Curriculum in Education: A Comprehensive Overview

The field of education rests on two main pillars: curriculum and instruction. This article delves into the multifaceted concept of curriculum in education, exploring its definition, components, various approaches, and its significance in shaping the learning experience.

Defining Curriculum: More Than Just Textbooks

In the most general sense, a curriculum is a course of study. Curriculum typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, including 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.

The term "curriculum" has evolved over time. Thirty years ago, a school board adopted textbook was the core curriculum. Twenty years ago, most states introduced learning standards, and those also became part of the definition of curriculum. Teachers have always supplemented the core curriculum to meet the needs of students. In the digital classroom today, the whole curriculum appears to be a mashup of supplemental materials.

A curriculum may also refer to a defined and prescribed course of studies, which students must fulfill in order to pass a certain level of education. For example, an elementary school might discuss how its curricula is designed to improve national testing scores or help students learn fundamental skills. On the other hand, a high school might refer to its curricula as the courses required in order to receive one's diploma.

Braslavsky states that curriculum is an agreement among communities, educational professionals, and the State on what learners should take on during specific periods of their lives.

Curriculum vs. Instruction: What's the Difference?

While often used together, curriculum and instruction have distinct purposes. The curriculum ensures students gain specific knowledge and skills. Instruction refers to methods and strategies to teach that material. While the curriculum is consistent across schools and classrooms, instruction can be individualized.

Instructional coordinators develop a curriculum by determining the product component and the process component. The product component is based on the final product. This means that grades and test results are used to determine if students have learned the material. The process component, meanwhile, focuses on how a student’s learning develops over time. A variety of instructional methods can influence the process component.

Key Components of a Curriculum

A curriculum is based on extensive educational research, the input of the state and local educational standards, and the type of school. Several elements make up a standard curriculum:

Purpose Statements: Purpose statements work best when they’re simple. For example, students may need the information in your class on soft skills so they can practice career essentials. Your class may be different from others by focusing on soft skills like communication, professionalism, and more.
Standards: Most of the time, you’ll get a list of standards from your state department of education to guide you in the information they’re supposed to teach students. This information varies from state to state since public education requirements are often determined at the state level. Overall, standards ensure a degree of uniformity in curriculum for important topics.
Curriculum Maps: Once you’ve found your standards, it’s time to map your curriculum to those standards so you ensure you’re teaching the information that’s required. Curriculum maps are tricky to create, if you’ve never made one before. It’s phenomenally helpful for most teachers because a curriculum map shows you exactly what you need to teach, when, and the materials you need to teach it.
Syllabus: As a result, the syllabus is the area where most teachers spend the bulk of their time in planning. It takes a lot of time and energy to create a document that showcases exactly how your class will work day by day.
Assessments: Students will still have to complete lessons, homework, formative assessments, summative assessments, and other projects that are graded. However, this is a standard part of any class. The main goal of formative assessments is understanding what your students do and don’t know. The most important part of summative assessments is a clear vision into what your students have learned.
Capstone Project: Before you finish your syllabus, you have one exceptionally important part of your curriculum you'll need to include. The most common capstone project is a cumulative final exam. What is the quantifiable metric you’ll use to gauge whether your students have learned?

Instructional Methods: Bringing the Curriculum to Life

In the world of K-12 education, teachers can choose from several types of instructional methods. In fact, it’s rare to find a teacher who uses one instructional method exclusively. It’s important to understand that instruction is not a one-size-fits-all practice.

Lecture-Based Instruction: The lecture-based instruction method is the traditional classroom model many people are familiar with. With this method, the teacher stands at the front of the classroom and delivers a lesson. The lecture method has been shown to have a positive impact on students’ immediate knowledge retention, and many teachers regularly give lectures. Lectures are considered the standard in education because they’ve been used since before the time of Socrates.
Hands-On Learning: Hands-on learning involves students developing knowledge through practical experience. Instead of listening to a lecture on a chemical reaction, for example, a student might experiment under a teacher’s guidance. Hands-on learning strives to teach students in the moment and how to learn for the rest of their lives.
Online Learning: Online learning means you’re using education tools that exist on the internet to help teach your students. Online learning is a great way to reach students who are both experts and amateurs when it comes to using technology. You can even go the extra mile with blended learning and include a highly-specialized form of teaching that also allows your students to socialize with one another.
Cooperative Learning: The core of cooperative learning is based on trust and accountability. Students learn different parts of a large concept and teach that information to one another. At the end of a cooperative learning session, it’s important for you to pull your entire class back together to talk about what they learned. Altogether, you cooperative learning helps your students discover a new concept while meeting one another and taking responsibility for a portion of their education.
Differentiated Instruction: In a nutshell, this means you reach out to students based on how they learn best. Practically speaking, this could involve some students using a pen and paper to complete assignments while others work from a computer.
Gamification: Math teachers may play “around the world” with flash cards in their classes. Regardless of how you choose to help students learn, gamification is proven to improve long-term information retention in students of any age.

