What is Curriculum Framework

A curriculum framework is an organized plan or set of standards or learning

outcomes that defines the content to be learned in terms of clear, definable standards of
what the student should know and be able to do.

A curriculum framework is part of an outcome-based education or standards based

education reform design. The framework is the first step, defining clear, high standards
which will be achieved by all students. The curriculum is then aligned to the standards,
and students are assessed against the standards. As compared with traditional
education which is concerned only about delivering content, a standards based education
reform system promises that all will succeed if all are held to high expectations. When
the standards are reached, there will be no achievement gap where some groups are
allowed to score lower than others, or the disabled are offered different opportunities than
others. All will meet world class standards and be qualified for good colleges and trained
for good jobs which pay good wages. In a traditional education system, the curriculum
was defined by those who created textbooks rather than government bodies which
assembled groups of stakeholders to create standards based on consensus of what
students should know and be able to do.

In some states, curriculum frameworks have been adopted based on traditional academic
standards rather than outcome-based constructivist standards, but many frameworks were
originally or still based on student-centered learning and constructivism such as reform
mathematics, whole language and Inquiry-based Science which have been controversial
in some states and communities. High school graduation examinations tie awarding of
diplomas to demonstration of meeting the standards set out in the frameworks.

Structure Curriculum Framework

 The intended or specified curriculum has a focus on the aims and content of what
is to be taught – that is, the curriculum which is planned and expressed through
curriculum frameworks and other formal documents and which may have the
authority of law.
 The implemented or enacted curriculum relates to what is actually put in place for
students in schools which may represent local interpretations of what is required in
 formal curriculum documents. Here curriculum and instruction are seen as being
closely interrelated.
 The experienced curriculum refers to the formal learning actually experienced by
students. This is more concerned with the learners, what knowledge and
perspectives they bring, their ability to learn and their interaction with the
curriculum.
 The hidden curriculum refers to student experiences of school beyond the formal
structure of the curriculum, and in particular the messages communicated by the
school or education system concerning values, beliefs, behaviours and attitudes.
The messages contained in the hidden curriculum may complement the intended
and implemented curricula or they may undermine them.
 The null curriculum refers all those areas and dimensions of human experience
which the curriculum does not specify and which are not addressed through
teaching.

Normally an intended curriculum framework and related syllabuses are designed and
implemented, but then evolve and change as they are interpreted and implemented at
different levels and in different contexts.

A curriculum framework is usually a single document which is supplemented by other

