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1.What is curriculum?
The term curriculum refers to the lessons and academic content taught in a school or
in a specific course or program. In dictionaries, curriculum is often defined as the
courses offered by a school, but it is rarely used in such a general sense in
schools. Depending on how broadly educators define or employ the
term, curriculum typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to
learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are
expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and
projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings
used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate
student learning. An individual teachers curriculum, for example, would be the
specific learning standards, lessons, assignments, and materials used to organize and
teach a particular course.
In many cases, teachers develop their own curricula, often refining and improving them
over years, although it is also common for teachers to adapt lessons and syllabi
created by other teachers, use curriculum templates and guides to structure their
lessons and courses, or purchase prepackaged curricula from individuals and
companies. In some cases, schools purchase comprehensive, multigrade curriculum
packagesoften in a particular subject area, such as mathematicsthat teachers are
required to use or follow. Curriculum may also encompass a schools academic
requirements for graduation, such as the courses students have to take and pass, the
number of credits students must complete, and other requirements, such as completing
a capstone project or a certain number of community-service hours. Generally
speaking, curriculum takes many different forms in schoolstoo many to
comprehensively catalog here.
What are the different kinds of curriculum?
Obviously the answer to this question is subject to interpretation. Since curriculum
reflects the models of instructional delivery chosen and used, some might indicate that
curriculum could be categorized according to the common psychological classifications
of the four families of learning theories Social, Information Processing, Personalist,
and Behavioral. Longstreet and Shane have dubbed divisions in curricular
orientations as: child-centered, society-centered, knowledge-centered, or eclectic.
Common philosophical orientations of curriculum parallel those beliefs espoused by
different philosophical orientations Idealism, Realism, Perennialism, Essentialism,
Experimentalism, Existentialism, Constructivism, Reconstructivism and the like.
Whatever classification one gravitates to, the fact remains that at one time or another
curriculum in the United States has, at some level, been impacted by all of the above.
In essence, American curriculum is hard to pin down because it is multi-layered and
highly eclectic.
The following represent the many different types of curricula used in schools
today
Definition
Type
of
Curriculum
1.
Overt,
explicit,
or
written
curriculum
2.
Societal
curriculum
(or
social
neighborhoods,
curricula)
churches,
organizations,
occupations,
mass
3.
hidden
The
or
covert
curriculum
4. The null
curriculum
That which we do not teach, thus giving students the message that
these elements are not important in their educational experiences
or in our society. Eisner offers some major points as he concludes
his discussion of the null curriculum. The major point I have been
trying to make thus far is that schools have consequences not only
by virtue of what they do teach, but also by virtue of what they
neglect to teach. What students cannot consider, what they dont
processes they are unable to use, have consequences for the
kinds of lives they lead. 103
Eisner (1985, 1994) first described and defined aspects of this
curriculum. He states: There is something of a paradox involved in
writing about a curriculum that does not exist. Yet, if we are
concerned with the consequences of school programs and the role
of curriculum in shaping those consequences, then it seems to me
that we are well advised to consider not only the explicit and
5.
Phantom
curriculum
6.
Concomitant
curriculum
7. Rhetorical
curriculum
8.
Curriculum-
in-use
9. Received
curriculum
10.
The
internal
curriculum
11.
The
electronic
curriculum