Thursday, December 31, 2009

Definitions Of Curriculum By Scholars In The Field

· Tanner (1980) defined curriculum as “the planned and guided learning experiences and intended outcomes, formulated through the systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experiences under the auspices of the school, for the learners’ continuous and wilful growth in personal social competence” (p.13).

· Schubert (1987) defines curriculum as the contents of a subject, concepts and tasks to be acquired, planned activities, the desired learning outcomes and experiences, product of culture and an agenda to reform society.

· Pratt (1980) defines curriculum as a written document that systematically describes goals planned, objectives, content, learning activities, evaluation procedures and so forth.

· Goodlad and Su (1992) define curriculum as a plan that consists of learning opportunities for a specific time frame and place, a tool that aims to bring about behaviour changes in students as a result of planned activities and includes all learning experiences received by students with the guidance of the school.

· Cronbleth (1992) defines curriculum as answering three questions: what knowledge, skills and values are most worthwhile? Why are they most worthwhile? How should the young acquire them?

· Grundy (1987) defines curriculum as a programme of activities (by teachers and pupils) designed so that pupils will attain so far as possible certain educational and other schooling ends or objectives.

· Hass (1987) provides a broader definition, stating that a curriculum includes “all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a framework of theory and research or past and present professional practice” (p.5).

Difference Between 'Curriculum' & 'Syllabus'

"Syllabus" refers to the content or subject matter of an individual subject, whereas "curriculum" refers to the totality of content to be taught and aims to be realized within one school or educational system." Thus, a curriculum subsumes a syllabus.

Curricular guidelines lay out a program's educational philosophy, specify purposes and course content, identify implementational constraints and articulate assessment and evaluation criteria. They also include banks of materials that teachers can modify to meet the needs of their learners. Syllabuses, on the other hand, traditionally represent the content of an individual course and specify how this content is graded and sequenced. According to this traditional understanding of what a syllabus is, therefore, there is a further distinction between syllabus content and methodology, on the grounds that the "what" and the "how" of teaching should be kept distinct from each other.

More recently, however, it has been argued that syllabuses should also include the methodological procedures that are used to organize classroom instruction. According to this view, the traditional distinction between syllabus content (the "what" of instruction) and methodology (the "how" of teaching) therefore becomes blurred. It then becomes theoretically possible to speak of a "methodological syllabus".

Defining Curriculum – Reflective Questions

Defining ‘Curriculum’


Defining the term ‘curriculum’ to everyone’s satisfaction is probably an impossible task. But we do need to agree on some sort of working definition.

Definitions of the word curriculum do not solve curriculum problems: but they do suggest perspectives from which to view them (Stenhouse, 1975: 1).


Reflective Questions

  1. How do you differentiate between those activities that are part of a curriculum in an educational setting and those that are not and those that you consider are borderline or doubtful? (Disagreements here may reflect different concepts of curriculum or of education) Is there any way of showing that some are right and some are wrong or do we have to ‘agree to differ’?
  2. To what extent are all of the observable interactions between teacher and students part of the curriculum?

Discuss your views with your partners to find out whether or not there seems to be general agreement on the placing of activities and on the criteria?

  1. How can we principally distinguish between ‘the curriculum’ and those voluntary activities commonly referred to as ‘extra-curricular’?

By way of summary, write down what you would regard as satisfactory working definition of ‘curriculum’.

Different Perspectives

Broadly speaking, there are two different views of the curriculum:

  1. One which emphasizes plans and intentions (e.g. a set of indented learning outcomes or a written statement of syllabus content), and
  2. One which emphasizes activities and effects (e.g. accounts of what teachers and learners actually do in classrooms or of the knowledge and skills acquired by the learners, whether intended or not).

Elements of Curriculum

A simple way of looking at curriculum is to divide it up into a series of basic elements or phrases. There are four fundamental questions which must be answered in developing any curriculum and plan of instruction. These are:

  1. What educational purposes should the institution seek to attain?
  2. What educational experience can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?
  3. How can these educational experiences be effectively achieved?
  4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

All curricula, no matter what their particular design, are composed of certain elements.

  1. the statement of aims and intended learning outcomes;
  2. a statement of content, assessment, learning interactions to achieve the ends;
  3. resource plan detailing people, materials, time, facilities, texts, references, readings, etc. needed;
  4. an implementation plan - assigns responsibility for who should do what, when and where
  5. a plan for monitoring and evaluating the success of delivery and making adjustments to improve achievements.