ACTIVITY 4

A. What elements of a curriculum do you find in a syllabus?

All of the elements of the curriculum are present in the syllabus of the course subject,

Creative Writing. For the curriculum goals, the examples are as follows:

General Objectives

Guided by the VMGO of the University and of the College, the BSED student is expected to be

a global teacher who:

1. applies theories, concepts and skills in creative writing to include biographical sketches,

fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry

Specific Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the BSED student is expected to be a global teacher who:

1. relates the general objectives of the course to the realization of the vision, mission, goal,

and objectives of teacher education program;

2. Write short witty verses using the prescribed verse form/pattern

For the curriculum content, the lessons are as follows:

COURSE CONTENT: Hours

Overview of the course and BUCE VMGO 1

What is Creative Writing? A Course Introduction Lecture 2

Lesson 1: Gnomic Verses 3

Lesson 2: Mesostic Poetry 3

Lesson 3: Epistolary Poetry 3

Lesson 4: Anaphora 3

Lesson 5: I am A Metaphor 3

Lesson 6: Unacknowledgment 3

Lesson 7: Revisit to the Classics 3

Lesson 8: A Poem for My Alma Mater 3

Lesson 9: Communion with Nature 3

Lesson 10: Poetry for Children 3

Lesson 11: In the Name of Brotherhood 3

Lesson 12: Simple Things 4

Lesson 13: Story for Children of All Ages 3

Lesson 14: The Playwright’s Stage 5

Lesson 15: Creative Writing: A Medium for Cultural Preservation 2

You will notice that there is a special lesson at the end which serves as integration of

concepts on Education for Sustainable Development.

For the curriculum experiences, there are the teaching methodologies and strategies:

Constructivist Approach

Integrative Strategies

Thematic Approach

Guided Writing

Scaffolding and Brainstorming

Think, Pair, and Share

Lastly, the curriculum evaluation in the syllabus are in the forms of:

Writing Drills and Exercises

Culminating Activity

B. Can you identify what curriculum design/s your professor is using? Identify and give

explanation to the one you have identified.

Mr. Perez is using subject-centered and learner-centered design. It is subject-centered

because it is being correlated to other disciplines or areas like Literature, Humanities, and

Social Sciences. It can be said also that the syllabus is more learner-centered because

students’ interest in writing is catered and learning tasks are designed in a way that their life

experiences are integrated.

FURTHER ACTION

PERSONS WHO INFLUENCED THE CURRICULUM

CARL ROGERS (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an

influential American psychologist and among the founders of the

humanistic approach to psychology. Rogers is widely considered

to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and

was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for

Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American

Psychological Association in 1956.

The person-centered approach, his own unique approach

to understanding personality and human relationships, found

wide application in various domains such as psychotherapy and

counseling (client-centered therapy), education (student-

centered learning), organizations, and other group settings. For his professional work he was

bestowed the Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Psychology by the APA in

1972. Towards the end of his life Carl Rogers was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his

work with national intergroup conflict in South Africa and Northern Ireland. In an empirical study

by Haggbloom et al. (2002) using six criteria such as citations and recognition, Rogers was

found to be the sixth most eminent psychologist of the 20th century and second, among

clinicians, only to Sigmund Freud.

More Contributions

“Nondirective," "client-centered," and "person-centered." are the terms Rogers used

successively, at different points in his career, for his method. This method involves removing

obstacles so the client can move forward, freeing him or her for normal growth and

development. It emphasizes being fully present with the client and helping the latter truly feel his

or her own feelings, desires, etc.. Being "nondirective" lets the client deal with what he or she

considers important, at his or her own pace.

Education. Rogers views our schools as generally rigid, bureaucratic institutions which are

resistant to change. Applied to education, his approach becomes "student-centered learning" in

which the students are trusted to participate in developing and to take charge of their own

learning agendas. The most difficult thing in teaching is to let learn.

Empathic understanding: to try to take in and accept a client's perceptions and feelings as if

they were your own, but without losing your boundary/sense of selve.

Personal growth. Rogers' clients tend to move away from facades, away from "oughts," and

away from pleasing others as a goal in itself. Then tend to move toward being real, toward self-

direction, and toward positively valuing oneself and one's own feelings. Then learn to prefer the

excitement of being a process to being something fixed and static. They c ome to value an

openness to inner and outer experiences, sensitivity-to and acceptance-of others as they are,

and develop greater abilityachieve close relationships.

Student-centred learning (also called child-centred learning) is an approach to education

focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational

process, such as teachers and administrators. This approach has many implications for the

design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses.

