The following criteria are followed for selecting the curriculum contents for child education. The curriculum and instructional strategy are essential components of imparting knowledge to students.

Self-Sufficiency

To help learners attain maximum self-sufficiency most economically is the central guiding principle of subject matter or content selection (Scheffler, 1970) as cited by Bilbao et al. (2008). Although the economy of learning implies less teaching effort and less use of educational resources, students gain more results. They can cope with the learning outcomes effectively.
This criterion means students should be given a chance to experiment, observe, and do a field study. This system allows them to learn independently.
With this principle in mind, I suggest that there should be a one-day independent learning activity each week for a high school curriculum or preparatory year. However, this should be carefully planned by the teacher. When the students return, they should present outputs from the activity.

Read: The principles of selecting the curriculum contents for early childhood education

Significance

The subject matter or content is significant if it is selected and organized to develop learning activities, skills, processes, and attitudes. It also develops the three domains of learning, namely the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills, and considers the learners’ cultural aspects. Particularly, if your students come from different cultural backgrounds and races, the subject matter must be culture-sensitive. In short, select content or subject matter that can achieve the overall aim of the curriculum.

Validity

Validity refers to the authenticity of the subject matter or content you selected. Make sure that the topics are not obsolete. For example, do not include typewriting as a skill to be learned by college students. It should be about the computer or Information Technology (IT). Thus, there is a need to regularly check the curriculum’s subject matter or contents and replace it if necessary. Do not wait for another five years to change it. Modern curriculum experts are after current trends, relevance, and authenticity of the curriculum; otherwise, the school or the country becomes obsolete.

Interest

This criterion is valid for the learner-centered curriculum. Students learn best if the subject matter is interesting, thus making it meaningful to them.
However, if the curriculum is subject-centered, teachers have no choice but to finish the pacing schedule religiously and only teach what is in the book. This approach explains why many students fail in the subject.

Utility

Another criterion is the usefulness of the content or subject matter. Students think that a subject matter or some subjects are not necessary to them. They view it as useless. As a result, they do not study.
Here are the questions that students often ask:
• Will I need the subject in my job?
• Will it give meaning to my life?
• Will it develop my potential?
• Will it solve my problem?
• Will it be part of the test?
• Will I have a passing mark if I learn it?
Students only value the subject matter or content if it is useful to them.

Learnability

The subject matter or content must be within the schema of the learners. It should be within their experiences. Teachers should apply theories in the psychology of learning to know how subjects are presented, sequenced, and organized to maximize students’ learning capacity.

Feasibility

Feasibility means the full implementation of the subject matter. It should consider the school’s real situation, the government, and society. Students must learn within the allowable time and the use of resources available. Do not give them a topic that is impossible to finish.
For example, you have only one week left to finish the unit, but the activities may take a month for the students to complete. Thus, this requirement is not workable.
Do not offer a computer subject if there is no electricity in the area, or there are no computers. Further, feasibility means that there should be teachers who are experts in that area. For example, do not offer English for Business Communication if there is no teacher to handle it.
Also, there is a need to consider the nature of the learners. The organization and design of the subject matter or content must be appropriate for the nature of students. So, it would be better if students in a subject-centered curriculum (with a pacing schedule that must be religiously implemented every week) were grouped homogeneously; otherwise, many would flunk that subject.

Conclusion

In conclusion, teachers in elementary and high school are not directly involved in selecting subject matter because there are already lesson plans made by the Department of Education. All they have to do is to follow it. However, they can also customize the lessons if their department heads or principals allow them.
As regards macro curriculum, the Commission on Higher Education sets guidelines and policies on what subjects to offer as minimum requirements for the course. Then, the Curriculum Development Committee will take charge of selecting, organizing, and implementing the curriculum with the Academic Council’s approval.

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The principles of the curriculum are norms, values, moralities, and philosophies that will benefit teachers, students, and the whole education system. The curriculum and instructional strategy are essential components of imparting knowledge to students.

The following are a few of the basic principles of curriculum development:

Principle of Totality of Experiences

It is imperative to realize that curriculum does not merely indicate academic subjects traditionally taught in schools and colleges. It also includes the totality of experiences a student gains through several curricular, extra-curricular, and co-curricular activities.

Principle of Child Concerns

Instead of sticking to the predetermined curriculum, instructors must consider the child’s concerns, motives, and needs while developing the curriculum. In addition, while planning any curricular activities, educators must consider ways to enrich learners’ interests.

