Content I. Introduction II. Main part Approaches of Curriculum 4

Process-oriented theories are concerned primarily with describing how curricula are developed or recommending how they should be developed. Some process-oriented theories are descriptive in nature; others are more prescriptive.

All of those scholars such as Holmes and McLean are well aware of their investigations toward the education transformation and introduced four types of curriculum theory which include: Essentialism, Encyclopedism, Polytechnicalism, and Pragmatism (Holmes and McLean, 1989:87).

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  Essentialism. In this model the aim of education is to sustain a just society the main feature of which is stability.
  
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  Encyclopaedism. This model is based on the premise that the content of education should include all human knowledge.
  
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  Polytechnicalism. The fundamental premise on which this is based is that the content of education should be deliberately interpreted in terms of the productive life of society.
  
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  Pragmatism. The knowledge most worthwhile in this model is that knowledge that enables young people to tackle problems and prepares them to solve the problems they are likely to meet as adults in a democratic society.
  

However, other theorist have considered other bases and standards for categorizing curriculum theories . Miller & Seller (1990: 205-209). In their book "Curriculum Curriculum, Perspectives and Practice", they categorize curriculum theories in to " Subject/Discipline , behaviorism , Cognitive process , Humanistic , Social Developmental, and Transpersonal.
Other theories have also been offered about curriculums by several other theorists . A Summary of the most important theories have been offered in app.3. Although some authors have suggested more than five theories , most of the theories can be included in the following five major categories: academic, technical, intellectual processes, social, and personal. From what is said above, it can be concluded that today discussion about curriculum theory in the education literature of the societies has gained considerable flow and has opened new research horizons to the curriculum field experts.
In order to understand curriculum theories , it is helpful to group the varying conceptions into broad categories and discuss the different categories are suggested by the above authors within these categories.

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  Academic : It tends to focus on a body of knowledge which is grouped into disciplines, subject matter, or broad fields. It is a familiar pattern of organization that is evident in the way in which knowledge is organized for course work in most schools. The academic category carries with it the message that knowledge is organized into logical categories and that values can be attached to those categories.
  
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  Technical : It is based upon an analysis of performance or processes. A job and task analysis or the identification and sequencing of behavioral outcomes becomes the means for creating curriculum. Efficiency is desired, requiring the curriculum to provide the most efficient means of delivering the identified performance objectives. These categories are highly structured, and whether they are derived from task analyses or systems (inputs, processes, outputs) analysis, they are behavior-focused curriculum plans.
  
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