The following bullets are two definitions I found in my search of curriculum. One is rather simple and the other adds a little more clarity to the first definition.
- course of study: an integrated course of academic studies;
- means the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives.
I struggle with a definition myself for curriculum. I definitely think it is the sequence of content covered to help students meet the learning results. But it is hard to go beyond that, should a curriculum include resources to use and instructional strategies. It is hard to implement a learning result without much to go with it. This year I was handed a course guide for a class I did not design and all it had was the learning results I was to cover over the course of the year. I have found it extremely challenging. It is hard to understand what needs to be covered and what content students should have from learning result. I have started to develop a sequence of content that I hope meets the stated learning results that I need to cover. But it would have been nice to have an actual curriculum. It is important to have that planned sequence of events and know that this sequence will take you where you and your students need to go.
But I wonder if a "full curriculum" would have been that much of a help to you. You are developing the curriculum as you go along...to meet the needs of your students as you see it.
ReplyDeleteGood questions about curriculum...how in-depth should it be with resources and all. How useful is a written curriculum done by one person and handed to another?