Definitions of Curriculum (2024)

Definitions of Curriculum

1. A brief answer is hard to give as curriculum can be both written and unwritten. Essentially, curriculum is what the school is attempting to teach, which might include social behaviors as well as content and thinking skills.
2. A course of study that will enable the learner to acquire specific knowledge and skills.
3. A curriculum consists of the "roadmap" or "guideline" of any given discipline. Both the philosophy of teaching of the instructors as well as of the educational institution serve as two of the principles upon which a curriculum is based.
4. A curriculum is the combination of instructional practices, learning experiences, and students' performance assessment that are designed to bring out and evaluate the target learning outcomes of a particular course.
5. A detailed plan for instruction set by policy-makers.
6. A selection of information, segregated into disciplines and courses, typically designed to achieve a specific educational objective.
7. As applied to education, curriculum is the series of things that students must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that adults do in life; and to be in all ways the people that they should be as adults.
8. Curriculum encompasses a variety of technical and non technical courses that are required to complete a specific degree.
9. Curriculum includes everything that takes place, and everything that does not take place, within the purview of the school.
10. Curriculum is a framework that sets expectations for student learning. It serves as a guide for teachers, a roadmap if you will, that establishes standards for student performance and teacher accountability.
11. Curriculum is a group of courses offered in a particular field of study.
12. Curriculum is a set of courses (offered by an educational institution) that are required to complete an area of specialization.
13. Curriculum is a set of courses that comprise a given area or specialty of study. I see curriculum as the framework of content or ingredients that relate to that given area of study. Curriculum often conjures up words such as format, guidelines, content of "what to teach," and "what the student needs to learn." I see curriculum in both formal and informal ways, i.e., as a body of related information that an educator needs to convey, but with latitude in the strategies that an educator may use to convey the information.
14. Curriculum is all of the courses of study offered ( science, math, reading, etc.) and those guidelines for teaching and learning set forth for a particular educational institution.
15. Curriculum is any criteria, element, aspect, that aids in children's learning.
16. Curriculum is specifically what you teach within each discipline and at each level.
17. Curriculum is the "floor plan" or blueprint for what is going to be taught/learned/experienced ... in the academic classroom over a period of time.
18. Curriculum is the delivery component of an institutions' educational mission, values, and theory of learning. It should follow in-depth discussions regarding "what a student should learn" and "how a student can best learn."
19. Curriculum is the expectations for what will be taught and what students will do in a program of study. It includes teacher-made materials, textbooks, and national and state standards.
20. Curriculum is the gathered information that has been considered relevant to a specific topic. It can always be changed or added to in order to become relevant to the times.
21. Curriculum is the goals, assessments, methods, and materials used to teach a particular skill or subject. I include thinking under "skill."
22. Curriculum is the guidelines by which different content matters are taught and assessed.
23. Curriculum is the outline of concepts to be taught to students to help them meet the content standards.
24. Curriculum is what is taught in a given course or subject.
25. Curriculum refers to an interactive system of instruction and learning with specific goals, contents, strategies, measurement, and resources. The desired outcome of curriculum is successful transfer and/or development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
26. Everything that is written, taught and tested in an educational program of study.
27. General course design or syllabus, including goals and standards for proficiency.
28. Guidelines for course instruction with attention to content, teaching style and academic standards.
29. I feel that curriculum is anything which is planned and designed to sequentially improve students' knowledge and skills.
30. I guess curriculum represents the courses offered for any educational program. The curriculum's design is based on what past/current educators believe is important for students to know. Importance may be based on content that is covered in the course which is (1) competitive with other institutions (2)usable in the future career, or (3) what the school/faculty feel is an interesting topic to cover. I'm sure there are other reasons for importance but none come to mind at this time.
31. I suppose that my definition would speak not only to the objectives of the school program and the means by which those goals are to be reached, it would also include the philosophical construct underlying the goals and methods. For example, late in my career as a math teacher I became very interested in having the students "feel" mathematics. I wanted the students to experience the "why's" and "how's" that would build a higher level of understanding. In my view, curriculum is more than just what is done, it's WHY it's done ? on a deeper level than just to cover the text or get the kids to pass the DSTP.
32. I think of curriculum in two ways. One: the organized method of placing nursing and related courses to meet the goal of successful completion of the nursing program competencies. The other view I have about curriculum is organizing courses around a faculty adopted conceptual framework. The faculty develop concepts and subconcepts. From this framework the course objectives/ competencies and learning activities are developed. There is a logical progression of learning.
33. In a spectrum from abstract to concrete, curriculum lies in the fuzzy middle. The curriculum is sandwiched between abstract standards (usually content-based) and super-practical lesson plans and activites. Curriculum embodies the "what" and, explicity or implicitly, the "how" of teaching. Although usually containing "what" is to be taught, curriculum directly suggests or indirectly implies how it should be taught. For example, a curriculum with an inordinate amount of targets and content to be taught is more likely to be taught in a traditional (discussion or lecture-centered) approach than in a constructivist (pedagogy) approach.
34. Officially, curriculum is the formal delineation of what is to be taught and how it is to be taught. Beyond that, however, there lots of questions and caveats regarding the formal, written curriculum as compared to the curriculum as actually delivered in the classroom. Is there, for example, a difference between what a school's official curriculum and another "hidden curriculum" representing what the system or the teacher "really" wants students to learn? If there is no formal curriculum document but students are still learning good things from teachers, is it meaningful to say that there is a de facto curriculum that has somehow come about to fill the void? To what extent is methodology a matter of formal curriculum and to what extent is it a matter of individual teacher academic freedom?
35. On a concrete level, curriculum is that list of "stuff" we ask students to do to demonstrate learning and outcomes. It's also the list of "stuff" that we want to tell them.
    On a less concrete--but even more important--level, curriculum is the philosophy that drives us to create the "stuff" above. That is, I think that curriculum is, at its best, a collection of "stuff" that is derived from carefully thinking about the big picture. What do we want students to know and how will it be relevant to them once they're gone? If it's not relevant to them, then the question is whether they became better thinkers. And if they are better thinkers, then I'd wager that the "stuff" was driven by the principles behind it (and not the other way around)
36. Personally I think curriculum is a kind of design, setup, offering, or arrangement of subjects and courses.
37. Scope and sequence or essential concepts and content that required in educational programs. Curriculum includes methods and materials used in delivery of essential content.
38. Technically "curriculum" may be considered the "what" of an education-however it is I think intertwined with the "how" or the pedagogy/theory (of method) as well.
39. The course an academic program follows.
40. The curriculum is the program of instruction. It should be based on both standards and best practice research. It should be the framework that teachers use to plan instruction for their students.
41. The dictionary definition of "curriculum" is the following: all the courses of study offered at a university or school. I totally don't agree with that. This would be a good definition for someone who is not in education to understand. I believe that it is more specific In my line of work objectives, performance indicators, philosophies and ways to approach these objectives are all aspects under the scope and sequence of a curriculum.
42. the structure and/or materials used to convey information to students.
43. The written curriculum is a plan of what is to be taught. It is a focus for what teachers do. Dr. Fenwick English, Purdue University, believes there are three types of curriculum: written, taught, and tested. They must be the same.
44. What we teach, both written and unwritten