Each
and every time I am posed with any big picture question regarding curriculum I
find myself in an initial state of bewilderment and even slight panic. Whether the question is “What is
curriculum and what is its purpose?” (Our old friend from cycle one), “What
should the content of curriculum be? (Cycle two), “Should curriculum address
controversial issues?” (Cycle
three) or now, “How should curriculum be generated?” I sit with my jaw dropped
and my brain scrambling to find answers, only to come up with the overwhelming
conclusion that the issue of curriculum is bigger than little old me. However, after picking my jaw up off
the library desk and spending a little time scratching my head in deep thought,
I realize that yes, curriculum is bigger than just me. Curriculum needs to be developed as the
sum of many parts. While I am an
individual, graduate student and elementary art teacher I can generate an idea
as an answer for these big questions, however in order to implement and create
a curriculum as an answer to these questions takes the effort of a small
army-or a committee of appropriately organized curriculum developers.
Ok,
now that I have picked my jaw up off the desk and I have given myself a moment
to let this big huge question sink in, I believe that the first step in
generating curriculum is to determine what the end goal of a child’s education
should be. What are we trying to
get out of sending our children to school for 12 or 13 years? But who do we ask to figure out that
answer? My suggestion would be to
ask administrators, teachers, students, parents and state officials to name a
few. I would also consider asking
business owners. Of course there
will be a slew of different opinions as to what the goal is so it may be
helpful to provide options that the participants can choose and offer an
opportunity to add their own opinions as well. Once we have the initial question of what the goal for schooling
is, then and only then can a committee be created. I feel that it is so important that the curriculum committee
be made up of a diverse group of educators and parents alike. The group should be diverse, open
minded, and strongly connected to schooling and education, unlike some of our
Texan friends who seem to be the most hell bent on telling every student that
America was based on Christianity rather than addressing other current
issues. I feel that it is very
important that this committee be thoroughly interviewed before they are
accepted in order to avoid the possibility of hidden agendas, which could
possibly sway any decisions that are made.
The
next order of business would be to review and possibly revise the current
curriculum and how it is enacted.
This is where I like to look back at Ralph Tyler’s Basic Principles
of Curriculum and Instruction. Tyler suggests that once we have the objective in
mind we need to figure out how to attain these objectives by way of meaningful
learning. “In planning an
educational program to attain given objectives we face the question of deciding
on the particular education experiences to be provided, since it is through
these experiences that learning will take place and educational objectives will
be obtained” (Tyler). In order to
do this we must provide opportunities for our students to practice what is
needed in order to attain the objective. The student must also experience
satisfaction from performing or experiencing the practiced behavior towards the
objective. The actions or
behaviors the student will be performing or practicing must be appropriate to
that student and what they are capable of. Lastly, it is important that the teacher has a tool belt
that is well equipped and filled with different creative ideas and ways
students can attain the objective as they follow the previous steps.
I agree with Tyler in that organization is a key element in
generating curriculum. As common
sense as it is, I believe that it is very important to begin and the beginning
and to build up in a progressive order.
In addition to building up into further depth, I feel that it is
important to revisit past lessons and to additionally incorporate the previous
lessons in different lessons in order to promote critical thinking and so
students aren’t only “learning” through rote memory. Not only is it important the classroom teachers maintain
organization, but I feel it is also important that all teachers that teach in
the same school, or even district, follow the same layout of organization in
order to provide cohesiveness across the board.
Lastly, as Tyler notes, in order to
see if the curriculum and the methods for enacting the curriculum are working
positively (or negatively) it is important to evaluate. However, in order to have an accurate evaluation
it is important that the group in question is evaluated more than one time in
order to see growth.
To conclude, the idea of how to
generate curriculum is a BIG HUGE question that takes the effort of many open
minded and experienced individuals in order to enact. This is a question that is bigger than me, but in my effort
to address it I came to the conclusion with the help of Ralph Tyler that you
must begin with the end objective in mind and then provide students with
different meaningful learning opportunities and experiences. That mixed together with organization
and evaluation may help in successfully generating curriculum.
Resources:
This New York Times article visits the Texas story of how
they are trying to challenge and change the current “strengths and weaknesses”
concept in the Darwinian debate.
This blog addresses the idea of hiring teachers while having
a hidden agenda. How schools may
pick and choose their employees based on if their practices reinforce their
schools hidden agenda or not.
The Washington Post article that accompanies the blog above.
This website is geared towards generating curriculum and
suggests ways to do so as well as providing materials in order to aide the
process/you.
This website is a resource for interactive curriculum ideas
in the visual arts field.
Student’s won’t be using rote memory- they will be having fun
experiencing the lesson interactively on the web.
http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/index.html
Hi Becky,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post--looks like it got up just fine, so no problems there!
I agree with you that we are tackling the big, head-scratching sort of questions in this course. But I also agree with you--and I think this is more important--that while no one person can solve the problem, each person can contribute to the solution if we start to put some of the right organization and structure into place.
As simple as it sounds, I think your question is extremely important: What are we trying to get out of sending our children to school for 12 or 13 years? The only thing I would make sure to add here is that I think we need to make sure we acknowledge that schools have plural ends--we are trying to produce many things in school (think back only to the Cardinal Principles Report, and the seven goals they laid out for schools).
In my view, part of the problem is that we have both too few and too broad of aims right now--college and work readiness are important goals, but they ignore so much else that is socially valuable (worthy use of Leisure time, for example), and that contributes to these things (health and the ability to work on a team, for example).
But I do think you are right. We need to get much more serious about what we are after in school--the de facto answer right now is improved test scores, and that is just now a worthy or sustainable goal for teachers and kids.
You implicitly put teachers as the screens that help assemble this committee--and I think you are right on base there. Schools need to see community outreach and involvement as central to their mission. And getting folks involved in curriculum is a big part of this. Once we can start to make this switch in mindset, then I really do think the sky is the limit.
We just have no sustainable way of getting parents and community members involved in school in meaningful ways. I worry that too many teachers would view extra adults in the classroom and the school as a hindrance right now--and without a better view of what we want these people to do, then I suppose they might become that.
The other real key that you and Tyler both hit upon is the notion that the "student must also experience satisfaction from performing or experiencing the practiced behavior." Again, this is such a basic idea, but we have totally forgotten it. You can't expect students to dread school, or dread a class, and to do well in that class. There will be no lasting effect. People scoff at the notion of school being fun--and there is some good reason to do this--but we have gone way too far to the other side right now. It's as if we are measuring our success by now stressed out and disgusted students leave school (in some cases).
My only further suggestion here is that we put a lot more time into evaluation, as well. We essentially do a uni-dimensional measure right now (test scores), and call it good. But our measures have to line up with what we value. If we value things like health and the ability to work in a team, then those are things we should start to evaluate, and hold ourselves accountable to them as well.
Thanks for your work here!
Kyle