PROPOSE A QUESTION TO SOMETHING YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND OR SHARE SOMETHING THAT YOU NOW UNDERSTAND.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS?
At the beginning I am a little confuse with the definitions or difference between these both definitions. When I began classes about Curriculum Design with my professor Karli, she explained to me something comprehensible. Following have some definitions and extra information about them.
Syllabus is described as the summary of the topics covered or units to be taught in the particular subject. Also, it is descriptive in nature, or is set for a particular subject. While Curriculum refers to the overall content taught in an educational system or a course. Also curriculum is prescriptive.
Curriculum is a theoretical document and refers to the programmer of studies in an educational system or institution.
Curriculum deals with the abstract general goals of education which reflect the overall educational and cultural philosophy of a country, national and political trends as well as a theoretical orientation to language and language learning.
A curriculum provides information on:
Ø the goals of education,
Ø subjects to be taught,
Ø activities learners should be engaged in (how)
Ø methods and materials,
Ø a allocation of time and resources and assessment of students and of the curriculum itself.
A syllabus is more localized and is based on the accounts and records of what actually happens at the classroom level as teachers and students apply a curriculum to their situation.
At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a statement of what is to be learnt. Syllabus refers to the content or subject matter of an individual subject.
It is a detailed and operational document which specifies the content of a particular subject. It is a kind of plan which translates the abstract goals of the curriculum into concrete learning objectives.
While a curriculum is a theoretical, policy document, a syllabus is a guide for teachers and learners that indicates what is to be achieved through the process of teaching and learning.
Syllabus should include
Narrow view of syllabus design: a syllabus is only concerned with the specification of learning objectives and the selection and grading of content.
The broader view argues that a syllabus is not only concerned with the selection and grading of content but also with the selection of learning tasks and activities. In other words, syllabus design is also concerned with methodology.
Requirements in a syllabus
The course plan should provide an accessible framework of the knowledge and skills on which teachers and learners will work.
It should offer a sense of continuity and direction in the teacher’s and learners’ work.
It should represent a retrospective account of what has been achieved.
It should provide a basis on which learner progress may be evaluated.
It should be sufficiently precise so that it may be assessed through implementation as being more or less appropriate for its purposes and users.
It is a document of administrative convenience and will only be partly justified on theoretical grounds, and so is negotiable and adjustable.
I just want to clarify something you said above. The syllabus is prescriptive (it tells teachers/students exactly what is going to be taught, how, and when, it assigns percentages to learning, established dates for projects and assessment, etc.), whereas the curriculum is descriptive (it gives a theoretical justification for the content and methodologies to be implemented, the research that justifies these methodologies, and offers suggestions for different ways to implement them, such as collaborative learning, autonomous learning, decorating the classroom for a literacy-rich environment, etc.).
ReplyDeleteThis of "prescriptive" like the prescription the doctor gives you - you must take a certain amount at a certain time for a certain number of days. This is like the syllabus - it is like the GPS road map that tells us where to go and how we are going to get there exactly. Whereas the curriculum is more like the map - it can be interpreted, it can offer various roads and ways to get to the same destination.
Usually the teacher should start with the curriculum (which will be the same for all the teachers), and then design the syllabus based on it (so the syllabus might be different for different teachers, or differ in a few ways).
Actually, I think I see the problem. The first article that comes up in Google about this actually contradicts what I know about these two terms. I think I have seen something about these words meaning the opposite in British English. I'll have to look into that because in the U.S. we say the curriculum is the general, overall description of how students will learn and the objectives, whereas the syllabus is the document that states the times, dates and exact content that will be used to get students to reach their goals.
DeleteIf you continue down in Google, you will find other articles that explain this better, in my opinion.