Vocabulary for Curriculum Desing

2 Curriculum Design terms

Scope: Curriculum designers must consider a curriculum’s breadth and depth of content—that is, its scope. In Basic Principles of Curriculum Instruction, Ralph Tyler referred to scope as consisting of all the content, topics, learning experiences, and organizing threads comprising the educational plan.49 John Goodlad and Zhixin Su reiterated this definition, pointing out that it refers to the curriculum’s horizontal organization.50 Scope includes all the types of educational experiences created to engage students in learning. It includes both cognitive and affective learning (and, some might add, spiritual learning).51 Sometimes a curriculum’s scope is limited to a simple listing of key topics and activities.
Sequence: When considering sequence, curricularists seek a curriculum that fosters cumulative and continuous learning. Specifically, curricularists must decide how content and experiences can build on what came before.