Curriculum Are Social Forces, Human

¶ … curriculum are social forces, human development, and learning styles. The social and cultural factors that contribute to the individual differences of learners are the blending of many cultural backgrounds. African-American families, white families those who are native to an area and those who have moved in from other places, the family structures such as one-parent homes, two-parent homes, grandparents who raise their grandchildren, blended families, and some students even have their own children, religious preferences, and socioeconomic. By individualizing education a school system can provide for individual differences by allowing students to choose their own goals and create their own projects and topics in which they are interested. When planning for the curriculum a system should seek content that includes the diverse cultures that their school represents.

When looking at core content the terms are not always appropriate for the students, but when planning tasks it should be made certain the tasks fall into the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. It is also important to take into account the fact that some students, even though they are in one particular grade in school, they may not have reached these stages yet, so tasks must be modified for them. It is important to realize that students are realizing that they cannot do things perfectly all the time. For example often students are in the industry vs. inferiority stage and the identity vs. role confusion stage, so it is necessary to allow them opportunities to grow and mature and to take risks.

It is important to base curriculum around learning and learning styles so that students are presented with activities that allow them to choose parts of their curriculum and allow for individual learning styles. Each student learns differently and this should be taken into consideration. Not allowing this sets students up for failure.

2. Describe how each of the basic philosophies of education influences curriculum.

The term curriculum is used in a many different ways by parents, educators, and businesses. Some see curriculum as the academic substance that is done to children in school, while others view it as teacher directions and student activities that can be purchased from any number of curriculum publishers. Either way it is an important part of the educational system.

When developing curriculum improvement, two categories of bases should be looked at, those that are institutional in nature and those that affect people directly. The institutional foundation for curriculum planning includes planning domains, the context or characteristics of the school situation, the impact of current trends and issues, and the use of strategic planning. The bases of curriculum scheduling that affect people directly include student and teacher needs, local curriculum problems to be addressed, competencies of the planners, and pressures from inside and outside the school. All of these bases influence the curriculum planning process in various ways and to differing degrees. They can also vary with each situation over time.

The current trend is for state governments to create standards of competence that are tested at various points in students' educational careers and to make schools and students accountable for their performance on these tests. Test scores are commonly reported in the local media and this may lead to pressure from the local population being brought to bear on the school to improve its curricula. The situation of the school may be that it is within a district that hasn't passed a school levy for a number of years and thus has not been able to budget money to work on improving the curricula during that time. This scenario is not uncommon and it shows how a combination of factors can become the bases for, and can influence the curriculum planning process.

3. Describe how you would use curriculum mapping to improve student learning.

Curriculum Mapping stresses the idea that teachers and administrators need to focus on the balance between what really took place in individual classrooms with what was individually or collaboratively planned to take place. This data is considered in real time: recorded by months or grading periods. Most types of curriculum maps are recorded monthly. Teachers document what has taken place, or is planned, individually at a school-site level (Diary Map, Projected Map); collaboratively planned curriculum at a school-site level (Consensus Map, oftentimes referred to as a Core Map, Master Map, or Benchmark Map); or collaboratively planned curriculum at a district level (Essential Map).

Curriculum Mapping centers on three Cs: communication, curricular dialogue, and coherency. Curriculum Mapping demands that teachers play an active role in making curricular decisions. In order to gain insight into gaps, absences, and repetitions in a school or district's K-12 curriculum, it is critical to create quality maps. During the preliminary learning-to-map-phase the most commonly recorded data includes content, skills, assessments, resources, and their alignment to one another other and state or other standards. In the following and more advanced phases of mapping, additional data such as evaluation processes, attachments of best-practice lesson plans and activities, essential questions, and other curricular information is often included. Curriculum maps are never considered done and finalized. Curriculum Mapping does not recognize education as a static environment since learning, and learning about learning, is a continual process. With every year that teachers have new students, new classes, and new school years, newly created and revised curriculum maps provide evidence of a school or district's ongoing commitment to their curriculum. And with each passing year improvements can be made from the year before.

4. How would you use the DART Model of data analysis to improve instruction?

DART, is an acronym that represents the four steps to school improvement through targeted instructional change: the D. represents disaggregate data, the a represents assess needs, the R. represents review of standards and test results and T. represents target and align curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Data analysis training programs help principals to (a) organize and summarize demographic information about students, teachers, district, school, and community; (b) identify areas of strengths and weaknesses in student achievement; (c) identify trends in student achievement over time; and (d) understand norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment scores

Effective use of data by schools is a lynch pin for school improvement processes. School factors such as the types of data available to a school, the technology skills and data capacity within the school, and school practices can inhibit or promote use of data. Statewide testing provides data on school achievement. School staff must have skills to interpret the meaning of the results.

Data tools aid principals and leadership teams to manage and analyze data so that optimal competency in statistics is not required. There are multiple free tools available and others that have a cost associated with them. Professional development sessions and online programs have been provided to assist school personnel to better utilize data analysis tools. Professional development is an important method for improving data analysis skills of principals and school leadership teams.

In order for a school system to improve it is very important that they first know where they stand. Using the DART model can help them figure this out so that they can then devise a plan on how to get to where they want to be, which is successful.

