Ralph W. Tyler (1902–1994) was an American educator whose Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949) established the objectives-first model of curriculum design that all subsequent frameworks respond to — whether by extending, modifying, or critiquing it.
Core ideas
- Tyler’s four questions: Tyler proposed that curriculum design must answer four questions in sequence: (1) What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? (2) What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? (3) How can these experiences be organized effectively? (4) How can we determine whether the purposes are being attained? (Tyler, 1949)
- Objectives as starting point: the curriculum begins with clearly stated objectives derived from studying learners, contemporary life, and subject specialists — then filtered through the school’s philosophy and psychology of learning. This seems obvious now because Tyler made it obvious; before 1949, curricula were often organized by tradition, textbook, or teacher preference.
Notable works
- Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949)
Related
- Grant Wiggins — backward design extends Tyler’s objectives-first approach with the concept of “understanding” as transferable learning
- designing curricula — the vault’s curriculum design begins with Tyler’s question about objectives
- Paulo Freire — Freire’s critique of the banking model can be read as a critique of how Tyler’s framework is often implemented, reducing education to pre-specified behavioral objectives
Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. University of Chicago Press.