CUS3701: CURRICULUM STUDIES (UNISA)
2025/2026 | 300+ VERIFIED EXAM &
APPLICATION QUESTIONS WITH DETAILED
ANSWERS & RATIONALES | COMPLETE STUDY
AND REVISION GUIDE
CUS3701: CURRICULUM STUDIES (UNISA)
300 VERIFIED EXAM & APPLICATION QUESTIONS WITH DETAILED ANSWERS &
RATIONALES
COMPLETE STUDY AND REVISION GUIDE
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE: Each question is numbered and clearly. The
CORRECT ANSWER is marked with . Read the RATIONALE carefully to
deepen your understanding. Questions are grouped by topic for focused revision.
SECTION A: CURRICULUM CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which of the following BEST
defines "curriculum" in its broadest sense?
A. A list of subjects and topics formally taught in school B. Only the syllabus documents
approved by the Department of Education C. The total learning experiences planned
and guided by the school D. The timetable and schedule followed by teachers daily E.
The textbooks and resources used to deliver lessons
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: Curriculum in its broadest sense refers to the total learning
experiences — planned and unplanned — that are guided by the school. This goes
beyond subject lists and syllabi to include all formal, informal, and hidden learning
,opportunities. This definition is consistent with scholars like Stenhouse and Ornstein &
Hunkins.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 2 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "null curriculum" as
described by Eisner refers to:
A. A curriculum with no learning outcomes B. Content that is deliberately excluded or
not taught in schools C. A curriculum that has failed to achieve its goals D. The informal
learning that takes place outside the classroom E. A hidden set of social values
embedded in the curriculum
CORRECT ANSWER: B
RATIONALE: Elliot Eisner introduced the concept of the "null curriculum" to
describe the content, subjects, and topics that schools choose NOT to teach. What is
omitted from the curriculum is as significant as what is included, because exclusion
shapes learners' understanding and worldview.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 3 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "hidden curriculum" is
BEST described as:
A. A curriculum used only for gifted learners B. Secret lessons taught by the teacher
outside school hours C. Unofficial norms, values, and beliefs transmitted informally
through schooling D. The portion of the curriculum not yet implemented by teachers E.
Assessment tasks that are not communicated to learners
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial lessons,
values, perspectives, and norms that students learn in school. These are not part of the
formal curriculum but are transmitted through the social environment, school culture,
teacher behaviour, and classroom routines.
,━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 4 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which type of curriculum
refers to what is actually taught in the classroom by the teacher, as opposed to
what is officially prescribed?
A. Formal curriculum B. Intended curriculum C. Enacted curriculum D. Assessed
curriculum E. Hidden curriculum
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The enacted (or delivered) curriculum refers to what teachers
actually teach in classrooms, which may differ from the intended/official curriculum due
to teacher interpretation, time constraints, resources, or learner needs. This distinction
is important in curriculum studies.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "intended curriculum" is
BEST described as:
A. What learners actually learn by the end of the school year B. What teachers
personally believe should be taught C. The official curriculum as prescribed in policy
documents and syllabi D. The curriculum that is evaluated through standardized tests E.
The subject matter that learners find most relevant
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The intended curriculum is the officially prescribed curriculum
found in policy documents, national curriculum statements, and syllabi. It represents the
formal plan of what should be taught, before any teacher interpretation or classroom
delivery takes place.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 6 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which of the following
CORRECTLY distinguishes between curriculum and syllabus?
, A. Curriculum is subject-specific while syllabus covers all school subjects B. A syllabus
is broader than a curriculum and guides national education policy C. A curriculum is a
broader plan for educational experiences; a syllabus is a detailed outline of content for a
specific subject D. Curriculum and syllabus are synonymous terms used
interchangeably E. A syllabus includes teaching strategies while curriculum only lists
topics
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: Curriculum is a broader concept encompassing overall
educational goals, experiences, and learning activities across all levels. A syllabus is a
narrower, subject-specific document outlining content, objectives, and assessment for a
particular subject or course.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 7 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which curriculum component
answers the question: "What should be taught?"
A. Curriculum evaluation B. Curriculum implementation C. Curriculum content/subject
matter D. Curriculum assessment E. Curriculum organisation
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The content or subject matter component of curriculum answers
the fundamental question of "what should be taught." This includes the knowledge,
skills, and values that are selected for inclusion in the curriculum based on various
criteria such as significance, relevance, and validity.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 8 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ A curriculum that is "learner-
centred" places GREATEST emphasis on:
A. The teacher's knowledge and expertise in delivering content B. Meeting national
standards and government benchmarks C. The interests, needs, and experiences of the
learner in guiding instruction D. The logical organisation of subject matter E.
