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Lesson 2: Concepts of Curriculum

Curricular Analysis: Key Steps

The process of Curriculum Analysis outlined in Posner, 2003.

Note: Image removed. You will have access to the image in the actual course.

Before we can get to Step Four: Curricular Critique, we need to understand the first three steps of Curriculum “Background,” “Proper” and “Implementation.” In the first step, we examine "what is behind the curriculum?”  Here, we try to understand the perspective(s), the situation and the problem that have resulted in the development of the program. In the second step, we examine "what is in the curriculum”? Here, we try to understand how the program has been put together and what are media and content structures used by the program developers. In the third step, we examine "what has happened or can potentially happen when the program is implemented?" Step Four, the curriculum critique, summarizes your analysis of all three steps.  

A sound curricular analysis is determined by three criteria:

  1. Does the author critically examine “what is behind the curriculum” (purpose, goal, perspectives, assumptions)?
  2. Does the author critically examine “what is in the curriculum” (the nature of the content, basis for its selection, vertical and horizontal organization of subject matter)?
  3. Does the author critically examine “what are the experiences with the curriculum” (how curriculum may be taught, what methods may be used, how the program success may be judged, the frame factors)?

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