001_Book Review_Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Book Review_Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Summary - Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, has been called “the most influential curriculum book of the twentieth century” (Marshall, Sears, & Schubert, 2000, p. 3)

Chapter I - answered the question, “What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?”

Set Educational Purposes

In the first three sections, Tyler (1949) identified three different sources from which to obtain educational purposes:  
1.The learners themselves,
2. Contemporary life outside of school, and
3. Subject specialists.

He believed that “no single source of information is adequate to provide a basis for wise and comprehensive decisions about the 30 objectives in school”

The learners themselves

“A study of the learners themselves would seek to identify needed changes in behavior patterns of the students which the educational institution should seek to produce”

“Provide opportunities for students to enter actively into, and to deal wholeheartedly with, the things which interest him”

“Education is an active process” which “involves the active efforts of the learner himself”

Contemporary life outside of school

Schools were no longer able to teach all the information that scholars considered important for learning therefore, it was necessary to identify those aspects of contemporary life which would be beneficial for students to know.

Identify and stating Objectives

“Educational objectives are educational ends; they are results to be achieved from learning.

Objectives are rejected if they are “unattainable, inappropriate to the age level, too general or too specific, or otherwise in conflict with the psychology of learning”

He cautioned about writing objectives in terms of what “the instructor is to do”

“The most useful form of stating objectives is to express them in terms which identify both the kind of behavior to be developed in the student and the content or area of life in which this behavior is to operate”

“Behavioral aspect and the content aspect”

Chapter II - answered the question, “How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives?”
He outlined a problem-solving approach to curriculum development.

Selecting Learning Experiences

“The interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the environment to which the learner can react”

5 principles

1.The first principle for selecting learning experiences stated, “A student must have experiences that give him an opportunity to practice the kind of behavior implied by the objectives”

2.The second principle stated, “The learning experiences must be such that the student can obtain satisfaction from carrying on the kind of behavior implied by the objective”

3. “The learning experiences must be within the range of possibility for the student involved”

4. There are many possible “Experiences that can be used to attain the same educational objectives”

5. “The same learning experience will usually bring about several outcomes”

Characteristics of Learning Experiences

1.“Learning experiences to develop skill in thinking”

2.“Helpful in acquiring information”- viewed as functional,” not as an end in itself

3.“Helpful in developing social attitudes” - Attitudes were defined as “a tendency to react even though the reaction does not actually take place” - “insight and for satisfactions”

4.“Helpful in developing interests” - “Interests are of concern in education as both ends and means”

Chapter III - focused on the question, “How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction?”

Organizing Learning Experiences

“Organizing the learning experiences for effective instruction”

One must consider the vertical, learning over a period of time, and horizontal, learning from one area to another, relationships.

Three criteria for effective organisation: 
1.continuity, - “the vertical repetition of major curriculum elements”

2.sequence - “each successive experience [to] build upon the preceding one but to go more broadly and deeply into the matters involved” / higher order learning not mere repetition

3.integration - “horizontal relationship of the learning experiences”

Three different structural levels for organization:

1.Largest, which included specific subjects, broad fields, core curriculum; 

2.intermediate, which included course sequences; and

3.lowest, which consisted of the lesson or unit.

He identified several organizing principles that included:

1.chronological

2.increasing breadth of application

3.increasing range of activities included

4.use of description followed by analysis

5.development of specific illustrations followed by broader and broader principles to explain these illustrations

6.attempt to build an increasingly unified world picture from specific parts which are first built into larger and larger wholes.

Chapter IV - answered the question, “How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?”

Evaluating Learning Experiences

Evaluation was “a process that finds out how far the learning experiences as they were developed and organized actually produced the desired results”

He identified two important aspects.

1.First, evaluation must appraise the student’s behavior,

2. Second, evaluation must include at least two appraisals.

He noted that interviews, questionnaires, collections of actual products, and samples of students’ work or behaviors are all appropriate methods of evaluation.

“Situations that not only permit the expression of the behavior but actually encourage or evoke this behavior”

What is implied in all of this is that curriculum planning is a continuous process and that as materials and procedures are developed, they are tried out, their results appraised, their inadequacies identified, suggested improvements indicated; there is replanning, redevelopment, and then reapprisal; and in this kind of continuing cycle, it is possible for the curriculum and instructional programs to be continuously improved over the years. In this way we may hope to have an increasingly more effective educational program rather than depending so much upon hit and miss judgment as a basis for curriculum development.

Chapter V

Application of the Rationale

Every teacher needed to have “an adequate understanding” of the learning objectives and “the kinds of learning experiences that

“The concern of the staff, the problems already identified, the available data are all factors to consider in deciding on the initial point of attack” can be used to attain these objectives”

The purpose of the rationale is to give a view of the elements that are involved in a program of instruction and their necessary interrelations. The program may be improved by attacks beginning at any point, providing the resulting modifications are elements until eventually all aspects of the curriculum have been studied and revised.

Thank You