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How do the Reconceptualists envision curriculum aims and purposes? (Kate M…
How do the Reconceptualists envision curriculum aims and purposes?
Clay T - Pinar, the leader of the reconceptualist movement, defines the movement by not defining it. In other words, the perspectives of reconceptualism are broad enough that it is easier to define it in terms of it not being traditional or conceptual-empiricists.
Clay T - Pinar acknowledges a connection between schools and society. Common arguments within education identify that schools are a reflection of our society and not the means by which one should "fix" societal ills. Is Pinar arguing the opposite of this claim by making the society and school connection? :question:
"For the field to become vital and significant to American education it must nurture each 'moment' its 'internal dialectic.' And it must strive for synthesis, for a series of perspectives on curriculum that are at once empirical, interpretative, critical, and emancipatory" (p. 173). Interesting to me how the theorists may or may not have a true grasp on the education field. They may not know or understand the real questions to ask. I sometimes wonder this same thing about people writing curriculum--do they understand what we do in the classroom each day? Charla
Clay T - Choice
Clay T - Adler argues for a curriculum without choice, one in which all students follow the same course of study. In the fashion of Pinar, this view is not reconceptualism.
Clay T - Noddings contradicts the claims of Adler by identifying the need for choice in order for education to be meaningful to the individual.
Freire, "Students must draw on their own experiences to formulate purposes" (p. 163). If they have choice and can relate to their own background knowledge the learning will stick. Charla
*"
Education is the gateway to equality
" (Horace Mann) - the quote from more than a century ago that continues to be true up until today. "
We are all the victims of a school system that has only gone halfway along the road to realize the promise of democracy*" - states Adler and adds that "democratic promise of equal educational opportunity, half fulfilled, is worse than a promise broken." Thus, one of the purposes of curriculum have to be achievement equality in school. -(Imeda)
Interestingly, among other school subjects, Adler mentions the fine arts, geography, and social studies as pivotal common core standard subjects necessary for education. In the midst of contemporary movements in education, this seems rather contradicting as the ratio of funding those areas relative to STEM subjects decreases dramatically. - (Imeda)
Pinar states "We are not faced with an exclusive
choice: either the traditional wisdom of the field, or conceptual-empiricism, or the reconceptualization." He argues that in order for curriculum to develop, it is crucial that it encompasses the ideas of each educational philosophies and strives for synthesis of the perspectives. Though, conceptualists are still favored in Pinar's rational as unlike other theorists, they know what questions to ask. - (Imeda)
Valerie - Democracy and Education - Adler tells us...
Valerie - "Education is the gateway to equality" -Horace Mann
Valerie - The same quality of schooling for all.
Kate M. - I agree with you Valerie. It is unfortunate thought that the inequalities are also present within education.
Aly - Completely agree with you both. How can we change this though for the future? My district has tried to standardized a lot throughout the district to stop such inequalities. We are all to teach the same objectives and materials and we are all to give the same test. Though this might stop some inequality in curriculum, it doesn't allow for teachers to make changes for the students who need it.
Macklin- While I do know there are inequalities between schools and different group of students, I don't believe that making standardized test is the way to go. There is a difference between equality and equity and I think more schools need to be thinking about equity with students. If the curriculum is difference, that is okay as long as we are doing our best to give the students what they need to succeed and it won't be the same for every single student and for every single school.
Jiayi- I love this quote! In China, people believe education is the equal door to the success, especially the GaoKao(college entrance exam).
Valerie - The democratic promise of equal educational opportunity, half fulfilled, is worse that a promise broken. (pg.194)
Valerie - Equality of educational opportunity is not, in fact, provided if it mean no more than taking all the children into the public schools for the same number of hours, days, and years. (pg.194)
Valerie - We should have a one-track system of schooling, not a system with tow or more tracks, only one of which goes straight ahead while the others shunt the young off onto sidetracks not headed toward the goals our society opens to all. (pg.194)
Brittany - "Elective choices are appropriate only in a curriculum that is intended for different avenues of specialization or different forms of preparation for the professions or technical careers" ~ (Alder, p. 195)
Brittany - Alder suggests that these specialized courses are only offered in college, universities, and technical colleges. How are students supposed to be exposed to these "special" skills if they do not experience them until college? What if a student does not go to college? How can they be trained in a specific skill?
