Difference between syllabus and curriculum
- 1. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 1 of 6 Difference between Syllabus and Curriculum Key difference: Essentially, a syllabus is a descriptive outline and summary of topics that are to be covered in an education or training course. The syllabus will usually provide specific information about the said training course and is often drafted by the governing body or by the instructor of the course. A curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. A general curriculum, in the broadest sense of the word, may list all courses offered at a specific school. A curriculum is prescriptive, which means that is issued by the governing body and lists topics the must be understood by the student at the end of the course, and what level to achieve a particular grade or standard. Essentially, a syllabus is a descriptive outline and summary of topics that are to be covered in an education or training course. The syllabus will usually provide specific information about the said training course and is often drafted by the governing body or by the instructor of the course. Syllabi, on the other hand, are the plural form of a syllabus. According to Dictionary.com, a syllabus is: An outline or other brief statement of the main points of a discourse, the subjects of a course of lectures, the contents of a curriculum, etc. A short summary of the legal basis of a court's decision appearing at the beginning of a reported case. A book containing summaries of the leading cases in a legal field, used especially by students. A typical syllabus will contain information on how, where and when to contact the lecturer and teaching assistants; an outline of what will be covered in the course; a schedule of test dates and the due dates for assignments; the grading policy for the course; specific classroom rules; etc. The purpose of a syllabus is to ensure consistency between courses thought at different colleges under the same governing body. A syllabus issued by the governing body, i.e. the board of education, the head of department, etc, may be modified by the instructor as long as it is consistent with the curriculum. The syllabus also serves as a means for the students to be aware and understanding what they will be thought in the duration of the course. Wikipedia lists the various purposes served by a syllabus: fair and impartial understanding between the instructor and students such that there is minimal confusion on policies relating to the course setting clear expectations of material to be learned setting clear expectations of behavior in the classroom setting clear expectations of effort on student's behalf to be put into the course providing a roadmap of course organization/direction relaying the instructor's teaching philosophy to the students providing a marketing angle of the course such that students may choose early in the course whether the subject material is attractive
- 2. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 2 of 6 clarifying student understanding of specified material such as grading policy, grading rubric, late work policy, locations and times providing contact information for instructor and teaching assistant such as phone or email listing materials required and/or recommended such as textbooks, assigned reading books, calculators, lab vouchers, or other equipments listing outside resources for subject material assistance, including extracurricular books, tutor locations, resource centers, etc. important dates in course such as exams and paper due-dates tips for succeeding in mastering course content such as study habits and expected time allotment suggested problems if applicable necessary pre-requisites or co-requisites to current course safety rules if appropriate objectives of the course Types of syllabus include: Notional-Functional syllabus Grammatical syllabus Lexical syllabus Situational syllabus Text-based syllabus Skill-based syllabus Task-based syllabus Learner-generated syllabus Mixed syllabus Online course syllabus A curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. The term, ‘curriculum’ is derived from the Latin word "Currere" which means to run/to proceed. Currere refers to the ‘course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults.’ Dictionary.com defines curriculum as: The aggregate of courses of study given in a school, college, university, etc.: The school is adding more science courses to its curriculum. The regular or a particular course of study in a school, college, etc. A general curriculum, in the broadest sense of the word, may list all courses offered at a specific school. A curriculum is prescriptive, which means that is issued by the governing body and lists topics the must be understood by the student at the end of the course, and what level to achieve a particular grade or standard. It may also refer to a defined and prescribed course of studies students must fulfill in order to complete the course. An individual teacher may refer to the curriculum to ensure that her lessons are covering all the topics as required by the curriculum.
