Editing Curriculum (section)

==Definitions and interpretations==
=== Professional interpretations ===
There is no generally agreed upon definition of curriculum.{{sfn|Wiles|2008|p=2}}  There various definitions that describe the term.

Through the readings of Smith,<ref name="smithmk">{{cite web|url=http://infed.org/mobi/curriculum-theory-and-practice|title=What is curriculum? Exploring theory and practice|last=Smith|first=Mark|date=2000|website=infed}}</ref> Dewey,<ref name="deweychild">{{Cite book|first=John|last=Dewey|author-link=John Dewey|title=The child and the curriculum|year=1902|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29259}}</ref> and Kelly,{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} four types of curricula could be defined as:

* Explicit curriculum: subjects that will be taught, the identified "mission" of the school, and the knowledge and skills that the school expects successful students to acquire.
* Implicit curriculum: lessons that arise from the culture of the school and the behaviors, attitudes, and expectations that characterize that culture, the unintended curriculum.
* Hidden curriculum: things which students learn, 'because of the way in which the work of the school is planned and organized but which are not in themselves overtly included in the planning or even in the consciousness of those responsible for the school arrangements (Kelly, 2009).  The term itself is attributed to [[Philip W. Jackson]] and is not always meant to be a negative.  Hidden curriculum, if its potential is realized, could benefit students and learners in all educational systems.  Also, it does not just include the physical environment of the school, but the relationships formed or not formed between students and other students or even students and teachers (Jackson, 1986<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Philip|title=Life in Classrooms|date=1986|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston|location=New York|isbn=0-8077-3034-3|pages=33–35}}</ref>).
* Excluded curriculum: topics or perspectives that are specifically excluded from the curriculum.

It may also come in the form of extracurricular activities. This may include school-sponsored programs, which are intended to supplement the academic aspect of the school experience or community-based programs and activities. Examples of school-sponsored extracurricular programs include [[sport]]s, academic clubs, and [[performing arts]]. Community-based programs and activities may take place at a school after hours but are not linked directly to the school. Community-based programs frequently expand on the curriculum that was introduced in the classroom. For instance, students may be introduced to environmental conservation in the classroom. This knowledge is further developed through a community-based program.  Participants then act on what they know with a conservation project. Community-based extracurricular activities may include "environmental clubs, 4-H, boy/girl scouts, and religious groups" (Hancock, Dyk, & Jones, 2012).<ref>Hancock, D., Dyk, P. H., & Jones, K. (2012). Adolescent Involvement in Extracurricular Activities. Journal of Leadership Education, 11(1), 84–101.</ref>

Kerr defines curriculum as "all the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside of school."<ref name="Kelly, A. V. 2009 pp. 1–55" />

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. Furthermore, the curriculum defines "why, what, when, where, how, and with whom to learn."<ref name="Braslavsky, C. 2003" />

Smith (1996, 2000) says that, "[a] syllabus will not generally indicate the relative importance of its topics or the order in which they are to be studied. Where people still equate curriculum with a syllabus they are likely to limit their planning to a consideration of the content or the body of knowledge that they wish to transmit."

According to Smith, a curriculum can be ordered into a procedure:<ref name="smithmk"/>
:Step 1: Diagnosis of needs.
:Step 2: Formulation of objectives.
:Step 3: Selection of content.
:Step 4: Organization of content.
:Step 5: Selection of learning experiences.
:Step 6: Organization of learning experiences.
:Step 7: Determination of what to evaluate and of the ways and means of doing it.

=== Types of curricula ===
Under some definitions, curriculum is prescriptive, and is based on a more general [[syllabus]] which merely specifies what topics must be understood and to what level to achieve a particular grade or standard.

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 [[skill]]s. An individual teacher might also refer to his or her curriculum, meaning all the subjects that will be taught during a school year. The courses are arranged in a sequence to make learning a subject easier. In schools, a curriculum spans several grades.

On the other hand, a high school might refer to their curricula as the courses required in order to receive one's [[High school diploma|diploma]]. They might also refer to it in exactly the same way as an elementary school and use it to mean both individual courses needed to pass as well as the overall offering of courses, which help prepare a student for life after high school.

