SHERRYL M.

LACERNA TEACHING SCHOOL CURRICULUM

BEED – 2B

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION CURRICULUM IN A DISCIPLINE

Curriculum is a broad set of experiences that students go through during the

entire time they are in school. The curriculum is generally considered as the complete
course path that will enable students to attain the goals and general objectives of
education. It is the learner‘s engagement with various aspects of the environment,
which is under the direction of the school. Curriculum empowers all students and
motivates them towards lifelong learning. But because of technological advancements,
the spread of new information media and the predominance of software and hardware
devices, a school‘s curriculum should be enhanced. It should be pragmatic to meet the
needs of society and should conform to the actualities of the community. A school‘s
curriculum should be re-structured with a likely shift towards a more meaningful course
of study. It is indeed very important for an educational institution to have a balanced and
well-designed curriculum for all the programs it offers. In doing so, the institution shall
have a more stable system in undertaking its goals and mission so as to make its
curricular programs efficient and effective to its major concern – the students.

Curriculum can be defined as a plan for what is to be taught in schools. It

consists of topics to be taught at all levels in the primary school. The term "curriculum"
is generally understood as the courses or programmes of study offered by an
educational institution. The concept of "curriculum" is best understood, however, from
the Latin root of the word which is "currere", or "to run" as in to run a racecourse.
             To use an analogy, curriculum means the course (or path) that students have to
run to finish the "race" -- or put another way, all the activities which students need do if
they are to finish a programme of study and achieve the intended learning goals.
Curriculum is more than just a body of knowledge, a list of subjects to be studied, or a
syllabus -- it is all the planned experiences such as extra-class activities, guidance, and
interpersonal relationships which learners may be exposed to in order to achieve the
learning goals.
Types of curriculum.

             1. The Official Curriculum: This can be defined as the proposed plan of work for
the Primary school, which includes all the topics to be taught and the outcomes that are
expected, that is, General and specific objectives. It also includes suggested materials
and resources as well as evaluations. A committee including curriculum officers,
educators and teachers develop this curriculum.
             2. The Taught Curriculum: This is what is delivered in the classroom. The
teacher is in charge of deciding what should be taught and when it should be taught.
The topics are broken down from the official curriculum into weeks, meaning that a
certain topic will be taught one week whilst another would be taught a next week. This is
called a scheme of work.

Strongest arguments supporting integrated curriculum

There are two strong arguments supporting an integrated curriculum. First, there
is simply too much information to be covered in the traditional structure of a forty or fifty
minute class period. Secondly, most subjects are taught to students in isolation from
other related information. Advocates of an interdisciplinary curriculum believe that
individuals learn best when encountering ideas that are connected to one another. A
strong belief system exists supporting that "all things are connected." As the lecture-
based, didactic, or modernistic, curriculum stands, it tends to ignore the needs and
capabilities of our post-modern students by having a departmentalized approach.
Integrated curriculum relieves disconnection. The nature of interdisciplinary curriculum
is viewed as a means to enhance student motivation by providing students with a
curriculum centered on student-based, and often student selected, themes. By placing
the student at the center, the various activities and actual learning seem to prevail over
the various disciplines.
 Proponents of the progressive educational reform believed that the different
disciplines prevented students from making connections between the different subjects.
Therefore, relevance and purpose decreased drastically. Integrated curriculum seems
to be a prime vehicle for empowering students, parents, and teachers. Yet, many
schools continue to be structured where students transition from one subject to the next
whether by bell or teacher direction, information is disconnected and the ability to make
material relevant to the lives of the students is lost. By implementing an integrated
curriculum, educators are encouraged to tap into the questions and meaning that the
students themselves create, rather than design "connections" along the lines of
separate disciplines. Teachers help students to see the connections and relevance
between the subjects.

Integrated curriculum impact our students

Integrated curriculum adopts a student-centered approach, by nature of its

definition, it moves further away from the modernist viewpoint. With an integrated
curriculum, a "right" way to complete a task does not exist. Students are free to reach
conclusions on their own and they are provided with many different perspectives,
affording students the opportunity to question the conclusions of their teachers.

Learning through an integrated approach based on collaboration with children

may be new to some children, parents, and teachers. A teacher can begin to use an
integrated approach by working in cooperation with other teachers and with children in
active learning situations such as: ƒ Activity-based mathematics ƒ Cooperative learning
ƒ Readers’ and writers’ workshop ƒ Learning centers ƒ Multi-age grouping By
working in a collaborative manner, the teacher gains confidence and flexibility and
realizes that children can take responsibility for their own learning. In turn, children gain
the dispositions, skills, and knowledge they need to be successful lifelong learners. It is
important to help parents understand how an integrated approach is beneficial for their
children. After hearing about or making a brief observation in a classroom where
children are learning in an integrated manner, parents may misunderstand what is
happening. Teachers can show parents that in an integrated classroom there is an
underlying structure which combines an understanding of how children learn; familiarity
with the district or state standards and benchmarks and goals and curriculum areas of
the program; and knowledge of children in general, as well as specific knowledge of the
children currently in the class. This structure provides a powerful base for facilitating
learning.

The world is changing so fast that in order for schools and universities to cope
with new innovations, they should keep at pace with the tempo of societal changes and
technological progress. The schools of today should participate in the educational and
social revolution. Thus, the curriculum in Philippine schools today has to be geared to
the rapid societal changes and the new responsibilities for the new breed of Filipinos.
The three most important sectors of society that give direct input to the improvement of
the curriculum are the academe (institutions), the government, and the industries (both
public and private companies). Some government institutions, such as the Commission
on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Education (DepEd), are directly
involved in upgrading the curricular programs of learning institutions. They oversee and
control the operations of schools, colleges and universities.