Curriculum
) 4101) ‫نفس‬
Definition
and Models
of
Curriculum
Definition and Models of Curriculum
Curriculum has been defined differently by
various educationists and curriculum
specialists. Some of these definitions are
given below:
1) Curriculum is the means by which pupils’
behavior is changed.
2) Curriculum is a means of preparing
individuals to become productive citizens
and useful members of the society.
3) Curriculum is defined as the total effort of
the school to bring about the desired
outcomes in the school and out-of the school
situations.
4) Curriculum is an organized plan of courseoutlines alongwith the objectives and
learning experiences to be used for the
achievement of desired goals.
5) Curriculum is the sumtotal of all the learning
activities which may take place inside the
school or outside the school to bring about
the desired changes in learners.
The first two definitions are too vague and broad
and appear to be non-functional. However, the
third, fourth and fifth definitions look relevant
and feasible. Out of these three, the fifth one is
the most important for the reason that it
stresses the role of home, mosque, community
and society in the upbringing of the child and
does not throw the entire responsibility on the
school alone. According to this definition
learning activities taking place both inside and
outside the school will form part of the
curriculum.
Any teaching curriculum is designed in
answer to three interrelated questions:
What is to be learned?
How is the learning to be undertaken and
achieved?
To what extent is the former appropriate
and the latter effective?
A communicative Curriculum will place
language teaching within the framework of
this relationship between some specified
purposes, the methodology which will be
the means towards the achievement of
those purposes, and the evaluation
procedures which will assess the
appropriateness of the initial purposes and
the effectiveness of the methodology.
Curriculum is defined broadly to include
four basic components:
1) Goals: The benchmarks or expectations
for teaching and learning, often made
explicit in the form of a scope and
sequence of skills to be addressed;
2) Methods: The specific instructional
methods for the teacher, often described
in a teacher’s edition;
3) Materials: The media and tools that are
used for teaching and learning;
4) Assessment: The reasons for and methods
of measuring student progress.
The school curriculum comprises all
learning and other experiences that each
school plans for its pupils.
Inside the school
Classroom is the main learning spot. Learners
spend most of their time in the classroom and
it is here that the formal learning and teaching
activities take place. Classrooms are generally
equipped with all the facilities necessary for
effective learning.
But there are many other areas in schools
which provide wonderful facilities for learning
e.g. the laboratories particularly the language
and computer laboratories for learning a
foreign language,
the library for extra reading and research,
activity centers, and the language club.
Besides these, the mosque, playground,
cafeteria also provide reasonable facilities for
the students to learn lots of new words and
structures.
Outside the school
Home provides the richest potential for
learning. Here students can do their
homework and self-study.
In many homes students have access to
computer, television , videos and mass media
facilities
which
provide
excellent
opportunities for learning a foreign language.
Besides home, children can learn at the
Mosque schools and Friday sermons, and can
visit the public libraries available nearby.
Moreover, the schools, as well as parents, can
arrange field trips for their children to
provide them with such experiences that
possibly cannot be had in homes or schools.
Syllabus as Compared with Curriculum
Syllabus has been defined as course-outline
determined for a particular subject and for a
specific level. It mainly includes the textbooks
comprising contents of study. It may also
include the supplementary reading material
and relevant audio-visual aids. A syllabus
generally provides a list of contents to be
learned by students but does not suggest
methods, activities and measures for
evaluation.
Curriculum on the other hand specifies the
knowledge, skills, experiences and insights
the students tasks are expected to acquire
through a series of in-class or out-of school
tasks and strategies designed to foster
learning.
Curriculum as a Package Deal
Curriculum is comprehensive and vast in the
sense that it has at least four components as
given below:-
1-Why
: Objectives of teaching a
particular subject.
2-What : Contents, skills, topics, themes.
3-Whom : the learner, his needs and
psychology.
4-How
: Strategies, methods and
techniques of teaching the
contents. Learning activities,
audio-visual aids etc.
