Session 5: What is a curriculum? (DTES1)

1. What is the curriculum and how
is it designed?
Session 5 week 15

2. Session objectives:
By the end of this session you will have:
• Been introduced to some different curriculum
definitions
• Considered different views of the nature of
knowledge
• Learnt about curriculum frameworks

3. Definition: Curriculum
‘the sum total of what
pupils need to learn’
Hayes (2006)
‘A curriculum is the formation and implementation of an educational proposal
to be taught and learning within the school or other institution and for which
that institution accepts responsibly at three levels: its rational , its actual
implementation and its effects.’
Jenkins and Shipman (1976)
‘..the experiences that the
school provides.’
An attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an
educational proposal in such a form that is open to critical scrutiny and
capable of effective translation into practice.
Stenhouse (1975)
all in Bartlett and Burton (2007)

4. Epistemology

5. Post modern perspectives on
knowledge
‘…the steady march of science, for instance,
towards more inclusive and more powerful
explanations of the world is really the victory of
one set of ideas and one kind of knowledge over
others.’
Bartlett and Burton paraphrasing and summarising from Harvey
(1991) & Lyotard (1986)

6. Curriculum frameworks
Aims and
purposes
Content
Pedagogy
Assessment
Curriculum

7. Radical rethink
Question 3, page 130
• Some critics have suggested that the curriculum
should be rethought and that the traditional
subject-based curriculum is moribund and
anachronistic. What might be included in a
radical rethink of the curriculum in terms of
contents, experiences, teaching and learning, and
assessment? Is it possible to define a new
programme for learning? What would be the
basis for this new curriculum and how would it
meet the needs of contemporary conditions and
people?’

8. Session objectives:
By the end of this session you will have:
• Been introduced to some different curriculum
definitions
• Considered different views of the nature of
knowledge
• Learnt about curriculum frameworks