Curriculum Theory: Knowledge and Content

Abstract

The current surge of curriculum reform is accompanied by heightened efforts toward curriculum theory building. Davis (1963) concluded that the results of attempts to organize knowledge may be viewed as an inventory of propositions to be investigated. Efforts at building theories of knowledge and content are conspicuous for their tenuous relation to testing, verification, and prediction. Is it possible to produce vast theories of knowledge for purposes of sound curriculum building? Or are the various disciplines and fields too complex and disparate for the development and rigorous testing of empirical-quantitative theories? Are theoretical constructs from other fields, such as science, applicable to curriculum theory building? These are some of the questions with which curriculum theorists are grappling. The answers are not yet in. In the scientific community it is widely held that a theory is not a theory unless it fits the ground rules of experimentation; it must be subject to disproof or verification (Platt, 1964). While this interpretation would appear to reduce much of the contemporary work in curriculum theory to complex speculations and broad assumptions, we must bear in mind that curriculum theory is still in its infant stages. The purpose of this chapter is to review the major current elements in curriculum theory.