Philosophical basis for content determination

Philosophy apears to have had the greatest history of affecting curriculum content decisions.
Before more sophisticated means of determining content were estabilished, philosopy served as the
guiding light for curriculum developers. Even today, the phiolosophy of vacational education espoused
bya a particular school, school district, or community collage my provide aframework for the varius
curricula offered. Most of the general education offering found in our school today are based solety
upon instructors, administrators and or governing board members personal philosophis of education.
Thus, the fact that philosophy can and often does serve as a foundation for curriculum content is quite
evident.

Establishing a philosophy

A detailed discusion dealing with philosophical foundation of vacational eduvcation is beyond

the scope of this volume, howefer, focusing on some examples of philosophy is certainly appropriate.
These serve to illustrate the ways that a philosophy might be speciated. One must keep in mind that
a person philosophy might be specified. One must keep in mind that a persons philosophy is basically
that which he or she believes. We may say that a philosohy is composed of several belief statements,
each of which contributes in some way to the overall makeup of the philosophy. Philosophy tends to
vary from individual to individual and group to group just as might be expected of such a value laden
area. Therefore a group may havedifficulty reaching consensus regarding some belief statement
whereas other statements may be agreed uon unanimously with little or no discusion.

The establishment of belief statements is a rather straightforward activity. Various sources

are examined to identify statements that might align with ones personal philosohy. Textbooks,
articles, and speeches can all serve as usefull sources of information. Philosophies developed by
profesional assocations, community colleges, school districts, and similar units provide awealth of
otential belief statements. Whatever sources my be used, it is important to recognize that those
statements represents a potential philosophy. Eventually, a group a corcerned and knowladgegeable
person must examind each belief statement and agree as to which ones will constitute a philosophical
base for the curriculum.

A litterature search might serve first to clarity the caracterististics of vacational education. For
example, a reiew of numerous sourch that include individuals, organization, agencies, and federal
legislation served as a basis for the following statements abaut vacational educations character.

1. Preparation for gainful employment that requires less than the baccalaureate degree.
2. Can include the development of academic skill in concert with development of specific
occupational skills.
3. A lifelong set of learning experiences reanging from occcupational exploration and
rearation to on-the-job development.
4. May serve to link occuation preparation at the secondary and postseconf=dary levels.
5. Provides a foundation for an amployment career in addition to prearation for an entry-
level job.

The foregoing serves to illustrate how a basic curriculum framework may evolve. If, for examle, we
believe that vocational education involves prearation for gainfu employment, our belief should
certainly have an impact on the curriculum that is established. Based on this belief, any vocational
curriculum content that does nor reale on some way to the work environment should be seriously
questioned.
Belief statements may take many forms. The following represent a range of possibilities in this regard
and, in some cases, serve as sourch of other belief statements.

1. Student should be pprepared for both life and earning a living

2. Vacational and techjical education rograms and courses should prepare graduates who can
enter ans succees in the words class worklace.
3. Vocational and technical education is lifelong learning.

These statements are but afew of the many that may be drawn from the literature and used as
foundation for the vocational curriculum. Dedication to the task of identifying belief statements sush
as these will ensure that a comprehensive philoshopy is developed.

Philosophy a related to curriculum content

Once belief statements have been identified, agrees on, and molded into a hilosohy, content may then
be identified tha with this philosophy. As this proces begins, it is almost immediately realized that
belief statements are rather broad and tend to cut across several content areas, where as the technical
content apers to be more sesific to the individual cut=rriculum. This, erhas, indicates a basic strength
and weaknesss of the philoshohical aroach to content determination. The strength has to do with the
way a hilosophy can permeate an education institution. A philoshophy can, for example, direct the
focus of curricula within a school to meet the need of groups such as women, minorities, and the
disable. If those who oversee the operation of a shool firmly believe in the statementsthat vocational
education should be available ti all those who can profit by it, their actions should be directed toward
the establishement and maintenance of curricula for these groups. This does not mean merely
providing a few token offerings but actualy aligning curricula with student needs on a large-scale basis.
If it stated in a philoshphy that a comprehensive placement service should be provided to both
currently enrolled and for mer student. Then action should be taken to establish the type of service
to align with each curriculum.

These few examples serve to illustrate the broad impact that a sound philoshophy can have on
curriculum development. However, this impact is not as great in the area specific technical content,
and here is where problems tend to arise in realiting philosophy to content. The general nature of a
belief statement may nos describe spesific competencies needed by an individual in the work
environment. Thus, the curriculum developer must speculate about what the specific competensece
should be and Hope that this speculation result in the identification of approrpiate content.

Introspection

The introspection process basically consists of examining ones own throughts and feelingsabaut a
certain area. However, within the context of curriculum content determination, this strategy may
involve either an individual or a gruoup. The person or persons engaged in introspection are type
what do I feel should constitute employment, teaching experience, and education to identify what
might be most appropriate to include as curriculum content.
The introspection process

Introspection typically begins with an examination of ongoing vacational programs and

literature related to them. This serves to remind the developer of what content might possibly be
included tha he or she would not otherwise recall from past experience. The examination of literature
and observation of programs might include traveling to other locations and talking to those who are
involved with relevant currucula or examining course catalogs and outline from other institutions.
Concurrent with this, megazines and other related sources are reviewed to identify ideas for
curriculum content.

Once the examination is complete, the developer considers what content might be best for
student, using subjective as the decisive element. Consideration is given to both the education process
and the result of the process from the perspective of an experienced vocational teacher. Eventually,
a content outline is developed that serves as the basis for the curriculum.

Introspection often becomes a group process where several instructors develop their
individual thoughts regarding curriculum content and then meet to decide collectively what from the
curriculum should take. This prosedure has the adventage of providing a variety of inputs from persons
with differing backgrounds and experiences. Instructors who have had different exposure to an
occutional area will most likely be in a better position then one individual to detemine ehich content
is more relevant to a particular occuption oroccupational area. The group process can alsoserve as
means of keeping personal bias to a minimum. If the groups must agree collectively on curriculum
content, one persons biases become more difficult to be accepted unless, of course, all group
members share the same bias with this individual.

The foregoing points to amajor shortcoming of the introspection process. Whereas moving
the curriculum decision-making process from one instructor to a group of instructors nay make these
decisions more valid (i.e., relevant and realistic). For example, even though a grou of electonics
instructors unanimously agrees that curriculum content should consist only of studying vacuum tubes.
This still does not make the content precisely relevant to employment inout transistorized society.

Therefore the curriculum developer must recognize that introspection is not always the most
valid content determination process. To come up with truly realistic content by this process in often
quite difficult, particulary when one considers the nature of individuals instructors and the scope of
many occupations.

One means of at least partially overcoming this validity problem is through use of occupational
advisory committee is, by its very nature, suposed to be in close touch with reality. Committee
members should be able to distinguish between relevant ans irrelevant content and provide the
curriculum developer with the sort of guidance needed. A basic assumption is that committee
memberts are, in fact, close to the occupation, can determine what content is most relevant and,
therefore should be included in the particular curriculum. However, if this assumption cannot be met,
the curriculum developer is nor much better off than he or she would be with an instructor group.