Test: Education & Leadership (Syllabus and Curriculum) - Software Development MCQ

The curriculum development approach is a design or pattern of organization used in making decisions about the various aspects of curriculum development and transaction.

• The curriculum approach is thus a plan that the teachers follow in providing learning activities (or experiences) to the students in school.
• The pattern or design of the curriculum to a large extent determines the nature of the outcomes that will be achieved after transacting the curriculum. 

Key Points

Some of the main approaches follow in Curriculum Development:

• Concentric Approach: The concentric approach is called a spiral approach, in which the curriculum is organizing by laying out basic concepts, a subject matter is taken and spread over several years and little higher-level knowledge is added in all subsequent years. It covers other related material, and then circling back around to the basic concept and filling in more complexity and depth. In this approach, the students always have the opportunity of revising the content in all subsequent years.
• Unit Approach: A unit means simply a group of related experiences covering a time span that is short enough to enable pupils to hold everything in mind, appreciate the connections and grasp the various segments as a whole. A unit is part of a total program, but it has an identity of its own. Unit plans commonly include a reference to goals, objectives contents, methods, resources, and evaluation plans.
• Topical Approach: In this approach, the curriculum maker takes a particular topic as a central theme at various instructions and concepts. It will be simpler and easier for a teacher to plan his teaching focussing on topics or themes. Although the relevant information could be drawn from various academic disciplines, the focus remains on the "topic" and not on the academic disciplines from which the information was taken. 

Hence, we can conclude that in the concentric curriculum approach, the students always have the opportunity to revise the content in the coming classes.

Curriculum development is mainly concerned with the design of plans for actual teaching-learning situations.

• It is based upon broad goals and identifies ways to translate those goals into a coordinated and coherent program of learning experiences.

Key Points Curriculum components:

• Curriculum refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning. 
• Curricula often include the following components, among others:

1. Guidance for teacher(s) using the curriculum;
2. A scope and sequence for each level that provides a big picture view of the curriculum and describes the instructional units to be taught: "This is a year at glance" so also called a year plan, where the institution or school heads give a plan for the whole sum of the curriculum.
3. Unit Plan: A series of instructional units that delve into more detail than the big picture overview in the scope and sequence; and
4. Lesson plan: Sequenced and coordinated lesson plans that make up instructional units.

Hence, it can be concluded that the year plan consists of the whole sum of the curriculum.

Behaviourism and learning:

• Behaviorism or the behavioral learning theory is a popular concept that focuses on how students learn. Behaviorism focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. This learning theory states that behaviors are learned from the environment, and says that innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior.
• In the classroom, the behavioral learning theory is key in understanding how to motivate and help students. Information is transferred from teachers to learners from a response to the right stimulus. Teachers use behaviorism to show students how they should react and respond to certain stimuli. 
• In behaviorist theory, learners are more passive in the learning process. The learners' role is simply to respond to the learning content and demonstrate a level of performance on specific goals and objectives. 
• Behaviorism focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. This learning theory states that behaviors are learned from the environment, and says that innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior.

Conclusion: Behaviorists defined learning as an observable change in behavior. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior based on environmental conditions. It believes in positive and negative reinforcement towards the response of learners against any stimuli. Hence, directly or indirectly, behaviorism believes that new behavior is learned on the basis of response to the stimuli. So, option (1) is correct.

A curriculum can be called a plan for learning, which contains assumptions about the purpose of education in our society. It also has a definite structure through which the vision of the planners can be translated into learning experiences for the learner. Key Points

Features of curriculum

• The curriculum is the list of contents taught to the students. 
• A curriculum is a tool that includes knowledge of content, skills, attitudes, and behavior that students are supposed to learn in school or college.
• The curriculum comprises all those experiences a learner receives in a school or a college. 
• The curriculum includes both curricular and extracurricular activities organized in a school or college. 
• It is learner-centric and focuses more on learning than teaching.

Hence, we can conclude that Curriculum in the end is not a feature of the curriculum.

