The document defines and discusses curriculum from several perspectives: 1) Curriculum is what is taught in schools and can include content, objectives, materials, and experiences. It reflects societal values and demands. 2) Curriculum has traditionally focused on transmitting knowledge but now also aims to develop skills and change student behavior. It encompasses formal, informal and hidden aspects of learning. 3) Curriculum approaches include viewing it as content, the product of learning outcomes, or an ongoing process. Effective curriculum requires consideration of foundations in philosophy, psychology and other disciplines through a collaborative development process.

1. Topic 1
What is curriculum?
Seminar 2
13 October 2019

2. • Curriculum is a reflection of our values, choices and
perspectives in differing contexts.
• Some sectors of the population are demanding that
schools to teach facts, concepts etc. while others
are calling for reducing content.
• For example, during colonial times, education in
Malaysia was confined to produce clerks and office
assistants for the English administrative system.

3. Definitions of Curriculum
• The Oxford English Dictionary: Courses taught in schools or
universities.
• Franklin Bobbit (Father of Curriculum) wrote his book The
Curriculum in 1918
• Pratt (1980) – A written document that systematically describes
goals planned, objectives, content, learning activities, evaluation
procedures and so forth.
• Cronbleth (1992): Curriculum as answering 3 questions: What
knowledge, skills and values are most worthwhile? Why are they
most worthwhile? How should the young acquire them?

4. Summary of Various Interpretations of Curriculum
• That which is taught in school
• A set subjects
• Content
• A programme of studies
• A set of materials
• Sequence of courses
• A set of performance objectives
• A course of study
• Everything that goes on within a school
• Everything that is planned by school personnel
• Which is taught both inside & outside of school directed by the school
• A series of experiences undergone by learners in school
• That which an individual learner experiences as a result of schooling.
Peter F. Olivia,
Developing the
Curriculum.

5. The Hidden Curriculum
• Sociologist Philip Jackson, Life in Classrooms (1968) – Schools
did more than simply transmit knowledge from 1 generation
to another.
• Doll (1992) – Every school has a planned, formal
acknowledged curriculum, but there is also an unplanned
informal and hidden one that must be considered.
• Example: The way teachers & principals/headmasters have
different expectations of students based on interpretations of
behaviour in class. (They learn even without being formally
taught)

6. Curriculum Approaches
• Curriculum as Content
• Curriculum as Product
• Curriculum as Process

7. Curriculum as Content
• It is quite common for people to equate a curriculum with the
syllabus which is a concise document listing the topics of a
subject.
• It has been suggested that if one adopts the content approach
to curriculum, focus will be on the syllabus and the body of
knowledge to be transmitted or delivered to students using
appropriate teaching methods.
• Example: In secondary school geography involving the
textbooks tend to begin with physical geography such as
climate and vegetation and followed by economic activities.

8. Curriculum as Product
• What is it that is desired of students having been taught using a
curriculum.
• Franklin Bobbitt (1918), The Curriculum : Education should prepare
people for life with detailed attention to what people need to know
in order to work and live their lives.
• Ralph Tyler (1949) : The real purpose of education is to bring about
significant changes in students’ pattern of behaviour.
• It is important that any statement of objectives of the school should
be a statement of changes to take place in the students.

9. Curriculum as Process
• What actually happens in the classroom when the curriculum
is practiced.
• Example: The questions asked by the teacher, the learning
activities engage in and so forth.
• It is not a package of syllabus of content to be covered.
• A process approach to curriculum theory and practice, as
argued by Grundy (1987), tends towards making the process
of learning the central concern of the teacher with emphasis
on thinking and meaning-making.

10. Foundations of Curriculum
• The design & development of curriculum is a team effort
involving curriculum planner, curriculum developers, teachers,
academicians etc.
• They decide the goals of the curriculum, what content to
include, how it should be organized etc.
• To help them make these decisions, they have turned to
philosophy, psychology, sociology & history. These have been
accepted as the foundations of a curriculum.
• Example, from philosophy has evolved numerous beliefs as to
how people should be educated & what knowledge is
worthwhile.

11. Curriculum Development
• A process involving many different people and procedures.
Many curriculum development models have been proposed.
Generally most models involve 4 phases.
 Curriculum planning: Involves decisions about the philosophy
of education & the aims of education.
 Curriculum design: Refers to the way curriculum is
conceptualised & involves the selection & organisation of
content, the selection & organisation of learning
experiences/activities.
 Curriculum implementation: Getting people to practice the
ideas in the curriculum, providing them with the necessary
resources, training & encouragement.

12. Curriculum Evaluation: Determine the extent to
which the efforts in implementing the ideas of the
curriculum have been successful

13. Curriculum as a discipline
• If we know the characteristics of a discipline, than maybe we can decide
if “curriculum” is a discipline.
• According to Oliva (1982), a discipline has the following characteristics:
 A discipline should have an organised set of theoretical principles.
 A discipline encompasses a body of knowledge & skills pertinent to
discipline
 A discipline has its theoreticians & its practitioners.
• The field of curriculum has its set of principles. Exp: In curriculum
planning there are principles such as educational philosophy &
curriculum goals applied in developing programmes for school.
• The field of curriculum has its own body of knowledge & skills. Exp:
In selection of content, curriculum has relied on the principles,
knowledge & skills from psychology, philosophy & sociology.

14. • The field of curriculum has its list of theoreticians
& practitioners, include curriculum planners,
professors of curriculum etc. who are well-versed
in areas relating curriculum such as the history &
origin of a curriculum.

15. Curriculum & Instruction
• Curriculum is WHAT to be taught, Instruction is HOW it is taught.
• Oliva (1982) described curriculum & instruction as 2 entities.
Dualistic model – What takes place in the classroom under the
direction of the teacher has little relationship to what is stated
in the curriculum plan.
• On other occassions, curriculum & instruction are mutually
interdependent as shown in the Concentric model – Curriculum
assumes the superordinate position while Instruction is subordinate.
• Cyclical model – Curriculum & Instruction may be separate entities
with a continuing circular relationship. Curriculum makes a
continuos impact on instruction & similarly instruction impacts on
curriculum.

16. • The Cyclical Model seems to the best alternative as it
emphasises the need for a close working
relationship between implementers & planners.
• It is impossible to plan everything that happens in
the classroom in the curriculum document. It is
because the numerous factors operating in the
classroom are impossible to predetermine.

17. End of Topic 1
-What is Curriculum-
Thank You.