Supported Curriculum

The Supported Curriculum is the curriculum supported by available resources. Such resources include both human (teachers) as well as physical (such as textbooks, workbooks, audio visual aids, teacher guides, grounds, buildings, library books and laboratory equipment). The Supported Curriculum not only plays a vital role in developing, implementing, and evaluating the curriculum, it also affects the quantity and nature of the learnt content (Glatthron, Boschee, & Whitehead, 2006, pp. 10-14).

Research indicates that teacher-student ratio (e.g. Achilles, Finn, Prout, & Bobbit, 2001; Danielson, 2002; Farber & Finn, 2000), the allocation of amount of time for a particular subject, and the quality of the textbooks (Allington, 2002) play a key role in students’ learning. These are all elements of Supported Curriculum.