Attempts have been made to fix the meaning of ‘curriculum’ as a technical term, but by and large, a unique commonly agreed-upon definition of the term will need some more time to be arrived at. Etymologically, the term curriculum has been derived from a Latin root that means ‘race course’.Key Points

• The word ‘race course’ is suggestive of the course, i.e., the path; and the time (suggested by the prefix race) in which the path could/must be covered.
• A curriculum is a planned activity undertaken in an educational institution. It is a planned learning outcome of an institution, otherwise called “thinking before doing.”
• Any curriculum has four basics, viz; social forces, knowledge of human development as provided by the accepted theory/theories, the nature of learning, and the nature of knowledge and cognition.
• A curriculum is all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a framework of the theory.

Hence, it can be concluded that the term "Curriculum" has been derived from a Latin word "Currere" which means race course.

The curriculum is the pre-determined standards or instructions regarding what should be taught in educational settings, such as primary class, secondary class, college, etc. 

• Curriculum can be formal, hidden, or informal

Key Points

• Explicit and overt curricula are formal curriculums
• A formal curriculum includes formal written instructions for schools or colleges.
• Learning experiences provided by schools in formal educational settings are determined by formal curriculums
• Curriculum texts, documents, videos, films, etc. are examples of the formal curriculum
• Formal curricula are planned, organized, and implemented in regular schools. 
• A formal curriculum involves overt instructions explicitly written for teaching children. 

Thus, it can be concluded that explicit and overt are known as the formal curriculum. 

A school curriculum is a complete set of organized experiences in the school. It includes aims, objectives, teaching content, teaching strategies, and all teaching-learning aids to cater totality of student's experiences that occur in the educational process.

Key Points

Principles of Curriculum

The success of a curriculum depends on certain principles, which need to be born in mind while developing a curriculum. These are:

• The purpose of the Educational Objectives of the Programme should be fulfilled. 
• The educational objective should be stated in clear, unambiguous, and behavioural terms, which should be achievable and measurable. 
• The third principle is that the students and teachers of the particular educational program should have a clear perception of the expected results i.e., objectives as well as the purpose of the educational program. 
• The fourth principle is that the learning activities to provide learning experiences related to the theoretical, practical, and clinical components should be in conformity with the educational objectives of the program. Also, it should be flexible and should change from time to time.
• The fifth principle is that the teaching-learning activities should relate to classroom activities, clinical fields, and community.

Hence, we conclude that the nature of the school curriculum should be agreed with the interests, aims, and objectives of the students.

A curriculum is a set of predetermined actions that are intended to carry out a certain educational goal. It comprises assertions of the selection criteria for the topic to be taught, as well as decisions about the techniques, resources, and assessment to be used. Key Points

• The terms explicit curriculum and intended curriculum are also used to describe overt curriculum.
• This covers all the extracurricular and co-curricular activities that the school, college, or university organization has purposefully designed to be given to the students.
• It contains information that learners are explicit to be given, including knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values. An overt curriculum is created with the school system's aims and objectives in mind.
• As a result, it is limited to written understandings that have been explicitly created by curriculum designers and administrators.

Hence, it is concluded that Overt curriculum is also known as explicit and intended curriculum.

A curriculum can be defined as a set of planned activities that are designed to implement a particular educational aim. Set of such aims - in terms of the content of what is to be taught and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are to be deliberately fostered.

Key Points 

The following are the characteristics of the curriculum which as follows:-

•  A curriculum is neither a written text nor a list of activities.
• It is a plan of facilitating learning for the learner.
• Starting with the learner's current position, this plan lists all the features and dimensions of learning that are seen to be essential, provides justifications for why such learning is thought to be essential, and outlines the educational goals it would serve.
• The curriculum includes not only a list of contents but also the aims and objectives, learning experiences, and evaluation.
• The curriculum encompasses “the total experience provided to the learners in and out of school’.

Hence, it is concluded that Curriculum should be based on textbooks only is NOT correct in the context of the curriculum.

