The Nature of Curriculum Development System

Curriculum
Curriculum comes form the Latin root, "currere" which means "to run", which later came to stand as the "course of study."

Curriculum is the sum total of all learning content, experiences, and resources that are purposely selected, organized and implemented by the school in pursuit of its peculiar mandate as a distinct institution of learning and human development.

(Why should a listing of subject areas, course of study and textbook series not considered as a curriculum?)

Curriculum Development
Development is a specific word that connotes change. Change means any alternation or modification in the existing order of things.
Change may not necessarily result in development. Only positive change brings about development. For change to be positive and result in development, it must be Purposeful, Planned, and Progressive. Positive change brings about improvement. It takes a person or a group to higher levels of perfection.

(What then is the purpose of curriculum development? What should be the basis for developing the learners' meaningful experiences?

Curriculum Development System
A system is an assemblage of objects in some form of regular interdependence or interaction; an organic organized whole. It is generally defines as some form of structure or operation, concept or function, composed of united and integrated parts.

From systems theory, a system is characterized as having a boundary (well-defined limits), environment (time-and-space), tension (existence and activity), equilibrium ( steady state), hierarchy ( different sizes), feedback (communication network), synergy ( whole is greater than the sum of its parts), and interdependence (elements cannot act on their own)

A system then is the integration of separate but interdependent and interacting parts into an organic whole which meant to accomplish a certain purpose or perform a specific function.

Curriculum Development System is defined as an integrated, coherent and comprehensive program for continually updating and improving curriculum and instruction in a school so that it can better attain its purpose.

(Show the relationship of the three important features of a system: Parts, Whole, Function.)

Source: Curriculum Development System by Jesus Palma (1992)