Conceptualizing Curriculum Describe the Ways

¶ … conceptualizing Curriculum

Describe the ways in which the curriculum content is selected in your school setting.

Our curriculum development committee consists mostly of teachers as well as administrators. The committee performs a needs assessment which incorporates teacher and administrator opinions, standardized test scores, and other performance assessments. Curriculum content selection is based heavily on the results of the needs assessment and a review of existing content across the following criteria:

Review for Accuracy and Incorporation of New Instructional Materials - This process is to ensure that curriculum meets current expectations in the field of study and embraces new learning theories.

Conformance with Educational Philosophy - Our school is attempting to make the curriculum more learner-centered and to meet the needs of all students. Curriculum redesign is revising the traditional notion of the student as mere consumer of knowledge. Instead, students are viewed as explorers of and producers of knowledge. Curriculum is, therefore, placing a far greater emphasis on how to encourage learners to construct and produce knowledge, evaluate alternatives, make decisions, and apply knowledge.

Alignment with Goals - We review state and national test standards and ensure that our curriculum will be aligned with what is measured on these tests.

Differentiated Instruction - Meeting the needs of all students is a high priority. Increasingly, curriculum content selection considers ways to adjust the curriculum for different learners.

Diversity - the committee reviews the curriculum for inclusion of ethnic and cultural groups as well as women and increasingly incorporates the experiences of these students.

Contextualization - We are making make a greater effort to link curriculum with what students have learned from their own homes and community.

Interdisciplinary Integration - Some curriculum are being updated to include a theme, topic, issue, or problem that require synthesis from multiple subject areas.

Technology - the benefits of project-based learning are so significant that it is part of the technology mission for our school which states, "Students will use word processing, data presentation, authoring tools, and audio-visual presentation to support and enhance the curriculum across all disciplines through the use of project-based learning.

Describe how you think the process could be improved, if at all.

According to English (2000), "curriculum is always a means to somebody's end" serving the interests of either teachers, the school, the board or the state. and, he cautions that true curriculum alignment should be much more than just teaching to the test. It means being fair to all concerned-students (knowing what skills are expected), teachers (knowing how they will be evaluated) and systems (knowing what standard it will be held accountable to). With regards to English's concerns, the curriculum development committee should be more inclusive of all curriculum stakeholders such as students and parents.

And, curriculum content selection should do a better job of considering the knowledge of teachers and their readiness for change. Presently, teacher training is one of our largest issues. Further, our school places too much emphasis on teaching to the test in aligning curriculum with goals. More qualitative goals are needed to reflect a student's progress.

English (2000) makes mention that reformers must be aware of the hidden functions of schools if they are to make meaningul changes. Meighan (1983) explains:

The hidden curriculum is taught by the school, not by any teacher...something is coming across to the pupuls which may never be spoken in the English lessor or prayed about in assembly. They are picking-up an approach to living and an attitude to learning." concrete example of the hidden curriculum manifests in girls that early on have lower scores on math and science tests than boys. Some believe that cultural differences between boys and girls have a negative impact on girls' acquisition of skills or values for achievement in math and sciences (Holladay, 2007). Girls are believed to become sensitive to the roles of men and women in the real-world at an early age and lose interest in math and science where men predominate. Others think that the psychology of stigma, how humans responds to negative stereotypes about their gender group, threaten female students in profound ways (Holladay, 2007). An example of a frequent stereotype threat is "girls can't do math." While our school has embraced diversity and contextualization, hidden curriculum problems illustrate the need for greater consideration of the socialization of students in curriculum development.

Describe the curriculum guide used in your school setting and give your opinion as to whether it is "user friendly."

Our curriculum guide is weak and is not user friendly, but our staff is beginning to revise the format. Currently, the guide is organized by department and includes course numbers, names, descriptions and prerequisites. Our future format will incorporate best practices such as (a guide to curriculum development: Purposes, practices, procedures):