Formal Curriculum

The formal curriculum is designed as a framework for instructional planning that outlines broad goals and strategies to reach them. The foundations of the formal curriculum are based on publicly valued intellectual, social, cultural, political, and economic funds of knowledge. Knowledge, skills, and understandings that have educational value to the individual and society are included. Often a school district's formal curriculum is based on the state's curriculum frameworks. Learner-centered goals rather than teaching-centered goals are the hallmark of 21st-century curriculum. Typically, this curriculum comprises high expectations to challenge the students and be competitive with the international educational community. The formal curriculum is readily available in written documents and/or displayed on Web sites. It may also be referred to as the planned curriculum, written curriculum, or the official curriculum.

Formal curriculum generally starts with a philosophy or set of broad-based goals. It then organizes the knowledge needed to meet these goals into a scope and sequence that defines the breadth of the curriculum and the order. After the curriculum is taught, student learning of the curriculum is assessed.

Formal curriculum may be designed by the teachers in a district utilizing the state standards for the discipline, their past experience in teaching the discipline, and consultation with a discipline expert. Formal curriculum may also be developed by curriculum specialists in the district or purchased commercially and then customized by teachers or district curriculum specialists. Whether designed by teachers or curriculum specialists each curriculum is somewhat unique, based on characteristics of these individuals.

Although there are numerous types of curriculum, the formal curriculum differs from the taught or instructional curriculum and the assessed or tested curriculum in several ways. The taught curriculum is decided on by the teacher either individually or in small team groups and is based largely on the learned curriculum as evidenced by how the students respond to what has been taught. The formal curriculum often is much broader in scope than time allows for the teacher to teach; hence, the taught curriculum becomes a subset of the formal curriculum. High-stakes tests are based on standards and the formal curriculum. Key points in the formal curriculum are chosen for test items, resulting in the tested curriculum, another subset of the formal curriculum. Students balance the formal curriculum against extracurricular activities at the high school level. Students need both mastery of the formal curriculum displayed as grades, test scores, and so on and involvement in extracurricular activities for college matriculation. Finally, the formal curriculum differs from the hidden curriculum in that the formal curriculum is publicly displayed, affirmed, taught to, and tested, while the hidden curriculum is never written and is primarily based on what is not taught.

The content of the curriculum is determined by the curriculum standards and by the philosophical viewpoint of the designers. Traditionalists organize curriculum by discipline and view knowledge as objective. Constructivists see knowledge as dynamic and ever changing as it is constructed by the student. They would tend to organize curriculum by broad-based themes and build in flexibility. Due to the current trend of high-stakes tests that label schools and districts as acceptable or in need of improvement, the traditional viewpoint of curriculum has become the formal curriculum in most [Page 377]U.S. schools. If knowledge is not objective, then high-stakes tests lose their foundation.

...