ULACIT

11-6005 INTRODUCCIN AL CURRICULUM

Professor: MSc. Giselle Herrera Gmez

CURRICULUM
Curriculum is "that series of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult life; and to be in all respects what adults should be" (Bobbit, 1918).
"Curriculum is all of the experiences children have under the guidance of teachers" (Caswell & Campbell, 1935).

Curriculum is "the educational program of the school" with attention to the following elements: (1) program of studies, (2) program of experiences, (3) program of services, and (4) the hidden curriculum (Oliver, 1977).

A child's curriculum for a given day of his or her life is all that he (or she) experiences from moment of his (or her) waking to the moment of his (or her) falling asleep (Oliva, 1982)

The planned and guided learning experiences and intended learning outcomes, formulated through the systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experience, under the auspices of the school, for the learner's continuous and willful growth in personal-social competence. The sum of the learning activities and experiences a student has under the auspices or directions of the school (Finch & Crunkilton, 1989).

In formal education, a curriculum (plural: curricula, IPA pronounces: /ku'rrikulum/, /ku'rrikula/) is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow and mature in becoming adults. (Wikipedia, February 2009)

CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
Educational theorist Larry Cuban (1995) has proposed there are actually four different curricula in use in our schools: "The official curriculum is what state and district officials set forth in curricular frameworks and courses of study.

The taught curriculum is what teachers, working alone in their rooms, actually choose to teach.

CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
The learned curriculum beyond what test scores reveal about content learning, students also learn many unspecified lessons embedded in the environment of the classroom. The tested curriculum what is tested is a limited part of what is intended by policy makers, taught by teachers, and learned by students.

APPROACHING CURRICULUM THEORY & PRACTICE

Aristotles influential categorization of knowledge into three disciplines:
The theoretical syllabus The practical process praxis The productive product

CURRICULUM FOUNDATIONS
Philosophy Psychology Sociology

APPROACH

CONTENT

TECHNIQUES

Teacher Preparation

Evaluation

CURRICULUM
Conceptions of human nature, of society and of the intellectuals, have contributed to a whole new perspective view on curriculum: The medieval trivium, rhetoric, logic and grammar, once vocational training for the few, has evolved into today's academics for the many.

INSTRUCTION Whats taught

CURRICULUM Whats written

ASSESSMENT Whats Tested?

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
as the systematic planning of what is taught and learned in schools as reflected in courses of study and school programs

primary focus is on what is to be

taught and when, leaving to the teaching profession decisions as to how this should be done

SETTING UP A CURRICULUM
GOALS IN A SCHOOL CURRICULUM:

social, civic and cultural goals: interpersonal understandings and citizenship participation;
intellectual goals: academic knowledge and intellectual skills;

SETTING UP A CURRICULUM

personal goals: emotional and physical well-being, creativity and aesthetic expression and self-realization; and vocational goals: being prepared for an occupation. (Goodlad, John, A Place Called School )

Curriculum is, or should be, one of the major terms in the language of higher education. Through curricula, ideas of higher education are put into action. Through curricula, too, values, beliefs and principles in relation to

learning, understanding, knowledge, disciplines, individuality and society are

realized. Yet these profoundly important matters are hardly ever raised.(Barnett, Ronald, 2006)

FORUM PARTICIPATION
Some researches believe that reading problems are mainly caused because we try to get most children to read at too early an age. What are the costs & benefits of early literacy? And For whom?