Foundations of Curriculum: Philosophical Foundation

Foundations of Curriculum.

Foundations of Curriculum

 Foundations are the forces that influence the minds of curriculum developers. In this way, they effect the content and structure of the curriculum. The curriculum reflects the society and culture of a country and this is the desire of a society that their children should learn the habits, ideas, attitudes and skills of the adult society and culture and educational institutions are the proper way to impart these skills. This duty of teacher and school to discipline the young of the society and provide them the set of experiences in the form of curriculum. The needs, knowledge and informations of the society provide foundations in the formation of curriculum.


Foundations of Curriculum can be classified under following heads—

1. Philosophical Foundation

2. Psychological Foundation

3. Socio-cultural Foundation

4. Technological Foundation

5, Scientic Foundation

Philosophical Foundation of Curriculum

Foundations of Curriculum.

 Philosophy means the level of wisdom, it search for the truth, not simple truth, it search for the eternal truth, reality and general principles of life. Curriculum help in the practical use of knowledge in real life situations and understanding realities and ideas of life and this world that why curriculum is called the dynamic side of philosophy.


Curriculum is used for the modification of the behaviour of the students and philosophy helps in the process of finding new ways and basis for teachers and curriculum planners to modify their behaviour. Philosophy also helps in the exploring new methods of teaching and how to apply in the classroom situation for better achievement of the teaching-learning process. It also provide new ways and methods for the evaluation of students achievement and evaluation of curriculum.

Read more about Philosophical Foundations

 Philosophers of the past have made major influence in clarifying the association in the nature of knowledge and curriculum development process and also provides a foundation for curriculum.


Today, the world emphasis on finding new ways through which man develops new concepts of reality and knowledge and to form a new structure of knowledge in this dynamic and changing time therefore a high value is given to discovery, invention and restructuring of knowledge and curriculum in new experiences, logical and critical thinking, and to bring about the concept of knowledge out of interpreted experience.


Philosophy and ideology of education provide rules and principles which lead the decision making regarding educational practices and policies planning. It guides the curriculum planner on the basis

 of the philosophical and ideological belief of the society in the constructing of subject matter keeping in view the future demands and needs of the schools and help in the promotion of human life through social change in the behaviour of the students. For example, in Pakistan, the ideological beliefs of the society is based on Islam. Therefore they are looking for curriculum planners to introduce such curriculum in education system, which inculcate true knowledge of Islam and preserve the culture of Muslim society in new generations that why they believed that Islamic curricula should be based on the ideology of Islamic laws and principles.

Philosophical/Ideological Implications of Education

 Philosophy and ideology has direct effect in curriculum planning because it guides the curriculum planners in the selection of the objectives. As it provides guidelines in the selection of objectives, learning experience and how to evaluate the curriculum, learning experience and achievements of the students. Some justifications provided for the implications of curriculum given by different researchers are as under—


a. Various customs, values, traditions and knowledge need to be preserved by transfer them to the next generations.

b. The students also needed the knowledge of past and present in which they live, it help them in the process of adaptation and adjusting their self to new changes and new situations in life.

 All those content of a subject who helps in intellectual development rather than practical value. It teaches students how to reason, develops mental ability to solve the problems in practical life situations. It helps in using different methods for search of external truth and how to analyse the knowledge and methods of enquiry—


i. The secondary school curriculum should designed for developing maximum potentialities of the students by including variety of learning activities to educate each students to its highest.


ii. Schools should be a tool and leader in directing new changes in the curriculum rather than maintainers of curriculum.


Iii. Students need skills and for that purpose some subject matter must be included in the curriculum to help them in acquiring these skills like experimentation and the use of laboratory techniques so they advance the knowledge.  

1 thought on “Foundations of Curriculum: Philosophical Foundation”

  1. Pingback: Educational Philosophy: Its Concept, Definition, Nature and Scope

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