Curriculum doesn’t concentrate on just
knowledge, facts, information and skills as
the syllabus does, but also lays emphasis on
the learner who is considered more
important than knowledge. The needs of
learners and those of the society are given
due weightage and priority over the subject
matter.
Models of Curriculum
In the early history of curriculum
development the curriculum designers
generally used a 3-step model for
developing any curriculum . Objectives,
contents and strategies were the
components of this model.
Illustration of Model No. 1
It can be illustrated in the form of a triangle.
objectives
1
2
contents
3
strategies
Ralph Tyler (1949), however, developed a new
rational for development of curriculum. He
stressed
the
identification
of
four
fundamental questions which, he developing
any curriculum . This is known as a 4-step
curriculum model and is given below:1. What educational purposes should the
school seek to attain?
2. What educational experiences can be
provided that are likely to attain these
purposes? (Selecting experiences)
3. How can these educational
experiences be effectively organized?
(Organizing the experiences)
4. How can we determine whether these
purposes are being attained?
(Evaluating the program)
Illustration of Model No. II
(Rectangular)
It can be illustrated as a rectangle which is as
follows:Stating Objectives
1
Selecting 2
3 Organizing
Experiences
Experiences
4
Evaluating Objectives
This model lays emphasis on not only having
objectives but also stating them properly and
preferably in behavioral terms. Instead of
having contents prepared by the subjectteachers, it is preferred that the teachers
should select useful experiences to be given
to the learners and those experiences should
then be organized in proper order of
gradation. The fourth and the last step deal
with the evaluation process to find out if the
avowed curricular objectives have been
achieved and the learners have learnt which
they were supposed to learn. In English
language curriculum, the objectives will of
course include the four skills. The experiences
will consist of language functions, situations,
grammatical patterns and vocabulary.
Organization will be made on the basis of
principles of gradation. Evaluation
will
comprise various techniques of testing and
measurement involving both oral and written
language tests having objectives and
subjective items.
Hilda Taba (1962), a famous curriculum
specialist, went a step further and proposed
the following seven-step model for
developing curriculum :
1. Diagnosis of learners’ needs.
2. Formulation of Objectives.
3. Selection of Contents.
4. Organization of Contents.
5. Selection of Learning Experiences.
6. Organization of Learning Experiences.
7. Determination of what to evaluate and of
the ways and means of doing it.
Illustration of Model No. 3
heptagonal
4
5
3
6
2
7
1
Diagnosis of learners
needs
The above models have raised the following
four questions:
1. What type of program are we concerned
with? Is it intensive for a short period or
regular for long period. How old are the
students and what is their language
level?
2. Will the students need language for
immediate use in the school and or outschool?
3. Are there enough resources in the school
and the community to help the
implementation of the curriculum?
4. How much training and experience do the
teachers have?
 Based on these questions they have proposed
that a good EFL curriculum should provide the
following six components:
1. An analysis of the general aims of the
program i.e. the objectives or the terminal
behavior to be achieved by the students at
the end of the course.(Objectives)
2. A progression of units indicating what
aspects of the language are to be
concentrated on at a given stage.
(Contents)
3. A
list of functional, notional, or
grammatical items as well as points of
pronunciation.
4. A description of the situations, tasks and
activities through which language items
and skills be introduced and practised.
5. Suggestions for evaluation of pupils’
growth.
6. Sources for teachers’ references and
pupils’ textbooks.
This EFL model can be illustrated in the
form of an octagon as given below:
Illustration of Model 4
Octagonal
objectives
1
8
3
7
6
4
5
Grammatical Items
Writing
curriculum
Language
Functions
2
As it is evident from the above illustration,
the first component is about the objectives
which is common in all the models. The
second deals with content. The third and
fourth components consist of language
functions
and
language
situations
respectively. The fifth and sixth points deal
with grammatical items and language topics.
The seventh and eighth steps highlight the
need for writing the curriculum and then
evaluating it.
The proposed EFL model having eight
components appears to be most
appropriate and useful for developing the
EFL curriculum and will therefore discussed
in detail in the next chapters.
Best of luck
Dr. Nissrein Abdel
Bassett El-Enany