As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults. A curriculum is prescriptive and is based on a more general syllabus which merely specifies what topics must be understood and to what level to achieve a particular grade or standard. As an academic field, philosophy of education is “the philosophical study of education and its problems its central subject matter is education, and its methods are those of philosophy”.
- A closely related distinction is that between descriptive and prescriptive conceptions.
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