Defining curriculum: concepts and frameworks

Curriculum

Concept-based curriculums: What is a true curriculum?

War. Peace. Love. All of these are concepts. According to one school district using a concept-based curriculum: "A concept is an idea that is timeless, abstract, broad and can be shown through a variety of examples...Concepts, due to their broad nature, provide opportunities for curriculum integration" ("What is concept-based curriculum?"1998, District 118). The challenge for a teacher using a concept-based curriculum is to find a meaningful concept for his or her students, and to tie that concept into all areas of classroom study. Concept-based design highlights the fact that a teacher's curriculum should be a program, a plan, a map for the journey that a teacher and her students will take over the course of a year. Some detours can occur from the original course, but the destination should remain clear. A concept-based curriculum gives a firm sense of purpose to learning, and unifies all areas of classroom study in a meaningful and cohesive manner.

Unfortunately, "in most school districts...curriculum often exists as disjointed clusters of content," rather than a meaningful program of enrichment that sharpens students learning skills as well as expands their storehouse of knowledge (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1999, p.2). Instead, Allen Ornstein and Francis Hunkins advocate a value-based curriculum which conveys a holistic message about learning, rather than merely a series of facts. Conceptually-based curriculums reinforce the idea that school subjects are not discrete, but are really cross-disciplinary. Instead of artificially created subjects like 'math' and 'science' students must understand that they must use math to measure scientific experiments. Students come to appreciate that if they wish to understand a culture, they must study the literature, geography, and politics, of a region.

Although a conceptually-based curriculum requires a great deal of planning on the part of a teacher, learning is still "a social process...students bring ideas and experiences to learning situations that advance and enrich the understanding of others. Success in learning this way is achieved by those who have the authority to share their ideas and experiences." (Muir & Blake, 2006)This idea is still commensurate with concept-based curricular design in its ideal form. Students, by seeing that a concept can unite so many different aspects of an idea are better able to draw connections between what is learned in the classroom and subjects that are common to their daily lives.

For example, take the broad curricular concept of 'travel.' The most obvious application of this concept is in a literature class, where students can learn about travel from stories about other lands, or about people traveling over the course of a story. But students can also apply the concept to math class, as they learn to budget for a trip, and calculate the speeds of various modes of transportation. They can learn about the science of how trains and planes are propelled, as well as research the weather conditions and geography of a possible destination. They can learn about the different people, cultures, religions, and wildlife of a land, and even create art projects, listen to music, and cook food reflective of a region.