information:filtering
Historical conception

Action is response; it is adaptation, adjustment. — John Dewey

Whatever the origins and intentions of early curricula, the function of inculcating culture had emerged by the time of ancient Babylonia. Ancient Roman curricula came to emphasise Greek as well as Latin skills, with emphasis on the study of classical poetry. This model influenced the curricula of medieval and Renaissance education.

In the early years of the 20th century, the traditional concept held of the curriculum was "that it is a body of subjects or subject matter prepared by the teachers for the students to learn". It was synonymous to the "course of study" and "syllabus".

In The Curriculum, the first textbook published on the subject, in 1918, John Franklin Bobbitt said that curriculum, as an idea, has its roots in the Latin word for race-course, explaining the curriculum as the course of deeds and experiences through which children become the adults they should be to succeed later in life. Furthermore, the curriculum encompasses the entire scope of formative deed and experience occurring in and out of school - such as experiences that are unplanned and undirected or those that are intentionally directed for the purposeful formation of adult members of society - not only experiences occurring in school. (cf. image at right.)

To Bobbitt, the curriculum is a social-engineering arena. Per his cultural presumptions and social definitions, his curricular formulation has two notable features:

Hence, he defined the curriculum as an ideal, rather than as the concrete reality of the deeds and experiences that form who and what people become.

Contemporary views of curriculum reject these features of Bobbitt's postulates, but retain the basis of curriculum as the course of experience(s) that form humans into persons. Personal formation via curricula is studied both at the personal and group levels, i.e. cultures and societies (e.g. professional formation, academic discipline via historical experience). The formation of a group is reciprocal, with the formation of its individual participants.

Although it formally appeared in Bobbitt's definition, curriculum as a course of formative experience also pervades the work of John Dewey (1859–1952), who disagreed with Bobbitt on important matters. Although Bobbitt's and Dewey's idealistic understanding of "curriculum" is different from current, restricted uses of the word, writers of curricula and researchers generally share it as common, substantive understanding of curriculum. Development does not mean just getting something out of the mind. It is a development of experience and into experience that is really wanted.

Robert M. Hutchins (1899–1977), president of the University of Chicago, regarded curriculum as "permanent studies" where the rules of grammar, rhetoric, logic, and mathematics for basic education are emphasized. Basic education should emphasize the three Rs and college education should be grounded on liberal education. On the other hand, Arthur Bestor (1908–1994), an essentialist, believes that the mission of the school should be intellectual training. Hence, curriculum should focus on the fundamental intellectual disciplines of grammar, literature, and writing. It should also include mathematics, science, history, and foreign language.

According to Joseph Schwab, discipline is the sole source of curriculum. In our education system, curriculum is divided into chunks of knowledge called subject areas in basic education including English, mathematics, science, and social studies. In college, discipline may include humanities, sciences, languages, and many more. Curricula should consist entirely of knowledge which comes from various disciplines. Dewey proposed that learning the lesson should be more interesting and beneficial than receiving a scolding, being ridiculed, or being required to stay after school, among other punishments.

Thus, a curriculum can be viewed as a field of study. It is made up of its foundations (philosophical, historical, psychological, and social foundations), domains of knowledge, as well as its research theories and principles. Curricula as an area of study should be scholarly and theoretical. The field is concerned with broad, historical, philosophical social issues and academics. Mark Smith suggests a starting definition of "curriculum" offered by John Kerr and taken up by Vic Kelly in his standard work on the curriculum: "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".

There are four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice:

In recent years the field of education and curriculum has expanded outside the walls of the classroom and into other settings, such as museums. Within these settings curriculum is an even broader topic, including various teachers, inanimate objects such as audio-tour devices, and even the learners themselves. As with the traditional idea of curriculum, curriculum in a free-choice learning-environment can consist of the explicit stated curriculum and the hidden curriculum; both of which contribute to the learner's experience and lessons from the experience. These elements are further compounded by the setting, cultural influences, and the state of mind of the learner. Museums and other similar settings are most commonly leveraged within traditional classroom settings as enhancements to the curriculum when educators develop curricula that encompass visits to museums, zoos, and aquariums.