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 teacher’s
curriculum, for example, would be the specific learning
standards, lessons, assignments, and materials used to
organize and teach a particular course.
The Characteristics of a Good Curriculum are as
follows:
1. It should faster the growth of development of attitude
and skills required for maintaining a planned social
order of democratic type. To put more concretely, it
should contribute towards democratic living.
2. It should not be narrowly conceived but dynamic and
forward looking, sample adequately both the scientific
content and the abilities of the pupils to the developed,
should cater to the right use of leisure later on and
should be related to the environment in which the
children live. Consequently, it will then become exiting,
real and imaginative
3. It is tested and improved through research.
4. It should aim at bringing about an intelligent and
effective adjustment with the environment itself. Further,
it should enable pupils to acquire relevant scientific
information of subsequent use in the significant areas of
human living.
5. It should be psychologically sound. It should take into
account the theories of learning relevant to science
teaching. Further, children’s capacities and capabilities,
if taken into account, will lead to the development of
differentiated curriculum. Incorporating geographical
difference in it will be another innovation.
6. It should provided sufficient scope for the cultivation
of skills, interest, attitudes and appreciations.
7. It must be mostly based upon the first hand
experiences of the pupils from all the significant areas of
human living. These experiences are characterized by
newness, novelty, challenge, stimulation and creativity.
Science Content receives increasing emphasis as the
children move to the higher grades.

Evaluation of curriculum is an integral and essential

part of the whole process of curriculum development. It
is a continuous activity and not a "tail-end-process".
Evaluation and planning are complementary processes
which occur almost simultaneously and continuously.
Planning is made on the basis of evaluation and vice
versa. However, as a separate state evaluation has its
own entity. The importance of curriculum
evaluation is to determine the value of the curriculum
itself is the curriculum appropriate for the particular
group of students with whom it is being used? Are the
instructional methods selected, the best choices in the
light of the objectives sought? Is the content the best
that could be selected? Are the materials recommended
for instructional purpose appropriate and the best
available for the purpose envisaged?

Objectives of Curriculum Evaluation

1. To determine the outcomes of a programme.
2. To help in deciding whether to accept or reject
a programme.
3. To ascertain the need for the revision of the
course content.
4. To help in future development of the curriculum
material for continuous improvement.
5. To improve methods of teaching and
instructional techniques.
Types of Curriculum Evaluation
According to Screven, following are the 3 main types

Formative Evaluation. It occurs during the course

of curriculum development. Its purpose is to contribute
to the improvement of the educational programme. The
merits of a programme are evaluated during the process
of its development. The evaluation results provide
information to the programme developers and enable
them to correct flaws detected in the programme.
Summative Evaluation. In summative evaluation,
the final effects of a curriculum are evaluated on the
basis of its stated objectives. It takes place after the
curriculum has been fully developed and put into
operations.
Diagnostic Evaluation. Diagnostic evaluation is
directed towards two purposes either for placement of
students properly at the outset of an instructional level
(such as secondary school),or to discover the
underlying cause of deviancies in student learning in
any field of study.