Learner Participation In Curriculum

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Stenhouse states that curriculum “is not a package of materials or a syllabus of ground to be covered.” (Stenhouse, 1975, p.142). Curriculum as process suggests that curriculum includes the activity taking place in the classroom and the preparation and evaluation ensuing. (bb reading). Curriculum as process empowers us to direct attention on aiding the understanding of the student rather than the transmission of content or the accomplishment of predetermined behaviours. (Kelly, 2004).
Learner participation is essential in curriculum as process. Terry Moore explains that learner participation can be defined in two ways; as “participation in what is going on in an educative experience” and secondly as “participation in decision-making about …show more content…

This can be seen in a variety of definitions; Neagley and Evan, (1967) depicted curriculum as “All the planned experiences provided by the school to assist the pupils in attaining the designated learning outcomes”, while Paul Hurst (1969) maintains that “all rational activities are characterized by having clear goals or objectives”. One can denote from this that the key aspects of curriculum as product are predetermined aims and objectives. However, many higher learning outcomes cannot be measured and therefore are not included in the curriculum. The Tyler Model, created by Ralph Tyler (1949), accentuates consistency within objectives, learning experiences and outcomes. The curriculum objectives focus on behaviour development as well as content area to be applied. (Keating, 2006).
Another valuable contributor in the field of curriculum and education was Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999). Bloom’s was one of the initial efforts to structure categories of expected behaviour and learning outcomes. (Lawton et al., 1978, p. 158) Bloom’s Taxonomy provides three central domains in which behavioural and learning outcomes could be classified; cognitive domain, psycho-motor domain and affective domain. (Lawton et al., 1978, p. 158)
However, there are criticisms of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Some criticisms have been submitted by Lawton (1973) and Kelly (1977). The majority of criticisms express that Bloom’s divisions …show more content…

Curriculum as process allows students to be actively learning and to play key roles in their own education, however this can result in variety in content learned by different students. Curriculum as product ensures that all students are provided with equal content however the curriculum can be excessively focused on pre-established aims and