- 3. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 3 of 6 The various purposes served by a curriculum: may refer to all courses offered at a school may refer to a defined and prescribed course of studies lists course of studies which students must fulfill in order to pass a certain level of education may discuss how the sum of lessons and teachings will help students learn the basics The main difference between a syllabus and a curriculum is that a curriculum is a more generalized or an overview of the subjects or topics that the students are meant to learn. However, a syllabus is a more detailed overview of the subject of study. For example: a math curriculum may list basics of algebra, basics of geometry and basics of trigonometry. While, the class syllabus will list what topics will be covered under each of the basic topics, what will be the concepts that students may understand by the end of each topic, and it may even list what exercises or problems in the textbook will be covered during class. Hence, it can be said that syllabus is a subset of curriculum. THE SEPARATE PURPOSES OF CURRICULUM, SYLLABUS, AND LESSON PLAN 1. CURRICULUM In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student’s experiences in terms of the educator’s or school’s instructional goals. In a 2003 study by Reys, Reys, Lapan, Holliday and Wasman they refer to curriculum as a set of learning goals articulated across grades that outline the intended mathematics content and process goals at particular points in time throughout the K-12 school program. Curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curriculum is split into several categories, the explicit, the implicit (including the hidden), the excluded and the extra-curricular. A curriculum contains description of general goals by indicating an overall educational-cultural philosophy which applies across subjects together with a theoretical orientation to language and language learning with respect to the subject matter at hand. A curriculum is often reflective of national and political trends as well. Curricula may be tightly standardized, or may include a high level of instructor or learner autonomy. Many countries have national curricula in primary and secondary education, such as the United Kingdom’s National Curriculum. UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education has the primary mission of studying curricula and their implementation worldwide. There is no generally agreed upon definition of curriculum. Some influential definitions combine various elements to describe curriculum as follows: All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. (John Kerr) Braslavsky states that curriculum is an agreement amongst communities, educational professionals, and the State on what learners should take on during specific periods of their lives. Furthermore, the curriculum defines “why, what, when, where, how, and with whom to learn.”
- 4. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 4 of 6 2. SYLLABUS A syllabus is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive (unlike the prescriptive or specific curriculum). A syllabus may be set out by an exam board or prepared by the professor who supervises or controls course quality. It may be provided in paper form or online. The syllabus is a “contract between faculty members and their students, designed to answer students’ questions about a course, as well as inform them about what will happen should they fail to meet course expectations.” It is also a “vehicle for expressing accountability and commitment” (2005, p. 63). Over time, the notion of a syllabus as a contract has grown more literal but is not in fact an enforceable contract. A syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level. 3. LESSON PLAN A lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of students. There may be requirements mandated by the school system regarding the plan. A lesson plan is the teacher’s guide for running a particular lesson, and it includes the goal (what the students are supposed to learn), how the goal will be reached (the method, procedure) and a way of measuring how well the goal was reached (test, worksheet, homework etc). B. THE COMPONENTS OF A CURRICULUM Since the curriculum is concerned with a general rationale for formulating policy decisions, it combines educational-cultural goals with language goals. For example, an overall educational approach could focus on one of the following major views: 1. A behavioristic orientation considers the human species to be a passive organism, reacting to external, environmental stimuli. 2. A rational-cognitive orientation considers the human species to be the source and initiator of all acts. 3. A humanistic orientation is concerned with each individual’s growth and development, while emphasizing affective factors as well. Culturally, any one of these philosophies may suit a certain community better. Generally, an educational orientation is compatible with one or more linguistic and language-learning theories. Thus, the behavioristic view is an educational-phsylogical philosophy which is compatible with a structuralist view of language and stimulus-response view about human language learning. As the theoretical influences on the basis of a language curriculum shifted, the rational cognitive orientation became strongly reflected in the views of human language proposed by transformational-generative linguistics in the 1960s and was associated with the cognitive-code approach to language learning. The humanistic orientation has been closely associated with
