Tyler, Taba and Oliva

THE TYLER MODEL
• The Tyler Model is:
○ one of the best known models for curriculum
development.
○ known for the special attention it gives to the
planning phases.
○ deductive for it proceeds from the general
(examining the needs of society, for example) to
the specific (specifying instructional objectives).
• Tyler recommends that curriculum planners
identify general objectives by gathering data from
three sources:
○ the learners
○ contemporary life outside the school
○ subject matter.
• After identifying numerous general objectives, the
planners refine them by filtering them through
two screens:
○ the philosophical screen
○ the psychological screen

In the Tyler Model, the general objectives that
successfully pass through the two screens
become what are now popularly known as
instructional objectives.

THE TABA MODEL

• Hilda Taba believed that the curriculum should be
designed by the teachers rather than handed down
by higher authority.
• Further, she felt that teachers should begin the
process by creating specific teaching-learning units
for their students in their schools rather than by
engaging initially in creating a general curriculum
design.
• Taba advocated an inductive approach to
curriculum development.
• In the inductive approach, curriculum workers
start with the specifics and build up to a general
design as opposed to the more traditional
deductive approach of starting with the general
design and working down to the specifics.

THE OLIVA MODEL
• The Oliva Model is a deductive model that offers a
faculty a process for the complete development of
a school’s curriculum.
• Oliva recognized the needs of students in particular
communities are not always the same as the
general needs of students throughout our society.

In the Oliva Model a faculty can fashion a plan:
• for the curriculum of an area and design ways in
which it will be carried out through instruction
• to develop school-wide interdisciplinary programs
that cut across areas of specialization such as
career education, guidance, and class activities.
• for a faculty to focus on the curricular components
of the model to make programmatic decisions.
• to allow a faculty to concentrate on the
instructional components.

CONSIDERATIONS
Curriculum Planners might agree that the model
should show the following:
• major components of the process, including stages
of planning, implementation, and evaluation
• customary but not inflexible “beginning” and
“ending” points
• the relationship between curriculum and instruction
• distinctions between curriculum and instructional
goals and objectives
• reciprocal relationships among components

• Continued:
○ a cyclical pattern
○ feedback lines
○ the possibility of entry at any point in the cycle
○ an internal consistency and logic
○ enough simplicity to be intelligible and feasible
○components in the form of a diagram or chart

A FINAL THOUGHT:
• Those who take leadership in curriculum
development should become familiar with various
models and try them out. In doing so, they can
select or develop a model that is most
understandable and feasible for them and for the
persons with whom they are working.