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Curriculum as a Program of Planned Activities

📝 Cheat Sheet

Curriculum as a Program of Planned Activities

Image 2: planned activities

  1. Curriculum is everything planned in advance.
  2. Includes scope, sequence, subject matter, motivation, and teaching techniques.
  3. Can be a written document or an unwritten plan in a teacher’s mind.

The second image keeps the subjects of the first one but widens the frame. It moves the focus from what is taught to everything planned for the teaching of it.

Curriculum as the full plan for action

Here the curriculum is not just the subjects but everything planned in advance for delivery to learners. It includes the scope and sequence of the subject matter, the interpretations given to it, the balance between topics, the motivational strategies, the teaching techniques, and anything else a teacher arranges before walking into the room.

The shift from the first image to this one is the shift from “what” to “what plus how.” Subject matter is still there, but now the plan also says how learners will be motivated and how teachers will teach effectively. The picture grows from a list of topics into a full plan for action.

This image is wide-ranging in another way too. The plan can be a formal written document, or it can be unwritten, living in the mind of the teacher who carries it into class. Both count. A teacher who has thought through the lesson, the activities, and the order of events has a curriculum in this sense, even if none of it is on paper.

Pop Quiz
A teacher plans the topic order, the motivation strategy, and the activities for a unit, but never writes any of it down. Under the planned-activities image, does this count as curriculum?
Flashcard
How does the planned-activities image differ from the subject-matter image?
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Answer

It adds the how, not just the what

Subject matter is the list of topics. Planned activities keep the subjects but add scope, sequence, motivation, and teaching techniques. The plan can be written or held unwritten in a teacher’s mind.

Pop Quiz
Which set of things does the planned-activities image add on top of the bare subject matter?

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Last updated on • Talha