Read: Main approaches and formats in writing behavioral objectives

Principle of Conservation and Creativity

While developing a curriculum, it is mandatory to include subjects and experiences that would help conserve cultural heritage. Furthermore, one of the most essential principles of curriculum development is that the curriculum cannot be static. On the contrary, it should be subject to modification as per the requirement aligned with the changing global educational trends and students’ needs.

Principle of Integration

The curriculum should be planned in such a way that varied subjects could be added at different stages of education. Similarly, the existing subjects should be able to integrate with other subjects apart from enabling the students to correlate with the content.

Principle of Flexibility

One of the ideal qualities that a curriculum should have is flexibility and dynamism, as this will be instrumental in serving the needs and concerns of individuals and society. Also, timely changes and appropriate modifications to the curriculum allow educators and learners alike to stay updated with academic goals.

Principle of Utility

Curriculum construction should follow the principle of utility, according to which educators must include content that is useful to the individual and society. In addition, the curriculum must consist of rich and valuable content that would be useful later in life.

Principle of Character Formation

The goal of the curriculum is not just educating learners through bookish knowledge. It should also encourage the development of character and personality in students. Therefore, the curriculum must aid in students’ character training throughout the academic years.

Principle of Mental Discipline

A significant task of the curriculum is to foster learners’ various mental faculties or powers through cognitive training and practice.

Principle of Social Fulfillment

Education aims to provide the overall development of the students through comprehensive teaching styles and content. Moreover, the curriculum should also consider adding the element of social life so that learners can gain insight into becoming responsible citizens.

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Approaches for behavioral objectives

Problem Identification and General Needs

Assessment Needs

Assessment of Targeted Learners

Goals and Objectives

Educational Strategies Implementation

Evaluation and Feedback

Writing behavioral objectives

Most books that provide instruction on the writing of behavioral objectives state that an objective needs to have three components as follows:

1. A measurable verb (also known as performance)
2. The important conditions (if any) under which the performance is to occur
3. The criterion of acceptable performance

It is important to say that many objectives are written in a manner in which the important conditions and criteria are implicit. If they really are implicit the argument can be made that they may not be necessary. For example, an objective might be stated as follows:

Read: Various factors affecting the selection and organization of curricular contents

The student will be able to name the five stages of mitosis. There would be no point in stating the objective as follows just to meet the requirements of it having a criterion. The student will correctly (criterion) name the five stages of mitosis within 30 seconds (criterion).

On the other hand, there may be objectives that need to have the conditions and/or criteria specified. For example, a teacher might begin the process of writing an objective with a general statement such as:

The learner will be able to prepare appropriate new patient workups. He/she then might decide that this objective is too vague or general to be instructional to the student and to also let others who teach the student know what is expected. Therefore, in an effort to improve the objective the teacher might add criteria as exemplified below.

The learner will be able to prepare legible, comprehensive, and focused new patient workups that include the following features:

• Present illness is organized chronologically, without repetition, omission, or extraneous information.
• A comprehensive physical examination with detail pertinent to the patient’s problem.
• A succinct and, where appropriate, unified list of all problems identified in the history and physical examination.
• A differential diagnosis for each problem (appropriate to the level of training)
• A diagnosis/treatment plan for each problem (appropriate to the level of training)

One could argue that the teacher could add some time frame criterion such as – 1 hour – but such a time frame might be meaningless and not necessary. Please note that in this objective the condition is not stated and may be unnecessary. Please note that if you think of the purpose of the objective as a statement that serves the purpose of guiding planning, guiding teaching, guiding learning, and guiding evaluation the need to state or not to state the condition and the criterion will probably be clear to you.

