The Taba Model

Development

 Hilda Tabas belief: there must be a definite order to the creation of a curriculum. There must be step by step plan, with specific goals and objectives with activities that coincide and are evaluated with the stated objectives. She advocated that the teachers themselves needed to be heavily involved in the development of the curriculum.

 Tabas Model also being called the grass-roots approach. She developed seven steps that should take place when developing curriculum.

Construction

The 7 steps:
Diagnosis of need: The teacher who is also the curriculum designer starts the process by identifying the needs of students for whom the curriculum is planned. For example, the majority of students are unable to think critically. Formulation of objectives: After the teacher has identified needs that require attention, he or she specifies objectives to be accomplished.

 Selection of content: The objectives selected or created suggest the subject matter or content of the curriculum. Not only should objectives and content match, but also the validity and significance of the content chosen needs to be determined. i.e. the relevancy and significance of content. Organisation of content: A teacher cannot just select content, but must organise it in some type of sequence, taking into consideration the maturity of learners, their academic achievement, and their interests.

 Selection of learning experiences: Content must be presented to students and students must be engaged with the content. At this point, the teacher selects instructional methods that will involve the students with the content.

 Organisation of learning activities: Just as content must be sequenced and organised, so must the learning activities. Often, the sequence of the learning activities is determined by the content. But the teacher needs to keep in mind the particular students whom he or she will be teaching. Evaluation and means of evaluation: The curriculum planner must determine just what objectives have been accomplished. Evaluation procedures need to be designed to evaluate learning outcomes.

Contributions

 The model supports the idea of students using problem solving and inquiry discovery techniques. the needs of the students are at the forefront to the curriculum. The use of Taba's ideals of charting students status in learning and placing students with similar learning in diverse groupings, what is now called cooperative learning groups.