CURRICULUM & TEACHING

CURRICULUM & TEACHING

DED 0122: CURRICULUM & TEACHINGINSTRUCTOR:

SAID A.S.YUNUS

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:-

• Define the concept of curriculum• Identify types of curricula.• Differentiate between traditional

approach and competency based approach

What is curriculum?

• It is not easy to define this concept.

• Curricularists often have difficult time in answering this question.

• Curriculum is one of the most challenging concepts to define in education.

• It has got very diverse definitions.

• Curriculum can be defined broadly as a systematic plan of instruction. Yet, curriculum must be viewed as different from instruction.

• It means that, what we teach differs from how we teach it.

What is Curriculum?

• Moore (1998) defines curriculum as all the planned and unplanned learning experiences that students undergo while in school setting.

• Every school /district / region / country has a planned, formally acknowledged curriculum as well as an unplanned, informal and the hidden one.

What is curriculum?• Ornstein & Hunkins (2004) define

curriculum as a plan for action or a written document that includes strategies for achieving desired goals or ends.

• The steps of the planner are sequenced in advance. The plan has a beginning and end, as well as a process so that the beginning can progress to an end.

What is curriculum?Oliva (2009) Curriculum is:• That which is taught in schools• A set of subjects• Content• A program of studies• A set of materials• A sequence of courses• A set of performance objectives• A course of study

Cont…• Everything that goes on in the school,

including extra-class activities, guidance and interpersonal relations

• That which is taught both inside and outside of school directed by the school

• Everything that is planned by school personnel

• A series of experiences undergone by learners in school

• That which an individual learner experiences as a result of schooling

Types of Curricula• Educational theorist Cuban (1993)

suggests that there are at least four different curricula in use in our schools namely; official curriculum, taught curriculum, learned curriculum, and tested curriculum.

The Official Curriculum

• "The official curriculum is what state and district officials set forth in curricular frameworks and courses of study. They expect teachers to teach it; they assume students will learn it."

The Taught Curriculum• The taught curriculum is what

teachers, working alone in their rooms, actually choose to teach. "Their choices derive from their knowledge of the subject, their experiences in teaching the content, their affection or dislike for topics, and their attitudes toward the students they face daily."

The Learned Curriculum.

• The learned curriculum. Beyond what test scores reveal about content learning, students also learn many unspecified lessons embedded in the environment of the classroom. Depending on what the teacher models, the student will learn to process information in particular ways and not in others.

Cont…• They will learn when and when not

to ask questions and how to act attentive. They may imitate their teacher's attitudes. They learn about respect for others from the teacher's own demonstration of respect or lack thereof. The learned curriculum is much more inclusive than the overtly taught curriculum.

The Tested curriculum.• The tested curriculum. "What is

tested is a limited part of what is intended by policy makers, taught by teachers, and learned by students." The farther removed teachers are from the actual construction of the tests, the worse the fit between the other curricula and what is tested. Standardized tests often represent the poorest assessment of the other curricula.

Another types of curriculum

• According to Moore (1998) basically students experience four kinds of curricula in school settings namely: explicit curriculum, hidden curriculum, integrated curriculum and extra curricular programmes.

The Explicit Curriculum• The explicit curriculum is the formal

acknowledged curriculum selected by a state or a school or school district.

• It focuses on goals, objectives, subject matter, and organization of instruction.

• It encompasses the sequence of courses, goals, and objectives mandated by the state; the curriculum guide developed by the school district; and the textbooks used in the classroom.

The Hidden Curriculum • The hidden curriculum is the

“unintended” curriculum. • It consists of those learning experiences,

both negative and positive, that are not part of the explicit curriculum but that result in changes in the attitudes, beliefs, and values of students.

• The teacher must be constantly aware of the hidden curriculum that may be communicated or modeled in his/her

classroom

The Integrated Curriculum

• The integrated curriculum is the kind of curriculum in which disciplines are blended, fused, or unified.

• There are two basic approaches to integration of a district or school curriculum: adapting an existing curriculum and creating a new curriculum.

Cont…• The basic strategies for integrating

existing curriculum is to look for common elements or connections. There are natural relationships between most subjects, and these can form the basis of integration.

• Creating a new curriculum is not an easy task. The first step in the process is to select an appropriate theme. Once the theme has been determined, the curriculum planners should identify subtopics related to the central themes

and activities related to the subtopic.

Extracurricular activities

• Extracurricular activities are elective extensions of the explicit curriculum that do not carry credit toward graduation.

• Extracurricular activities are generally geared toward community needs, students interests and aspirations ( ambitions) and social issues. They serve to reinforce and

add spice to school’s more formal curriculum.

Difference between Traditional Approach & Competency

based Approach • ..\..\..\Desktop\Difference between

traditional approach and competency based approach.docx

Reference • Cuban, L. (1995). The Hidden

Variable: How Organizations Influence Teacher Responses to Secondary Science Curriculum Reform. Theory Into Practice, Vol. 34, No. 1, 4-11.

• http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/importance-of-curriculum-10893.html