The way the curriculum is implemented in the classroom is mostly decided by the teachers. Their function is described in terms of the implementation and assessment of the curriculum. Additionally, it is thought that if the instructor is involved in the process of developing the curriculum, teaching and learning will be more successful. Their contribution might be crucial to the curriculum's overall progress.

Key Points

 Doll identifies three reasons why educators could be successful in enhancing the curriculum:

•  Work in close proximate with the learners
•  Engaged in individual study and
• Interact with other teachers and share their curricular experiences.

These three elements provide them the chance to grow in knowledge and ability, which can enhance the caliber of the learning opportunities they offer to students.

• By encouraging student understanding and tolerance, arousing curiosity, and encouraging independent thought, teachers work to achieve educational goals.

• The way in which the material is delivered is also heavily influenced by the teaching method.

• Teachers must thus be involved in the curriculum creation, planning, delivery, evaluation, and review processes.

• The teaching style of a teacher has the power to either encourage role learning or, conversely, spark a child's interest.

Hence, it is concluded that All of the above are correct.

One should carefully understand the difference between syllabus and curriculum as they are two important words in the field of education that are often confused as if they mean the same. Strictly speaking, they are two different words that give different meanings. 

Key PointsCurriculum:

• In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process.
• The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or a view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals.
• The curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives Curriculum is split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit (including the hidden), the excluded, and the extracurricular. 

Syllabus:

• A syllabus refers to the program or outline of a course of study. In other words, syllabus refers to the portions of the study prescribed in a particular subject meant for a particular course of study.
• For example, if Physics is a subject meant for a course of study called ‘material science’, then the portions of study prescribed in the subject of Physics are called a syllabus.
• A syllabus may be set out by an examination board or prepared by the tutor or instructor who teaches or controls the course and the syllabus is a part of the curriculum. 

Important Points 

What is the difference between Syllabus and Curriculum?

• The curriculum has many activities as compared to the Syllabus.
• The curriculum has a wide scope than Syllabus.
• A syllabus is descriptive and A curriculum is prescriptive or specific. 
• The syllabus is for a subject while the curriculum is for a course.
• The curriculum is a broad term and the syllabus is a part of the curriculum.

Hence, the right answer to this question is curriculum is a broad term and syllabus is a part of the curriculum.

Key Points Curriculum

• A curriculum is all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a framework of theory and research or past and present professional practice.
• The curriculum is a complete set of taught material including a list of planned learning experiences offered to the students under the direction of the school. 
• In other words, the curriculum is a blueprint of experiences that have been planned for the students.
• The curriculum revolves around the design, development, and evolution of an appropriate delivery strategy, and undertakes learning outcomes and system and course evaluation processes.

Syllabus

• The syllabus contains the online course objectives and the time required to achieve them.
• It is a descriptive set of subjects that has to be taught in the class.
• The syllabus explains the summary of different topics covered or units that will be taught in a specific subject or discipline under that particular course.
• It pertains to a particular level of instruction, and to achieve the objectives of such a syllabus, different institutions may use different courses.

Hence, we conclude that the complete set of taught material in the school system is also known as the Curriculum.

Key PointsSyllabus:

• The syllabus is best defined as a detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning.
• Integrated series of teaching-learning processes that aim to acquire a state of knowledge is called a Course.
• The curriculum is the philosophical, social, and administrative factors that contribute to the planning of educational programs.
• A listing of events to be done in the teaching-learning process is called agenda.
• This is not usually involved in the teaching process.

Hence, a syllabus is a document that outlines all the essential information about the course. 

The document that sets the standards of the Curriculum is the curriculum framework.

Key Points Curriculum framework:

• A Curriculum Framework is a supportive structure to help schools to plan and develop their own curriculum.
• It comprises a set of interlocking components, including essential learning experiences, generic skills, values, attitudes, and key learning areas.
• The curriculum framework is one of the most important tools in ensuring consistency and quality in a curriculum system
• A curriculum is usually a document or a set of documents that sets standards for curriculum and provides the context in which subject specialists develop syllabuses.
• A curriculum framework is an organized plan or set of standards or learning outcomes that define to be learned in terms of clear, definable standards of what the students should know and be able to do. 

