Curriculum as Subject Matter

There is no single picture of what a curriculum is. Across the field, seven different images compete, and each one steers planning in a different direction. The full set is worth knowing before going deeper, because most arguments about curriculum are really arguments between two of these images.

This article takes the first image. The other six follow, one to each article in the chapter.

Flashcard

Name the seven images of curriculum in any order.

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Answer

Subject matter, planned activities, intended outcomes, cultural reproduction, experience, discrete tasks, social reconstruction

Each is a different answer to what kind of thing a curriculum is, and each steers planning a different way.

Curriculum as the subjects taught

The oldest and most common image equates curriculum with the subjects taught. Ask a learner what their curriculum is and they will likely name their subjects: a language or two, mathematics, science, social studies. On this image, the curriculum simply is that list.

The image runs deep in history. It reaches back to the seven liberal arts of the medieval and ancient world, which were split into two groups. The trivium held grammar, rhetoric, and logic (also called dialectic). The quadrivium added arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Seven subjects made up the educated person’s course of study, and curriculum meant exactly those subjects.

    graph TD
    SLA["Seven Liberal Arts"]
    SLA --> TRI["Trivium"]
    SLA --> QUA["Quadrivium"]
    TRI --> GRA["📝 Grammar"]
    TRI --> RHE["🗣️ Rhetoric"]
    TRI --> LOG["🧠 Logic"]
    QUA --> ARI["🔢 Arithmetic"]
    QUA --> GEO["📐 Geometry"]
    QUA --> AST["🔭 Astronomy"]
    QUA --> MUS["🎵 Music"]

    classDef sla fill:#c7d2fe,stroke:#4f46e5,color:#312e81
    classDef tri fill:#fde68a,stroke:#d97706,color:#78350f
    classDef qua fill:#99f6e4,stroke:#0d9488,color:#134e4a
    classDef triLeaf fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#d97706,color:#78350f
    classDef quaLeaf fill:#ccfbf1,stroke:#0d9488,color:#134e4a

    class SLA sla
    class TRI tri
    class QUA qua
    class GRA,RHE,LOG triLeaf
    class ARI,GEO,AST,MUS quaLeaf
  

Educators who hold this image do careful work: they spell out the network of subjects, the meaning given to each, the knowledge needed before a subject can be studied, and the reasons the subjects at a given level fit together. Most schools today still run on this image. The curriculum arrives as a set of subjects, and not much about that has changed in a very long time.

Flashcard

What are the trivium and the quadrivium?

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Answer

The two groups of the seven liberal arts

The trivium is grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The quadrivium is arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Together they were the subject-based curriculum of the medieval world.