TYPES OF CURRICULUM

 

TYPES OF CURRICULUM

1. RECOMMENDED CURRICULUM:

The Recommended Curriculum provides a basic framework for the curriculum. It identifies the key learning areas. It specifies the boundaries as well as the destination. So, it guides the curriculum coordinator in formulating the academic standards to be achieved through various teaching-learning programmes. National educational policy is a form of Recommended Curriculum.

2. WRITING CURRICULUM

The Written Curriculum is the curriculum that is sanctioned and approved for classroom delivery. It represents society’s needs and interests. It translates the broad goals of the “Recommended Curriculum” into specific learning outcomes. Glatthron, Boschee, and Whitehead (2006, p. 9) note that the “Written Curriculum” is specific as well as comprehensive and it indicates: Rationale of curriculum, General goals to be realized, Specific objectives to be achieved, The sequence of objectives, Kinds of learning activities.

 

3. TAUGHT CURRRICULUM

Also known as Operational Curriculum

.The curriculum that is delivered by the teachers to the students is termed as Taught Curriculum. Teachers, being the chief implementers of curriculum, occupy a crucial role in curriculum decision making. Taking the students into consideration, they decide how to achieve the intended learning outcomes. They decide the distribution of time to a particular activity/content. Even external pressures like external exams cannot limit their freedom to exercise their own philosophy of instruction.

 

 

4. SUPPORTED CURRICULUM

 The Supported Curriculum is the curriculum supported by available resources. Such resources include both human (teachers) as well as physical. The Supported Curriculum not only plays a vital role in developing, implementing, and evaluating the curriculum, it also affects the quantity and nature of the learnt content. (Glatthron, 2006)

 

5. ASSESSED CURRICULUM

It includes both formative and summative evaluation of learners conducted by teachers, schools, or external organizations. It involves all the tests in all formats. The assessed curriculum is significant as it enables the stakeholders to evaluate the impact of Written and Taught curricula upon the learners. (Berliner, 2003)

6. LEARNED CURRICULUM

It is the curriculum that a learner absorbs or makes sense of as a result of interaction with the teacher, class-fellows or the institution. It includes the knowledge, attitudes and skills acquired by the student. Many educationists have defined curriculum as everything the learner experiences. This emphasizes the dominance of the learner in the curriculum and excludes all that which has no effect on the learner. Thus, only the learned curriculum becomes the curriculum. (Bobbit, 2001)

 

7. HIDDEN CURRICULUM

Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school.  The hidden curriculum is described as “hidden” because it is usually unacknowledged or unexamined by students, educators, and the wider community.