Curriculum

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Curriculum

• Part I.

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Three Versions of Curriculum

• Subject Centered
• Teacher Centered
• Student Centered

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In my K-? Education, I have had.

• All teacher-centered experiences of curriculum
• Some Subject-centered experiences
• Some student-centered experiences
• An optimal blend of these varieties
• A blend that had little rhyme or reason to
  recommend it

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What is the nature of curriculum?

• Curriculum is something determined by experts and
  authorities.
• There is no right curriculum.
• Curriculum should reflect the real world, be
  practical, of use.
• There are many curricula we can learn and
  negotiate

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Please make your selection...

• Authorities /Experts Determine
• There is no right curriculum
• Curriculum should be the real world
• There are many curricula we can learn

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Definitions of Curriculum

• Curriculum is all of the experiences children
  have under the guidance of teachers.
• Curriculum encompasses all learning opportunities
  provided by school.
• Curriculum is a plan for all experiences which
  the learner encounters in school.
• Curriculum is subject to perspectives, debate,
  change

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Discipline, Discourse, Theory

• Discipline an area of study, with its own
  particular rules and expectations.
• E.G., the discipline of Economics, or History
• Discourse a system of statements that provide
  rules of information and sets of practices
  within a social milieu (Grant Gillette, 2006).
• E.G. discourse of free-market capitalism.
• Theory an argument about how to think about a
  discipline or a discourse. Thinking about the
• Nature of our thinking metacognition.
• E.G. Theory of the novel, or Theory of
  Evolution, or Marxist Theory of History

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Who owns the curriculum?

• A teacher in a public school is an employee of
  the district, which is an educational entity of
  the state.
• It is the state, the governor, the legislature
  (the state dept. of education or state board of
  education) which has ultimate responsibility over
  the curriculum.

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CurriculumThomas Popkewitz

• I view curriculum as a particular, historically
  formed knowledge that inscribes rules and
  standards by which we reason about the world
  and our self as a productive member of that
  world.
• Curriculum is a disciplining technology that
  directs how the individual is to act, feel, talk,
  and see the world and the self. As such,
  curriculum is a form of social regulation.

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Curriculum and Power Relationships

• Expert knowledge shapes our thinking about much
  in our daily life.
• We think of it as natural but it is notit is
  built from expert systems of thinking.
• We assume expert knowledge to be true.

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I know for certain that

• The earth revolves around the sun
• My friend loves me
• It is below zero outside
• There is truth in the world
• My senses give me factual information

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Curriculum Standards

• Nothing newin 1909 E.L. Thorndike developed
  handwriting standards measuring students
  penmanship performance
• Standards consider content and performance and
  remove the need for teachers to guess or make
  inferences about what students need to know
• Content standards specify what students should
  know and be able to do
• Performance standards specify the evidence needed
  to demonstrate achievement
• Tendency toward conservative visions of back to
  basics since 1983 A Nation at Risk Report
• Tendency toward internationalism in curricular
  thinking

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Standards and Curriculum

• Although most educatorsargue that these
  standards are not the curriculum, standards do
  suggest the learning experience and opportunities
  that students should have under the guidance of
  the teachers.
• for many teachers, the standards have become
  the fusion of teachers public, professional, and
  personal knowledge that disciplines their choices
  and possibilities, and must therefore be thought
  of as the effects of power.

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The Overt Curriculum

• The overt curriculum is the open, or public,
  dimension and includes current and historical
  interpretations, learning experiences, and
  learning outcomes.
• Openly discussed, consciously planned, usually
  written down, presented through the instructional
  process
• Textbooks, learning kits, lesson plans, school
  plays etc.

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Overt Curriculum

• Provides students with science, history, math,
  literature
• Provides students with the knowledge society
  wants them to havebeyond the academics
• Social Responsibilitythe overt curriculum should
  be societys messenger (Benjamin Franklin)

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Societys Messsenger

• In the 1600sfor religious purposesOld Deluder
  Satan laws (1642)
• In order to organize what students should learn
  and teachers should teach, The New England Primer
  was published (1690)
• In the late 1700s and 1800s, Americanization
• 1900s Progressivism for Democracy in reforms
  founded on thinking of John Dewey
• E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy

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The Invisible (Hidden)Curriculum

• The processesthe noise by which the overt
  curriculum is transmitted
• they are also learning and modifying attitudes,
  motives, and values in relationship to the
  experiencesin the classroom.
• The nonacademic outcomes of formal education are
  sometimes of greater consequencethan is learning
  the subject matter.

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Results of the Hidden Curriculum

• Notions of truth, ways of thinking, unstated
  implications
• Appraisals of self-worth
• Social Roles
• Middle-Class Perspectives
• Attitudes and Behavior Required for Work

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I see myself

• As an A kind of person
• As a future leader in my field
• As a hard worker
• As a solid middle class member

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The What Knowledge Debate

• Colonial moral education
• 19th Century Americanization
• Early 20th The Scopes trialbefore Scopes,
  religious faith was the common, if not universal,
  premise of American thought after Scopes,
  scientific skepticism prevailed.
• A Nation at Risk (1983) return to the basics

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The Null Curriculum

• When a topic is never taught
• too unimportant
• too controversial
• too inappropriate
• not worth the time
• not essential

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Extra or Co-curricula

• Beneficial to self-esteem
• Improved race relations
• Higher SAT scores, grades
• Better health for females, gender stereotypes
  undermined
• Higher career aspirations

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The Whose Knowledge Debate

• our arguments over curriculum are also our
  arguments over who we are as Americans, including
  how we wish to represent ourselves to our
  children
• The Canondefining what is central and what is
  marginal

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Curriculum Organization

• Societal levelpoliticians, special committees,
  experts
• Institutional levelset at the school, district,
  collegeusually set along subject matter
  disciplines
• Instructional levelteacher planning and teaching
  students
• Ideological levellearning theorists and subject
  matter specialists

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The Reign of the Textbook

• Textbook adoption states
• Effects
• Economies of scale
• Censorship
• Mentioning Effect
• Inauthentic text
• Timeliness

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Standards Movement

• Content Standards
• Whose content?
• Traditional versus Progressive
• Todaydebate over Scientifically Based Practices
  in education.

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NCLB

• Annual Testing
• Academic Improvement
• Report Cards
• Faculty Qualifications

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Adequate Yearly Progress

• AYP
• Underperforming by measurements
• Students and parents offered options
• Consequent Loss of Funding
• Browse State Website?

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State Standards and Test are

• Desirable, as they create accountability
• A mistake, they dont measure real learning
• Positive for unifying educational experience
• Divisive and not representative of different
  groups experiences

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Alfie Kohn

• Individuals lost in sea of tests
• Learning as exploration, creativity stifled
• Use of threats and bribery counter to ethical
  education.
• Shifting emphasis from real issues to surface
  issues
• Detract from teacher autonomy

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Topics in Curriculum / Know these in terms of
philosophy topics?

• Creationism versus Evolution
• Core Knowledge, the Canon, versus
• Multiculturalism
• Multiple Intelligences
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Metacognition
• Critical Pedagogy (and literacy)