Ralph Tyler (1902-1994) published over 700 articles and 16 books, but his first accomplishment began as an Education 360 syllabus in 1949. Popularly called the little book, the 128-page document became The Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Educated at the University of Chicago during the heyday of Progressivism, Tyler was recruited as the director of the evaluation staff for the
. Eight Year Study, an inquiry to see how well Progressivism's students stood up to typical Carnegie-unit instruction students. This study is when many of his beliefs about curriculum instruction developed.Tyler designed his curriculum model by dividing it into five sections, the first four of which are titled with questions: What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives? How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction? How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated? His fifth section is "How a school or college staff may work on curriculum building." He begins his book by suggesting that educational systems do not start out with clearly-defined purposes. With purposes, educational institutions could develop educational objectives, the core of any good curriculum.Among the purposes that Tyler lists are these approaches to evaluation:Establish initially broad goals or objectives.Categorize or classify the established goals or objectives.Define the educational objectives in behavioral terms of what is expected.Identify the situations in which the objectives' criteria of achievement can be demonstrated.Choose or create measurement techniques to assess the meeting of the objectives' criteria.Collect performance data by way of testing, portfolio, or other assessment technique.Contrast the performance data with the objectives' criteria of achievement in behavior.The results of the procedure then could be compared to its objectives, and deficiencies in the plan might then be corrected.Ralph Tyler integrated his leanings toward B.F. Skinner's behaviorism and John Dewey's school of Progressive thought. He worked with and taught some of the leading minds in educational reform in the second half of the twentieth century. See the links below for more information.More reference links: http://inside.msj.edu/academics/faculty/westm/curriculumtheorists/new_page_5.htm http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm
