MODULE 1: Different Types of Curriculum

Different Types of Curriculum Several curriculum scholars (Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead, 2006; Print, 1993; Tanner and Tanner, 2007) cited nine types of curriculum in their books depending on how curriculum is used in various institutions. 

1. Ideal or Recommended Curriculum. This refers to what scholars propose as the most appropriate curriculum for the learners. For example, different professional organizations or various programs of study in different universities may propose curriculum innovations or alternative curriculum content as a result of their researches. It may also develop as an alternative response to various Curricular problems and issues. Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead (2006 noted several influences that seem to play the key roles in shaping the recommended curriculum. These influences are the professional associations, individuals, and societal trends. Curriculum standards recommended by professional organizations are examples or ideal or recommended curriculum. Many of these various curriculum standards are recommended by professional organizations as alternative to the current contents of the curriculum. Standards are products of their latest researches on the nature of the different disciplines and the developments in various academic fields. 

2. Intended Official, or Written Curriculum. This refers to the official curriculum embodied in approved state curriculum guides (Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead, 2006). It is the curriculum prescribed by the government. In the Philippine context, these are the prescribed courses from different government agencies: the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Examples of these types of curriculum are : a. The Kindergarten Curriculum Standards b. The K-12 Curriculum c. CHED Curriculum for General Education (Memorandum Order No. 20 Series of 2013) d. TESDA Modules and Competencies 

3. Implemented Curriculum. This type of curriculum refers to the actual implementation of the curriculum or what teachers in the school teach. In many cases, teachers modify and improve their curriculum based on the needs of the students or whenever there are new ideas in various disciplines that are important to teach to the students. Academic freedom among faculty members in college may also influence how professors plan and implement their courses. 

4. Achieved Curriculum or Learned Curriculum. This refers to the result of the curriculum or what students actually learned in school (Print, 1993). The achieved curriculum reveals whether the students learned and whether the schools are successful in attaining their curriculum goals and objectives. 

5. Tested Curriculum. This is a set of learning that is assessed in teacher-made classroom tests, curriculum-referenced tests, and in standardized tests. (Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead, 2006) 

6. Entitlement Curriculum. It refers to what the people or the general society believed the learners should expect to learn in the educational system for them to become good members of the society. 

7. Supported Curriculum. This refers to the curriculum that is reflected on and shaped by the resources allocated to support or deliver the official curriculum. (Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead, 2006) 

8.Null or Censored Curriculum. This refers to various curriculum contents or topics that must not be taught to the students. (Tanner & Tanner, 2007)

 9. Hidden Curriculum. This refers to various skills, knowledge, and attitudes that students learn in school as a result of their interaction with other students, staff, and faculty members. Although the hidden curriculums not actually taught in formal classroom learning, it is also true that the hidden curriculum can be a product of the students' schooling. The hidden curriculum is very powerful in developing the school culture (Print, 1993). 

Formal, non-formal or informal education does not exist without a curriculum. Classrooms will be empty with no curriculum. Teachers will have nothing to do, if there is no curriculum. Curriculum is at the heart of the teaching profession. Every teacher is guided by some sort of curriculum in the classroom and in schools. 

In our current Philippine educational system, different schools are established in different educational levels which have corresponding recommended curricula. The educational levels are: 

1. Basic Education. This level includes Kindergarten, Grade 1 to Grade 6 for elementary; and for secondary, Grade 7 to Grade 10, for the Junior High School and Grade 11 and 12 and for the Senior High School. Each of the levels has its specific recommended curriculum. The new basic education levels are provided in the K to 12 Enhanced Curriculum of 2013 of the Department of Education. 

2. Technical Vocational Education. This is post-secondary technical vocational educational and training taken care of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). For the TechVoc track in SHS of DepEd, DepEd and TESDA work in close coordination. 

3. Higher Education. This includes the Baccalaureate or Bachelor Degrees and the Graduate Degrees (Master's and Doctorate) which are under the regulation of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) 

In whatever levels of schooling and in various types of learning environment, several curricula exist. Let us find out how Allan Glatthorn (2000) as mentioned in Bilbao, et al (2008) classified these: 

Types of Curricula Simultaneously Operating in the Schools 

1. Recommended Curriculum. Almost all curricula found in our schools are recommended. For Basic Education, these are recommended by the Department of Education (DepEd), for Higher Education, by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and for vocational education by TESDA. These three government agencies oversee and regulate Philippine education. The recommendations come in the form of memoranda or policies, standards and guidelines. Other professional organizations or international bodies like UNESCO also recommend curricula in schools. 

2. Written Curriculum. This includes documents based on the recommended curriculum. They come in the form of course of study, syllabi, modules, books or instructional guides among others. A packet of this written curriculum is the teacher's lesson plan. The most recent written curriculum is the K to 12 for Philippine Basic Education. 

3. Taught Curriculum. From what has been written or planned, the curriculum has to be implemented or taught. The teacher and the learners will put life to the written curriculum. The skill of the teacher to facilitate learning based on the written curriculum with the aid of instructional materials and facilities will be necessary. The taught curriculum will depend largely on the teaching style of the teacher and the learning style of the learners. 

4. Supported Curriculum. This is described as support materials that the teacher needs to make learning and teaching meaningful These include print materials like books, charts, posters, worksheets, or non-print materials like Power Point presentation, movies, slides, models, realias, mock-ups and other electronic illustrations. Supported curriculum also includes facilities where learning occurs outside or inside the four-walled building. These include the playground, science laboratory, audio-visual rooms, zoo, museum, market or the plaza. These are the places where authentic learning through direct experiences occur. 

5. Assessed Curriculum. Taught and supported curricula have to be evaluated to find out if the teacher has succeeded or not in facilitating learning. In the process of teaching and at the end of every lesson or teaching episode, an assessment is made. It can either be assessment for learning, assessment as learning or assessment of learning. If the process is to find the progress of learning, then the assessed curriculum is for learning, but if it is to find out how much has been learned or mastered, then it is assessment of learning. Either way, such curriculum is the assessed curriculum. 

6. Learned Curriculum. How do we know if the student has learned? We always believe that if a student changed behavior, he/she has learned. For example, from a non-reader to a reader or from not knowing to knowing or from being disobedient to being obedient. The positive outcome of teaching is an indicator of learning. These arcs measured by tools in assessment, which can indicate the cognitive, affective and psychomotor outcomes. Learned curriculum will also demonstrate higher order and critical thinking and lifelong skills. 

7. Hidden/Implicit Curriculum. This curriculum is not deliberately planned, but has a great impact on the behavior of the learner. Peer influence, school environment, media, parental pressures, societal changes, cultural practices, natural calamities, are some factors that create the hidden curriculum. Teachers should be sensitive and aware of this hidden curriculum. Teachers must have good foresight to include these in the written curriculum, in order to bring to the surface what are hidden. 

However, in every teacher's classroom, not all these curricula may be present at one time. Many of them are deliberately planned, like the recommended, written, taught, supported, assessed, and learned curricula. However, a hidden curriculum is implied, and a teacher may or may not be able to predict its influence on learning. All of these have significant role on the life of the teacher as a facilitator of learning and have direct implication to the life of the learners.