Educational Gap: The Break between the Intended and Learned Curriculum in Iran's Higher Education System

Curriculum creates the main context for the formation of the most important process of the academic system, learning. Education, research and the provision of specialized services by higher education institutions largely depend on the dynamics of curricula. The curriculum offered is currently not equipped with skilled graduates and does not fit the needs and necessities of the community and the market. Consequently, the purpose of this research was examining the causes of the gap between intended and learned curriculums. The type of research was applied in terms of purpose, and phenomenological in terms of implementation. The statistical population of the study consisted of specialists in the field of curriculum, which according to the nature of the research, about eight individuals were selected as samples. The sampling method was purposive non-random. The research instrument was a structured interview with four open questions. The findings of the interview showed that lack of expertise in the curriculum, lack of (human, technical, material) resources, unwillingness of faculty members, lack of familiarity with curriculum applications, incomprehensible goals, lack of enthusiasm for the content of the program, the lack of proper training of professors about the importance of the correct implementation of curriculum, lack of supervision by academic directors, lack of sufficient facilities for some laboratory courses, lack of a proper system of assessing the performance of professors, the appointment of non-specialists in management positions related to the field of education, ideality of some curriculum and their mismatch with the realities in the community and university and the lack of motivation in students to obtain the intended curriculum are of the most significant reasons for the gap between the intended and learned curriculum.