ABSTRACT
Decker Walker's contribution to curriculum planning is through his deliberative approach. Walker used the term 'naturalistic' because he wanted to portray how curriculum planning actually occurs in practice, compared with other approaches which prescribe how curriculum planning should occur. His three-step sequence of 'platform-deliberation-design' has since been used at various levels of curriculum development including small-scale projects with preservice teachers, as well as in large-scale programmes. L. Hannay note that deliberation is not a linear process but rather a spiral process — a spiral of meaning. For deliberation to occur the problem must be conceptualized as an uncertain problem. Deliberation finally leads to some decisions for action: planning enters 'design' phase when a group has achieved sufficient consensus about beliefs, problematic circumstances, and potential solutions so that particular courses of action can be taken more or less automatically, without further consideration of alternatives.
