Problem-centred

designs
Prepared by:
Law Kai Xin
Voon Suk Fong
Emily Teng Jie Ling
Agnes Ong She Jet
Durgamageswary a/p Devadass
Emily Gan Hui Fang
Lecturer: Mdm Nor Diwiyana bt Mohamed Nor
 Main Concepts

Organize a subject
matter around a Dual emphasis on
problem, real or Based on social issues content and learners’
hypothetical, that development
needs to be solved

Focus on persistent life

situations,
Emphasize social
contemporary social
needs, as opposed to
problems, areas of
individual needs
living, reconstructing
society
 Core design

Social Problem
Life-situations
(Reconstructionist)
design
design

Problem-
centred
designs
 Strengths Weaknesses
• Focus on problem- • Difficult to determine
solving procedures the scope and sequence
• Process and content are of living’s essential
integrated aspect
• Uses learners’ past and • Teachers lack adequate
present experiences preparation to mount
• Integration of subject life-situations
matter to related curriculum
categories of social life
 Life-situations design

Herbert Spencer’s writings on curriculum

emphasized on
- Sustain life
- Enhance life
- Aid in rearing children
- Maintain the individual’s social and political
relations
- Enhance leisure, tasks and feelings
 Assumptions:
Dealing with Students see the
persistent life relevance of content
situations is crucial if it is organized
to society’s successful around aspects of
functioning community life

Having students
study social or life
situations will
directly in improving
society
Advantages Disadvantages

• Foster student-centred • Time consuming

learning • Foreign to some instructors
• Uphold lifelong learning
• Prominence on
comprehension not facts
• In-depth learning and
constructivist approach
• Promote self-learning
• Reinforce interpersonal
skills and teamwork
• Encourage HOTs
 Core design
• Centres on general education and is based on
problems arising out of common human activities.

• The central focus of the core design includes common

needs, problems, concerns of the learners.

• The curriculum is carefully planned before the

students arrive, but with the notion that adjustment
can be made if necessary.
• This design is usually taught in a block-time format,
whereby two or more normal periods for teaching the
core component are scheduled together.

• Problems are selected by either the teacher or students.

 Core design
• Focuses on the set of learning experiences that are felt
to be essential for all students

• Purpose - to create a universal sense of inquiry,

discourse, and understanding among learners of
different backgrounds and aspirations

• Broad areas of concern are examined and set of

learning experiences intended to promote a common
body of knowledge are carefully prepared.
 Core design
• A general education is the goal of the core curriculum.
• Integration and unification of learning is stressed and
accomplished by the systematic correlation of subject
matter around themes drawn from the contemporary
problems of living.
• Problem solving through reflective thinking is
encouraged.
• Examples of possible themes include: civic responsibility,
an understanding of economic systems and how people
relate to one another within these systems, family
relationships, informed consumerism, development of
aesthetic appreciations, proficiency in spoken and written
language.
 Core design
• Subject matter lines are cut across and attention given
to the needs of the learner.
• Learner’s respect for one another is promoted.
• Learners have the opportunity to test their own values
and ideas.
• Cooperative teacher-student planning is emphasized
and learners are grouped homogeneously.
• A wide range of ability levels can be accommodated
because the problems being investigated are
considered to be universally significant.
• has the primary purpose of engaging the
learner in analysing the many severe
problems confronting humankind.
• emphasizes cultural pluralism, equality and
futurism.
• committed to bring about social and
constructive change.
• content and objectives decided by those who
create the curriculum.
• students would spend half of their time in the
classroom and the other half outside of the
classroom in different settings.
• to engage students in a critical analysis of
the local, national, and international
community.
• strengthen control of the schools by and
for goal-seeking interests of the
overwhelming majority of mankind.
• measure up to their social responsibilities
• provide students with learning requisite for
altering social, economic, & political realities
• bring students into their community
• encourage students to directly apply what
they are learning through social activism,
reform and change
• encourage students to be curious and inquire
about the world with the goal of having
them re-invent it.
THANK YOU.