A curriculum can be seen from different perspectives. What [[Society|societies]] envisage as important teaching and learning constitutes the "intended" curriculum.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} Since it is usually presented in official documents, it may be also called the "written" or "official" curriculum.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} However, at a classroom level this intended curriculum may be altered through a range of complex classroom interactions, and what is actually delivered can be considered the "implemented" curriculum.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} What learners really learn (i.e. what can be assessed and can be demonstrated as learning outcomes or [[Competence (human resources)|competencies]]) constitutes the "achieved" or "learned" curriculum.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} In addition, curriculum theory points to a "hidden" curriculum (i.e. the unintended development of personal values and beliefs of learners, teachers, and communities; the unexpected impact of a curriculum; or the unforeseen aspects of a learning process).{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} Those who develop the intended curriculum should have all these different dimensions of the curriculum in view.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} While the "written" curriculum does not exhaust the meaning of curriculum, it is important because it represents the vision of the society.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} The "written" curriculum is usually expressed in comprehensive and user-friendly documents, such as curriculum frameworks or subject curricula/syllabi, and in relevant and helpful learning materials, such as [[textbook]]s, teacher guides, and assessment guides.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}}

In some cases, people see the curriculum entirely in terms of the subjects that are taught, and as set out within the set of textbooks, and forget the wider goals of competencies and personal development.<ref name="deweychild"/> This is why a curriculum framework is important. It sets the subjects within this wider context, and shows how learning experiences within the subjects need to contribute to the attainment of the wider goals.<ref name="deweychild"/>

Curriculum is almost always defined with relation to schooling.<ref name="smithmk" /> According to some, it is the major division between [[Formal learning|formal]] and [[informal education]].<ref name="smithmk" /> 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. Many after-school programs in the US have tried to apply the concept; this typically has more success when not rigidly clinging to the definition of curriculum as a product or as a body of knowledge to be transferred. Rather, informal education and free-choice learning settings are more suited to the model of curriculum as practice or [[Praxis (process)|praxis]]. (Smith,2020)

===Historical conception===
{{rquote|right|Action is response; it is adaptation, adjustment. <br/>&mdash; John Dewey<ref name="deweychild"/>}}
Whatever the origins and intentions of early curricula, the function of inculcating culture had emerged by the time of ancient Babylonia.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Crisostomo
 |first1               = Jay
 |date                 = 14 January 2019
 |chapter              = Multilingual Writing Practices and Translation in Advanced Lexical Education
 |title                = Translation as Scholarship: Language, Writing, and Bilingual Education in Ancient Babylonia
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=KWKEDwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) - volume 22
 |location             = Boston
 |publisher            = Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
 |isbn                 = 9781501509759
 |access-date          = 27 March 2023
 |quote                = Scribal identity was explicitly connected to the curriculum and specifically Sumerian in a number of literary works [...]. [...] The [...] scribal curriculum [...]  was all about learning Sumerian. Through copying lists of Sumerian lexemes and especially in the reproduction of Sumerian literature, the curriculum inculcated the student scribe in Sumerian culture.
}} 
</ref> [[Education in ancient Rome | Ancient Roman curricula]] came to emphasise Greek as well as Latin skills, with emphasis on the study of classical poetry. This model influenced the curricula of medieval and Renaissance<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Atwill
 |first1               = Janet M.
 |orig-date            = 1998
 |title                = Rhetoric Reclaimed: Aristotle and the Liberal Arts Tradition
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=dYs2_7qIpwQC
 |series               = Cornell paperbacks
 |year = 2009
 |location             = Ithaca, New York
 |publisher            = Cornell University Press
 |page                 = 16
 |isbn                 = 9780801476051
 |access-date          = 27 March 2023
 |quote                = [...] Renaissance curricula were far more influenced by Quintilian's pedagogical program than by Cicero's goals for the training of an orator.
}} 
</ref>
education.

In the early years of the 20th century, the traditional concept held of the curriculum was "that it is a body of subjects or subject matter prepared by the teachers for the students to learn". It was synonymous to the "course of study" and "syllabus".

