What the Elements of a Curriculum Are
A house needs a foundation, walls, a roof, doors and windows. Leave out any one of them and the house is not finished. A curriculum is built in the same way. When it is prepared, certain parts are always put into it, and it is those parts together that make the curriculum complete.
Element of curriculum: The different parts that are included when a curriculum is prepared are called the elements of the curriculum.
Scholars have put forward different models of how a curriculum should be built and which elements it should contain. Whichever model is followed, three aspects must be considered while building a curriculum: the theoretical aspect, the practical aspect and the technical aspect. Put simply, a curriculum must be sound according to the principles of education, it must work in a real classroom, and it must be prepared in a planned and systematic way.
Ralph Tyler's Model
Among the many models, the technical scientific model of Ralph Tyler is regarded as the popular one. This model stresses that a curriculum must include these four aspects:
- (a) determining the objectives
- (b) identifying the learning experiences
- (c) organising the learning experiences
- (d) evaluating the objectives
Look closely at the order. First, what students should achieve is decided. Next, the learning experiences that will take them there are identified. Those experiences are then organised into a sensible arrangement. Finally, a check is made on whether the objectives set at the start have been met. The model begins with objectives and ends by checking those same objectives, and that is its main feature.
The Four Elements
Keeping all of this in mind, the elements included in a curriculum can be presented as four:
- Educational objectives
- Content
- Teaching learning activities
- Evaluation
Objectives answer 'what should be achieved?', content answers 'what should be studied?', teaching learning activities answer 'how should it be taught?' and evaluation answers 'how much was learnt?'
1. Objectives
Educational objective: The educational achievement expected after a lesson or unit has been taught, or after a class or level has been completed, is called an educational objective.
An objective is the result or outcome reached at the end of an educational activity. Before setting out on a journey you must know where you are going, or you cannot choose a road. In the same way, until it is decided what is to be achieved, nobody can decide what to teach, how to teach it or what to test. That is why objectives are taken as the first and most important element of a curriculum. Curriculum objectives are of two kinds: general objectives and specific objectives.
General objective: An objective expected to be achieved over a long period of time. It is the educational competence expected of students after they complete a class or a level.
Specific objective: An objective expected to be achieved at the end of a lesson or a piece of learning. It can be completed in a short time.
| Basis | General objective | Specific objective |
| Time taken | A long period | A short period |
| When it is reached | After a class or level | At the end of a lesson |
| Measurement | Difficult to measure | Measurable |
| Practicality | Less practical | Practical |
| Meaning | Can be read in many ways | Clear and specific |
One example makes the difference clear. 'Students will develop the skill of communicating effectively' is a general objective. It will not be reached in a single day, and different people may understand 'communicating effectively' in different ways. 'By the end of this lesson, students will be able to write the main parts of a job application in the correct order' is a specific objective. It is completed in one lesson, and a teacher can easily check whether each student wrote every part in the right order.
As small specific objectives are achieved one after another, the bigger objectives are achieved too. In this way specific objectives help to fulfil the national objectives, the objectives of each level, the objectives of each class and the objectives of each subject.
2. Content
Content: The list of learning materials that teachers and students use in teaching and learning in order to fulfil the objectives of the curriculum.
If objectives show the destination, content tells what must be studied to get there. When a curriculum is built, a list of learning materials is made, and the knowledge, skills and concepts to be taught are stated clearly. A syllabus makes it easier to select the content. Content suited to the curriculum's objectives is chosen, and then its scope and sequence are arranged. Scope means how much is taught; sequence means what comes first and what comes later. The content is chosen according to the change the teaching is meant to bring about in students by the end.
When content is selected, these points must be kept in mind:
- Validity: the content must be correct, reliable and matched to the objectives.
- Importance: what is chosen must really matter for the students' learning and lives.
- Interest: it should be something students want to read and learn.
- Relevance: it should connect with the students' society, surroundings and times.
- Usefulness: what is learnt should be of use in daily life.
Choosing the content is not enough. Equal care must go into organising it, and when it is organised, attention must be paid to vertical and horizontal coordination:
- Vertical coordination: the content of one subject links step by step from a lower class to a higher one. For example, fractions are introduced in class 6 and adding and subtracting fractions follows in class 7.
- Horizontal coordination: the content of different subjects in the same class fits together. For example, graphs are taught in that class's mathematics before science asks students to use them.
3. Teaching Learning Activities
Teaching learning activities: All the activities a teacher carries out with children, inside or outside the classroom, to fulfil the objectives included in the curriculum.