Statements of behavioral objective

“Intended change brought about in a learner.” (Popham, et. al. 1969)

“A statement of what students ought to be able to do as a consequence of instruction.” (Goodlad, in Popham et al., 1969)

“Explicit formulations of ways in which students are expected to be changed by the educative process.” (Bloom, 1956)

“What the students should be able to do at the end of a learning period that they could not do beforehand.” (Mager, 1962)

“An objective is a description of a performance you want learners to be able to exhibit before you consider them competent. An objective describes an intended result of instruction, rather than the process of instruction itself.” (Mager, 1975)

“Properly constructed education objectives represent relatively specific statements about what students should be able to do following instruction.” (Gallagher and Smith, 1989)

According to Guilbert (1984) in an article entitled “How to Devise Educational Objectives” the qualities of specific learning objectives are:

• Relevant
• Unequivocal
• Feasible
• Logical
• Observable
• Measurable

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Factors affecting the selection and organization of curricular content include philosophical, psychological, societal or social, political, economic, educational, technological, and gender factors etc. A brief description of these factors is as under;

Philosophical Factors

Based upon fundamental beliefs that arise from one’s philosophy of Education, curricular decisions involve consideration of several topics and issues. Precisely for this reason, we consider philosophy one of the major foundation areas in the curriculum.
Studying philosophy helps us deal with our own personal systems of beliefs and values the way we perceive the world around us and how we define what is important to us. Hence, a study of the philosophy of education in terms of curriculum development is essential. In essence, educational philosophies influence, and to a large extent determine our educational decisions and alternatives. Those who are responsible for curricular decisions, therefore, should be clear about what they believe. If we are unclear or confused about our own beliefs, then our curricular plans are bound to be unclear and confusing.

Psychological Factors

The purpose of psychology is to study human behavior. Psychology contributes to curriculum planning by providing teachers with information concerning the nature of students, the nature of the process involved in learning, the motivation, personality, and individual differences of students, the value of teaching methods, and teaching effectiveness.

Social or Societal Factors

The purpose of sociology is the analysis of organized human relationships. Its major contribution to curriculum has been the making of decisions about the content of the curriculum and its main focus has been the understanding of the direction of social change and the socialization of the individual. Its method of working involves providing extensive information about the social background of students, promoting a realistic evaluation of the role of the teacher and school in social change. It increases teacher’s flexibility, tolerance, and awareness of methods of inquiry. It keeps in mind that the primary school curriculum differs from the secondary school curriculum. The needs of society play an important role in the development of the curriculum, e.g. it should be an emphasis on a technical-based curriculum for the development of an industrialized society.

Read: The role of economic foundation in curriculum development

Political Factors

Politics has a certain impact on all spheres of life, and instability of politics leads to instability in everyday life. It usually defines goals and content; political considerations need to be admitted while curriculum development; and political decisions may change the requirements for curriculum development.
Governments need to promote nationalism, patriotism, and ideologies. Therefore have polices according to which they send out directives. The directives state the medium of instruction, the nature of the syllabus the kind of textbook, etc.

Economical Factors

As compared to the elite schools where this is hardly a problem, schools belonging to the lower social strata cannot entertain the possibility of using modern equipment, e.g. the computer, due to financial constraints. This also leads to losing good teachers and other personnel to places offering better remuneration.

Read this: Top qualities and skills of a good teacher.

Educational Factors

In order to bring about effective learning modern and efficient methods of education should be used and for this, we need trained and skilled teachers. We also need to keep co-curricular activities like sports, drama, debates, excursions, etc. as an integral part of the curriculum.

Technological Factors

The influence of technological progress is observed in each sphere of life, and when the time for curriculum development comes, the technological point plays an important role.
Curriculum developers cannot ignore this technological progress and the influence it presents. Technological innovations may be applied to curriculum development in several ways “as a plan for the systematic use of various devices and media” and as the issue that “is found in models and procedures for the construction or development and evaluation of curriculum materials and instructional systems” (Print, 1993, p.55).

Gender Factors

The needs of each gender are also kept in mind for the development of the curriculum. Although this is the age where women have gone into professions that were previously considered the domain of the male gender and women are asking for equal rights, options should be left open, e.g. home economics for girls and technical education for boys, though these should not be strictly the domains of females or males respectively. In advanced countries where women enjoy a greater degree of freedom, a variety of educational institutions exist that separately cater the male and female curriculum needs.

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Curriculum foundation refers to the factors that influence the minds of curriculum developers to make a decision on what to include in the curriculum and its structure. There are certain factors that provide background information on which the curriculum developers depend to make the decisions.

The economic foundation of the curriculum gives importance to the vocational. workforce and send it to other countries for jobs.