materials to guide the implementation of specific parts of the framework. These may give
more detailed specification or guidance by individual year, subject or learning area,
addressing the requirements of the school system, individual schools and the classroom.
The documents may include syllabuses, programmes of study, year plans and lesson
plans. They may be developed centrally, locally or by individual teachers, and may have
the status of support material or official documents which must be used. Regardless of
their contents or status, they should be consistent with statements made in the curriculum
framework.
Types of Curriculum Framework
1. Overt, Explicit, or Written Curriculum: Is usually confined to those written
understandings and directions formally designated and reviewed by administrators,
curriculum directors and teachers, often collectively.
2. Societal Curriculum (or Social Curricula): Societal Curriculum The massive,
ongoing, informal curriculum of family, peer group, neighborhoods, churches
organizations, mass, media and other socializing forces that “educate” all of us
throughout our lives.
3. The Hidden or Covert Curriculum: The Hidden or Covert Curriculum Implied by
structure and nature of school, which refers the kinds and learning's of children derive
from the very nature and organizational design of the public school as well as the
behaviors and attitudes of teachers and administrators.
4. The Null Curriculum): The Null Curriculum Which we do not teach, thus giving
students the message that these elements are not important in their educational
experiences or in our society.
5. Phantom Curriculum: Phantom Curriculum the messages prevalent in an through
exposure to any type of media. These components and messages play a major part in the
enculturation of students into the predominant metaculture, or in acculturating students
into narrower or generational subcultures.
6. Concomitant Curriculum: Concomitant Curriculum This type of curriculum may be
received at church, in the context of religious expression, lessons values, ethics or morals,
molded behaviors, or social experiences based on the family’s preferences
7. Rhetorical Curriculum: Rhetorical Curriculum Ideas offered by policy makers,
school officials, administrators, or politicians.
8. Curriculum-in-use: Curriculum- in-use Is the actual curriculum that is delivered and
presented by each teachers.
9. Received Curriculum: Received Curriculum Those things that students actually take
out of classroom; those concepts and content that are truly learned and remembered.
10. The Internal Curriculum: The Internal Curriculum Processes, content, knowledge
combined with the experiences and realities of the learners to create new knowledge.
While educators should be aware of this curriculum, they have little control over the
internal curriculum since it is unique to each students.
11. The Electronic Curriculum: The Electronic Curriculum Those lessons learned
through searching the internet for information, or through using e-forms of
communication.
The following four type of curriculum dealt in detail:
Core curriculum:
 A curriculum in which all or some of the subjects or courses are based on a central
theme in order to correlate the subjects and the theme.
 At the undergraduate level, individual college and university administrations and
faculties sometimes mandate core curricula, especially in the liberal arts. But because
of increasing specialization and depth in the student's major field of study, a
typicalcore curriculum in higher education mandates a far smaller proportion of a
student's course work than a high school or elementary school core curriculum
prescribes.
 The Core Curriculum is the set of common courses required of all undergraduates
and considered the necessary general education for students, irrespective of their
choice in major. The communal learning-with all students encountering the same
texts and issues at the same time-and the critical dialogue experienced in small
seminars are the distinctive features of the Core. Begun in the early part of the 20th
century, the Core Curriculum is one of the founding experiments in liberal higher
education in the United States and it remains vibrant as it enters its tenth decade. Not
only academically rigorous but also personally transformative for students, the Core
seminar thrives on oral debate of the most difficult questions about human
experience. What does it mean, and what has it meant to be an individual? What does
it mean, and what has it meant to be part of a community? How is human experience
relayed and how is meaning made in music and art? What do we think is, and what
have we thought to be worth knowing? By what rules should we be governed? The
habits of mind developed in the Core cultivate a critical and creative intellectual
capacity that students employ long after college, in the pursuit and the fulfillment of
meaningful lives.
 The simple definition for the word core is central, and this perfectly describes the
intention of core curriculum. While unlimited sets and subsets of new information
are available to learn between kindergarten and college, the core curriculum
movement has organized all those items that educational researchers have determined
are best learned at each grade level and decided which concepts are central to the
learning experience. It is important to note that core curriculum is what is taught, not
how it is taught.
Hidden curriculum:
 The hidden or covert curriculum -That which is implied by the very structure and
nature of schools, much of what revolves around daily or established routines.
 This type of curriculum has to do with how particular assumptions about schooling
and learning manifest in practice. For example, when a teacher has her or his desk at
the front of the classroom and "teaches" from this area, the message that is being
learned by students is that the teacher is in control, including being the knowledge
authority, and is the center of attention. The teacher is also of central importance.
Another example involves the value of particular topics that is communicated
implicitly. Such values can be communicated by time spent, by tone of voice, or by