In ''The Curriculum'',<ref>Bobbitt, John Franklin. ''The Curriculum''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918.</ref> the first textbook published on the subject, in 1918, [[John Franklin Bobbitt]] said that curriculum, as an [[idea]], has its [[Root (linguistics) |roots]] in the [[Latin]] word for ''race-course'', explaining the curriculum as the course of deeds and experiences through which [[child]]ren become the [[adult]]s they should be to succeed later in life. Furthermore, the curriculum encompasses the entire scope of formative deed and experience occurring in and out of school - such as experiences that are unplanned and undirected or those that are intentionally directed for the purposeful formation of adult members of society - not only experiences occurring in [[school]]. (cf. image{{which?|date=March 2023}} at right.)

To Bobbitt, the curriculum is a [[Social engineering (political science)| social-engineering]] arena. Per his cultural presumptions and social definitions, his curricular formulation has two notable features:

* that [[scientific]] experts would best be qualified to and justified in designing curricula based upon their expert [[knowledge]] of what qualities are desirable in adult members of society, and which experiences would generate said qualities
* curriculum defined as the deeds-experiences the student ''ought to have'' to become the adult he or she ''ought to become''

Hence, he defined the curriculum as an ideal, rather than as the concrete [[reality]] of the deeds and experiences that form who and what people become.

Contemporary views of curriculum reject these features of Bobbitt's postulates, but retain the basis of curriculum as the course of experience(s) that form humans into persons. Personal formation via curricula is studied both at the personal and group levels, i.e. [[cultures]] and societies (e.g. professional formation, [[academic discipline]] via historical experience). The formation of a group is reciprocal, with the formation of its individual participants.

Although it formally appeared in Bobbitt's [[definition]], curriculum as a course of formative experience also pervades the work of [[John Dewey]] (1859–1952), who disagreed with Bobbitt on important matters. Although Bobbitt's and Dewey's idealistic understanding of "curriculum" is different from current, restricted uses of the word, writers of curricula and researchers generally share it as common, substantive understanding of curriculum.<ref>Jackson, Philip W. "Conceptions of Curriculum and Curriculum Specialists." In ''Handbook of Research on Curriculum: A Project of the American Educational Research Association'', edited by Philip W. Jackson, 3–40. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 1992.</ref><ref>Pinar, William F., William M. Reynolds, Patrick Slattery, and Peter M. Taubman. ''Understanding Curriculum: An Introduction to the Study of Historical and Contemporary Curriculum Discourses''. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.</ref> Development does not mean just getting something out of the mind.<ref name="deweychild"/> It is a development of experience and into experience that is really wanted.<ref name="deweychild"/>

[[Robert M. Hutchins]] (1899–1977), president of the [[University of Chicago]], regarded curriculum as "permanent studies" where the rules of grammar, rhetoric, logic, and mathematics for basic education are emphasized. Basic education should emphasize [[the three Rs]] and college education should be grounded on liberal education. On the other hand, [[Arthur Bestor]] (1908–1994), an [[essentialism | essentialist]], believes that the mission of the school should be intellectual training. Hence, curriculum should focus on the fundamental intellectual disciplines of grammar, literature, and writing. It should also include mathematics, science, history, and foreign language.

According to Joseph Schwab, [[Academic discipline | discipline]] is the sole source of curriculum.{{cn|date=March 2023}} In our{{whose?|date=March 2023}} education system, curriculum is divided into chunks of knowledge called subject areas in basic education including English, mathematics, science, and social studies. In [[college]], discipline may include humanities, sciences, languages, and many more. Curricula should consist entirely of knowledge which comes from various disciplines.{{cn|date=March 2023}} Dewey proposed that learning the lesson should be more interesting and beneficial than receiving a scolding, being ridiculed, or being required to stay after school, among other punishments.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Dewey
 |first1               = John
 |author-link1         = John Dewey
 |year                 = 1902
 |title                = The child and the curriculum
 |url                  = https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29259/pg29259-images.html
 |location             = Chicago
 |publisher            = University of Chicago Press
 |page                 = 29
 |access-date          = 27 March 2023
 |quote                = To learn the lesson is more interesting than to take a scolding, be held up to general ridicule, stay after school, receive degradingly low marks, or fail to be promoted. 
}} 
</ref>

