CURRICULUM

Curriculum has been derived from Latin word currere which means “to run a way” or “course to
run”.Curriculum signifies a course to be run by students for achieving aims and objectives of
education.

According to Crow and Crow

“Curriculum includes all the experiences that the child receives inside and outside of the school,
in a programme which is chalked out to help in developing his intellectual, physical, emotional,
social, spiritual and moral aspects.

According to Cunningham

Curriculum is a tool in the hands of the artist (teacher)to mould his material
(pupils)according to his ideas (aims and objectives ) in his studio (school ).

Characteristics of Curriculum
 What is taught in schools : Everything that is taught in schools through any medium is a
part of the curriculum.
 A set of subjects : Subjects are decided under the curriculum according to the class and
levels of students.
 Content : Content is what is to be taught, that is decided by the curriculum experts.
Content is prepared on the basis of age and level of students.
 A program of studies : A programme is set under the curriculm that what subjects will
be taught and how will be taught. How much textual material will be used and how much
practical and co.curricular activities will be there.
 A set of materials : Material that will be used in curriculum that is set by the experts.
That includes text books, audio visual aids, anything that can be used while teaching.
 A sequence of courses : Sequnece is decided that which topic is taught first and
afterwards. Sequence is very important as simple and basic knowledge is to be provided
first which leads to the understanding of complex problems.
 A set of performance objectives : A set of small or short term objectives are set to
achieve the final or long term objective.
 A course of study : Complete course is decided on the basis of set objectives.
 Extra class activities : Extra class activities or out of the class activities are very
important with inside classroom activities.
 A series of experiences undergone by learners in a school.
 Everything that goes on within every field of school activities.
 Well designed curriculum is built on clear vision of what it is trying to achieve.
Need and Importance of Curriculum
 Clear purpose and goals
 Proper use of Time and Energy
 Determining Structure Of Content
 Preparation of Text Book
 Continuous Assessment and Improvement of quality
 Self feedback on mechanism
 Making strategy in teaching learning
 Decision about Instructional Method
 Development of Knowledge, Skill And Attitude

Principle of Curriculum
 Principle of child centeredness: Curriculum should be according to age, grade, abilities,
capacities, interests, mental development and previous experience.
 Principle of comprehensive of curriculum: Content in a comprehensive curriculum
focuses on all domains of learning: social-emotional, physical, cognitive (intellectual),
and communication.
 Principle of correlation: All subjects should be related to each other
 Principle of practical work: Learning by doing. Curriculum should provide maximum
opportunity to the child for practical work.
 Principle of flexibility: Curriculum should be flexible due to the individual differences
and changes in society. Curriculum is ever changing product.
 Principle of joint venture: Curriculum construction is the joint efforts of educational
psychologist, Curriculum specialists, evaluation specialists and teachers.
 Principle of utility: According to this principle only those subjects, topics should be
included in the curriculum which are found any utility to the students
 Principle of interest: Interest is the mother of both attention and motivation. So
attention should be paid for the inclusion of such topics, contents and learning
experiences in curriculum.
Importance of curriculum under the following points:

1. Utilization of Time and Energy : After the curriculum has been ascertained, a teacher
finds out what he has to teach and the student knows what he has to study. It saves on
time and energy.

2. Equal Level of Education : When the curriculum is specified, the level of education
in the entire society is equal and uniform. It helps us find out the right direction of our
educational reforms; also it helps us to maintain the uniform level of education.
 3. Helpful in Realization of Educational Aims : The curriculum is constructed fori the
realization of educational aims. In the absence of it, we cannot ascertain the aims being
realized with the help of which subjects or activities, and which activities or subjects are
meaningless.

4. Helpful in Educational Process : The teaching material is prepared on the basis of

curriculum. It explains the amount of knowledge and skill in activities to be imparted at a
particular level of education. Thus, a specified curriculum helps to systematize the
educational process.

5. Fulfilment of Psychological Needs of Students: A specified curriculum is helpful in

meeting the psychological needs of students. Because man is a social being, and takes
interest in purposeful activities and wants to do work which may be helpful in the
realization of his preserve needs and meeting future needs. All these things are kept in view
in curriculum construction, and precisely for this reason, students show interest in it.

6. Writing of Text-books : A specified curriculum guides different scholars and writers for
writing text-books. The writers take the curriculum as the basis for writing text-books.

7. Evaluation : The curriculum assists in evaluating students. With the curriculum at hand for a
particular level, it becomes easier to evaluate students' abilities. If there is no curriculum for a
level, it would not be an easy task for teachers to evaluate students' abilities.

