Educational Psychology and Curriculum Design: a child‐centred approach

ABSTRACT

The links between curriculum design and educational psychology are, in principle, strong but are, in practice, becoming increasingly tenuous particularly with the apparent preference of the Department of Education and Science for a curriculum based upon certain ‘core’ subjects. A framework for a curriculum based upon the five communication skills of literacy, oracy, numeracy, graphicacy and physiognomacy is proposed. These are ‘basics’ yet represent the essentials of aesthetic education; their use ‘across the curriculum’ could lead to the establishment of ‘whole school’ curriculum policies. Some consideration is made of the relationship of educational psychology, and of Gardner's ‘multiple intelligences’, to the five forms of communication, with particular emphasis on graphicacy (spatial ability) and on physiognomacy (physical ability) which are skills commonly neglected in curriculum planning.