Thus, a curriculum can be viewed as a field of study. It is made up of its foundations (philosophical, historical, psychological, and social foundations), domains of knowledge, as well as its research theories and principles. Curricula as an area of study should be scholarly and theoretical. The field is concerned with broad, historical, philosophical social issues and academics. Mark Smith suggests a starting definition of "curriculum" offered by John Kerr and taken up by Vic Kelly in his standard work on the curriculum: "All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school".<ref name="smithmk"/>

There are four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice:<ref name="smithmk"/>
# curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted
# curriculum as an attempt to help students achieve a goal
# curriculum as a process
# curriculum as [[Praxis (process) | praxis]]
In recent years{{when?|date=March 2023}} 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. As with the traditional idea of curriculum, curriculum in a free-choice learning-environment can consist of the explicit stated curriculum and the hidden curriculum; both of which contribute to the learner's experience and lessons from the experience.<ref>"Museum Education as Curriculum: Four Models, Leading to a Fifth", Elizabeth Vallance, ''Studies in Art Education'' Vol. 45, No. 4 (Summer, 2004), pp. 343–358</ref> These elements are further compounded by the setting, cultural influences, and the state of mind of the learner.<ref>Falk, J.H. & Dierking, L.D. (2000). Learning from museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Walnut Creek, CA; AltaMira Press.</ref> Museums and other similar settings are most commonly leveraged within traditional classroom settings as enhancements to the curriculum when educators develop curricula that encompass visits to museums, zoos, and aquariums.<ref>
Kim, M., & Dopico, E. (2014). Science education through informal education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1–7.</ref>

===Progressivist views===

On the other hand, to a progressivist, a listing of school subjects, syllabi, courses of study, and lists of courses of specific discipline do not make a curriculum. These can only be called curriculum if the written materials are actualized by the learner. Broadly speaking, curriculum is defined as the total learning experiences of the individual. This definition is anchored on [[John Dewey]]'s definition of experience and education. He believed that reflective thinking is a means that unifies curricular elements. Thought is not derived from action but tested by application.

Caswell and Campbell viewed curricula as "all experiences children have under the guidance of teachers." This definition is shared by Smith, Stanley, and Shores when they defined curriculum as "a sequence of potential experiences set up in schools for the purpose of disciplining children and youth in group ways of thinking and acting."

Curriculum as a process is when a teacher enters a particular schooling and situation with the ability to think critically, an understanding of their role and the expectations others have of them, and a proposal for action which sets out essential principles and features of the educational encounter.<ref name="smithmk"/> Guided by these, they encourage conversations between, and with, people in the situation out of which may come a course of thinking and action.<ref name="smithmk"/> Plus, the teacher continually evaluates the process and what they can see of outcomes.<ref name="smithmk"/>

Marsh and Willis view curricula as all the "experiences in the classroom which are planned and enacted by teacher, and also learned by the students."<ref>Bilbao, Purita P., Lucido, Paz I., Iringan, Tomasa C., and Javier, Rodrigo B. (2008). Curriculum Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.</ref>

Any definition of curriculum, if it is to be practically effective and productive, must offer much more than a statement about knowledge-content or merely the subjects which schooling is to teach, transmit, or deliver.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} Some would argue of the course that the values implicit in the arrangements made by schools for their pupils are quite clearly in the consciousness of teachers and planners, again especially when the planners are politicians, and are equally clearly accepted by them as part of what pupils should learn in school, even if they are not overtly recognized by the pupils themselves.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}} In other words, those who design curricula deliberately plan the schools' "expressive culture". If this is the case, then, the curriculum is 'hidden' only to or from the pupils, and the values to be learned clearly from a part of what is planned for pupils. They must, therefore, be accepted as fully a part of the curriculum, and especially as an important focus because questions must be asked concerning the legitimacy of such practices.{{sfn|Kelly|2009}}

Currently, a [[spiral curriculum]] is promoted as allowing students to revisit a subject matter's content at the different levels of development of the subject matter being studied. The [[constructivist teaching methods|constructivist]] approach proposes that children learn best via pro-active engagement with the educational environment, as in learning through discovery.