TYPES OF CURRICULUM

1. Child-Centered Curriculum

It is also called learner-centered curriculum. The philosophy underlying this curriculum

is that the children is that the center of the educational process. This pattern of curriculum bases
upon the abilities and the interest of the learners and students have experiences and diverse
learning activities rather than rote learning. Learner-centered classrooms focus primarily on
individual students’ learning. The teacher’s role is to facilitate growth by utilizing the interests
and unique needs of students as a guide for meaningful instruction.
This curriculum allows the students to actively participate in discovery learning processes and a
variety of hands-on activities are administered in order to promote successful learning. And it
focuses upon a child as a learner being a center of activities in a learning center.

2. Teacher-Centered Curriculum

In this curriculum, the focus is upon teacher’s teaching skills and the way of
delivery of the content. It emphasizes the importance of transmitting of knowledge, skills and
information from a teacher to students. A teacher is a center of knowledge and instills the respect
of authority and makes children aware of their responsibilities. Teachers focus on making
relationships with students that are anchored in intellectual explorations of selected materials.

They focus more on content than on student processing and this pattern of curriculum places
more of the responsibility on delivering content rather than considering students needs and
desires. The teacher plans each and everything about what to do in the class and students follow
the teacher.

3. Core Curriculum

This type of curriculum is a set of common courses and is a general education

for all students and common learning includes knowledge, skills and values and all learners are
provided these learning experiences and these common learning experiences are expected
essential for the learners to adjust effectively in the society and these learning sets the basic
subjects like English, Math, History, Science etc.

This type of curriculum emphasizes on the total growth the of the pupil such as social,
emotional, moral, intellectual, physical and spiritual and each learning experience aims at the
total growth.

4.Overt, Explicit, or Written Curriculum

Written curriculum is simply that which is written as part of formal instruction of

schooling experiences. It may refer to a curriculum document, texts, films, and supportive
teaching materials that are overtly chosen to support the intentional instructional agenda of a
school. Thus, the overt curriculum is usually confined to those written understandings and
directions formally designated and reviewed by administrators, curriculum directors and
teachers, often collectively.
5. Covert or Hidden Curriculum

The hidden curriculum refers to the types of curriculum which is unplanned or

unintended curriculum but plays a vital role in learning. It consists of norms, values, and
procedures. The hidden curriculum refers to the way in which cultural values and attitudes (such
as obedience to authority, punctuality, and delayed gratification) are transmitted, through the
structure of teaching and the organization of schools

6. Integrated Curriculum

An integrated curriculum implies learning that is synthesized across traditional

subject areas and learning experiences that are designed to be mutually reinforcing. This
approach develops the child’s ability to transfer their learning to other settings. It is a unification
of different subjects having interrelating themes and concepts. Teacher teaches various subjects
by using integration techniques. For example, General Science curriculum integrates concepts
from Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology and Astronomy etc.

7. Subject-Centered Curriculum

These types of curriculum give importance to training pupils in particular subjects.

Its main objectives are all the elements of knowledge that constitute a subject for study. Thus, the
curriculum goes into the depth of the subject that gives specialized knowledge to the learner. The
specialist teacher is appointed to deal with the subject in its analytical detail.

Higher education is characterized by this subject-centered curriculum. It leads to higher study,

research, and experimentation of individuals on the subject. This type of curriculum is more
appropriate for students of academic interest and creativity talents.

8. Broad Field or Holistic Curriculum

Broad field curriculum is a modification of subject centered curriculum. A

broad field curriculum is a structure for achieving educational outcomes that combines related
subjects into one broad field of study.

The purpose of a broad field curriculum is to highlight relationships between subjects and to
integrate the learning experience. The broad field design combines two or more related subjects
into a single broad field of study, for example, Language Arts combines the separate but related
subjects of Reading, Spelling, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Composition.
9. Activity Centered Curriculum

The type of curriculum that gives priority to active learning of a subject may be
known as an activity curriculum. The verbal system of education neither suits the mental need of
the child nor the circumstances of life. It is the philosophy of Pragmatism behind this curriculum
which beliefs in learning to be practical, useful, and work-oriented. Activity involvement in
learning naturally gives better results. Work is a natural and easier means of learning anything. It
is also the native and natural tendency of children.

Further, the experience derived from work is more durable and more meaningful for life. So,
modern educators like Froebel, Montessori, Dewey, and Gagne in their respective learning
methods have designed this activity curriculum for children.

10. Null Curriculum

Eisner (1985) defined null curriculum as information that schools do not teach.
Sometimes the teacher ignores some content or skill, deliberately or unknowingly. A teacher
may consider some idea unimportant and ignore it. Similarly, teacher may avoid detailed
description of some topic for the one or other reason. An example is the exclusion of Darwin’s
theory of evolution from the official biology curriculum.