For instance, a student-centred course may address the needs of a particular student audience

to learn how to solve some job-related problems using some aspects ofmathematics. In

contrast, a course focused on learning mathematics might choose areas of mathematics to

cover and methods of teaching which would be considered irrelevant by the student.

Student-centred learning, that is, putting students first, is in stark contrast to existing

establishment/teacher-centred lecturing and careerism. Student-centred learning is focused on

the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of

learning. This classroom teaching method acknowledges student voice as central to the learning

experience for every learner. Teacher-centred learning has the teacher at its centre in an active

role and students in a passive, receptive role. Student-centred learning requires students to be

active, responsible participants in their own learning.

ABRAHAM HAROLD MASLOW (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist.

He is noted for his conceptualization of a "hierarchy of human needs", and is considered the

founder of humanistic psychology.

The Work of Abraham Maslow

Psychologist Abraham Maslow described a hierarchy of needs that he argued provides a model

for understanding the need for human relations in the classroom. Needs lower on the pyramid,

such as physical and safety needs, must be met before an individual will consider higher-level

needs.

This hierarchy explains important components of behavior, including school behavior. Teachers

often assume that the physical security and safety needs of their students are ensured, but in

many schools, they are not. Increasing numbers of homes and schools are unable to provide

simple safety. When physical security and safety, including sleep, are challenged, students will

use most of their time, energy, and creativity simply trying to survive. This struggle interferes

with learning.

Belonging needs are often strong in school. Children need to know they are a welcome part of

the class. The teacher cannot allow derogatory name-calling and other forms of bullying and

exclusion to dominate the classroom. These peer group relations substantially influence school

success. It is difficult to learn in hostile, conflict-filled classrooms and schools. Classroom

planning and curriculum decisions, such as the decisions to teach cooperative learning (see

Chapter 10) and peer group mediation (discussed later in this chapter), can help to convert the

classroom environment to one of support and belonging.

Maslow did not consider this hierarchy a rigid one. Students will partially fulfill some needs and

thus become prepared to consider higher-level needs. The highest level, self-actualization, is a

theoretical position Maslow described as a goal, usually for adults. Self-actualization is, at most,

a goal advocated by practitioners of Gestalt therapy—anthropologists would not necessarily

recognize it as a cross-cultural, universal human experience (Pastor, McCormick, & Fine, 1996).

Teachers can help students learn to meet their own safety and friendship needs and to

recognize their own self-worth by building a positive classroom environment. These basic needs

must be met before education can take place in school.

Human relations theory, including the work of Maslow, provides the psychological and

sociological basis for the democratic claim that schools should promote equal opportunity. Once

accepted, the concept of equal opportunity suggests a need for fundamental changes in school

financing and in curriculum and teaching strategies.

Human relations theory assists teachers in promoting a safe and supportive environment at

school. However, the Children’s Defense Fund (2001) points out that our society also must

change in order to promote a safe and supportive environment for children, considering both

psychological and physical needs. In many schools, roofs and windows need repair, buildings

need reconstruction, failure needs to be reduced, violence needs to be controlled, and the

children need sufficient food and safe homes.

Current conditions in our streets in many communities make the learning of positive self-worth

difficult. In human relations lessons, all students are treated as individuals, often ignoring that

the student is also a member of a group (gender, cultural, ethnic). Because each person is

regarded only as an individual, human relations theory suggests there are few reasons to

change or to adapt lessons to account for cultural, gender, or class variables. The same human

relations teaching strategies are suggested for diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, language, class,

and gender groups, denying the important contributions of culture to student learning and the

importance of culturally proficient teaching strategies.

Human relations theory also assumes Maslow’s universal human hierarchy of needs and values

that emphasizes individual differences and individual independence. Other cultures emphasize

more group solidarity and interdependence with others in the community. In the dominant U.S.

culture, children are encouraged to learn self-esteem and self-worth for themselves. This works

for members of the European American community and for most teachers. But human relations

lessons may fail to recognize that self-esteem and self-worth are significantly influenced by

culture (Ladson-Billings, 1994b; Valenzuela, 1999).

The central insight of the human relations approach is that creating positive and nurturing

human relationships between teachers and students and among students is one of the most

important issues of school improvement. Young people do not learn math, reading, or English

well if they are intimidated, defensive, and fearful.

HENRY CLINTON MORRISON (1871-1945) was the New Hampshire state superintendent of

public instruction from 1904 to 1917, superintendent of University of Chicago Laboratory

Schools from 1919 to 1928, professor of education, and an author.

Morrison entered as the teaching principal at Milford High School from 1895 through 1899. He

taught mathematics, Latin, history, and science but became known for his ability to deal with

misbehaved students. The reputation Morrison built led to the offer to be the superintendent of

schools for Portsmouth, New Hampshire from 1899-1904. Morrison married Marion Locke and

the two had three sons together.

