CLASSIFICATION OF CURRICULUM

Curriculum  can broadly be classified into three main categories. These are:
i) Overt or Explicit Curriculum
ii) Hidden or Implicit Curriculum
iii) Null Curriculum
Let us understand each of these categories.
Overt Curriculum
Overt Curriculum r explicit curriculum is the intended curriculum. This includes all
those experiences, curricular and co-curricular, which are intentionally planned by the
school, college or university organization to be provided to the learners. It consists of
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, which are overtly provided to the learners.
Overt curriculum is designed keeping into account the goals and objectives of the
education and system and is evaluated in terms of these intended goals and objectives.
Meaning and Concept
of Curriculum
Hidden Curriculum
Hidden Curriculum is unintended or unnoticed curriculum. School, college or university
organization does not consciously plan and design such curriculum. Therefore, it is
unintended curriculum. But curricular inputs are implicitly provided to the learner by
the organization through various means. Students learn a lot from the social environment
of the classroom and the school. A teacher during his course of interaction with
students provides instructional inputs, which might not be planned and designed by her
earlier. Through various non-verbal behaviour like gestures and postures, eye contact,
appreciation of student behaviour by nodding, the teacher conveys many things. A
teacher praises a group of students who are sincere in their academic study and
ignores those who are not. A hidden curriculum also includes the value system of the
school and its teachers. Hence, a hidden curriculum is as important as the overt
curriculum. Educational institutions like school or college must be very conscious of
the implicit curricular inputs imparted to the students.
Null Curriculum
Eisner ( 1979) coined the term "Null Curriculum". It refers to the curriculum, which is
not taught. This means curricular matters are not consciously but are taught by our
silence. A curriculum of social studies generally includes history, geography and civics,
but not anthropology, economics, sociology and psychology. But the latter subject areas
are silently taught to the students through the social studies curriculum. Hence, the
latter subject areas comprise null curriculum.