BASIC TERMS and CONCEPTS RELATED to the ELTPS
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⭐Curriculum
⭐Syllabus
⭐Teaching Program
⭐Curriculum Goals
⭐Learning Outcomes
Program is generally defined as an organized and planned set of related activities directed toward a common purpose or goal. In line with this broad definition, an educational program can be specified as “a series of courses linked with some common goal or end product”.
It is briefly, specific statements setting measurable expectations for what learners should know and be able to do.
Curriculum aims or goals relate to educational aims and philosophy. They are programmatic and normally do not delineate the specific courses or specific items of content. Typically they refer to the accomplishment of groups (e.g. all learners, learners in general, most learners) rather than the achievement of individual learners. They are broad enough to lead to specific curriculum objectives.
A syllabus contains the aims and assessment objectives of the subject (for example history) at a particular level of education, the sequence of the content knowledge to be taught, and the assessment procedures to be adopted.
⭐Objectives
A curriculum is a prescribed document prepared by the government so as to teachers lead a programmed and equal educational environment. It can also be defined as an overall plan of the content that the school offers the students by the way of qualifying them for graduation or certification, or for entrance into a professional field.
So, curriculum can be seen as a guideline for educators prescribing what they need to teach students in the educational system.
The curriculum not only gives outlines of the subjects that need to be taught but also gives teaching and learning methods to ensure that students have indeed learned the necessary materials. It is, therefore, the full set of taught content and teaching methods in a school system.
Also, a syllabus can be described as a contract between teachers 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.
When planning for the national syllabus, planning authorities have to consider the following and many other related factors:
• the philosophy of the nation; • the age ability of the learner; • learning items and content; • teachers and other resource persons; and • sequential arrangement of learning material
‼However, the term syllabus can only be discussed meaningfully in terms of content consideration in the curriculum. A syllabus is part of the curriculum and not the curriculum itself.
A syllabus differs from a curriculum in that a curriculum is a more generalised or an overview of the sum total of subjects or topics that the students are meant to learn. A syllabus is a more detailed overview of the subject of study like African History. To illustrate, a mathematics curriculum may list basics of algebra, basics of geometry and basics of trigonometry. While, the class syllabus lists 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.
‼There is a strict connection between teaching program and curriculum as they are within the other. While curriculum is a general term that is commonly used to mean as ‘what schools teach’, and includes philosophical, social and administrative choices that contribute to the planning of an educational program, a teaching program, on the other hand, refers to the content of the curriculum.
It is concerned with what is to be learned, how is to be learned, and assessed ✅
It provides structure (content) for classroom teaching and learning suggesting ways of implementing the content and assessing learning outcomes.✅
For instance, : ‘students will learn to respect and get along with people of different cultures’; ‘students will develop a sense of civic responsibility’; ‘students will attain an appreciation for literature, art, music’.
Curriculum goals should include:✏ The level of proficiency or profile that participants are expected to attain by the end of the course ✏ The methodology and learning materials that would be most suitable ✏ The use to be made of the learners’ own languages, and their previous experience of language learning ✏ How the course time should be divided between ‘taught’ lessons, individualised autonomous learning using digital and other media, and other learner activities ✏ The procedures to be used to assess progress and the achievement of learning outcomes.
Learning outcomes are statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate at the end of a period of learning. They are explicit statements about the outcomes of learning – the results of learning. They are usually defined in terms of a mixture of knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and understanding that an individual will attain as a result of his or her successful engagement in a particular set of higher education experiences
In reality, they represent much more than this. They exemplify a particular methodological approach for the expression and description of the curriculum (modules, units and qualifications) and levels, cycles, subject benchmarks statements and the ‘new style’ Bologna qualifications frameworks.
What learners are expected to learn
What learners will produce as a result of a learning activity
Describing the focus of learning activities
‼They can be seen as refinements of curriculum aims/goals that, for example, specify: performance standards or those skills and knowledge the learners are expected to be able to demonstrate; inferred or precise degree of mastery; and the conditions under which the performance will take place.
In terms of effectiveness, curriculum objectives should be concise and understandable to teachers, learners and parents; be feasible for the teachers and learners to accomplish; encompass previous learning and require the learner to integrate and then apply certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes in order to demonstrate achievement; and be measurable on a cumulative basis and at different stages of the learner’s educational career.
Specific goals through which students can demonstrate their understanding and application of goals
There are several factors should be considered while developing objectives:
⭐ Some objectives should be longer term and others shorter term. According to its broadness and structure.
⭐ Objectives should be observable and measurable.
⭐ They should be constructed by using behavioral terms.
My Sources:
For better understanding: We can say that the initial step is to have a curriculum. With the contents of curriculum, you create a teaching program which includes what and how the students will learn. After the teaching program, it is turn for syllabus which includes content of the course, learning outcomes.