In 1904, Morrison was promoted to New Hampshire State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

He held this position for thirteen years and during that time he examined and approved all

schools throughout the state, served on the state medical board, examined teachers, and

supervised attendance and child labor laws. During the year of 1908, he was elected president

of the American Institute of Instruction. In 1912, the dean of the School of Education at the

University of Chicago, asked him to be the guest speaker for a summer session in Chicago.

Morrison later became great friends with the dean, Charles Hubbard Judd, which proved to be

important later in Morrison’s career. From 1917 to 1919 Morrison lived in Connecticut and took a

position on the Connecticut State Board of Education.

After two years serving on the state board, the position of superintendent of the University of

Chicago Laboratory Schools became available. Charles Judd. the dean of the college. was

familiar with Morrison through their previous encounters and offered Morrison the job. Morrison

moved to Chicago and held the position of superintendent of Laboratory Schools until 1928. He

left the position as superintendent to become the Professor of School Administration until 1937.

Morrison is best remembered for the work and research he did at the University of Chicago. He

formulated the “Morrison plan” which reorganized the style of teaching. He studied the problems

with education and designed theories for approaching these problems. He believed that the

student learned best by adapting or responding to a situation. Morrison configured the

secondary curriculum into five types: science, appreciation, practical arts, language arts, and

pure-practice. He also identified a five step instructional pattern: pretest, teaching, testing the

results of instruction, changing the instruction procedure, and teaching and testing again until

the unit is mastered by the student. Morrison’s landmark publication was the The Practice of

Teaching in Secondary Schools. This book is widely known as a way to use teaching from the

1920’s to the 1940’s. Morrison retired from the University of Chicago in 1937 and later died of a

heart attack in 1945.

JOHN DEWEY (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist,

and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform.

Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the

founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major

representative of the progressive and progressive populist[2] philosophies of schooling during

the first half of the 20th century in the USA.[3]

Although Dewey is known best for his publications concerning education, he also wrote about

many other topics, including experience, nature, art, logic, inquiry, democracy, and ethics.

Dewey's educational theories were presented in My Pedagogic Creed (1897), The School and

Society (1900), The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Democracy and Education (1916) and

Experience and Education (1938). Throughout these writings, several recurrent themes ring

true; Dewey continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes,

and thus the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take

place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to

experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take

part in their own learning.

In addition to his ideas regarding what education is and what effect it should have on society,

Dewey also had specific notions regarding how education should take place within the

classroom. In The Child and the Curriculum (1902), Dewey discusses two major conflicting

schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first is centered on the curriculum and

focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey argues that the major flaw in

this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, “the child is

simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be

deepened” (1902, p. 13)[21]. He argues that in order for education to be most effective, content

must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior

experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge.

FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST FRÖBEL (or Froebel) ( April 21, 1782 – June 21, 1852) was a

German pedagogue, a student of Pestalozzi who laid the foundation for modern education

based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He developed the

concept of the “kindergarten”, and also coined the word now used in German and English.

Fröbel’s idea of the kindergarten found appeal, but its spread in Germany was thwarted by the

Prussian government, whose education ministry banned it on 7 August 1851 as “atheistic and

demagogic” for its alleged “destructive tendencies in the areas of religion and politics”. Other

states followed suit. The reason for the ban, however, seems to have been a confusion of

names. Fröbel’s nephew Karl Fröbel had written and published Weibliche Hochschulen und

Kindergärten (“Female Colleges and Kindergartens”), which apparently met with some

disapproval. To quote Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, “The stupid minister von Raumer has

decreed a ban on kindergartens, basing himself on a book by Karl Fröbel. He is confusing

Friedrich and Karl Fröbel.”

More about Froebel

The German educator, Friedrich Froebel, was one of these pioneers of early childhood

educational reform. As an idealist, he believed that every child possessed, at birth, his full

educational potential, and that an appropriate educational environment was necessary to

encourage the child to grow and develop in an optimal manner (Staff, 1998). According to

