Curriculum

In education, the word curriculum has become so familiar now, that we have, almost, stop thinking about it anymore. However, in fact, very few of us know about its true nature and composition.  People use this term in different ways and styles, according to their own perception and understanding of the term. For example, some people use it in terms of content or subject matters taught in schools, while others coincide it with syllabus or course outline. Still others think it as all the experience encountered by students during an educational episode. However, all these perceptions about the curriculum are narrower in breadth and width than its real horizon, as they represent only some of the aspects of curriculum, while its actual ingredients are too many in numbers to be exactly enumerated. Usually, curriculum developers ponder upon the following four basic questions when they develop a curriculum.

1. Why to teach?
2. What to teach?
3. How to teach?
4. When to teach?

The first question provide us a rational for developing a curriculum. It is about the aims, goals and objectives of education. It tell us that since the school/society/country wants to bring certain desired changes in the behaviors of their children, therefore it needs a comprehensive strategy, curriculum, for this purpose.

The second question tells us about those contents, activities and experiences, which would be used for attaining the desired educational goals and objectives.   

The third question is about those techniques and teaching methods through which these contents and experiences would be presented to the students.

While the fourth question tells us about the appropriate time for presenting these contents, activities and experience. In other words, it tells us about the right age groups of children for which the curriculum is being developed.

Historically, curriculum has its roots in the writings of Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BCE). Plato proposed a lifelong learning plan for the citizens of his ideal Republic. This plan, curriculum, consisted of (Hare, 1989) reading, writing, counting, sports and music, military training, and the study of philosophy. Similarly, Aristotle(384-322 BCE), a pupil of Plato, in his book “Politics” proposed his own plan of education which consisted of reading, writing, physical training, music and drawing. In 335 BCE, Aristotle founded his official school “The Lyceum” in Athens. The curriculum of this school was broader than Plato’s academy. In   1651, when the Czech philosopher John Amos Comenius (Klika, 1892) opened his pansophic school in Hungary at Sarospatak, he himself created curriculum for this school and also wrote the world’s first illustrated book “Sensory World in Images” for visualized instructions. A German pedagogue Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), was the first to introduce organized early-childhood educational method. His kindergarten curriculum was composed of self-activity, social participation, creativity and motor expression.

According to Pratt (1994 p.5), Barrow and Milburn(1990, p.84), the word curriculum is derived from a Latin verb “Currere” which means “to run”. Currere then became a noun, which meant a racing chariot, a racetrack or a runway. Similarly, John Franklin Bobbitt (1918) in his book “The Curriculum” says that curriculum, as an idea, has its root in the Latin word for race-course. The Roman Philosopher Cicero (106 -43 BCE) associated this term with curriculum vitae which means the course of one’s life. He also used it as “curricula mentis” which means the educational course of the mind.  

The first known use of the word “curriculum” appeared in the work of Petrus Ramus, a professor in the University of Paris, in 1576. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the word curriculum was first used in English in 1633. However, it was not before the nineteenth when the European universities formally began to use this term for their courses of study.

Glatthorn, A.A.(2000) described seven common types of curriculum which are usually at work in our schools. They are given as under:

1. Recommended curriculum
   The recommended curriculum is that which is recommended by scholars and professional organizations.
2. Written curriculum
   The written curriculum, as the term is used here, is the curriculum that appears in state and locally produced documents, such as state standards, district scope and sequence charts, district curriculum guides, teachers' planning documents, and curriculum units.
3. Taught curriculum
   The taught curriculum is that which teachers actually deliver day by day.
4. Supported curriculum
   The supported curriculum includes those resources that support the curriculum i.e. textbooks, software, and other media.
5. Assessed curriculum
   The assessed curriculum is that which appears in tests and performance measures: state tests, standardized tests, district tests, and teacher-made tests.
6. Learned curriculum
   The learned curriculum is the bottom-line curriculum i.e. the curriculum that students actually learn.
7. Hidden curriculum
   This is the unintended curriculum. It defines what students learn from the physical environment, the policies, and the procedures of the school. Here is an example. Each week teachers in an elementary school devote 250 minutes to reading and 50 minutes to art. Students learn this lesson: "In this school, art is not considered very important."

However, in my view there are only two types of curriculum namely overt curriculum and covert curriculum. Because, learning takes place either through overt/explicit/planned curriculum or covert/implicit/hidden curriculum.

So far, many researchers have shed light on curriculum in their writings and it would be impossible, due to the lack of time and space, to list all of them. However, for better understanding and comprehension of its nature and role, it will be reasonable to quote some of them.

1. Cunningham: “Curriculum is a tool in the hands of the artist (teacher) to mould his material (pupils) according to his ideas (aims and objectives) in his studio (school)”.
2.  Morroe: “Curriculum includes all those activities which are utilized by the school to attain the aims of education.
3. Caswell and Campbell describe curriculum as “All experiences children have under the guidance of teachers”.
4. Marsh and Willis view curriculum as “An interrelated set of plans and experiences that a student undertakes under the guidance of the school”.
5. Crow and Crow: The curriculum includes all the learners’ experience in or outside school that are included in a program which has been devised to help him developmentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually and morally”.
6. Murray Print (1993) defined curriculum as “All of those planned learnings that students were deliberately exposed to by schools”.
7. John Kerr defines curriculum as “All the learning which is planned and guided by school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school”.
8. Lewis and Mid (1981) defined curriculum as” a set of intentions about opportunities for engagement of persons-to-be-educated with other persons and with things (all bearers of information, processes, techniques and values) in certain arrangements of time and space.
9. Greene (1977) says that “Curriculum, to me, ought to be a means of providing opportunities for the seizing of a range of meanings by persons open to the world, especially today.”
10. Saylor et al. (1981) define curriculum as a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities for persons to be educated.
11. Curriculum is the totality of learning experiences provided to students so that they can attain general skills and knowledge at a variety of learning sites. 

Looking at the above definitions carefully, we find that curriculum generally consists of:

1. Intended educational goals and objectives.
2. Planned activities and experiences.
3. Planned events and learning opportunities.

Conclusion

1. Curriculum is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
2. Curriculum is an official document.
3. Curriculum is a deliberate, planned and systematic effort by a school for bringing the desired change in learners’ behavior.
4. Without proper curriculum, we can’t achieve our educational goals.
5. Curriculum gives us a direction towards our destination.
6. Curriculum is a complete package of goals, means and outcomes.
7. Curriculum operates inside, and sometimes outside, under the supervision of school.

References

Aristotle. (1995). Politics. Translated by Ernest Barker. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bobbitt, J. F.  (1918) The Curriculum, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Berkeley, California: McCutchan Publishing Corporation. Retrieved 26/12/2016 from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_curriculum

Glatthorn, Allan A. (2000)The Principal as Curriculum Leader: Shaping What Is Taught & Tested. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif : Corwin Press.

Greene, M. (1977). The Artistic-Aesthetic and Curriculum. Curriculum Inquiry, 6, 284.

Hare, R. M. (1989) Plato, Oxford: Oxford University Press Retrieved on 27/12/2016 from http://infed.org/mobi/plato-on-education.

Klika, J. (1892). Život i rad Ivana Amosa Komenskoga. Zagreb: Naklada Hrv.Pedagoško-književnoga zbora.

Murray, P. (1993). Curriculum Development and Design (5th ed.). Malaysia: Alien and Unwin.

Saylor et al. (1981). Curriculum Planning for better teaching and learning (4th ed.). New York, New York: Rinehart and Winston.