Hence, the document that sets the standards of the Curriculum is the curriculum framework.

Important Points Functions of the curriculum framework

A few functions of curriculum frameworks are as follows:

• It defines a set of curriculum standards that enable a range of curricula to coexist on the provision that each curriculum compiles with specific criteria.
• It functions as a tool that may assist teachers to put the national policy on education - educating our future into practice.
• It develops certain quality standards for curriculum, evaluation is also needed.
• Gives guidance to syllabus and textbook writers.

A school curriculum is a complete set of organized experiences in the school. It includes aims, objectives, teaching content, teaching strategies, and all teaching-learning aids to cater totality of students' experiences that occur in the educational process.

Key Points Area of curriculum includes both internal and external activities of a school. The school curriculum emphasizes upon:

• making learning an integrated process.
• nurturing learners' holistic development.
• improving the totality of students' experience.
• promoting inclusive education to all learners.
• providing ample opportunities for all-around development. 

Hence, it could be concluded that curriculum is used to express the totality of the learning experiences that the pupil receives through manifold activities in the school.

Important Points

The sequential order of curriculum development:

• Assessment of needs.

• Formulation of objectives.

• Selection of texts/learning experiences.

• Evaluation of the curriculum.

Additional Information

• Syllabus:
  • It covers the list of topics and units to be covered while teaching a specific subject over a period of time.
  • It does not include co-curricular or any recreational activities.
• Lesson Plan:
  • It refers to the outline of the lesson prepared by the teacher to bring forward the lesson in a coherent way.
  • The lesson plan is to create an objective, that is, a statement of purpose for the whole lesson.

Teaching objectives are the statements of those changes in behavior that are desired as a result of specific learner and teacher activity which is a two-way process.

Key PointsThe use of objective-based teaching and testing includes:

• Apparent expected students outcomes
• Serves as a guide in the selection of important and desirable subject matter. 
• Assured assessment validity.
• Gives direction to the students toward the in-depth study. 
• Clear curriculum definition.
• Students come to know the expected achievement at the end of the course.

Hence, we can conclude that the use of objective-based teaching and testing does not include ambiguity in the syllabus.

Zero Curriculum (also known as Null Curriculum/Excluded Curriculum).

Important Points

• The Null Curriculum is that which is not taught. Sometimes the teacher ignores some content or skill, deliberately or unknowingly.
• A teacher may consider some ideas unimportant and ignore them. Similarly, teachers may avoid detailed descriptions of some topic for one or another reason, for example, evolution in Biology.
• Sometimes also, the learner fails to learn certain knowledge, skills, or attitude for various reasons.

When a topic is never taught:

• "too unimportant..."
• "too controversial..."
• "too inappropriate..."
• "not worth the time..."
• "not essential..."   

Additional Information Curriculum: In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. 
Some types of curriculum: 

• Subject-based curriculum: A subject-based curriculum is one that is divided into different subjects like maths or history. Each subject is distinct and there is little focus on making cross-curricular links.
• Learner-based curriculum: Learner-centered curriculum focus primarily on individual students' learning. This design emphasizes individual development. This approach is to organize the curriculum on the basis of LEARNER’S Needs and Interests 
• Activity/experienced-based curriculum: When course material is taught in the form of an activity or hands-on project, the curriculum is considered activity-based. Each activity or project in an activity-based curriculum serves as the means for students to learn concepts and skills.  
• Over/explicit/written curriculum: The Written Curriculum is a practicable plan as it is the result of a compromise between the ideals recommended by the experts and the real situations suggested by the teachers, pupils, and parents.
• Hidden/implicit/convert/silent/invisible curriculum: The hidden curriculum is all those things that we teach in schools that aren’t written down in syllabus documents.
• Null curriculum: The Null Curriculum is that which is not taught. Sometimes the teacher ignores some content or skill, deliberately or unknowingly. A teacher may consider some ideas unimportant and ignore them. 
• Emergent curriculum: Emergent curriculum is based on the premise that children are most successful at learning when curriculum experiences account for their interests, strengths, needs, and lived realities. 

