Curriculum Designs

Curriculum design refers to the structure or the arrangement of the components or

elements of a curriculum. The four basic curricular parts or elements are; objectives,
content, method and organization and evaluation.
There are three basic curriculum designs:
1) subject-centered designs,
2) learner-centered designs,
3) problem-centered designs.
Each category comprises several examples:
Subject-centered designs include subject designs, discipline designs, broadfield designs,
correlation designs and process designs. Learner-centered designs are those identified as
child-centered designs, experience-centered designs, romantic/radical designs, and
humanistic designs. Problem-centered designs consider life situations, core designs, or
social problem/reconstructionist designs.
1. Subject-centered design
This focuses on the content of the curriculum. The subject centered design
corresponds mostly to the textbook, written for the specific subject. In this instance,
schools divide the school hours to different subjects such as reading, grammar, literature,
mathematics, science, history and geography. Most of the schools using this kind of
structure aim for excellence in the subject matter content.
Examples of subject-centered curriculum are included below.
a. Subject design- The subject is both the oldest and best known school design to both
teachers and lay people. The subject design corresponds to textbook treatment and
teachers training as subject specialists. The curriculum is organized according to how
essential knowledge has developed in various subject areas.
b. Discipline design This is related to the subject design. However, while subject design
centers only on the cluster of content, discipline design focuses on academic disciplines.
Discipline refers to specific knowledge learned through a method which scholars use to
study a specific content of their fields. Students in history should learn the subject matter
like historians, students in biology should learn how biologists learn. The discipline
design is often used in college, but not in the elementary or secondary levels.
c. Correlation design This comes from a core, correlated curriculum design that links
separate subject designs in order to reduce fragmentation. Subjects are related to one
another but each subject maintains its identity. For example, English literature and social
studies correlate well in the elementary level. In two subjects, while history is being

studied, different literary pieces during the historical period are being studied. To use
correlated design, teachers should come together and plan their lessons cooperatively.
d. Broad field designs/interdisciplinary- The broad-fields design is another variation of
the subject-centered design. Broad-field designers strove to give students a sweeping
understanding of all content areas. They attempted to integrate content that fit together
logically. Geography, economics, political science, anthropology, sociology and history
were fused into social studies. Language arts will include grammar, literature, linguistics,
spelling and composition.
2. Learner-centered design
In response to educational planners who valued subject matter, educators in the
early 1900s asserted that students are the programs focus. Progressives advocated what
have come to be called learner-centered designs. These designs are found more frequently
at the elementary than the secondary school level.
Here are some examples of the learner-centered designs.
a. Child-centered design This curriculum design is anchored on the needs and interests
of the child. The learner is not considered as a passive individual but as one who engages
with his/her environment. Learners actively create; construct meanings and understanding
as viewed by constructivist. Learners interact with the teachers and the environment, thus
there is collaborative effort on both sides to plan lessons, select content and do activities
together.
b. Experience-centered design Although, the child remains to be the focus, experiencecentered design believes that the interests and needs of learners cannot be pre-planned.
Instead, experiences of the learners become the starting point of the curriculum, thus the
school environment is left open and free. Learners are made to choose from various
activities that the teacher provides.
c. Humanistic design In a humanistic design, the development of self is the ultimate
objective of learning. It stresses the whole person and the integration of thinking, feeling
and doing. It considers the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains to be
interconnected and must be addressed in the curriculum. It stresses the development of
positive self-concept and interpersonal skills.
3. Problem-centered design
Problem-centered design focuses on real-life problems of individuals and society.
Problem-centered curriculum designs are intended to reinforce cultural traditions and
address unmet needs of the community and society. Various problems are given
emphases. These are those that center on life situations, contemporary life problems.
areas of living and many others.

Two examples for problem-centered design:

a. Life-situations designs- It uses the past and the present experiences of learners as a
means to analyze the basic areas of living. As a starting point, the pressing immediate
problems of the society and the students existing concerns are utilized.
b. Core design It centers on general education and the problems are based on common
human activities. The central focus of the core design includes common needs, problems
and concern of the learners.