1.3 CURRICULUM CONCEPT
Concept of Curriculum
In a sense, the task of defining the concept of curriculum is perhaps the most difficult of all. For the term curriculum has been used with quite different meanings ever since the field took form.
How we conceive of the curriculum is important because our conceptions and ways of reasoning about curriculum reflect how we think and talk about, study and act off the education made available to students. In simple diagram form, this change of emphasis might be represented as follows.
New concept of curriculum
Newer approaches to the curriculum would see the relationship in a much more complicated context.The consideration of curriculum must bear in mind the whole teaching context:
1. the teacher and how his role is defined
- by society
- by his particular school
- by his own self image
2. what should be taught (content) and how this is influenced by:
- philosophical ideas of the structure and organization ofknowledge
- the sociology of knowledge (especially the social distribution of knowledge
- Psychological factors such as child development(especially the work of Piaget) and theories of instruction.
3.The pupil:
- His social background
- His ability, etc.
The concept of curriculum is as dynamic as the changes that occur in society are as follows.