Situation-centered approaches in postmodern curriculum design

Abstract

The paper investigates the birth or one of the newest approaches in the curriculum design with big impact on current educational theories and practices. It is analyzed the effects of objectives centered pedagogy (OCP) on curriculum theory and practice as one of the dominant curricular approaches since 1950, when the curriculum was promoted as the paradigm of postmodern education. This rational model of curriculum design shaped by the principles of scientific management and by the centrality of the objectives, more or less, in behavioral terms was constituted as a base for new developments in curriculum design as regards the theories that try to re-launch the link between the labor markets and the demands of the postindustrial, informational and global society, on one hand, and the aims of the learning programs, on the other hand. Thus, the competence based approach (CBA) is constituted, being seen as a way of projecting competence based curriculum (CBC) which places competence in the center of curricular design intercession. There are highlighted the new determinations of designing that type of curriculum that can reestablish the link between school training offer and the demands of present-day society and that can provide the relevance and authenticity of learning experiences the students are involved in.