Transcript Document 7640450

Curriculum
Chapter 4
Definitions of Curriculum
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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.
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1.
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.
Curriculum…Thomas 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.”
Curriculum and Power Relationships
 Expert knowledge shapes our thinking
about much in our daily life.
 We think of it as “natural” but it is
not…it is built from expert systems of
thinking.
 We assume expert knowledge to be
true.
Which do you know for sure is
true?
1. The earth rotates around the
25%
sun.
5
25%
2. It’s autumn in the northern
hemisphere.
25%
3. God loves you.
25%
4. You are alive.
0
Curriculum Standards
 Nothing new…in 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
Standards and Curriculum
 “Although most educators…argue 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.”
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.
Overt Curriculum
 Provides students with science,
history, math, literature
 Provides students with the knowledge
society wants them to have…beyond
the academics
 Social Responsibility…the overt
curriculum should be “society’s
messenger” (Benjamin Franklin)
Society’s Messsenger
 In the 1600s…for religious
purposes…Old 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
The Hidden Curriculum
 The processes…the “noise” by which the
overt curriculum is transmitted
 “they are also learning and modifying
attitudes, motives, and values in
relationship to the experiences…in the
classroom.”
 The nonacademic outcomes of formal
education are sometimes of greater
consequence…than is learning the subject
matter….
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
I see myself
25%
1.
As
25%
2. As
3. As
25%
4. As
25%
an “A” kind of person
a future leader in my field
a hard worker
a solid middle class member
The “What Knowledge” Debate
 The Scopes trial…before 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”
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 Canon…defining what is central
and what is marginal
Curriculum Organization
 Societal level…politicians, special
committees, experts
 Institutional level…set at the school,
district, college…usually set along
subject matter disciplines
 Instructional level…teacher planning
and teaching students
 Ideological level…learning theorists
and subject matter specialists