Definition Of Curriculum And Curriculum

The word curriculum can mean something different to different people, even to different teachers who use the term almost daily (Manning & Butcher, 2012). However, it boils down to curriculum being what a student learns, both in terms of core subject content, as well as though social activity and elective/activity courses. However, there has often been a disconnect between different states and districts over what exactly should be in the curriculum for various grades and what is needed to prepare students for life beyond school, as well as providing little basis for comparing the US to other countries. That’s where Common Core State Standards (CCSS) come in. According to Teaching in the Middle School (2012), the Common Core standards were created in an attempt to provide curriculum standards that are “rigorous, internationally benchmarked, and aligned with college and work expectations”. Since its implementation in 2009, 42 US states and the District of Columbia have integrated the standards into their curriculums. (Core Standards, 2015)

The origins of the word curriculum date back to ancient times and in fact the work comes from the Latin word of currere: a course or race or to run (Smith, 1996,2000). Over many decades, people have argued over the various definitions. Tanner (1980) defined it as “the planned and guided learning experiences and intended outcomes”, whilst Pratt (1980) defined it as a written document describing goals planned, objectives, content and evaluation. So s it a course of study? Or can it be defined as content or a product( Marsh, 2008). Marsh (2008) goes on to include that at a variety of learning sites are a set of objectives for student learning. We can also relate this to Tyler’s objective curriculum model being that the first step to curriculum is always to set the objective. The Model of Taba from 1962, is the same model at Tyler’s but includes interaction and flow between all four stages, so we do not always need the objective before we start writing the content to the curriculum.

Curriculums are the roadmaps for schools which provide purpose and direction for administrators, educators, parents, and students. 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.” (Curriculum, 2015, para. 1) Curriculums may come in many shapes and forms, whether they’re purchased as a package at the school or district level or they’re created or refined by educators and

Ralph Tyler (1957) describes curriculum as “. . . all the learning experiences planned and directed by the school to attain its educational goals (Glatthorn, 2011, p.3). Going by this definition, one can regard curricula as encompassing what is taught in the classroom, as well as

The roots of the term curriculum goes all the way back to early times and in actual fact the word is derived from the Latin expression of currere: a path or battle or to run (Smith,

Curriculum, as stated by Glickman (2014) “is the what of instruction”. Additionally, Ornstein and Hunkins, (as cited by Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon, 2014) have listed the elements of the curriculum and they “are sequence and continuity, scope and balance”. The mastery with which a teacher can incorporate the elements of the curriculum in instruction is categorized by levels. The levels of teacher involvement in curriculum implementation are described and exemplfied

Curriculum is so much more than the paper copy of lessons and activities that we receive as teachers, but before this course I never really thought of curriculum as

A curriculum In practice, though is more than this. it is useful to think of it as being much wider. As a working definition of a curriculum I would say that it is the sum of all the activities, experiences and learning opportunities for which an institution or a teacher takes responsibility – either deliberately or by default.

Brady and Kennedy (2010) define the term curriculum as ‘the means by which young people and adults gain the essential knowledge, skills and attributes they need to be productive and informed citizens in a democratic society.’ However the term has many varied definitions, it can be described as being the subject matter, the overall plan for teaching or the outcome of what is taught (Wiles, 2005). Marsh and Willis (cited in Marsh, 2009, p. 3) break curriculum down into three individual areas of ‘planned curriculum’, the objectives and aims, ‘enacted curriculum’, how the objectives are

Firstly, Common Core is not a curriculum; the curriculum is up to the teachers and schools. Instead Common Core is welcoming teachers to use their creative freedoms to engage their students and promote better learning by not mandating a curriculum be followed just a serious of goals that should be demonstrated by the students throughout their school careers. CCSS, or Common Core, wrote its standards starting at the college level and then set up various assessments to measure where the students should be at in their scholarly subjects in grades K-12. As Peter Dewitz, an educational consultant, and

A curriculum is any planned educational experience. Ideally, the learning objectives should incorporate the acronym “SMART”: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Targeted to the learner. Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development (SCID) is a successful model for curriculum development customized to complement the needs of career and technical educators as well as business and industry trainers. It has five phases: design, development, implementation, evaluation. 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” as defined by Cortes (1981). Cortes

Curriculum is hardly new in fact it dates way back to ancient Greece and the famous Aristotle’s (384BC- 322BC) who was a Greek philosopher. A student of Plato came up with the categorisation of knowledge, which I will be discussing later on in the commentary. So curriculum has been around for years, but the way we understand

Although it is impossible to agree on just one definition of curriculum, one can understand the idea based on how it functions in relation to education practice by aligning the three major types of curriculum, which are intended curriculum, implemented

The meaning of the term’ curriculum’ is difficult to define. For school, Pratt (in Brady and Kennedy, 2014, p. 3) argues that curriculum can be ‘an organized set of formal educational and training intentions’. For students, Marsh and Wills (in Brady and Kennedy, 2014, p. 3) maintain that curriculum is ‘an interrelated set of plans and experiences that a student undertakes under the guidance of the school’, while for teachers, the challenge is to develop curricula that will cater for the needs of all students (Ah Sam & Ackland, 2005). There are various meanings attached to the term’ curriculum’. My personal definition for school curriculum is that schools develop programs of different study areas basing on the content of the national curriculum document; teachers plan their teaching basing on the programs; eventually, students experience the curriculum by engaging in diverse teaching activities. In this essay, I will be discussing The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) in relation to the strategic plan and teaching philosophy of Hampton Park East Kindergarten.

According to Blaise and Nuttall (2011), to understand curriculum, we must first understand what is meant by the term curriculum. Within curriculum there are five key concepts, they are the intended curriculum The Intended curriculum is the curriculum that the teachers want the children to experience in order to develop particular knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (Blaise & Nuttall, 2011, p. 82). The enacted curriculum is what teachers want students to experience. important reason why the intended curriculum is enacted differently from teacher to teacher, from classroom to classroom, is that a key part of a teachers work is to interpret the official curriculum, taking into account a wide range of variables that are specific to their classroom and school setting.