Syllabus vs Curriculum

The difference between curriculum and syllabus is that a subject syllabus is just a unit of a course or subject curriculum. Curriculum can be termed as a combination of the syllabus, course design, class timetable as well as lesson plans for the subject.

A curriculum also helps in planning how a certain subject or course will be taught while the syllabus just includes topics and concepts that will be covered. We often use them as interchangeable terms without knowing that they are entirely different.

Before pursuing an academic program, you can understand its structure in a more detailed way if you know the difference between syllabus and curriculum. So, let’s begin with the discussion of syllabus vs curriculum and explore their key differences.

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What’s the Difference Between Syllabus vs Curriculum?

The curriculum contains the overall content as provided by an education board for a particular course spanning across a stipulated period. Whereas the syllabus explains the summary of different topics covered or units that will be taught in a specific subject or discipline under that particular course.

Syllabus Vs Curriculum: Key Differences

Syllabus vs Curriculum	Curriculum	Syllabus
Meaning	A set of guidelines of the different academic contents and chapters that are covered during a program offered by a particular educational institution.	A document that has all the information about different topics or concepts that need to be covered for a particular subject.
Nature	Prescriptive	Descriptive
Structured For	Complete Course	Each Subject Under the Course
Changes	Cannot be easily changed	Can be easily changed
Determined By	Administration of College, Institute or School or the Government	Exam Board
Scope	Wide	Narrow
Uniformity	Uniform for all the teachers	Different from one teacher to another
Term Duration	Until the course lasts	A fixed-term, can also be a year

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Let us comprehensively understand the difference between Syllabus vs Curriculum from the following points:

• The curriculum remains prescriptive as its structure needs to be followed in the specified manner while the syllabus is more descriptive and flexible and can be covered in a non-prescriptive manner.
• The curriculum is meticulously designed by the school or college administration while the syllabus gets created by teachers by the educational board.
• The curriculum stays the same for every teacher while the syllabus can differ and it can be covered distinctively as per their teaching style.
• Another important point of difference between syllabus vs curriculum is that the term curriculum originated from the Latin “curricule” which means to run or course. On the other hand, the term syllabus finds its origins in the Greek “sittuba” meaning title slip or label.
• The curriculum encompasses a more extensive scope than the syllabus. This is because the syllabus remains confined to a particular subject while the curriculum provides the structure for the whole course.
• The syllabus is only provided for a year while the curriculum covers the whole course.
• The curriculum contains all the subjects and outlines how they will be studied during the course while the syllabus is the more detailed version for each subject under the course.

Syllabus and Curriculum PPT

The Differences between Syllabus and Curriculum from mardiatun nisa

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What is Syllabus?

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.” – Abigail Adams.

In simple terms, a syllabus is a document containing information about the different topics or the portion that needs to be covered for a particular subject or a course. This document is determined by the board of examination and created by different professors. While forming a syllabus, the professors ensure that the fundamentals of a particular subject or course are added in a unique combination of theoretical and practical learning methods. A syllabus is provided to students and teachers at the beginning of an academic session.

Discussing syllabus vs curriculum, it’s important to understand that the syllabus of a subject is considered as a guide for the subject teacher as well as the students. It helps the students understand the subject in detail and why it is a part of their course. It also helps students to anticipate what is expected from them and the consequences in case of failing the subject. It also contains the general policies, rules, topics to be covered, instructions, assignments, test dates, projects, etc.

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What is Curriculum?

A Curriculum is basically a set of guidelines for different academic contents and chapters that are covered in a specific program offered by a particular school or college. However, it covers the attitude, manner, knowledge, behaviour, performance, manner and the different skills that students will develop throughout the academic period. Also, for the differences between syllabus vs curriculum, the latter deals with different teaching methods, assignments, lessons, mental and physical exercises, assessments, presentations, learning objectives, test series, etc. 

Generally, a curriculum is well-planned and carefully designed by educational institutions or the government. Focusing on the overall learning experience provided by a course, it emphasizes essentially on the mental and physical development of the students. 

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Relationship between Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbook

There is a close and interrelated relationship between Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbooks because these three are essential component of an academic session. Let’s understand this relationship in further detail:

• Curriculum defines the intricate structure of how the syllabus, teaching periods and prescribed study materials would be, the syllabus includes all the chapters and topics in detail along with the reference books, study guides and further academic instructions and then the textbook follows all the essentials mentioned in both curriculum and syllabus for an academic semester or year.
• Lesson plans for a certain subject are part of the curriculum, but detailed in terms of chapters and topics in a syllabus while further studied through textbooks.
• The more structured a curriculum is, the syllabus will be simpler and easy to cover with the help of textbooks.
• When it comes to formulation of these three, the curriculum and syllabus are constituted by the education board and teachers while textbooks are created by academic authors and publishers as per the curriculum and syllabus.
• The curriculum is provided for a whole year, the syllabus is for a certain academic session like a semester and textbooks differ as per the syllabus for each session as well as the curriculum for each year.

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Thus, educational terms like syllabus and curriculum seem similar but have different elements and definitions. Once you comprehend the key points of syllabus vs curriculum, you will see the academic plan of a program or a course in an entirely different manner.

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