Watson (1997b), Froebel's vision was to stimulate an appreciation and love for children and to

provide a new but small world--a world that became known as the Kindergarten--where children

could play with others of their own age group and experience their first gentle taste of

independence. Watson further adds that this early educational vision laid the foundation for the

framework of Froebel's philosophy of education which is encompassed by the four basic

components of (a) free self-activity, (b) creativity, (c) social participation, and (d) motor

expression.As an educator, Froebel believed that stimulating voluntary self-activity in the young

child was the necessary form of pre-school education (Watson, 1997a). Self-activity is defined

as the development of qualities and skills that make it possible to take an invisible idea and

make it a reality; self-activity involves formulating a purpose, planning out that purpose, and

then acting on that plan until the purpose is realized (Corbett, 1998a). Corbett suggests that one

of Froebel's significant contributions to early childhood education was his theory of introducing

play as a means of engaging children in self-activity for the purpose of externalizing their inner

natures. As described by Dewey (1990), Froebel's interpretation of play is characterized by free

play which enlists all of the child's imaginative powers, thoughts, and physical movements by

embodying in a satisfying form his own images and educational interests. Dewey continued his

description by indicating that play designates a child's mental attitude and should not be

identified with anything performed externally; therefore, the child should be given complete

emancipation from the necessity of following any given or prescribed system of activities while

he is engaged in playful self-activity. In summarizing Froebel's beliefs regarding play, Dewey

concluded that through stimulating play that produces self-activity, the supreme goal of the child

is the fullness of growth which brings about the realization of his budding powers and continually

carries him from one plane of educational growth to another.To assist children in their

development of moving from one plane of educational growth to another, Froebel provided the

children with many stimulating activities to enhance their creative powers and abilities. Froebel

designed a series of instructional materials that he called "gifts and occupations", which

demonstrated certain relationships and led children in comparison, testing, and creative

exploration activities (Watson, 1997b). A gift was an object provided for a child to play with--

such as a sphere, cube, or cylinder--which helped the child to understand and internalize the

concepts of shape, dimension, size, and their relationships (Staff, 1998). The occupations were

items such as paints and clay which the children could use to make what they wished; through

the occupations, children externalized the concepts existing within their creative minds (Staff,

1998). Therefore, through the child's own self-activity and creative imaginative play, the child

would begin to understand both the inner and outer properties of things as he moves through

the developmental stages of the educational process.A third component of Froebel's

educational plan involved working closely with the family unit. Froebel believed that parents

provided the first as well as the most consistent educational influence in a child's life. Since a

child's first educational experiences occur within the family unit, he is already familiar with the

home environment as well as with the occupations carried on within this setting. Naturally,

through creative self-activity, a child will imitate those things that are in a direct and real

relationship to him-things learned through observations of daily family life (Dewey, 1990).

Froebel believed that providing a family setting within the school environment would provide

children with opportunities for interacting socially within familiar territory in a non-threatening

manner. Focusing on the home environment occupations as the foundation for beginning

subject-matter content allowed the child to develop social interaction skills that would prepare

him for higher level subject-matter contnt in later educational developmental stages (Dewey,

1990).Over one hundred and fifty years ago, Froebel (1907) urged educators to respect the

sanctity of child development through this statement:We grant space and time to young plants

and animals because we know that, in accordance with the laws that live in them, they will

develop properly and grow well. Young animals and plants are given rest, and arbitrary

interference with their growth is avoided,/because it is known that the opposite practice would

disturb their pure unfolding and sound development; but, the young human being is looked upon

as a piece of wax or a lump of clay which man can mold into what he pleases (p. 8).Motor

expression, which refers to learning by doing as opposed to following rote instructions, is a very

important aspect of Froebel's educational principles. Froebel did not believe that the child

should be placed into society's mold, but should be allowed to shape his own mold and grow at

his own pace through the developmental stages of the educational process. Corbett (1998b)

upholds Froebel's tenets that a child should never be rushed or hurried in his development; he

needs to be involved in all of the experiences each stage requires and helped to see the

relationships of things and ideas to each other and to himself so that he can make sense out of

both his subjective and objective world. Corbett further agrees that development is continuous,

with one stage building upon another, so that nothing should be missed through haste or for any

other reason as the child moves through the educational process. Responsible educators

should strive to recognize each child's individual level of development so that essential

materials and activities to stimulate appropriate educational growth can be provided. Froebel

believed that imitation and suggestion would inevitably occur, but should only be utilized by the

teacher as instruments for assisting students in formulating their own instructional concepts

(Dewey, 1990).The Kindergarten idea was first introduced into the United States in the late

1840's (Watson, 1997b), and Froebel's basic philosophic principles of free self activity,

creativity, social participation, and motor expression are valuable components which exist

functionally, with some modifications, in most current early childhood education programs. The

education of society's children is still a difficult and fascinating issue studied by world

philosophers. Educators of the future will continue to look to philosophers of the past for

assistance in striving to attain the common goal of being jointly responsible for nurturing,

educating, and cultivating each child toward his or her maximum potential through the

educational process.

References:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/work-Abraham-Maslow/

http://group2701.wikispaces.com/Carl+Rogers+contribution+to+education