- 5. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 5 of 6 communicative view language. It is the latter that has been the most prominent since the mid- 1970s. It is interesting to trace the genealogy of various well-known views on language teaching. For example, both the grammar-translation approach, which was typically used in teaching Greek and Latin and the generalized to modern language teaching, and the much more contemporary Silent Way approach developed by Gattegno (1972, 1983) have distinct affinities with a rational- cognitive orientation in the way both emphasize the learning of the language forms. They do not; however share a similar view of language learning. While, as an example, the grammar-translation teacher will provide students with lengthy explanation of grammatical points, the Silent Way teacher will provide a model utterance followed by silent which, according to the approach, induces the students to take the initiative for cognitive activities. Another contemporary approach which links a rational-cognitive view with a communicative orientation towards language use is the Natural Approach (Krashen and Terrell 1983). This approach has much in common with other contemporary views which emphasize the importance of listening and comprehension at the onset of learning—among them Silent Way. Indeed, the recent Natural Approach has antecedents in a long history of natural methods which have emphasized learning a language through using it rather than by recourse to language analysis. In fact, in the sixteenth century, Michael de Montaigne wrote about his own experiences growing up as a native speaker of Latin, a nation conceived and carried out by Montaigne’s father through strict control of his son’s language input (Howatt 1984). Various other current schools of thought trace their lineages to a humanistic orientation, notably Counseling-Learning (Curran 1972), as well as the beliefs which have grown under the direct influence of Paulo Freire, combining a humanistic view with a particular political view of the world (Wallerstoin 1983). Freire developed an educational approached based on his socialist philosophy in which adult learners are encouraged to analyze and challenge the forces in society which keep them passive. The similarities between Freire’s approach and Curran’s derive from the focus on the students’ activist involvement in the learning process. C. TYPES OF SYLLABUSES In the past decade, a great of attention has been paid to the particular language elements that are included in a syllabus and to the organizational system according to which they are presented. Discussions have typically considered the trade-offs, advantages, and disadvantages of three or four major syllabus types: the structural-grammatical syllabus, the semantic-notional syllabus, the functional syllabus, and the situational syllabus. The familiar structural grammatical or linguistic syllabus is centered around items such as tenses, articles, singular/plural, complementation adverbial forms, etc. The notional (or semantic-notional) syllabus came into focus in the early seventies and placed the semantics unit in the center of syllabus organization. Such a syllabus is organized around themes relating to broad areas of meaning such as space, time, obligation, etc. (Wilkins 1976). The functional syllabus, which developed alongside the notional syllabus with various attempts to combine the two, focuses on the social functions of language as the central unit of organization. Thus, functional syllabus is concerned with elements such as invitations, suggestions, apologies, refusals, etc. (Wilkins 1976; McKay 1980). The fourth type mentioned here, the situational one, although less widespread than some of the others, has probably been known in language learning for hundreds of years with the tourist phrase book as a notable example. All four of the examples cited (structural, notions, functions, and situations) illustrate different realizations of an organizational approach based on discrete units. Recently, however, within the communicative approach to curriculum and syllabus design, the idea of presenting an
- 6. Rashed Ullah Rana ` Page 6 of 6 organization concept which is not based on separate units but rather on a continuous process of communication and negotiation in the target language has gained in popularity. In this approach, the communicative needs of the learners are the basis on which various linguistic, thematic or functional elements are selected. The role of the teacher is to facilitate the learners’ participation in these communicative exchanges. Ideally there should also be scope for learners to take responsibility to analyze their own needs and accordingly seek help from the teacher or the materials. Course designers who carefully consider the various approaches to syllabus design may arrive at the conclusion that a number of different ones are needed and beset are combined in an electric manner in order to bring about positive results. Thus, it may be necessary to use structural /situational syllabus for the first years of a course of study, moving to a functional plan of organization, followed by a notional/skill combination, leading finally to a fully communicative design for the final phases of the course. Such a solution may be suitable for a foreign language setting, while a purely communicative approach might be more applicable in the natural setting. The most important feature of any modern language syllabus, therefore, is its inherent potential for adjustment based on careful decision-making at each level within the course. CONCLUSION The separate purposes of a curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan: 1. Curriculum The dictionary defines “curriculum” as “an integrated course of academic studies.” In our opinion, “curriculum” means two things: first, the range of courses from which students choose what subject matters to study; and second, a specific learning program. In the latter case, the curriculum collectively describes the teaching, learning, and assessment materials available for a given course of study. This should not be confused with a “curriculum map.” A curriculum map is for collecting and recording curriculum- related data that identifies core skills and content taught, processes employed, and assessments used for each subject area and grade level. The completed curriculum map then becomes a tool that helps teachers keep track of what has been taught and plan what will be taught. 2. Syllabus A syllabus is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in a course. It is descriptive. A syllabus usually contains specific information about the course, such as information of what will be covered in the course; a schedule of test dates and the due dates for assignments; the grading policy for the course; specific classroom rules; etc. 3. Lesson Plan A lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction for an individual lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. The detail of the plan will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of children. There may be requirements mandated by the school system regarding the plan.