Curriculum

Southmont

I mentioned contents-based, methods-based and outcomes-based curriculum in a response to a comment last week. So what does all of that mean? How does curriculum tie in with the teachers’ role? What's curriculum? In search of a better understanding of the word 'curriculum', I found numerous definitions and theories. However, all of them referred to curriculum as courses offered at a school or university. To have a deeper grasp of what curriculum is, I’m going to be boring and look briefly at the history of the usage of this ambiguous word.

Curriculum, which was taken directly from Latin, can mean either 'a course', 'a running' or 'race-course'. A Roman philosopher Marcus Cicero's earlier usage of the word 'curriculum' was to refer to the period of study and later in his life used it to refer to the contents of the course. Based on that, at this stage, I’ve established that curriculum is specific course works studied for the period of the course. My next question was, "How is a curriculum structured?"

The traditional content-based curriculum can be traced back as far as the medieval time. Curricula planners were focused on the contents of the curriculum more than anything else, concentrating on what got taught and the structure of the contents. In the nineteenth century, the contents of the course became less relevant and the methods of teaching became the emphasis, sparking up debate on what was best- contents-based or methods-based curriculum?

As you can imagine, teachers back then were more concerned about HOW they were teaching and WHAT they were teaching the students, without realising (let’s give them the benefit of the doubt) that they have committed one of the greatest oversight in education. They didn't put the students' learning experience first! This is when outcomes-based curriculum comes into the picture. Outcome-based curriculum was implemented as a measure of curriculum reform, the primary focus no longer being "what to teach" and "how to teach". Outcomes-based are seen as the future of education, with its emphasis on the end product- what is learnt and to be achieved.

We know that the role of the teacher includes educating, encouraging involvement and interaction in class, supervising the students’ well-being, assessing students' learning capacity and building rapport with the students' parents, but how does the outcomes-focused education affect the role of the educator? The educator's role has evolved into being 'student-centred'. Teachers are expected to identify each of the student's distinctive potential, and develop learning and teaching techniques that ensure quality and effective learning. They're expected to use the framework to develop their teaching skills. Generally with those skills, teachers are to coach students through the learning process. Teachers are to inject ambition, self-confidence, and self-motivation into the morale of the students, to encourage them to do their best. In my opinion, though outcomes-based curriculum has created flexibility in the teaching techniques available to the educator, it's also increased the educator's responsibility, as we've seen above. Is the educator to be accountable to the outcomes achieved? Personally, I disagree. Although the common view is that the responsibility for learning should be shared between the educator and the learner, in actual fact students have to take charge of their own learning.  

DFID Global School Partnership

Outcomes-based education urges students to be proactive learners. The outcomes achieved by a school reflect how well the students are learning. So what's the role of the learner? Students are expected to get involved in discussions, to share their opinions and views, to listen to others' opinions and views, and to reflect upon them. It's sad to see that students generally in the younger age group regarded education as a chore- something Mum and Dad wanted them to do. Students have to realise that how they deal with the challenges, hurdles and prospects thrown at them in their adulthood will depend on how they allow themselves be educated.

You can now understand why there are so many definitions to the word 'curriculum'- just like the term education, the definition can vary slightly from individual to individual, generally influenced by their educational background and beliefs. My definition of curriculum is the learning experiences taught to students, whether through planned course works and activities or as a result of social experiences, with the aim of preparing them to be successful members of society. Personally, I've acquired specific skills through my schooling, skills that have enriched the quality of my relationships, my career and my life. I believe that quality education wouldn't be obtainable without curriculum, and curriculum would just mean "a course" without the educator.