Following are the five operations with respect to foundation of curriculum development by Guilford
- Cognition
- Memory and retention
- Convergent thinking
- Divert thinking
- Evaluation
1. Cognition. The first step of foundation of curriculum development refers awareness of objects, qualities, and ideas. This process is complex and includes such variations as the process of knowing about the universe, a flower, the second law of thermodynamics, or a Spenserian sonnet. It is a process involved when one young child looked at oil spilled on a wet pavement and said, “Oh look, Mommy, see a rainbow in a gutter,” and the process which led her mother to reply, “That’s not a rainbow, that’s a dirty oil slick”.
2. Memory and retention: The ability to store information and to retrieve it when needed.
3. Convergent thinking: A mode of thinking which is directed toward finding a “unique” or the “right” answer to problems, the tendency to retain the known, learning what is predetermined, and dealing with the usual and the expected.
4. Divergent thinking: One of the operations of foundation of curriculum development includes fluency with words, associations, and ideas and the tendency to revise the known, to project new forms of thought instead of depending in habitual forms of thought. These include such matters as changing classes and dimensions of the problems, or adopting different solutions from one problem to another. This type of cognitive functioning is generally oriented toward the novel and the speculative.
Jacob W. Getzels points out that both convergent and divergent thinking are employed by all persons, but in varying proportions and that these contrasting modes of cognitive functioning have been recognized and described by different names. Rogers uses defensiveness and openness, Maslow resorts to safety and growth.
5. Evaluation: It is one of the operations of foundation of curriculum development. In this step we do judgment as to whether information as known or produced meets certain standards and whether the steps in the process or its end product are adequate to its goals.
