Ch. 1 - The nature of curriculum

The types of curricula

1) Recommended 2) Written 3) Supported 4) Taught 5) Tested & 6) Learned

Unit of study

A segment of the curriculum that includes several lessons designed around a central theme or topic.

basic learnings

Basic learnings are those that, in the eyes of educators, are essential for all students

Mastery learnings

Both structured and basic. A teacher and student discuss specific next steps to gain a better foothold on the path to master

social and cultural variables

Cultural differences, gender bias, and individual socioeconomic circumstances often relate to student learning and academic performance

Organinational variables

Designate all those decisions about how teachers will be assigned and students grouped for instruction

curricular policies

Designates the set of rules, criteria, and guidelines intended to manage curriculum development and implementation

The Recommended Curriculum

Endorsed by individual scholars, professional associations, and reform commissions

Non-structured learning

Includes all those skills, knowledge, and attitudes that can be mastered without such careful sequencing, planning, testing, and delineation

structured learning

Involves sequencing, planning, measurable outcomes, and clearly delineated content

Enrichment learnings

Knowledge and skills that are interesting and enriching but are not considered essential; they are simply nice to know

Variables of the hidden curriculum

Organizational variables, social-system variables, and social/cultural variables

The written curriculum

The curriculum embodied in approved state and district curriculum guides (more specific and comprehensive than recommended)

Taught curriculum

The curriculum that is delivered by teachers once they make decisions about how to teach the explicit curriculum.

Organic learnings

Those that are basic, but do not require structuring. Learnings that develop day by day, rather naturally, as the result of numerous interactions and exchanges. Just as important as mastery outcomes, but do not require sequencing, pacing, and articulating

Descriptive Curriculum

What is REALLY happening in the classroom? (experiences). provides glimpses of the curriculum in action.

Learned Curriculum

What students actually learn in relationship to the goals of the explicit curriculum—which is not always the same as those goals.

which four components of Curriculum are intentional?

Written, supported, taught, and tested

lesson

a set of related learning experiences typically lasting 30-90 minutes

courses of study

a subset of both a program of study and a field of study. It is a set or organized learning experiences, within a field of study, offered over a specified period of time (year, semester, or quarter) (Macroeconomics, Educational psychology, etc.)

fields of study

organized and clearly demarcated set of learning experiences typically offered over a multiyear period (ELA, SS, mathematics, science, etc.)

Prescriptive Curricula

provide us with what ought to happen. Often takes the form of a plan, an intended program, or some kind of expert opinion

curriculum

set of plans made for guiding learning in schools and the actualization (execution) of those plans in the classroom

the supported curriculum

the curriculum as reflected in and shaped by the resources allocated to support and deliver it

hidden curriculum

the informal and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school

social system variables

the various parts of a community's social system that interact and influence the health of a community

program of study

total set of learning experiences offered by a school for a particular group of learners, usually over a multiyear period and typically encompassing several fields of study (education program, exercise in sports science program, etc.)

tested curriculum

what is examined in standardized and graded testing materials