It focuses on:

Job or market-oriented curriculum
The economic foundation of the curriculum gives importance to the vocational aspect of the curriculum. The economic condition of a nation or a society guide the curriculum of the country because the stakeholder of education wants to employ such a curriculum which help them to build their economy and the people have better jobs when they finish their schooling. In this kind of situation, the curriculum becomes job or market-oriented. In this curriculum, the curriculum developer gives importance to skills acquisition which is the demands of the time. Undeveloped nations try to prepare a skilled workforce and send it to other countries for jobs. Here are some economic factors that influence the curriculum development process.

Read: A comprehensive note on various concepts of curriculum and its scope

The financial condition of a country reflects its curriculum because without proper funding one can’t achieve the outcome of a good curriculum. It is the financial aspect of a country that guides them to adopt which type of curriculum, for example, activity base or learner center curriculum needs more money in the process of the implementation of the curriculum the subject matter curriculum.
Because activity base and learner center curricula need more space and money than subject matter, for that reason in Pakistan we adopted subject base curriculum because we have a shortage of schools, classrooms in schools, and trained teachers. In economically sound countries they have implemented all kinds of curricula in their schools according to the need of the school and that society. Without proper funding, one can’t implement a good curriculum in the country and achieve the benefits of that curriculum. Without proper funding, one can’t implement a good curriculum in the country and achieve the benefits of that curriculum.

Read this: Top qualities and skills of a good teacher.
Lack of resources due to financial constraints affects the development and planning of the curriculum. What type of curriculum should have to support it through proper funding? There are different factors in the curriculum development, planning, and implementation process that need financial support e.g. Schools lack physical facilities including buildings, classrooms, furniture, Hostel, Playgrounds, mats, and even very basic necessities like blackboard, chalk, and charts.
The lack of skilled manpower due to financial restraints, without proper financial support it is hard to train the people to support the teaching-learning process. Only through proper funding and the establishment of training institutions for teachers and support staff. Teachers are the core of the education system and without proper training, one can’t implement a curriculum to support the curriculum one needs to train the entire teacher on that style of curriculum. So the skills of the teachers also guide the direction of the curriculum, and to develop these skills the teachers need funds.
The lack of labs and libraries also affect the curriculum development process because, without proper computer labs in cities and villages, one can’t implement computer education curriculum all over the country. In the same way without proper libraries in all schools, one can’t implement a curriculum that needs supporting or reference books.
Also without a proper health care system in the schools lot of activities can’t be part of the curriculum due to the risk factors to the health of the students and teachers.
The overburden of the population is also one of the factors that affect the financial support of the curriculum development, lack of facilities, and implementation of the curriculum in the country.
In short, we can say that economics plays a vital role in the curriculum development and implementation process in the country and it is the foundation of a successful curriculum, without a good economic background a country can’t afford a curriculum that needs huge financial support.

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Various concepts of curriculum

Bestor (1956): The curriculum must consist essentially of disciplined study in five great areas: 1) command of the mother tongue and the systematic study of grammar, literature, and writing. 2) mathematics, 3) sciences, 4) history, 5) foreign language.

Albert Oliver (1977): curriculum is “the educational program of the school” and divided into four basic elements: 1) program of studies, 2) program of experiences, 3) program of service, and 4) hidden curriculum.

Othanel Smith (1957): A sequence of potential experiences is set up in the school for the purpose of disciplining children and youth in group ways of thinking and acting. This set of experiences is referred to as the curriculum.

Bell (1971): the offering of socially valued knowledge, skills, and attitudes made available to students through a variety of arrangements during the time they are at school, college, or university.

Bobbit (1918): Curriculum is 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.

Caswell and Campbell (1935): curriculum is composed of all of the experiences children have under the guidance of the teacher.”

Daniel Tanner and Laurel N. Tanner (1988) “that reconstruction of knowledge and experience systematically developed under the auspices of the school (or university), to enable the learner to increase his or her control of knowledge and experience.”

David G. Armstrong (1989): “is a master plan for selecting content and organizing learning experiences for the purpose of changing and developing learners’ behaviors and insights.”

Decker Walker (1990): A curriculum consists of those matters: A. that teachers and students attend to together, B. that students, teachers, and others concerned generally recognize as important to study and learn, as indicated particularly by using them as a basis for judging the success of both school and scholar, C. the manner in which these matters are organized in relationship to one another, in relationship to the other elements in the immediate educational situation and in time and space.

Duncan and Frymier (1967): a set of events, proposed, occurring, or having occurred, which has the potential for reconstructing human experience.

Goodman (1963): A set of abstractions from actual industries, arts, professions, and civic activities, and this abstraction is brought into the school box and taught.

Harnack (1968): The curriculum embodies all the teaching-learning experiences guided and directed by the school.

Hass (1980): The curriculum is all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a framework of theory and research or past and present professional practice.

Hilda Taba (1962): “All curricula, no matter what their particular design, are composed of certain elements. A curriculum usually contains a statement of aims and specific objectives; it indicates some selection and organization of content; it either implies or manifests certain patterns of learning and teaching, whether because the objectives demand them or because the content organization requires them. Finally, it includes a program of evaluation of the outcomes.”

Hollis L. Caswell and Doak S. Campbell: “All the experiences children have under the guidance of teachers.”

J. Galen Saylor, William M. Alexander, and Arthur J. Lewis (1974): “We define curriculum as a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives for an identifiable population served by a single school center for persons to be educated.”

Read: The factors affecting the reliability of test

Johnson (1967): Curriculum is a structural series of intended learning outcomes. Curriculum prescribes (or at least anticipates) the results of instruction. It does not prescribe the means… To be used in achieving the results.

Jon Wiles and Joseph Bondi (1989): curriculum is a goal or set of values, which are activated through a development process culminating in classroom experiences for students. The degree to which those experiences are a true representation of the envisioned goal or goals is a direct function of the effectiveness of the curriculum development efforts.

Krug (1957): Curriculum consists of all the means of instruction used by the school to provide opportunities for student learning experiences leading to desired learning outcomes.

Musgrave (1968): the contrived activity and experience- organized, focused, systematic- that life, unaided, would not provide.

P. Phenix (1962): The curriculum should consist entirely of knowledge which comes from the disciplines… Education should be conceived as a guided recapitulation of the process of inquiry that gave rise to the fruitful bodies of organized knowledge comprising the established disciplines.

Peter F. Oliva (1989): “The program, a plan, content, and learning experiences.”

Ralph Tyler (1957): The curriculum is all of the learning of students which is planned by and directed by the school to attain its educational goals.

Robert Hutchins (1936): The curriculum should consist of permanent studies of grammar, reading, rhetoric and logic, and mathematics (for elementary and secondary school), and the greatest books of the Western world (beginning at the secondary level of schooling).

Ronald C. Doll (1988): “the formal and informal content and process by which learners gain knowledge and understanding, develop skills, and alter attitudes, appreciations, and values under the auspices of that school.”

Ronald Doll (1970): The curriculum is now generally considered to be all of the experiences that learners have under the auspices of the school.

Shaver and Berlak (1968): situations or activities arranged and brought into play by the teacher to affect student learning.

Smith and Orlovsky (1978): the content pupils are expected to learn.

Read this: Top qualities and skills of a good teacher.

Scope of Curriculum

The curriculum is very comprehensive in its scope. It touches all aspects of the life of the pupils- the needs and interests of the pupils, the environment which should be educationally congenial to them, ways and manners in which their interests can be handled and warmed up, the procedures and approaches which cause effective learning among them, the social efficiency of the individuals and how they fit in with the community around. It is intimately related to the individual as a member of the society. It embodies the educational philosophy, the values which it aims to achieve, purpose it wants philosophy, the values it aims to achieve purposes it wants to realize, and the specific goals that it wants to achieve. The emphasis is on the child. In the total education of the child, all the subjects like history, geography, science, and language are but tools. These are the means and therefore the children must not be made to fit in such study.
The need for education determines the importance of curriculum. Thus the need for curriculum has evolved into the concept of ‘curriculum development’. These needs of the curriculum have been merited as below:-
a. The human can acquire knowledge while other species cannot acquire knowledge. It is an important aspect of human beings.
b. The mental aspects are trained and developed, thus mental facilities are trained by teaching various school subjects.
c. The vocational and technical educations prepare the students for different jobs. During the British period, clerks were prepared through educational curriculum.
d. The interests and attitudes are developed according to the students’ potentialities. The curriculum is designed as child centered approach.
e. The good citizens are prepared by the developing democratic way of life. It also develops the abilities and capacities of the teachers.
f. The ability of self-realization is also developed by education and to make a good man.
g. It also develops the feeling of appreciation and sound judgment.
h. Education is given always for future life so that he can earn his living.
i. It also prepares for scientific invention and technical development.
j. It brings performance in child. It helps in all-round development

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