Paradigms of Curriculum

How a developer thinks about curriculum decides how they build it. A paradigm is that frame of thought: the set of ideas, values, and rules a person works within, often without noticing. This chapter covers the major paradigms, from Tyler’s influential technical model to Doll’s three eras and Henderson and Gornik’s contemporary three, so a developer can see the frame they are using and choose it on purpose.

Paradigms, Tyler, and Schwab

What a paradigm is, Tyler’s four-question technical paradigm, and Schwab’s practical paradigm of four interacting commonplaces

Doll's Pre-Modern Paradigm

An ideal of order and harmony, teaching eternal truths and transmitting traditional knowledge to form well-rounded individuals

Doll's Modern Paradigm

The dominant twentieth-century frame: efficiency, measurement, and an engineered, goal-driven curriculum

Doll's Postmodern Paradigm

A complex, unpredictable world of multiple truths, integrated curriculum, dialogue, and the social construction of knowledge

Henderson and Gornik

Three paradigms in today’s schools: standardized management, constructivist best practices, and curriculum wisdom