A presentation on Hilda Taba's Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice (1962)

Taba’s Theoretical Foundations on Curriculum Development

Social processes, including the socialization of human beings, are not linear, and they cannot be modelled through linear planning. Learning and development of personality cannot be considered as one-way processes of establishing educational aims and deriving specific objectives from an ideal of education proclaimed or imagined by some authority. Applying the principle to curriculum design, this means that it is unreal and impossible to set up rigid general goals of education from which more specified objectives would be derived for a concrete plan. The general goals are also subject to modification in order to become adapted to the real circumstances.

Social institutions such as school curricula and programs, are more likely to be effectively rearranged if, instead of the common way of administrative reorganization (top to bottom), a well-founded and co-ordinate system of development (bottom to top) can be used. This suggests the most convenient way to help individuals and human social organizations to accept and to adapt to new situations and ideas. The expected changes in the individual or social consciousness will take place only if individuals or groups, under pressure to introduce these changes, conserve or acquire the ability to learn. So, the changes and learning underlying it take place more easily, and meet less opposition if they are not imposed by the central institutions but are initiated in the periphery, and gradually spread all over the structure.

The development of new curricula and programs is more effective if it is based on the principles of democratic guidance and on the well-founded distribution of work. The emphasis is on the partnership based on competence, and not on administration. The renovation of curricula and programs is not a short-term effort but a long process, lasting for years. These principles underline the necessity for the democratic guidance of curriculum development and the long-term nature of this process, and are essentially derived from the first two principles.

Hilda Taba’s Steps of Curriculum Planning

Step 1. Identification of objectives. The curriculum is evaluated in the light of educational objectives identified for preparing learning experiences. These objectives include cognitive, affective, psychomotor , creativity , and perceptions. The evidences are collected for the identification of the objectives.

Step 2. Evidence for teaching-learning operation. Appropriate teaching method, teaching technique and audio-visual aids are used for generating appropriate learning situations, so that desirable objectives can be achieved. Evidences are collected for the learning experiences.

Step 3. Evidences of factors affecting learning. The evidences are collected for teaching-learning operations such as motivation reinforcement which help in learning of the student. This influences the learning exercise. Audio-visual aids makes learning experiences interesting. The students do not memorize the content.

Step 4. Evidences of pupil behavior pertaining objectives. The utility of the curriculum is evaluated on the basis of changes of behavior. These are evidences for realizing the education objectives. The examination system is objectives-centered. It is both qualitative and quantitative. An attempt is made to assess the total change of behavior.

Taba’s Design Model of Curriculum Development

Hilda Taba believed that the curriculum should be designed by the teachers rather than handed down by higher authority. Hence, she developed the Inductive Teaching Model that includes:

Focus. Its main focus is to develop the mental abilities and lay emphasis upon concept formation. It involves cognitive tasks in concept formation.

Syntax. The teaching is organized in nine phases. The first three phases are concerned with the concept formation involving enumeration, grouping and labeling categories. The second three phases are related to the interpretation of data by identifying relationship, explaining relationship and drawing inferences. The last three phases are concerned with an application of principles by hypothesizing, explaining and verifying the hypothesis.

Social System. In the all nine phases, the classroom climate is conducive to learning and cooperative. A good deal of freedom should be given for pupil activities. The teacher is usually the controller and initiator of information. Teaching activities are arranged in a logical sequence in advance.

Support System. The teacher should help the students in dealing with the more complex data and information. He should encourage them in processing the data, basically designed to develop thinking capacity. A particular mental and cognitive task requires specific strategy to improve thinking.

Classroom Application. Taba designed his model to create inductive thinking among learners. It helps to organize social studies curriculum so that cognitive process may be facilitated. The learning experiences are the basis of information to arrange the content in an effective sequence. The first three phases are useful in dealing with elementary classes, while the last three phases are useful for higher classes especially for science and language curriculum.

Evaluation. Hilda Taba has developed teaching model as well as curriculum model. His curriculum model is based on the evaluation concept that in designing the outline of the curriculum, evaluation plays significant role.

Taba’s Strategies of Curriculum Change

Stage 1 Deciding the kinds of evaluation data needed.

Stage 2 Selecting or constructing the needed instruments and procedure.

Stage 3 Analyzing and interpreting the data to develop the hypothesis regarding needed change.

Stage 4 Converting hypothesis into action.

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