WHY WE DEVELOP A CURRICULUM IN THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES?

The curriculum develops according to the needs of community and the type of culture it wants. The type of the culture, which the community requires, determines the nature of knowledge in the school curricula. In addition to the development of individuals and the learning philosophy as other causes, the curriculum develops itself according to such causes. The real cultures in educational programs are the product of a composition that is characterized by depth and comprehensiveness. The student can reach it according to his/ her own self activity and continuous pursuit. He/ she can develop all his/ her capabilities and build his/ her own personality consistently and accurately.

Therefore, it is said that school is curriculum. Such saying means that there are a set of challenges that the curriculum developers face; such as Do colleges and universities embody the curriculum? And if so, what is the curriculum they provide? Is it a national curriculum? Or academic curriculum? Or professional curriculum?

In the ancient times, Aristotle said in his book "The Politics" (what is to be taught to others is always a debatable issue ). Aristotle discussed this as follow; does the curriculum means the education of useful knowledge? Or does the curriculum contain the ethical dimension when its system goal is the learner and the future of the citizen together? Aristotle's idea is the objective of the curriculum is the first idea but it not the last. According to this idea a question is raised; what do we mean by the curriculum capacity? The curriculum capacity is determined in its outputs by Sophist as well as by contemporary communities. Herbert Klipred (1987) in his book "The strategy of the American Curriculum", wrote "teachers should face four critical questions":

1- Why do we study this and not that?

2- What are the approaches of accessing knowledge?

3- What are the rules of judging the education and what are the tests?

4- How can the curriculum components be interrelated and create a consistent unit?

Curriculum development requires to take into consideration four main components which Dewey, Helda Taba and Ralph Taylor determine in (the child, the society, the teaching and its methods and the nature of human knowledge)

Development in the human and social sciences approaches should take into their consideration the following elements: -

First: Objectives, Content, Teaching And Evaluation:

a) Objectives should be developed according to the philosophy of the society and its cultural heritage represented in religion, values, and tradition in addition to determining the capabilities of the learner and his/ her preparation and orientation as well as the outputs of scientific and technical development and the suggestion of the specialists in education.

b) Content should be consistent with those objectives and should focus on the social attitudes and values.

c) Techniques should be real and applicable.

d) Evaluation should reach the social objectives.

Second: Curriculum, Books, School Settings, Education Technology And Educational Management.

Third: The context in which the educational settings operate. The environment is a major role in the process of curriculum design.
Fourth: communication means is another important factor to which the curriculum developers should take into their account. Culture is a communication means. The core component of culture is language whether national language in which the community members are dealing with each other or foreign language as a means of communication with other communities especially because they speak languages that are different from national language.