PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

OF CURRICULUM
CURRICULUM
“Roadmap" or "guideline" of any given discipline

Foundations Of Curriculum Development

Three basic foundations

SOCIOLOGICAL

PSYCHOLOGICAL

PHILOSOPHICAL
 PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

Philosophy provides educators,

Philosophy provides educators,
teachers and curriculum makers with a
teachers and curriculum makers with a
framework for planning, implementing
framework for planning, implementing
and evaluating curriculum.
and evaluating curriculum.
Philosophy provides a systematic
procedure for clarifying issues and
making decisions on critical point of
curriculum development.

Every society is held together by a

common faith or philosophy which
serve as a guide for living a good life.
 PHILOSOPHY AND CURRICULUM

Philosophy helps in answering;

What educational institutions are for

What subjects are important

How students should learn

What material and methods should be used

MAJOR PHILOSOPHICAL
CATEGOTIES
 IDEALISTS CURRICULUM

1. Teacher as a role model

2. Highly structured schools
3. Schools should advocate only those ideas that
demonstrate enduring values.
4. Materials of instruction centre on broad ideas
5. Curriculum should inculcate three spiritual values;
I. Truth (Moral)
II. Beauty(Aesthetic)
III. Goodness (Intellectual)
 REALISTS CURRICULUM

1. Teacher is responsible to impart the learners about the knowledge

of the world they live in
2. Education should reflect permanent and enduring values
3. Unlike Idealists, the realists view the subject expert as a source
and authority for determining curriculum.
4. Textbooks and other written materials prepared by the experts are
important for helping children learn what they should learn
5. Curriculum should include essential knowledge ,not the ‘fads and
frills’
 PRAGMATISTS CURRICULUM

1. Learning is an active process , rather than passive acceptance

of facts and has no absolute values.
2. Knowledge is not at all undeniable in a changing world
3. Curriculum should teach the learners how to think critically
rather than what to think
4. Teaching is more exploratory in nature than explanatory
5. Curriculum should be based in utility, natural interests of the
children, child’s own experiences and integration.
6. Interests of child are divided into four groups
I. Communication
II. Enquiry
III. Construction
IV.
Expression
 EXISTENTIALSTS CURRICULUM
1. Most popular Philosophy of recent years.
2. Education must centre on the perceptions and feelings of
individual to facilitate understanding of personal reactions or
responses to life situation.
3. Chief concern is to free the child for his/her own thinking
4. Children choose themselves what they are to learn and to believe
5. Individual should not be forced into pre determined programs of
study.
6. Curriculum is including skills and subjects that state real and
social facts
 EXISTENTIALSTS CURRICULUM

7. Curriculum includes human sciences such as History, Literature,

Language, Mathematics and Science
8. Whatever the learner feels he/she must learn should be
respected and facilitated by the system
9. An existentialists curriculum may consists of experiences and
subjects that lend themselves to act of making choices that
illustrate emotions and insights
10. Non directive role of teacher. Teacher as a partner in the
learning process
11. Teacher Student relationship are very important.
 PROGRESSIVIST CURRICULUM

1. Progressivism defines curriculum as total learning experience of an

individual which means that students be given at all the
opportunities to apply what they learn
2. Student centered curriculum
3. It is based upon student interests, needs, democracy, morality and
social development etc.
4. It uses life experience approach to fit the students for future social
action
5. Student centered having in mind that no two persons are equal or
alike
 PROGRESSIVIST CURRICULUM

6. Practical approach for learning, problem solving skills explore

issues in theory and practice

7. Curriculum is based on specific group of students

8. Curriculum is flexible based on areas of interest

9. Curriculum is based on student interest, human problems and

affairs