6.2.1 What is Content?
All curricula have content and how individuals view content is affected by their view of knowledge and philosophical position. There are varying conceptions of content. Some curriculum designers conclude that content is really another term for knowledge consisting of a collection of facts, concepts, generalisations, principles and theories. For example, an important concept in geography would be spatial relationships while in physics it would be acceleration. However, a distinction has to be made between disciplines and content.
The disciplines such as biology, chemistry, sociology and psychology are concerned with advancement of understanding and the exploration of the unknown. In contrast, content as found in school subjects (or even undergraduate courses) do not provide students with opportunities for advancing understanding or creation of new knowledge in the strictest sense. The content selected is aimed towards helping students understand knowledge that may be new to them but is already known by scholars and practitioners in the field. From this body of knowledge or discipline, content is selected for educational purposes and organised according to the cognitive level of learners.
6.2.2 How Should Students Learn Content?
Some people feel that content should be prescribed and transmitted to learners (behaviourism) while others feel that content should be constructed by learners (constructivism) based on their experiences. In the former setting, learners are passive recipient of the facts, concepts and generalisations of a subject while in the latter situation learners seriously engage in the construction of meaning. Content is not just something told to students but rather something that students personally construct. Similarly, some educators argue that it is more important to learn the processes of content than the products of content itself. Such a view divides content as consisting of product and process, when in reality both should be given equal emphasis [We discussed this in Topic 1]. Cognitive psychologists refer to:
• content as declarative knowledge or what students should know (the facts, concepts and principles of a body of knowledge), while
• process as procedural knowledge or what should be able to do (the procedures, thinking skills and methods of inquiry embedded in any body of knowledge).
6.2.3 How Should Content be Selected?
There is so much pressure from parents, academics, the government, the business community, religious institutions, non-governmental organisations and so forth as to what to content should be selected and taught in schools. In addition, there is abundant information and it is doubling at a very rapid rate. Schools do not have the luxury of time to include all the concerns of society in its curriculum. Choices have to be made on what to include in the curriculum. Ornstein and Hunkins (1998) list the following five criteria to guide the selection of content: • Significance:
It is obvious that content selected should be significant. But, the definition of significance varies with an individual's beliefs. For example, curriculum developers who favour subject matter designs think of significance in terms of the concepts and principles of each subject area. Those who favour learner- centred designs think of significance in terms of the needs and interests of the learner. While those who favour a problem-centred design would regard the problems and issues in society as significant. Taba (1962) further argues that we should not just select content based on the cognitive aspects of learners, but also on their affective dimensions.
• Utility:
Utility refers to the usefulness of content. This again depends on your philosophical beliefs. If you subscribe to the subject-centred design, then you believe that the content learned from the various subject areas will be useful in the workplace. If you subscribe to the learner-centred design, then you will take into consideration the needs and interests of learners which will enable them to realise their potential to function effectively in the workplace. Alternatively, if you subscribe to the problem-centred design, then you believe that learning about societal issues will enable students to apply directly what they have learned to their daily lives and the world of work. • Validity:
Validity refers to whether the information passed on to students is authentic and obtained from credible sources. This is especially significant today with the deluge of information that is easily accessible which may not necessarily be credible or reliable. How much of the billions of pages on the internet are credible? Content needs to be checked to determine its accuracy and constantly updated.
• Learnability:
It may seem strange that anyone would select content that is not learnable. Unfortunately, it does happen. Can you give examples of this happening? For
example, the content selected for a particular age group might be too difficult and teachers need more time but insufficient time is allotted. Eventually, teachers will end up rushing through the material and some students left behind not understanding the content.
• Feasibility:
Educators who select content have to take into consideration the constraints of time, expertise of staff, funding and other educational resources that schools might face when implementing the curriculum. For example, the number of days allotted for teaching may be insufficient to cover all the content because schools have to allocate time for extra-curricular activities and other schools events. Content selection has to be considered within the context of existing reality of economics and the role of the government.