loosely a course of study in a school or college. More properly it is defined as the overall rationale for or essential principles and features of an educational programme. An influential theorist Ralph W. Tyler (1902-1994) outlined four key elements in curriculum: aims objectives or purposes content methods or procedures assessment. Curriculum is often used wrongly as synonymous with syllabus  which is in fact the term for curriculum content ( see also related terms such as formal curriculum hidden curriculum total curriculum).