Professional Education · The School Curriculum
Curriculum Design Approaches — Part 1 of 2
Subject-Centred and Learner-Centred Designs
Curriculum design refers to how the content and learning experiences in a curriculum are structured and organized. The design you choose determines what gets taught, in what order, and how it relates to learners’ lives. There are three broad curriculum design approaches, each with its own sub-designs. This part covers the first two: Subject-Centred and Learner-Centred.
Approach 1: Subject-Centred Design
The subject-centred approach is the oldest and most widely used design. Its primary focus is the subject matter itself — the content of individual disciplines. The teacher is the primary authority, and learning means accumulating the knowledge of a field.
Exam Tip: A stem that describes a school dividing the day into separate periods — Math, Science, English, Social Studies — is describing the Separate Subject Design, the most basic form of subject-centred curriculum.
Subject-centred design has four sub-types:
| Sub-Design | What It Means |
| Separate Subject | Distinct subjects taught independently with no overlap. Each has its own time slot, teacher, and content. Example: Math period, then Science period, then English period. |
| Discipline Design | Focuses on the structure and methods of an academic discipline. Learners think like experts in that field. Example: Teaching Chemistry the way chemists think and work. |
| Correlation Design | Links related subjects to reduce fragmentation, while keeping them separate. Example: A History lesson on WWII coordinated with an English lesson on wartime literature at the same time. |
| Broad Fields / Interdisciplinary | Merges related subjects into a single, broader subject area. Example: Combining Geography, History, and Civics into a single “Social Studies” subject. |
Sample LET Item — No. 1
Teacher Ana teaches Filipino Literature and her colleague Teacher Ben teaches Philippine History. They have agreed to coordinate their lessons so that when Teacher Ana discusses Noli Me Tangere, Teacher Ben simultaneously discusses the Spanish colonial period. Which curriculum design is illustrated?
A. Broad Fields Design
B. Separate Subject Design
C. Correlation Design
D. Discipline Design
Answer: C
The two subjects are still separate — they have different teachers and remain distinct — but they are being linked or coordinated around a related theme. That is the defining feature of Correlation Design: reducing fragmentation between subjects without merging them. Choice A (Broad Fields) would require the two subjects to be fused into a single “Humanities” or “Social Science” subject, which is not the case here. Choice B is ruled out because Separate Subject means no coordination at all. Choice D (Discipline) is about teaching learners to think like scholars in a field, not about coordinating two subjects.
Approach 2: Learner-Centred Design
The learner-centred approach places the child or student at the centre of the educational process. Curriculum is built around the needs, interests, abilities, and experiences of the learner — not the content itself. This approach reflects the philosophy that education should serve the whole person, not just transmit information.
Learner-centred design has three sub-types:
| Sub-Design | What It Means |
| Child-Centred Design | All learning activities revolve around the child’s needs, interests, and developmental stage. Rooted in the work of John Dewey. Example: A teacher designs a lesson around a community problem the students raised themselves. |
| Experience-Centred Design | Learners choose from a variety of activities that the teacher provides. Empowers students to shape their own learning path. Example: Learning stations where students choose which activity to complete first. |
| Humanistic Design | Aims at the full development of the self — cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains together. Influenced by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Example: A curriculum that integrates values formation with academic content. |
Exam Tip: A stem describing a teacher who believes “the child is the centre of the educative process” or who designs all activities around learner development is pointing to the Learner-Centred approach. Watch for the word “child” or “learner” as the anchor of the curriculum.
Sample LET Item — No. 2
Teacher Dominguito believes that a new respect for the child is fundamental in curriculum design. Thus, all activities in the classroom are geared toward the overall development of the learner — the centre of the educative process. To which curriculum design approach does Teacher Dominguito adhere?
A. Subject-Centred
B. Problem-Centred
C. Learner-Centred
D. Pragmatic
Answer: C
The stem contains the two clearest signals for Learner-Centred design: “respect for the child” and “the learner as the centre of the educative process.” These are the exact defining phrases of this approach. Choice A (Subject-Centred) is ruled out because the content, not the child, is the focus there. Choice B (Problem-Centred) deals with social problems and real-life issues, not the child’s development as the anchor. Choice D is a philosophical stance (pragmatism), not a design category — it appears in LET items as a plausible-sounding distractor for test-takers who confuse philosophy with design type.
Coming Up in Part 2
Part 2 covers the third approach — Problem-Centred Design — and brings all three approaches together in a comparative summary with additional LET practice items.