In this article, we’ll be providing answers to the questions based on the title of this blog post, which reads, “According to Hilda Taba, who should lead the curriculum development process?”
In this blog post, we’ll also look at Hilda Taba’s contribution to curriculum.
Who Should Lead the Curriculum Development Process, According to Hilda Taba?
According to Hilda Taba, the curriculum development process should be led by teachers, with input from other educational professionals and community members. Hilda Taba believed that involving teachers in the curriculum development process would lead to a curriculum that is more relevant, meaningful, and effective for learners. Taba also believed that involving other educational professionals and community members would greatly help in ensuring that the curriculum addresses the needs and concerns of the community.
Taba (1962) defined curriculum as a plan for teaching. She believed that the curriculum should be designed by the teacher rather than handed down by higher authority. She posited that teachers know the needs of the students better than anyone else, so teachers or educators should begin the process by creating specific teaching and learning units for their learners and then build to a general design.
Seven Steps of Taba Model of Curriculum
According to Taba, there are about seven major steps in curriculum development. They include:
1. Diagnose the learner’s needs.
Diagnosis plays an important role in curriculum planning by providing a comprehensive analysis of problems, conditions, and difficulties. This includes gathering information from sources such as students’ records, teacher observations, parent interviews, and children’s cases, as well as assessing their IQ achievement. The goal is to identify new areas of emphasis and generate fresh ideas for the curriculum. Through this process, the curriculum’s key needs at different stages can be better understood.
2. Formulation of Learning Objectives
The learning objectives will cover the following areas in detail:
- Concepts and ideas to be learned
- Attitudes, feelings, and sensitivities to be developed
The specific objectives will be based on the diagnosis and will be related to the concepts, ideas, and other areas that are necessary to learn at a given stage and will focus on specific aspects of thinking, attitudes, skills, and more.
3. Selection of learning content
By identifying the needs and goals, selecting appropriate content becomes simpler. The needs and goals provide a foundation and direction for selecting relevant content. Careful planning must be done when selecting content, including choosing the topic, outlining main ideas, and determining specific content. The initial step is to select topics that align with the goals, then focus on incorporating ideas within the broader content, and finally, select specific content to fit within the curriculum’s broader areas.
4. Organization of learning content
The next step is discussing the importance of organizing content in a systematic manner using principles such as sequential order, concrete to abstract, simple to complex, known to unknown, immediate to remote, and easy to difficult. The goal is to create a logical and psychologically effective arrangement of the content, with connections between ideas, facts, and relationships.
5. Selection of learning experiences
Content must be presented to students, and they must be engaged with the content. At this point, the teacher should select an appropriate instructional methodology that will involve the students with the content.
The step discusses the process of planning learning experiences or activities using content as a guide. It states that the criteria used to select the content should align with the behavioral competencies that students need to acquire and that the sequence of experiences should be planned accordingly. It also emphasizes the importance of including a variety of different learning methods, such as reading, writing, observing, researching, analyzing, discussing, tabulating, painting, and absorbing.
6. Organization of learning experiences
The organization of learning activities should be based on a combination of the subject matter being covered and the characteristics of the learners. The teacher should take into consideration the specific needs and abilities of their students.
7. Evaluation
The teacher must determine what objectives have been accomplished and use evaluation procedures to assess the achievement of these objectives.
Hilda Taba Contribution to Curriculum
Hilda Taba (1902–1967) was a pioneer in curriculum development in the 20th century and made significant contributions to American education. She studied under William Heard Kilpatrick and John Dewey, and her educational theories and practices were based on progressive educational philosophy. Taba’s ideas on curriculum development remain influential in the field today. She is best known for her work on the conceptualization and implementation of curriculum as a problem-solving process and for her emphasis on the importance of involving both teachers and students in the curriculum development process. Taba also developed a method for curriculum design known as the Taba Model, which emphasizes the use of a systematic, logical approach to curriculum planning and development. Additionally, she believed that the curriculum should be learner-centered, responsive to the needs of the community, and culturally sensitive.
Taba significantly contributed to the theoretical and practical foundation of developing concepts and critical thinking in the social studies curriculum. She established a solid foundation for education through her work. Additionally, she developed a teaching model called “grassroot approach,” which emphasizes the use of various processes such as listing, grouping, re-grouping, labeling, and synthesizing. This model is a modified version of Tyler’s model.
Hilda Taba was a prominent figure in the field of curriculum development, having authored and edited numerous books and articles and conducted teacher workshops. She was known for her work in the Eight-Year Study, the Taba Curriculum Development Project, and action research. She was also respected as a remarkable teacher.
Bibliography
Hilda Taba, “General Techniques of Curriculum Planning,” American Education in the Post War Period (1945)
Taba. School Culture (1955); M. M. Isham, “Hilda Taba: Pioneer in Curriculum
Development” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1984)
H. M. Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum: 1893-1958 (1987); J. R. Fraenkel, “The Evolution of the Taba Curriculum Development Project,” The Social Studies
Stages In the Process Of Curriculum Development – Socio-Ed., 16 Oct. 2016, socioed.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/95-stages-in-the-process-of-curriculum-development.
Taba Model of Curriculum Development – Educare, 19 May 2021, educarepk.com/taba-model-of-curriculum-development.html/amp.