PROBLEM FORMULATION RESEARCH GOAL
14 total program in school, curriculum covers all activities for the students. It
includes what the students learn, how they learn, how teachers help them learn, the supporting materials used, assessment styles and methods, and the facilities
the learning process takes place. Hamilton defines curriculum as a guideline which is drawn from the past
as evaluation from the past but „is shaped according to the future‟ 1990: 38. Curriculum embodies both a vision and a cultural tool. It is shaped by its users,
both the curriculum maker authority and the schools teachers and learners 1990:
38. A curriculum is „more likely to reflect the cultural selections, values and aspirations of powerful social groups than the cultural assumptions of
powerless groups‟ 1990: 39. Curriculum is a „unified system of interconnected elements‟ 1990: 40. Thus, curriculum consists of elements which work in
harmony to form a unified and coherence system. Curriculum is reorganized to make it accessible to learners by separating it into units subjects, texts
textbooks and instruction lessons. In short, curriculum is an „ordered or structured entity‟ because it „comprises‟ not only „a range of individual units but
also the interrelations hips and interactions that holds the units together‟ and
consists of syllabus which covers the lists of topics or subjects 1990: 41. Feez and Joyce define curriculum as „a general statement of goals and
outcomes, learning arrangements, evaluation and documentation relating to the management of programs within an educational institution‟ 1998: 9. Since it
involves educational institution, different institution may adopt and develop different curriculum. Some institution may have textbook as the basis of the
curriculum and requires teachers to follow detailed syllabus documents. Another
15 institution may provide curriculum frameworks but require teachers to make their
individual syllabus design. The others may allow teachers creatively formulate their own teaching based on a basic guideline given by the government.
In a simpler way, Richards defines curriculum as „the whole body of knowledge that children acquire in schools‟ 2001: 39. This refers to the aspects
of teaching learning process leading to the knowledge building of students in schools. It includes the syllabus covering the goals, objectives and the planning of
the lesson, the teacher context which determines the execution of the lesson, the learners themselves as the subject of the teaching learning process and the
materials such as the books and realia to support the activities in the classroom. Facilities, equipment, the other staffs and the school foundation or authority as the
supporting factors in the process of learning must be necessarily mentioned. Richards and Schmidt propose two definitions of curriculum. First, it is
„an overall plan for a course or programme‟. The programme usually includes the educational purpose the aims or goals, the syllabus which covers the content of
the programme and the sequence of teaching, the methodology which covers the procedures for teaching and activities which will be implemented in the learning
process, the assessment and testing which are used to assess the students and the evaluation which is used to assess the success or failure of the programme in
achieving the goals 2010: 151. Second, curriculum is „the total programme of
formal studies offered by a school or institution‟ 2010: 151. Elementary school curriculum, secondary school curriculum and Montesori school curriculum are
some examples for this kind of definition. The second definition refers to the