Teaching learning activities are the third element of a curriculum. The art of presenting content to students is what teaching activity means. These activities are decided only after the content has been selected and organised, because nobody can plan how to teach before knowing what is to be taught. Students gain knowledge, skills and concepts easily only when the content is presented effectively.
Take the content 'the main rivers of Nepal'. The content is the same, but there are many ways to teach it. A teacher can point to the rivers on a map, ask groups to make a list of rivers, or take the class to observe a nearby stream. Which way to choose depends on who the students are. So when teaching learning activities are chosen, these things about the students must be considered:
- their age
- their maturity
- their ability
- their previous experience
- how attracted they are to the lesson
While carrying out these activities, equal attention must also go to continuity, inclusiveness and child psychology. Continuity means learning moves forward without breaks. Inclusiveness means every student in the class takes part. Child psychology is the understanding of how children think and learn.
4. Evaluation
Evaluation: The assessment made after an educational programme is completed, to find out how far the objectives set by the curriculum have been achieved.
Evaluation is taken as the fourth, or last, element of a curriculum. It is the process of checking how far the knowledge, skills and concepts students were meant to gain have actually developed. Evaluation does not check only the students. It also measures how effective and appropriate the curriculum's objectives, content and teaching learning activities were, and it gives feedback. Feedback is information about the result of a piece of work that comes back and helps it improve. If most of a class gets the same question wrong, for instance, the teacher should also ask whether the teaching method or the order of the content was at fault.
Evaluation is generally of two kinds: formative and summative.
Formative evaluation: Evaluation that focuses on finding students' weaknesses so that their learning can be improved.
Summative evaluation: Evaluation carried out at the end of the academic year. It helps in deciding whether a student passes or not.
| Basis | Formative evaluation | Summative evaluation |
| When it happens | From time to time while teaching goes on | At the end of the academic year |
| Main purpose | Find weaknesses and improve learning | Decide pass or fail |
| Example | A weekly class test, checking homework | The final annual examination |
Not every test is summative evaluation. If a test's results are used to find weaknesses and improve learning, it is formative. Only when the results decide whether a student passes is it summative. The kind is decided by how the result is used, not by the name of the test.
How a Curriculum Is Developed
A curriculum aims to develop every side of a child, so special care must go into building it. It is not a job for one person sitting alone. Teachers, students, subject experts, psychologists and educationists should all be involved. Teachers know what classrooms are really like, students can say what interests them and what they need, subject experts check that the subject is correct, psychologists understand children's age and state of mind, and educationists look at the overall direction of education.
In Nepal, the curriculum for school level is prepared by the Curriculum Development Centre. When it builds or revises a curriculum, the Centre follows a set of processes and stages.
The Five Stages of Curriculum Development
According to the Curriculum and Curriculum Materials Development Guideline, 2073 BS, published by the Curriculum Development Centre, these stages are generally completed when a curriculum is developed:
- (a) Identifying the need: finding out what students and society need to learn.
- (b) Policy decision: deciding whether to make or revise a curriculum and in which direction to take it.
- (c) Curriculum development: preparing the curriculum itself, with its objectives, content, teaching learning activities and evaluation.
- (d) Approval and implementation of the curriculum: getting the prepared curriculum approved and putting it into use in schools.
- (e) Evaluation and improvement of the curriculum: checking how well the curriculum in use is working and correcting its weak points.
'Curriculum development' is used in two senses. It is the name of the whole process, and it is also the name of the third of the five stages. When a question asks about a stage, it means the third stage.
Just as evaluation is the last of the four elements, evaluation and improvement is the last of the five stages. The weaknesses it reveals point to new needs, and the work can begin again.
From Draft to Classroom
These stages are carried forward through several processes. A new curriculum does not go straight to schools. It passes through many rounds of discussion and checking:
- First, a draft task force prepares a draft of the curriculum.
- The draft is presented at a teachers' workshop for discussion, suggestions and revision.
- It is improved on the basis of the workshop's suggestions and sent to the subject committee for study and approval.
- The coordination committee studies it again.
- It is then sent to the National Curriculum Development and Evaluation Council for approval.
- Finally, once the Government of Nepal approves it, the curriculum is put into practice.
Because it is checked at so many levels, a curriculum carries the experience of classroom teachers, the knowledge of subject experts and decisions made at the national level. The curriculum that reaches a school is therefore the result of discussion and agreement among many people.
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