How do we now define curriculum?
The curriculum is the basis from which you start to work and plan and what you have to teach the students.
Curriculum is the planned educational experience (Kern, 2009).Curriculum is the sum of the whole learning experience that the students had and that helped them develop the general skills and knowledge that they need to go into the world.
Curriculum is planning about what you will have to learn the students that includes content, philosophy, approach and assessment. Curriculum can be in the form of a document but it also includes non-formal elements that you have to include in the learning process.Curriculum includes activities that will be done, experiences and opportunities that will be followed and that the teacher will take responsibility for. Curriculum should also be seen as the relationship between learners and the teacher. This comes down to the ‘hidden curriculum’ which is what you will teach the students that is not in the formal curriculum. This includes self-control, respect, how you treat others, morals and values.
According to Coles (2003), there are thee phases of curriculum: the curriculum on paper; the curriculum in action; and the curriculum that participants actually learn.
Wojtczak (2002) defines curriculum as:
An educational plan that spells out which goals and objectives should be achieved, which topics should be covered and which methods are to be used for learning, teaching and evaluation.
We as educators have to take the curriculum and make sure that we provide the students with the best possible learning experience.
Kern, D.E. et al. 2009. Curriculum Development for Medical Education. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
http://coefaculty.valdosta.edu/stgrubbs/Definitions%20of%20Curriculum.htm
I wonder what the original meaning of the word curriculum was, and how that would compare to our present meanings for it? Is it Latin?
ReplyDeleteSarah van der Merwe (04396960)