Disadvantages.** i. Learners cannot see the relationship among various subjects. ii. It fails to recognize the needs and interests of learners. iii. It emphasizes on examination. iv. Teachers hardly utilize activity method in classroom instruction. v. It creates barrier between school subjects and life in the society. **33.3 The Broad Field Curriculum** The broad field curriculum emerges to correct the short comings of subject curriculum. This curriculum is an attempt to solve the problem of atomization of knowledge that is related to the discrete curriculum. The correction comes in a manner that all related subjects are brought together to form large areas of instructions. Subject matters are combined to enable the learners see the relationship among subject areas. Thus, instead of forming, creating and splitting subjects, they are integrated as one, depending on their structure and relationship. For examples Civic, History and Geography are combined to form Social Studies at the primary school level. **Advantages** i. It allows for the integration of subjects' areas. ii. It enhances broader coverage of subject matters. iii. It facilitates transfer of learning. iv. It eliminates unnecessary details. **Disadvantages** i. It does not offer deep knowledge. ii. It does not encourage specialization in learning. iii. It has only integrated subjects, not ideas. iv. It does not indicate the internal relationship in each subject. **3.3.4 The Core Curriculum** The core subjects are organized in such a way that they are made compulsory to all learners. Akudolu and Anyanwu (1998) defined core curriculum as the curriculum of schools which are prescribed by the central government in accordance with declared needs and priorities as structured by the approved texts, and assessed in approved manner. The core curriculum has the following features: i. It constitutes basic subjects of the curriculum being designed for schools. ii. It represents the subjects which all learners at different levels of learning are required to learn. iii. It is made compulsory for every school to teach core subjects as it pleases the society. The core subjects are the basic and fundamental subjects that Nigerian students must learn to qualify them to study courses in Arts or Sciences in the tertiary institutions. While in primary education pupils are to study Mathematics, the language of the immediate community (LIC), Social studies, Science, Local Craft and Technical Education. **The Advantages** i. Learners are exposed to the minimum standard of knowledge ii. It is a learning task which is useful, purposeful, and meaningful to children. iii. It is problem solving for youths and to the society iv. It enhances the interest and growth of knowledge v. It develops the skills and creativity of learners through practical approach. **The Disadvantage** i. The lack of appropriate text hooks ii. It does not encourage specialization iii. It focuses on the needs of adolescents and the society iv. It has no standard evaluation procedures **3.3.5 The Activity/Experience Curriculum** It is an illustration of curriculum organization that is based on the child-oriented theory. It serves as the means for learners to study concepts and skills, which means they are involved in the learning process. Thus, any content of learning and teaching process should be related to the child's level of physical, mental and emotional development. In child oriented curriculum, the learning experiences are given greater consideration and variety of opportunities with activities provided. It is not pre-planned due to the fact that what happens in the classroom is dependent on the interest and felt needs of the learners. The teacher, as trained personnel, has to find out the interest of the learners. It does not always include physical activity but children can complete a project together by brainstorming ideas. Precisely, this curriculum design is characterized by the problem solving techniques of learning. A child learns what he practices which touches his affective and psychomotor developments. A child is introduced to planned and definite problems which in an attempt to solve them might acquire silent skills in such a trial. The teacher and the learner cooperate to attain the primary aim of the activity curriculum. **The advantages** i. It makes learning purposeful and meaningful because it focuses on the learning interest ii. The learners are motivated especially if they find out that what they are doing is useful iii. It puts individual differences into consideration iv. It helps learners to develop their skill through problem solving v. It is highly based on psychological principles of learning. **The disadvantages** i. There is no systematic organization of subjects ii. It neglects the teaching of social norms and values iii. It does not encourage standardized procedures in the education system iv. It neglects cognitive development of learners v. Textbooks for the curriculum are lacking