Curriculum in Higher Education

Curriculum

Curriculum is “a set of courses or the totality of experiences that the college designs for its students, it is always rationalized as being practical” (Cohen & Kisker, 2010, p 32). It possesses essential components including “the standard subjects (including the three R’s, rhetoric, geography, history, humanities and science) within the context of real-life situations that the students can clearly identify with” (Cybercollege Internet Campus, 2006, p 1).

In the early development of American higher education, the main purpose of curriculum was “directed toward the acculturating of young people -their character formation, preparation for careers, access to society, language and manners” (Cohen & Kisker, 2010, p 32). In modern day, the purpose of curriculum has altered. Today, “curriculum enables people to make sense of their lives and the world around them. Individuals use curriculum with varying degrees of intentionality to interpret events, to deepen their understanding of what they learn and who they are as learners, and to create a shared experience for teaching and learning” (Huggett, Smith & Conrad, 2010, p 1).

Thus, curriculum has altered from the “preserving of what was already known” to the “advancing of knowledge” (Cohen & Kisker, 2010, p 32). Curriculum of the 1636 to 1789 era was directed toward the preservation of knowledge. The main motive of education today is to the purpose of advancing knowledge and not to simply “pass on knowledge and information” (Cybercollege Internet Campus, 2006, p 1)

To meet the needs of a 21st century society, each citizen needs to be prepared to contribute. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1966) states “technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit…. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” (p 1). This purpose has changed substantially from the origins of American higher education when only “few young people in American colonies went to college” (Cohen & Kisker, 2010, p 26) due to the families inability to financially support these endeavors.

Eric Hoffer (2010) stated “The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society” (Teacher’s Mind Resources, 2010, p 1). Cohen & Kisker (2010) substantiate this view when discussing the changing curriculum “The social sciences turned toward attempts to solve social problems” (p 511). In order to address the needs of society and the solutions to the social problems of the era, curriculum needed to evolve. Today’s curriculum requires a movement from the religious atmosphere and fervor present in higher education’s foundation to one of scientific study which would attempt to solve society’s problems.

Sources:

Cohen, A. & Kisker, C. (2010). The shaping of American higher education: Emergence and growth of the contemporary system. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cybercollege Internet Campus. (2006). Essential curriculum: Recipe for revolution. Retrieved from www.cybercollege.com/plume6.htm

Huggett, K., Smith, N., & Conrad, C. (2010). Higher Education Curriculum: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives. Retrieved from www.answers.com/topic/higher-education-curriculum-traditional-and-contemporary-perspectives

Teacher’s Mind Resources. (2010). The meaning of education. Retrieved from             www.teachersmind.com/education.htm

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1966). Governments’ Obligations to Ensuring the Human Right to Education. Retrieved from www.pdhre.org/rights/ education.html