5. How can the questioning and data collection process be used to enhance school improvement?

In order to get right to the heart of an issue, one must be clear about the question that they want to answer before they begin collecting data. Not only is it important to decide what one wants to know, but it is also important to determine the data that is available to help answer the question. Aside from asking the right questions, one must choose and collect the correct data that will lead to the answers that are needed. It is imperative that the data be valid.

As one starts they must make sure to have the right questions for that data set. Without those questions it is impossible to foster the overall improvement that one wants for students. Becoming familiar with the data systems that are available locally and at the state level is important. The point is that one needs be focused on is collecting the right data in order to help answer the questions that have been posed to initiate any school improvement process. At the heart of collecting data, analyzing them, and posing and testing hypotheses must be a set of critical questions. Once the questions are known, one can begin to assemble the data necessary to help answer them assuming the data systems to provide answers are in place.

One major purpose of data-based decision making is to make systemic school improvements that have larger, more significant impact on the students being served. For purposes of school improvement, processing data is done in these phases: collecting, connecting, creating, and confirming. Collecting is the compilation of important data. It is putting data into a reportable, easy-to-understand format. The second phase is connecting the data. This means analyzing the data from different perspectives or combining it with other data. The third step is creating which is doing. It is taking action on what you find, what you suspect, what you think will make a difference. The last step is confirming. In this stage, you are evaluating your efforts, learning from feedback, and starting the cycle again.

6. Define "data-driven" decision making.

Data driven decision making uses student assessment data and relevant background information, to inform decisions related to planning and implementing instructional strategies at the district, school, classroom, and individual student levels. Data literacy consists of a person possessing a basic understanding of how data can be used to inform instruction. Studies have often shown that if instructional plans at the state, county, district, school, classroom, and individual student levels are based on assessment information relevant to the desired learning outcomes for students, the probability is increased that they will attain these desired learning outcomes.

Data from a variety of sources can also serve a number of important staff development purposes. Data on student knowledge gathered from standardized tests, district-made tests, student work samples, portfolios, and other sources provide important input to the selection of school or district improvement goals and provide focus for staff development efforts. This procedure of data analysis and goal development typically determines the content of teachers' professional learning in the areas of instruction, curriculum, and assessment.

Supportive data is typically drawn from other sources, including norm-referenced and criterion referenced tests, grade retention, and high school completion, reports of disciplinary actions, school vandalism costs, and enrollment in advanced courses, performance tasks, and participation in post-secondary education. Data that surrounds individual tests can be analyzed to learn how much students advanced in one year as well as particular strengths and weaknesses associated with the focus of the test. This data is characteristically disaggregated to reveal differences in learning among subgroups of students. The most ordinary forms of disaggregation include gender, socioeconomic status, native language, and race.

7. Describe the ways that student achievement data can be used.

One way in which data can be used is in the design and evaluation of staff development efforts, both for formative and summative purposes. Early in a staff improvement effort, educational leaders must decide what adults will learn and be able to do and which types of evidence will be accepted as indicators of success. They also establish ways to gather that evidence throughout the change process to help make midcourse corrections to strengthen the work of leaders and providers. Data can also point out to policy makers and funders the impact of staff development on teacher practice and student learning.

Another use of data occurs at the classroom level as teachers gather evidence of improvements in student learning to determine the effects of their professional learning on their own students. Teacher developed tests along with assignments, portfolios, and other evidence of student learning are used by teachers to assess whether staff development is having desired effects in their classrooms. Since improvements in student learning are a powerful motivator for teachers, evidence of such improvements as a result of staff development experiences helps sustain teacher momentum during the inevitable frustrations and setbacks that accompany complex change efforts. An additional benefit of data analysis, particularly the examination of student work, is that the study of such evidence is itself a potent means of staff development. Teachers who use one of numerous group processes available for the study of student work report that the ensuing discussions of the assignment, the link between the work and content standards, their expectations for student learning, and the use of scoring rubrics improve their teaching and student learning so that everyone is successful.

8. Explain how the social forces should be considered in planning for teaching. Use examples to augment your explanation.

All students come from different backgrounds and there is an increasing number of student's that are from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Our multicultural society is a key factor that should be taken into consideration for curriculum design. Some issues of diversity include religion, race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and also children with different kinds of disabilities. Curricular planners should work to build an education that suits our multicultural society and that will help every child from every different background live, work, and go on to lead successful lives in our melting pot of a society. The role of schools in society and the reason for the curriculum have been major, closely related, issues since schools were first established. Society's outlook for its schools and schools' response to society are both reflected in the school curriculum. Curriculum mirrors a complex society, a society in which there is never perfect agreement on the characteristics of that society. Some see the main purpose of the curriculum is the attainment of cognitive knowledge. Some others would consider it as a program for helping pupils develop humane and rational qualities. Curriculum is organized according to grade and age levels.

As diversity in the world increases, it becomes more and more important for students in the United States to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values essential for functioning in cross-racial, cross-ethnic, and cross-cultural situations. In order for democracy to work in a pluralistic nation-state, its citizens must be able to transcend their ethnic and cultural boundaries in order to participate in public discussion and action. A significant goal of multicultural education is to help students from diverse cultures learn how to transcend their cultural borders and engage in dialogue and action essential for the survival of our democratic political system and way of life. 9. How can groups effectively make decisions, including data-based decisions, in schools?