Subject centred curriculum

1. Subject Centred Curriculum
Dr.M.Deivam
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University)
Gandhigram, Dindigul District 624 302

2. Subject Centered Curriculum
• It is a traditional model proposed by Ralph Tyler in
1949. As it surrounds knowledge, it is also called
as knowledge centred curriculum.
• It is an academic curriculum, where students are
expected to acquire knowledge of their world as a
function of their adult life.
• It revolves around a particular subject matter or
discipline. For example, a subject-centered
curriculum may focus on math or biology. This
type of curriculum design tends to focus on the
subject rather than the individual.

3. Contd.,
Tyler did not concern himself with how people view
curriculum, but argued that any curriculum and plan of
instruction can be developed in a systematic way that
accounts for differences in perspective by answering
four fundamental questions:
• What educational purposes should the schools seek to
attain?
• What educational experiences can be provided that are
likely to attain these purposes?
• How can these educational experiences be effectively
organized?
• How can we determine whether these purposes are
being attained?

4. Contd.,
• The content of the curriculum is organised
into smaller units and the sequence of what
is taught follows the logic of the subject
matter.
• This organisation is from simple to complex
with the help of the experts, specialists,
teacher’s supervisors, planners, writers and
administrators. Learning subject matter is an
end in itself.

5. Contd.,
• The teacher plays the role of a scholar using a
variety of teaching strategies to share the
knowledge.
• The environment in which teaching-learning
takes place is the traditional classroom where
discipline is maintained and students are
seated in their seats.
• Focus is mainly on academic aspects and
stress is on intellectual development.

6. Contd.,
• Practice in skills is emphasized. The main aspect of
subject based curriculum is that there is continuous
practice or drill in a specific skill.
• For this purpose multiple methods are used.
Evaluations, exercise session, tutoring classes are
often dedicated to such type of practices and all the
students are given equal opportunities to
participate.

7. Contd.,
• There is a uniform standard for all the students
to pass the subject, else they will have to repeat
the subject.
• Therefore the experts of the subject centered
approach strongly support the minimum
standards for examination so that everyone
achieves the set standard and qualify the
examination.
• The teacher tries to help the weak students and
to bring him to the set standard and pass the
exam or repeat a grade.

8. Contd.,
• Subject-centered curriculum design describes what
needs to be studied and how it should be studied.
Core curriculum is an example of a subject-centered
design that can be standardized across schools,
states, and the country as a whole.
• In standardized core curricula, teachers are
provided a pre-determined list of things that they
need to teach their students, along with specific
examples of how these things should be taught.

9. Characteristics
Learning subject matter is an end in itself-
Listening to lectures, studying the textbooks and
studying for examination are all practices that
show the influence of the subject centered
curriculum approach.
The subject teacher considers it of great
importance to cover the prescribed textbook. Since
a specific amount of subject matter is to be learnt
in a set time. If subject matter has been learnt, the
teacher and students feel satisfaction.
.
9

10. Contd.,
There is a predetermined uniform standard of
knowledge –
Those who follow the subject centered approach
strongly advocate minimum standards. They advocate
set standard for a class to be achieved by all students in
order to qualify the examination. In other words a time
limit is placed on achievements and if the pupil fails,
the course must be repeated. The teacher attempts to
bring the pupil up to the set standard. Thus failures are
required to repeat a grade or they are dropped out
from their institutions

11. Contd.,
• Practice in skills is emphasized:
• Drill in specific skills is one of the typical characteristics of
the subject curriculum. Drill session, remedial work, review
work, coaching classes are often devoted to such type of
drill. This drill is given in equal amounts to all pupils in the
group.
• Emphasis is placed upon acquiring information for future
use: The subject matter selected for a course, is considered
to be of value in adult living rather than child’s immediate
needs. Thus adult problems are given more weight than
problems of children in youth.
11

12. Progress is measured by how much of the subject a
pupil has learnt-
As the subject matter is an important thing to be learnt,
learning is measured by how well the subject matter has
been mastered. Frequent tests are given to check the
extent of achievement by the students.
Each subject is distinct entity (unit) with a logical
organization of its own
Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of skills, facts and
information in different logically organized subjects. The
members of the staff, teaching different subjects do not
plan courses together and they do not discuss common
problems.
12

13. Contd.,
Subject matter is selected by adults previous to
the teaching, learning situations
As the subject matter is taught in logically
organized discipline, therefore, the content of
the course is selected before it is taught. For this
purpose they receive help from subject matter,
specialists, supervisors, administrators and
textbook writers.

14. Advantages
• It is easier for the teacher to perform
• It is widely accepted by parents as they have gone
through it.
• The simple-complex concept makes it easier to
administer.
• Intellectual development is achieved in a child’s
thinking.
• It is useful for specialisation in any branch of
knowledge

15. Disadvantages
• The primary drawback of subject-centered
curriculum design is that it is not student-
centred.
• In particular, this form of curriculum design is
constructed without taking into account the
specific learning styles of the students.
• This can cause problems with student
engagement and motivation and may even
cause students to fall behind in class.

16. Thank You