The Tri-Star Curriculum Theory

Résumé fourni par la source

A theory houses a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and suggestions that clarifies or predicts occasions or circumstances by indicating relations among factors of a particular discipline. All disciplines have traditional and new emerging theories that help to explain, interpret and predict disciplinary concerns and issues. Notably, African curricularists have relied on imported curriculum theories from European and Western philosophers that fail to contextualise curriculum. A Tri-Star curriculum theory has been developed and provides a lens through which curriculum issues can be interpreted. This theory considers the nine curriculum concepts as basic units for scrutiny under each point of the three-pointed star. The purpose of this chapter was to develop a working curriculum theory that unifies all other supporting theories from the works and scholarship of Professor Simon Bheki Khoza. An action research explored the reflections of nine (9) educators on the JC consumer sciences. The educators reflected on the curriculum through face-to-face interviews, observations, reflective activity, and focus-group discussions. Results demonstrate that the tri-pointed model of the theory assumes both symmetrical, and non-symmetrical processes, indicating a repaired star, to suggest improvement gained through interventions. The Tri-Star curriculum theory therefore claims that (a) professional reflections present the international standards approved by experts in the field that research has found to be effective and consistent; (b) societal reflections present the socially constructed needs and expectations derived through exposure and interactions with peers and colleagues; (c) personal reflections present habits, affective and personal dispositions, explaining the rationale for practice; and (d) all three serve as checkpoints for quality and effectiveness. If one form of reflection is ignored, therefore, curriculum enactment will not be effective. This chapter thus recommends and establishes that, since these three forms are complementary, they exist in a limited circular boundary, such that should one reflection be ignored, educators will depend too heavily on influences from the other two. Therefore, the Tri-Star curriculum theory demonstrates a synthesis of existing philosophies packaged into one theory that Africans can use in formulating constructs, summarising, predicting phenomena, and revealing needed research. Thus this theory contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field of curriculum.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.