Hence, the right answer to this question is a curriculum that teachers do not teach is Zero curriculum.

A curriculum can be called a plan for learning, which contains assumptions about the purpose of education in our society. It also has a definite structure through which the vision of the planners can be translated into learning experiences for the learner. 

Key Points There are three broad categories of the curriculum are there. 

1. Subject-centered: ​Such curricula concentrate on a single topic or area. This type of education places a greater emphasis on the subject than on the learner. This is the type of standardized curriculum that can be most frequently encountered in higher education.
2. Learner-centered: Learner-centered curriculum is designed to meet students' needs, interests, and aspirations. It acknowledges that students differ widely from one another and that teachers shouldn't pressure them to stick to a rigid curriculum. By empowering individuals to make choices, this technique aims to give students more influence over their education.​
3. Problem-centered: Problem-centered learning in the classroom teaches students how to analyze a problem and create a solution. Due to the fact that students experience real-world difficulties, educators view it as a realistic approach to teaching. With the use of this model, students can develop skills that are applicable to the actual world.​​​​

Hence, we can conclude that there are three broad categories of the curriculum are there. 

Important PointsFeatures of the subject-centered approach:

• ​​The subject-centered approach is operationally convenient. Teachers find it easy. As they teach from chapter to chapter and topic to topic on a day-to-day basis, the teachers feel a sense of satisfaction that they have covered the syllabus.
• In this approach, it is easy to plan, organize and design textbooks, workbooks, teacher's manuals, and curriculum packages as these can be easily tailored to fit the subject categories at different levels of education.  

Learner-centered classroom:

• The child and not the teacher is the focus of the entire process of teaching-learning.
• The child is an active participant in the classroom process.
• Has a democratic climate so that the child gets maximum opportunities for interaction with others.
• Reflects planning of teaching-learning and its monitoring jointly by teacher and children.
• The curriculum and the instructional materials serve as a means to foster the child’s all-around development and are not ends in themselves.
• The goal of teaching-learning is not merely to help children to acquire knowledge but also to promote the all-round development of personality.
• Activities planned by teachers and carried out by children become the medium of learning for the child rather than only the textbook.
• Teacher adopts a variety of teaching-learning strategies to address the needs of all children at the same time.

A school curriculum is a complete set of organized experiences in the school. It includes aims, objectives, teaching content, teaching strategies and all teaching-learning aids to cater totality of student's experiences that occur in the educational process.

Key Points

Curriculum Activities:

• Curriculum activities are used in teaching to make teaching interesting, easy to understand, and effective.
• It outlines the goals, objectives, learning experiences, instructional resources, and assessments that make a specific educational program.
• It outlines a basic framework for what to do, how to do it, when to do it and how to know if it has been achieved.

Thus it is inferred that curriculum activities are used in teaching to make teaching interesting, easy to understand, and effective.

The Latin meaning of the word curriculum is a "race course" used by Chariots. It is defined as any path or course of study to be undertaken by an educational institution, to be covered in a specific time frame.

Key Points

Psychological bases of the curriculum-

• Education is for the child. In the educational process, the child is the center.
• ​Through education, efforts are made for bringing desirable changes in the behavior of the learners.
• Psychology as a science of behavior is linked with the process of imparting education.
• The curriculum is positively correlated with the needs and requirements of the child.
• It helps in selecting the subjects and learning activities that should be included in the curriculum.
• It provides the foundation necessary for curriculum development so that it can be customized according to the requirements of the students in a given grade. 
• The design and creation of the curriculum are influenced by the psychology of individual differences. In order to accommodate individual differences, needs, and interests the curriculum should be sufficiently flexible and diverse.

Hence, we conclude that "through education, efforts are made for bringing desirable change in behavior of the learners" falls under the psychological bases of the curriculum.

Additional Information