how the topic is treated (e.g., trivialized or marginalized).
 Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons,
values, and perspectives that students learn in school. While the “formal” curriculum
consists of the courses, lessons, and learning activities students participate in, as well
as the knowledge and skills educators intentionally teach to students, the hidden
curriculum consists of the unspoken or implicit academic, social, and cultural
messages that are communicated to students while they are in school.
 A hidden curriculum is a side effect of an education, "[lessons] which are learned but
not openly intended" such as the transmission of norms, values, and beliefs conveyed
in the classroom and the social environment. Any learning experience may teach
unintended lessons.
 Any learning experience may teach unintended lessons. Hidden curriculum often
refers to knowledge gained in primary and secondary school settings, usually with a
negative connotation where the school strives for equal intellectual development (as a
positive aim). In this sense, a hidden curriculum reinforces existing social inequalities
by educating students according to their class and social status. The unequal
distribution of cultural capital in a society mirrors a corresponding distribution of
knowledge among its students.
Null curriculum:
 The null curriculum is what is not taught. Not teaching some particular idea or sets of
ideas may be due to mandates from higher authorities, to a teacher’s lack of
knowledge, or to deeply ingrained assumptions and biases. Teachers and schools may
not teach that Christopher Columbus slaughtered many of the native peoples he
encountered when he "discovered" the Americas. Many teachers are under pressure
not to teach evolution.
 The null curriculum - That which we do not teach, thus giving students the message
that these elements are not important in their educational experiences or in our
society. Eisner offers some major points as he concludes his discussion of the null
curriculum.
 The "Null", or "excluded" curriculum is a concept that was formulated by Eisner
(1979) and consists on the amount of teaching material which is not covered, taught,
nor included in the typical curricula of school districts.
Latent curriculum:
 Editor-Prideaux has provided an interesting and useful summary of approaches to a
medical school curriculum. ... The first is the latent curriculum, first described by
Eisenberg, whereby students learn what is “really” important from role models,
especially clinicians.
 High schools have a “latent curriculum,” a set of rules and norms that are written in
considerable measure by fellow students, argues Cookson.
4. Differentiated curriculum:
Differentiated curriculum is one that is individualized to meet the diverse needs of
all of the students in one class. As gifted children expert Susan Weinbrenner says,
"Equality means giving everyone equal opportunities to learn, not teaching everyone in
exactly the same way." If implemented appropriately, differentiation does not have to
mean more work for the teacher. In fact, it will allow a teacher to spend his or her time
more efficiently with a greater number of students. Gifted students need the opportunity
to work through the curriculum at a faster pace and need less time on basics and revision.
A differentiated curriculum is a program of activities that offers a variety of entry points
for students who differ in abilities, knowledge and skills. In a differentiated curriculum
teachers offer different approaches to what students learn (content), how students learn
(process) and how students demonstrate what they have learned(product). Differentiation
ranges from slight to major modifications of the curriculum through adjustments to
content, processes and skills. It provides a planned, documented and challenging
curriculum that matches the ability of gifted students to:
 Learn at faster rates
 Find, solve and act on problems more readily
 Manipulate abstract ideas and make connections to an advanced degree.
Differentiation should include enrichment and extension activities. Enrichment refers to
the broadening of the curriculum to develop knowledge, application, thinking skills and
attitudes, to a degree of complexity appropriate to the students’ developmental level.
Enrichment activities are often found only in extra-curricular provisions and need to be
written into programs to ensure all students have access. Extension activities involve the
deepening of students’ knowledge, understanding and skills.
Importance of Curriculum Framework
1. What is the evidence that teachers and students play an effective role in defining and
implementing the curriculum (i.e. how well teachers are trained and understand the
curriculum; whether teachers can participate in curriculum development processes;
whether teachers are prepared to take on new roles, i.e. teachers as facilitators; advisors,
moderators; curriculum developers; students as participating in selecting and structuring
their learning activities) What is evidence that curriculum implementation is supported by
enabling learning environments?
2. What is evidence that schools make efforts to improve their learning environments?
(i.e. Communication strategies; Student participation; Enhanced access to learning
facilities and resources; Counselling; School ethos and Aesthetic)
3. How well are assessments aligned to the goals of the curriculum? What elements
pertaining to assessment have hindered curriculum implementation and hence education
quality?
4. Is there evidence of a country-wide system of monitoring and evaluation of curriculum
processes? Has it been used for continuous development of the curricula? What is the
evidence that evaluation of curricula and associated textbooks have influenced
curriculum & textbook revision?
5. What actions are taking place to frame future developments in the realm of learning
and curriculum? (i.e. National and/or international curriculum research projects; National
curriculum conferences; Forums and Task forces set up to define forward-thinking
curriculum policies)

Submitted By,
P. DHIVIYA
divyalakshmi6794@gmail.com