Standardized testing as the primary measure of success
CORRECT ANSWER: C
2025/2026 | 300+ VERIFIED EXAM &
APPLICATION QUESTIONS WITH DETAILED
ANSWERS & RATIONALES | COMPLETE STUDY
AND REVISION GUIDE
CUS3701: CURRICULUM STUDIES (UNISA)
300 VERIFIED EXAM & APPLICATION QUESTIONS WITH DETAILED ANSWERS &
RATIONALES
COMPLETE STUDY AND REVISION GUIDE
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE: Each question is numbered and clearly. The
CORRECT ANSWER is marked with . Read the RATIONALE carefully to
deepen your understanding. Questions are grouped by topic for focused revision.
SECTION A: CURRICULUM CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which of the following BEST
defines "curriculum" in its broadest sense?
A. A list of subjects and topics formally taught in school B. Only the syllabus documents
approved by the Department of Education C. The total learning experiences planned
and guided by the school D. The timetable and schedule followed by teachers daily E.
The textbooks and resources used to deliver lessons
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: Curriculum in its broadest sense refers to the total learning
experiences — planned and unplanned — that are guided by the school. This goes
beyond subject lists and syllabi to include all formal, informal, and hidden learning
,opportunities. This definition is consistent with scholars like Stenhouse and Ornstein &
Hunkins.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 2 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "null curriculum" as
described by Eisner refers to:
A. A curriculum with no learning outcomes B. Content that is deliberately excluded or
not taught in schools C. A curriculum that has failed to achieve its goals D. The informal
learning that takes place outside the classroom E. A hidden set of social values
embedded in the curriculum
CORRECT ANSWER: B
RATIONALE: Elliot Eisner introduced the concept of the "null curriculum" to
describe the content, subjects, and topics that schools choose NOT to teach. What is
omitted from the curriculum is as significant as what is included, because exclusion
shapes learners' understanding and worldview.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 3 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "hidden curriculum" is
BEST described as:
A. A curriculum used only for gifted learners B. Secret lessons taught by the teacher
outside school hours C. Unofficial norms, values, and beliefs transmitted informally
through schooling D. The portion of the curriculum not yet implemented by teachers E.
Assessment tasks that are not communicated to learners
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial lessons,
values, perspectives, and norms that students learn in school. These are not part of the
formal curriculum but are transmitted through the social environment, school culture,
teacher behaviour, and classroom routines.
,━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 4 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which type of curriculum
refers to what is actually taught in the classroom by the teacher, as opposed to
what is officially prescribed?
A. Formal curriculum B. Intended curriculum C. Enacted curriculum D. Assessed
curriculum E. Hidden curriculum
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The enacted (or delivered) curriculum refers to what teachers
actually teach in classrooms, which may differ from the intended/official curriculum due
to teacher interpretation, time constraints, resources, or learner needs. This distinction
is important in curriculum studies.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ The "intended curriculum" is
BEST described as:
A. What learners actually learn by the end of the school year B. What teachers
personally believe should be taught C. The official curriculum as prescribed in policy
documents and syllabi D. The curriculum that is evaluated through standardized tests E.
The subject matter that learners find most relevant
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The intended curriculum is the officially prescribed curriculum
found in policy documents, national curriculum statements, and syllabi. It represents the
formal plan of what should be taught, before any teacher interpretation or classroom
delivery takes place.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 6 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which of the following
CORRECTLY distinguishes between curriculum and syllabus?
, A. Curriculum is subject-specific while syllabus covers all school subjects B. A syllabus
is broader than a curriculum and guides national education policy C. A curriculum is a
broader plan for educational experiences; a syllabus is a detailed outline of content for a
specific subject D. Curriculum and syllabus are synonymous terms used
interchangeably E. A syllabus includes teaching strategies while curriculum only lists
topics
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: Curriculum is a broader concept encompassing overall
educational goals, experiences, and learning activities across all levels. A syllabus is a
narrower, subject-specific document outlining content, objectives, and assessment for a
particular subject or course.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 7 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ Which curriculum component
answers the question: "What should be taught?"
A. Curriculum evaluation B. Curriculum implementation C. Curriculum content/subject
matter D. Curriculum assessment E. Curriculum organisation
CORRECT ANSWER: C
RATIONALE: The content or subject matter component of curriculum answers
the fundamental question of "what should be taught." This includes the knowledge,
skills, and values that are selected for inclusion in the curriculum based on various
criteria such as significance, relevance, and validity.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━ QUESTION 8 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▶ A curriculum that is "learner-
centred" places GREATEST emphasis on:
A. The teacher's knowledge and expertise in delivering content B. Meeting national
standards and government benchmarks C. The interests, needs, and experiences of the
learner in guiding instruction D. The logical organisation of subject matter E.
Standardized testing as the primary measure of success
CORRECT ANSWER: C
