Subject-Centered Traditional Education

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The subject-centered curriculum has its roots in ancient Greece. The design became embedded in the American education system in the late 1880s as part of the essentialist movement (Webb et al., 2003). It is now the model in effect in most schools throughout the United States. Many have deemed this model to be crucial for intellectual development as it focuses on subject matter deemed essential for learning (Webb et al). Webb (2003) maintains that the reason this curriculum has prevailed is because most teachers are trained in subject areas, that the format is easily understood since most are familiar with it, and that it allows for teachers to plan lessons more readily. In this learning environment, the teacher controls the process and imparts knowledge to the student. The student is a passive vessel that absorbs the prescribed external knowledge. The most preferred delivery of education in this paradigm is lecture. In the traditional curriculum, teachers are responsible to teach from a specified sequence of content. This curriculum does align itself well with standardized tests and many teachers can simply ‘teach the test’. Despite the increased uniformity of state curricula, many argue that current social trends warrant more differentiation in classroom content.

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Webb, D. L., Metha, A., & Jordan, K. F. (2003). Foundations of American education (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

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Integrating Content and 21st Century Skills for US/VA History at the Secondary Level