According to the United Arab Emirates School Inspection Framework 2015-2016 (p.123) curriculum is defined as: “Everything a school deliberately organises for students to experience.”
Curriculum design is planning for the elements that will enable students to learn. It is the creation of all the effective experiences that adds up to a coherent and worthwhile program.
A well designed curriculum is characterized by being coherent, holistic, inclusive, progressive, challenging and relevant. A curriculum is expected to have the depth, breadth and choice.
There are different types of curricula. Which one are you offering at your school? The curriculum designed for the school can have multi-names based on its composed elements and the below mentioned criteria.
- Classic Curriculum
Classic curriculum offer the essential content knowledge that every student need to graduate from high school. It concentrate on basic arithmetic, literacy and numeracy content. Those basics are the foundation for future studies.
- Community-centered curriculum
Community-centered curriculum offers a unique experience for students at every grade level. It connects the traditional content knowledge to community needs and problems. Community integration is done in an age-appropriate manner. “Community” at early years resembles neighborhood while at middle school it refers to the local surroundings and eventually it evolves to become the global frame of the world wide environment.
- High-Technology curriculum
High-Technology curriculum embeds the content knowledge in the art of information and communication technology (ICT). Students will explore their knowledge using ICT resources and tools inside and outside school. This type of curriculum provides students with a unique learning experience which is multi-dimensional.
Learning takes place in virtual classrooms which allow students to discover their learning outcomes by searching and gathering, validating and criticizing, and communicating information.
- Science and Technology Application Curriculum
Science and Technology Application Curriculum connects all the knowledge content to the science, energy source, health, agriculture, material, manufacturing and ICT context. All the abstract ideas of different subjects are linked to real world categories to demonstrate its applications and its usefulness. This practical type of learning allow students to understand the aim behind mastering every concept. It give meaning to their learning experience rather than feeling that their school life is disconnected from reality
- Hand-on curriculum
Hand-on curriculum focus on delivering the knowledge content by organizing individual and group projects. Students will be actively involved to reveal the learning outcomes. Experiments, cooperative learning activities, are modeling are the main practices used in the classrooms.
- Individualized curriculum
Individualized curriculum is a personalized studying program that is designed for an individual student based on his abilities and potential.
- Learning-to-learn curriculum
Learning-to-learn curriculum emphasized on the learning techniques rather than the acquisition of the content knowledge. Students are trained to become independent and self-directed learners.
- Work-study curriculum
Work-study curriculum develop good work skills by focusing on opportunities for students to supervise real-work assignments in school or in community as volunteers.
In school……..
High school students can experience “becoming a teacher” for one day in kindergarten or Grade 1. Students can take the responsibilities of the school cafeteria, gardening the school green field, reading for their peers in the library or supervising the photocopy center.
In community…..
Students can be sent to real work places to do training for a week and come back to school with real experiences of the type of careers that they like to major. Students can volunteer to do environmental awareness campaigns in public parks, to plant trees, or to organize book sales for public.
- Inquiry curriculum
Inquiry curriculum focus on planning learning opportunities to allow students to discover the learning outcomes by themselves. They investigate, experiment, research and observe to learn. Students are guided to learn rather than being dictated.
Related topics:
Curriculum Mapping Structure
Written Curriculum , Recommended Curriculum and Supported Curriculum