What is the curriculum?

Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) Curriculum for Scotlandprinciples

Part One: Principles

1. What is the curriculum?

This document sets out an adult literacy and numeracy curriculum for Scotland. There are different understandings of the term "curriculum" and different approaches to defining a curriculum.

  • At one end of the spectrum, the definition of a curriculum involves a detailed specification of content to be covered or outcomes to be achieved.
  • At the other end, it means explaining the processes undertaken by learners and tutors to identify, plan, carry out and review learning programmes for individual learners.

The approach adopted in these guidelines is strongly oriented towards a process-based view of the curriculum, while recognising that learners and tutors may welcome some guidance on possible content of learning. The emphasis is on the way that the curriculum is negotiated with learners and builds creatively on their existing knowledge and skills and the contexts they experience in their private, family, community and working lives. The more open the curriculum is the easier it is to adapt it to the needs and learning aims of learners.