THE STRuggle for the american curriculum - Assignment Example

This paper intends to provide a vivid description about the Kliebard’s four interest groups and insight about the organization, which are sorted out by the four groups. Furthermore, the study also reflects about the socio-political and the economic factors, which greatly influence the organization being sorted. Correspondingly the paper further compares and contrasts about Dewey’s notions about the organization of the curriculum. Kliebard Four Interest group of American Curriculum Theory American curriculum theory signifies a hypothetical correlation keen to inspecting and affecting educational programs.

Each of the interest groups embodies strength for an altered selection of knowledge and values adapted from the culture and different curriculum. Kliebard basically identifies four interest groups in the struggle to control or modify the subject organization of the American curriculum. The name of the interest groups are humanist (mental disciplinarians), social efficiency, child study (develop mentalist), and social meliorates (Kliebard, 2004). Concerning the historical data in the year 1890s, the theory related to mental discipline or humanist believed in the abilities of the students to develop psychological reasoning.

Furthermore, it has also been observed that in this particular group the education system was not planned for social improvements in itself but for the systematic progress of mental power. The humanists viewed schools as instruments for taking the traditional values, susceptibilities, and cultural acmes that has been associated with the Western civilization. Although it formerly justified this large- skills curriculum the best process to train mental facilities. In this era humanists have maintained old-style subjects on the basis of their intrinsic value as carriers of cultural tradition.

The second group based its knowledge on the evolving study of child development, which controlled them to reject faculty psychology and provided an insight that effective training must be provided to children with diversified learning capabilities and competencies at different levels of growth stages. This group requires a child-centered program that would plan not only to match the skills of children at each stage but also to excite their interest and motivate them towards the curriculum. Another group reflects Social meliorism which believes that study is a tool to change society for betterment.

This tool is based on the power of individual’s intellectuality and the skills to improve through education. The future of the people is not fixed by gender, heredity, socio-economic status or any other issues (Kliebard, 2004). “Social efficiency educators” were directing to design a curriculum that would improve the social value of each individual in the society. This theory believes that society could be organized by the effective application of the American’s curriculum. Students should know their role within the societal context.

This theory introduces high and vocational schools for the students and also introduces learning activities, which will assist in overall societal development. The effective curriculum for the society will inculcate smaller strategies for establishing advance learning concept for the society to grow (Kliebard, 2004).