Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Asma Bin AteeqWithout reading this book, the educators will design a poor curriculum. It is really important for all educators to look at it especially and curriculum designers. Like a typical designer, educators should make sure to keep the students’ desires and interests in mind, trying to make the activities easy and uncomplicated while making up for a lack of substance with plenty of fun and lack learning at the end of the day. These concepts and ideas are simplistic and lacking in structure and focus, which oftentimes led the teachers off-topic to peripheral subject. Looking back to my first year of teaching, my plans for the days seemed absent of imagination, intellectual rigor, and a clear sense of enduring value. In fact, I feel quite embarrassed at the plainness of my ideas compared to where I am now after reading the book. In Tyler’s book, the educators will learn how to design a curriculum, considering really important steps/stages.Having learned about Tyler's ideas, my understanding of curriculum design has broadened a great deal, and I am now able to have a much wider perspective on how to create a successful unit; one that enables me to actually have evidence that my students have deeply understood and absorbed the subject matter. With the Tyler's way, however, I am able to let go of my old habits of thinking and take on the assessor’s perspective, which is concerned with the criteria and validity for judging objectives. He goes into great detail on this step explaining where you should get the objectives for the curriculum you are writing.After reading chapter one, you will be able to begin identifying the goals by considering the five sources: the learner, the community, subjects, Philosophy, Psychology. Tyler further explains how we can help the students to reach the goal. He gives us a lot of advice, such as considering the student’s interests and needs, providing the students with different experiences so they can learn in different ways, and let the community know what is going on inside the school and combine them together. Selecting the means for the attainment or achievement of these objectives, such as what educational or teaching-learning experiences have to be provided for students and organizing these educational or teaching-learning experiences. The selection and organization of the educational experiences give evidence of how you may tie it all together in an organized and efficient way, scaffolding the knowledge-building process, which culminates in students creating a plan for how they would achieve it, a decidedly proactive approach compared to mere passive acceptance of information.Tyler suggests evaluating the outcomes or what have students attained or achieved. Your assessments will become much more interesting and relevant to the students’ decision-making process on a day-to-day basis, which will solve some queries that you probably had about how your performance tasks did not relate to the evidence or how you was simply not able to see the connection.Instead of having a vague idea of what you want to teach on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, you will now be planning in advance, taking the units through steps as instructed by Tyler. I am convinced that this is the right approach to curriculum design. It is concerned with depth of insight, with being able to see into the validity of performance tasks in relation to ultimate assessment of understanding. I see now how simple I have been, when in actuality, my students would have benefited from having a teacher who had a clear roadmap with strategic directions in mind. I am confident now that my teaching and planning will be different.Work CitedTyler, R. W. (1949/2013). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Originally published in 1949, Ralph W. Tyler’s concise text continues to have an impact on the field of education. As an educator, I personally found Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction to be largely relevant today, as Tyler reminds us that curriculum should be organic, forever changing to fit the needs of our students and current society, and continuously under revision in hopes to improve the educational experiences for all students. Although Tyler outlines the basic principles of curriculum by identifying four crucial questions, he remarks that “no attempt is made to answer these questions since the answers will vary to some extent from one level of education to another and one school to another” (p. 1). Therefore, we may view the principles as a starting point in curriculum development rather than a rigid guide. This distinctive approach that Tyler takes on curriculum development is likely to be refreshing to all teachers, as teachers are able to go creatively beyond the basics and fit the principles to each of their unique situations and students.Each section of the book addresses a key component of curriculum development and instruction: (1) defining educational objectives, (2) selecting experiences aligned to the objectives, (3) organizing the experiences for effective instruction, (4) evaluating the effectiveness of the learning experiences, and (5) situating the importance of curriculum building as a collaborative effort within the schools. The greatest portion of the book devotes itself to defining educational objectives consistent with the aim of the school, since it is the objectives which are “the most critical criteria for guiding all the other activities of the curriculum-maker” (p. 62). I found Tyler’s emphasis on designing a comprehensive and coherent curriculum inspiring, as he focuses, first and foremost, on understanding our students’ needs and interests and situating educational aims within our aspirations of our society. He also expands the function of the subject matter we teach to consider what the subject will provide for all students, including the development of reflective, critical, and creative thinking, and the love of learning. The subsequent sections give precise guidelines on the selection and organization of learning experiences for effective instruction that addresses these objectives in a meaningful and active way. These sections are greatly useful to many educators as we strive to balance aligning our curriculum and instruction to the standards while meeting our individual students’ needs.The fourth section offers guidance in the evaluation of learning experiences at multiple levels. Here Tyler emphasizes that “curriculum planning is a continuous process” and through the revolving cycle of evaluation and improvement, “it is possible for the curriculum and instructional program to be continuously improved over the years” (p. 123). Tyler recognizes a key factor of this continuous improvement of our schools being that we must look beyond standardized assessments and single evaluations in order to assess the effectiveness of an education program and to situate our areas of improvement. Moreover, Tyler reaffirms, in the final section, that this is a cooperative process involving “widespread faculty participation” (p. 126).Throughout the book, I imagine Tyler speaking to all teachers, principals, district leaders, and policymakers today. In the midst of the Common Core State Standards movement, we may look to the basic principles as not only a guide, but also as a reminder to examine our education goals and to empower teachers to use their judgment, experience, and knowledge to make crucial decisions in order to provide an educative experience for all students.

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