The Importance Of Curriculum

When one attempts to define the term curriculum there are a myriad of meanings that are presented. The word curriculum according to dictionary.com is derived from a Latin word which means course of action, race. Today, when teachers are asked to define curriculum many will define it as a book that outlines what is to be taught and ways in which it can be taught. Curriculum refers to the means and materials with which students will interact for the purpose of achieving identified educational outcomes (Edward S. Ebert II, Christine Ebert, Michael L. Bentley, 2013). This definition encompasses academic activities but we all know that there are many other activities that occur at school Theses include drama, athletics and clubs and societies in which students participate as part of the holistic learning experience. As Allan A. Glatthorn, Bonni F. Boschee, Bruce M. Whitehead (2015) states ‘The curriculum is the plans made for guiding learning in the schools, usually represented in retrievable documents of several levels of generality, and the actualization of those plans in the classroom, as experienced by the learners and as recorded by an observer; those experiences take place in a learning environment that also influences what is learned’. This definition points to …show more content…
These principles are referred to as the foundations of the curriculum. There are four major foundations: philosophy, history, psychology and sociology. Blogger Muhammad Sultan posits that The curriculum reflects the society and culture of a country and this is the desire of a society that their children should learn the habits, ideas, attitudes and skills of the adult society and culture and educational institutional are the proper way to impart these skill. Upon examining these foundations this is found to be true. For the purpose of this paper I will examine two of the four