Word.ws English Dictionary

core curriculum

core curriculum noun: the courses or other components of an educational program which are foundational, prerequisite, or mandatory, as opposed to the elective, secondary, or variable components of a program.

Noun

core curriculum (plural core curricula or core curriculums)

  1. The courses or other components of an educational program which are foundational, prerequisite, or mandatory, as opposed to the elective, secondary, or variable components of a program.
    • The senior high school, if free to concentrate on intensive specialized courses and a core curriculum of constants, will consummate the socially integrating influences of the elementary school.1923, James M. Glass, “The Reorganization of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Grades—Program of Studies”, in The School Review, volume 31, number 7, pages 523–524
    • Thus, the undergraduate core curriculum is a college's foundational education, a developing lens that effectively focuses issues of whatever sort and projects them, so focused, onto a community screen as conventional wisdom.1991, David M. Bossman, “Cross-Cultural Values for a Pluralistic Core Curriculum”, in The Journal of Higher Education, volume 62, number 6, page 662

Forms of core curriculum

pluralcore curricula
pluralcore curriculums

Questions about core curriculum

What does core curriculum mean?
Core curriculum means the courses or other components of an educational program which are foundational, prerequisite, or mandatory, as opposed to the elective, secondary, or variable components of a program.
What part of speech is core curriculum?
Core curriculum is a noun.
What is the plural of core curriculum?
The plural of core curriculum is core curricula.

Words near core curriculum in the dictionary

  1. core constituent
  2. core constituents
  3. core course
  4. core courses
  5. core curricula
  6. core curriculum
  7. core curriculums
  8. core day
  9. core days
  10. core drill
  11. core drills

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: core curriculum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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