The document outlines the key differences between a curriculum and a syllabus. A syllabus is mandated by the government and defines what must be taught, assessed, and how instruction should be delivered. In contrast, a curriculum is developed by teachers and comprises the experiences and activities students will engage in. The document then provides various definitions of a curriculum, including the subjects taught, content, programs of study, and planned school experiences. It also discusses different images of a curriculum and introduces the concept of a hidden curriculum.

1. Curriculum and Syllabus

2. Curriculum vs Syllabus
 The syllabus is the document handed
down by the government that mandates
what must be taught and how it must be
assessed. It also makes suggestions for
how it must be taught
 The curriculum is developed by the
teacher or teaching team and is made up
of the experiences students will have in
the course
 (This distinction has been broken by the
National Curriculum – which is really a
syllabus)

3. Definitions of ‘curriculum’
 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

4.  Everything that goes on within the school,
including extra-class activities, guidance, and
interpersonal relationships
 Everything that is planned by school personnel
 A series of experiences undergone by learners in a
school
 That which an individual learner experiences as a
result of schooling
Definitions of ‘curriculum’

5. Schubert - Images of Curriculum
(a) curriculum as content or subject matter,
(b) curriculum as a program of planned activities,
(c) curriculum as intended learning outcomes,
(d) curriculum as cultural reproduction,
(e) curriculum as discrete tasks and concepts,
(f) curriculum as an agenda for social
reconstruction, and
(g) curriculum as "currere" (interpretation of lived
experience)

6. Hidden Curriculum
 Things students learn in school that are
not part of the written curriculum
 Includes things like behaviour,
collaboration, teamwork, testwiseness
 Also includes ‘rules of the game’, implicit
expectations, prejudices
 Can be positive and negative

7. Curriculum Development
 Ideally a collaborative process
 Based on the syllabus
 Don’t reinvent the wheel
 Do use your freedom
 On-going adaptive process