Wescott, 1988
Jones, 1988
Bjorklund, 1988
Performance Wilber, 1948
Objectives Almost all authors have focused on
objectives
Intellectual Sarapin and Starkweather, 1981
Processes Maley, 1982
Moss, 1987
Hatch, 1988
Social Pytlik, 1981
Wright, 1988
Personal Maley, 1973
Mentioned by:
Sarapin and Starkweather, 1981
Maley, 1982
Moss, 1987
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The Dominant Technical Design. Prescriptions for curriculum planning increased after the turn of the century. Industrial and vocational educators contributed to prescriptions for planning curriculum and created some of the first texts for the purposes of teaching curriculum planning. Bobbitt's early curriculum book (1918) cites the work of vocational educators:
They talked with expert workmen; and observed the work-processes. In their report, for each occupation they present: (1) a list of tools and machines with which a workman must be skillful; (2) a list of the materials used in the work with which workers need to be familiar; (3) a list of the items of general knowledge concerning jobs and processes; (4) the kinds of mathematical operations actually employed in the work; (5) the items or portions of science needed for control of processes; (6) the elements of drawing and design actually used in the work; (7) the characteristics of the English needed where language is vitally involved in one's work, as in commercial occupations; (8) elements of hygiene needed for keeping one's self up to the physical standards demanded by the work; and (9) the needed facts of economics (p. 47).
The basic system of occupational analysis, task analysis, or job and trade analysis on which Bobbitt reported was developed through years of practice and recorded by Allen in 1919 in the text, The Instructor, The Man, and The Job. Bobbitt's book served as the first curriculum book for all educators, whereas Allen's became the first curriculum book for vocational educators, specifically industrial educators. Both books took a technical approach to curriculum design. By examining ends, the instructor was guided to codify and teach the means to achieve the desired end. Curriculum and instruction were to be sequenced logically and linearly and to be based upon observable ends such as job performance.
Because of the association of industrial educators, which includes vocational-industrial, industrial arts/technology, industrial and military training, and technical educators, particular subject areas such as industrial arts/technology education have shared many ideas, organizations, and, often, classrooms with the vocational educators. This association is apparent in the sequence of curriculum books which prescribed task analysis and followed Allen's (1919) original book (Selvidge, 1923; Selvidge and Fryklund, 1946; Fryklund, 1956 and 1970). Today, current texts about task analysis have strong ties to the ideas which Bobbitt outlined in 1918. Moreover, many industrial arts, soon to be technology, educators were exposed to task analysis as the primary method of curriculum planning for the field. The books by Selvidge and Fryklund emphasized that the task analysis methods were to be used for industrial arts curriculum planning with only the admonition to add more projects of a general education nature.
Some industrial arts/technology educators have identified a difficulty with task analysis as an appropriate prescriptive theory for curriculum planning in industrial arts/technology education. Lux created a reaction to his pronouncements against trade and job analysis in a 1979 editorial, causing some industrial arts educators to line up on opposite sides of the fence. The most frequently suggested alternative to the technical task analysis curriculum design, however, is the technical systems analysis curriculum design. Fully introduced to the industrial arts/technology education community by Towers, Lux, and Ray (1966) in their curriculum plans for industrial technology education, this design remains as technical and linear as task analysis. Using systems theory, industrial arts/technology educators were to identify the system of analysis and break down the component parts of the inputs, processes, and outputs in order to identify content for the subject matter. This kind of curriculum design is frequently recommended (Witherspoon, 1976; Ritz, 1980; Schwerkolt and Spontelli, 1987; Wescott, 1988; Jones, 1988; and Bjorklund, 1988) as a generic curriculum planning process for all curriculum assumptions, orientations, or designs. Using this design produces a focus on processes which are not very different from tasks.
In addition to the two methods of content analysis which have been developed by industrial arts/technology educators, almost all of those in industrial arts/technology education who offer curriculum advice (see Table 4 for an early work on this topic) utilize another aspect of the technical curriculum design, the structuring of the curriculum by some form of a performance objective. This popular and often mandated procedure further serves to reduce the complexity of curriculum to an observable behavior, omitting, by default, the attempt to instill values and the complexity which would relate to the social or personal curriculum designs.
It is interesting that this technical design is not viewed as a potential barrier to planning academic, intellectual processes, social, and personal curriculum and that it is widely endorsed. It may be that the nature of technology education and the teachers and teacher educators within the field causes a subconscious gravitation to the technical curriculum design (Zuga, 1987). It may be that the reductionism of the technical design provides a straightforward set of rules and procedures which simplify the complexities of curriculum planning and, therefore, simplify the teaching about planning curriculum. It may be that teachers and teacher educators have used forms of curriculum planning which are recommended by state and local education agencies. It may also be that as specialists in technology education, teachers and teacher educators are not prepared as curriculum specialists and are not aware of alternatives.
The technical curriculum design is by far the dominant design in technology education today. Even those who attempt to suggest alternatives ultimately employ a technical design. Therefore, although alternative curriculum designs are suggested, few are fully described.
Attempts at the Intellectual Processes Design. The intellectual processes design appears to be a curriculum design which is capturing selected technology educators' imaginations. However, it is not one which they readily identify as an intellectual processes design. In fact, most of the authors refer to this design as student- or learner-centered (personal). After designating ideas as learner-centered, explanations of what they mean, in view of the categories of curriculum designs, are best described as intellectual processes designs. Sarapin and Starkweather (1981) and Moss (1987)clearly take the path of introducing a new direction for the field as learner-centered and continue by recommending that curriculum planners identify intellectual processes which should be taught, create activities which students would like with those processes, and plan curriculum and instruction. By identifying the processes first, the authors are creating a design which focuses on those processes. The learner-centeredness of the design appears only as a slight afterthought when the educator selects activities that students will like. Maley (1982) does not place the personal element of the design as an afterthought; instead, he indicates that it is a factor equal to the intellectual processes and content (academic).
Unfortunately, current curriculum textbooks for technology education are lacking. This has caused authors to attempt to get across all of their ideas in one short article. Moreover, few in technology education have tried to describe a curriculum design and to operationalize that design into a prescriptive set of directions which are intelligible and easy to follow. Another of the difficulties in categorizing curriculum recommendations has been the lack of clarity of the authors. This may very well be caused by the lack of a framework which is known to technology educators for designing curriculum. These may also be some of the reasons for the confusion of the intellectual processes design.
The most promising outline of an intellectual processes curriculum design comes in a recent yearbook of the Council on Technology Teacher Education (CTTE). Hatch (1988) has attempted to define a problem solving approach to technology education. In his chapter of the yearbook, he begins with a problem solving focus by outlining the steps of problem solving and by selecting technology education content to fit the desired ends of teaching problem solving.
The Elusive Personal Curriculum Design. Several technology educators recommend personal curriculum designs. Selected goals of technology education indicate a personal design as a viable choice. As we have already observed, however, authors specify a personal design but fail to follow through with an adequate description and operationalization of the design. Sarapin and Starkweather (1981), Maley (1982), and Moss (1987) all seemed to be indicating the need for a personal curriculum design. Unfortunately, their papers did not describe one. The literature reflects a desire of technology educators to develop a personal curriculum design, but there is a lack of information about implementing such a design.
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