Types of Curriculum

Curricula can be approached and designed in different ways, each with its own focus and goals. Here are some common types:

Learner-Centered Curriculum

The central premise of the learner-centered curriculum entails designing instruction for the student’s needs, interests, and abilities. Practitioners of the learner-centered curriculum work hard to individualize instruction, differentiate it to each student, allowing students to have choices in their learning. One of the guiding principles of learner centered curriculum is the doctrine of interest. The doctrine of interest is the idea that students should study what they want to study. In this mindset, the curriculum is built based on the individual student’s interest.

Examples of learner-centered approaches include:

Montessori Education: Montessori education is an example of a learner-centered curriculum. It is based on the idea that children are eager to learn. Students at Montessori schools can initiate and direct their own learning in a prepared environment that offers materials and activities based on a variety of interests. Montessori education emphasizes hands-on learning and real-world skills, and allows children to work at their own pace on activities they choose.
Project Based Learning (PBL): Project Based Learning is a method of teaching where students investigate or respond to an authentic problem or question over an extended period of time. An instructor using a project-based approach would be responsible for working with groups of students. Proponents of PBL argue that it encourages students to deal with complex and ill-structured problems, integrate information from multiple sources, and have ownership over their learning.

Society-Centered Curriculum

The society-centered curriculum is based on the idea that education should be designed around society concerns and community issues. In this approach to education, the purpose of education is centered around future needs of the community. The society-centered curriculum shares many aspects with the learner-centered curriculum. Both could be classified as part of the progressive educational movement, a reaction to earlier knowledge-centered approaches that prioritized education according to classical disciplines and traditional subjects.

Another way to think about society centered curriculum is to forecast future needs of the community and to promote additional emphasis to those topics throughout the curriculum. Integration of STEM throughout the curriculum is not a new push.

Knowledge-Centered Curriculum

The goal of the knowledge centered curriculum is to teach all students a broad range of subjects that are considered essential. In a knowledge centered approach, there is a canon of agreed upon essential knowledge or skills that are scaffolded across the educational experience. The knowledge centered approach is deeply rooted in traditional educational philosophies. The focus is on skills and facts from academic subjects.

Read also: Understanding TAMU Core Curriculum

Proponents of the knowledge-centered curriculum believe that a foundation in math, science, literature, and history is the best preparation for life because the broad skill set will allow the educated person to adapt to multiple environments.

The "Hidden Curriculum": Unspoken Lessons

An alternative way to look at curriculum is from the students’ lived experiences. This more holistic view of curriculum would include the lessons taught to students both formally and informally. From the student viewpoint, there is more that is learned in school than the planned subject areas. The implicit or hidden curriculum refers to the lessons and values that are not explicitly taught, but are implied and inferred by the students from classroom and school culture.

The hidden curriculum can have positive and negative effects on students’ learning and development. Social skills, norms, and community values may be positive aspects learned at school. However, the hidden curriculum can also affect students’ academic performance and reinforce inequalities. The hidden curriculum can be the place where biases or prejudice are inadvertently passed on.

Curriculum Around the World

Curriculum development and implementation vary significantly across the globe:

Australia: In Australia, the Australian Curriculum took effect nationwide in 2014, after a curriculum development process that began in 2010. Previously, each state's Education Department had traditionally established curricula.
Canada: In Canada each province and territory has the authority to create its own curriculum. However, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut both choose to use the Alberta Curriculum for select parts of their curriculum.
Japan: The curriculum in Japan is determined based on the guidelines for education and the guidelines for learning presented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
Netherlands: The Dutch system is based on directives coming from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). Primary and secondary education use key objectives to create curricula.
Nigeria: In 2005, the Nigerian government adopted a national Basic Education Curriculum for grades 1 through 9.
England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: The National Curriculum was introduced as a nationwide curriculum for primary and secondary state schools following the Education Reform Act 1988.
Scotland: In Scotland, the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was introduced in August 2010 in all schools.
United States: The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) promulgates a core set of standards which are specific information and skills a student needs to know at each grade level in order to graduate. States may adopt these standards in part or whole and expand upon them.

Curriculum as a Dynamic Field

Curriculum is almost always defined with relation to schooling. According to some, it is the major division between formal and informal education. However, under some circumstances it may also be applied to informal education or free-choice learning settings. For instance, a science museum may have a "curriculum" of what topics or exhibits it wishes to cover.

The field of education and curriculum has expanded outside the walls of the classroom and into other settings, such as museums. Within these settings curriculum is an even broader topic, including various teachers, inanimate objects such as audio-tour devices, and even the learners themselves.

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