Discuss curriculum theory and how it is reflected in the National Curriculum
This essay will offer a critical discussion of how curriculum theory is reflected within the National Curriculum within the primary school setting. It is this codified document that contains the knowledge, pedagogy and assessment practices that must be covered within school. First, a general definition of curriculum will be provided in order to ground the concept for the purpose of this assignment. Following this, there will be an exploration of who determines the knowledge that is included within the curriculum and how that drives the role of assessment. Additionally, considerations will be taken in relation to major theoretical perspectives and their impact upon the models of curriculum.
There has been a sizeable dispute in regards to what defines a curriculum. Perhaps most commonly, theorists lend from the Latin roots simplistically referring to a course in which students participate (Marsh, 2009). Since then the definition of curriculum has evolved and it is now apparent that a dichotomy has emerged between the differing paradigms within education with definitions of curriculum predominantly based on the dualities of empiricism and rationalism. This is evident when analysing definitions of curriculums offered by Bobbit (1918) and Stenhouse (1975). The first
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Crossouard & Pryor (2012) suggest that codifying and implementing the curriculum has become a technical exercise employing behaviourist principles, whereby desirable skills and pre-determined outcomes are listed and systematically written and produced in volume. The curriculum can be viewed as having three main elements; content, which defines what is to be learned, delivery, which describes how learning takes place and assessment, which evaluates and provides evidence of