ABSTRACT
Problems of curriculum development are among the most complex and crucial in any educational system. They are affected by a wide range of factors — political, social, economic, as well as by national tradition, culture and context. The concept of curriculum has changed during the last decades. Curriculum reforms in the 1960s in many countries initiated research on social needs and projected rational goals. Consequently significant discrepancies between curriculum as a project (plan) and its performance in school were identified. The phenomenon of the “hidden curriculum” was also observed and became important. Research on instruction and on the evaluation of educational effects of the hidden curriculum contributed to a more precise interpretation of this phenomenon. Curriculum development in Czechoslovakia has to undergo substantial change as has the whole of the education system. Such change is considered, in fact, as one of the social priorities for the country.
