Understanding Curriculum: Concept, Features, and Design
1. Concept of the Term Curriculum
1.1. Origin of the Term Curriculum
The term “curriculum” comes from the Latin “curriculum”, which means race, itinerary. The Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubt (2005) indicates that the first element of the Latin phrase “curriculum vitae”, which means, literally, life career, has been Hispanicized into the form curriculum, with a regular plural voice. This term (curriculum) is used with the following meanings:
- Resume
- Studies, Plan
It is a cultism (a cultured word, usually of Greco-Latin origin) that has come indirectly from Latin into our language. The meaning of the word curriculum related to education and curriculum emerged in the Anglo-Saxon environment.
1.2. Definition of Curriculum
The first section of the LOE (2006), Chapter III, Article 6, paragraph 1, defines curriculum as “the set of objectives, competencies, content, teaching methods and assessment criteria of each teaching regulated by this law.”
There are different levels of responsibility in the determination of the curriculum. It corresponds to the Government of Spain to set the basic aspects of the curriculum, which are the Minimum Lessons (EM) of each of the teachings. This is so for two reasons:
- Ensure a common training for all Spaniards.
- To ensure the validity of the relevant securities, to be approved by the State and issued by the Educational Administrations.
It corresponds to the regional education authorities to establish different teaching curricula, which will include the basics of the curriculum (core curriculum) set by the Government of Spain. It corresponds to schools to develop and complete the curriculum of the different stages and cycles, once established by the Education, using their pedagogical autonomy.
Competence and Attitudes
- To continue learning independently throughout life.
- For autonomy and personal initiative, including the ability to choose with their own criteria and critical thinking necessary to carry out initiatives, to develop choices and take responsibility for them. Includes entrepreneurial capacity to devise, plan, develop and evaluate a project.
2. Spanish Curriculum Features
The basic features of the curriculum established by the Education and developed and completed later by the centers include:
Open and Flexible
The curriculum is a proposal to be adapted and modified in relation to different contexts in which students find themselves.
Oriented
The curriculum is a guide and guidance for teachers, who adapt it to schools and various groups of students according to their educational needs.
Prescriptive
The curriculum designed by the Education provides the framework for formulating objectives and minimum content that all schools should achieve. It outlines the core curriculum, determined by the educational authorities and published in official documents, that the teacher must teach and students should learn.
3. Functions of the Curriculum
The curriculum, designed by the Education and developed by the centers, serves two general functions:
- To explain the intentions of the educational system, i.e., it provides information on what to teach: objectives and content.
- To guide teaching practice, i.e., it reports on the action plan in accordance with the intentions explained. Specifically, it provides guidance on when to teach, how to teach and why, how and when to evaluate. Teachers will have direct responsibility for implementation and, therefore, to put it into practice.
Other functions assigned to the curriculum from the literature are:
- Socialization of new generations, because the curriculum includes values, norms and patterns of behavior and attitudes needed in our society.
- Transmission of culture, because the curriculum also includes a selection of essential culture (culturally organized social experience) in the present.
4. Design and Curriculum Development
Curriculum design and curriculum development are two phases of the educational curriculum that complement each other. Curriculum design includes the project or action plan (describing the educational project) and its realization or development (what happens in the classroom).
Curriculum Design
Curriculum design is flexible, open, guiding, and prescriptive. This is an advanced and intentional planning. We can define it as a project action plan that will guide educational practice.
Curriculum Development
Curriculum development is the practical application of curriculum design, its implementation. It refers to all institutions and professionals involved in the implementation of the designed curriculum. Schools have the necessary educational autonomy for curriculum development and adaptation to the specific characteristics of the social and cultural environment of the center. It corresponds to schools and teachers to develop tasks and specify the curriculum through the School Curriculum Project (PCC) and classroom schedules.
5. The Elements of the Curriculum
The components or elements of the curriculum address the following questions:
What to Teach?
The answer to this question includes the object of teaching and learning content (culturally organized social experience) and the objectives or processes of personal growth that you want to provoke, promote or facilitate through education.
When to Teach?
This question involves considering how to sort and sequence the contents and objectives. The curriculum provides information on the best action sequence, taking into account the complexity of the content covered by formal education and its impact on various aspects of students’ personal growth.
How to Teach?
Once clarified what to teach (content and objectives) and when to teach it (planning and sequencing of content and objectives), it is necessary to plan the activities of teaching and learning. These activities are related to methodology, the third element of the curriculum.
What, How and When to Evaluate?
Evaluation is an essential element of the curriculum to ensure that it adequately meets the pedagogical intentions (content and objectives) and to introduce appropriate corrections if necessary. Evaluation is defined as a “process of information gathering and analysis that lets us know how the teaching and learning process is being produced and what issues are emerging in this process” (Red Box MEC).