Brittany - What would happen to student achievement if we eliminated tracking? Would students do better or would more students get left behind?
Macklin-I think this is an interesting point. In high school, you usually have 3 different levels: The honors level, the regular level and the slower pace level. While I think having these different levels can be beneficial, I also think that it can hurt some students. For example, in your low level course, no students have any example of what they need to do to succeed and you usually have no student leaders in those groups. Putting some higher level learners in with them would give those students an example of what to do and also a student leader. It is also help those higher level learners because it gives them a chance to explain concepts verbally which can a challenging thing for students. I have had so many students who could do the steps but they can't explain what they are doing verbally what so ever and putting those students in a classroom that is mixed would give them the chance to explain concepts more frequently to other students.
This is a very interesting thought! It would be great to see what would happen if we tried! I think in elementary sometimes students are put in the lower level group or pulled out and they feel they will never make it back with the group so they don't ever try. Good thought! -Valerie
Tyler S--As an elective teacher, and somebody who believes deeply in diversification not only in instruction style but also in course offerings I cannot disagree more with this statement. What do we do about Special Education students if we have a single track? What happens to the students that aren't going to college?
How do tracks like academies play off students' strengths and how each person is individually made yet this is questioning equality? Charla B.
Valerie - There are no unteachable children. There are only schools and teachers and parents who fail to teach them. (pg.195)
Valerie - Every child is educable up to his or her capacity. Educable-not just trainable for jobs. (pg. 195)
This is so true! Every child can learn and be successful. It is our job to figure out how and to create curriculum and instruction that does just that. Charla B.
Brittany - I agree with all of you! Sometimes it takes more work from the teacher to get a students invested in the curriculum. The ways in which we present information and engage students will impact everyone individually. There are so many techniques to try in order to help a child learn!
Nate M. - Valerie, I agree with you on this statement. Again, I will go back to a quote I used earlier, it is us as adults that have made things easier for students. We demand less and expect far less from our students. We need to help shape their attitudes and work ethic towards being able to see a successful future.
Tyler S-This quote is mostly true. I believe that many times teachers believe certain students can't grasp the content in their class when it is really the content delivery style that is hindering that teacher from reaching their students.
Adam- Equality
Adam-Every student deserves the same educational experience, no matter the school/district
Adam-This can be more difficult in larger and urban/suburban districts.
Nate M. - Adam, I agree with you on this statement. I have had the opportunity to work for 7 years in a small rural town and work for 6 years in a large urban town. It gets to be more challenging working in a larger district. There are advantages for working in both, in the smaller district it was easier because there were less students in the district and much easier to get to know each student and families.
Bo---Nate, your experience with both large and small districts are great. I agree that working in smaller districts helps you know your students and families better. I used to know very well of my students and it helps me be better prepared for my lessons because I know what they need from the teacher. Thanks for sharing.
Kate M. - I completely agree that all children should have access to the same education, but how do we keep the inequalities of our society from impacting our student's education?
Adam-Technology would be a big start. Blended classrooms and the ability to do the work online versus on paper will help connect to students where they are.
Brittany - I agree that technology helps, but what about students that do not have internet access at home? This divides our students yet again.
Adam-I agree with that thought. That is a problem in Omaha that has been discussed. Right now they are slowly rolling out a 1-1 setup so students are able to take computers home to do their work. It would not be a solution to the lack of internet but it would be a start.
Brittany - Kate M., I agree that students should have access to the same education, but what does the word "same" mean? Does every student get the exact same opportunities and resources? What about students that do have inequalities? How can we make the playing field the "same?"
Bo---Brittany, I agree that not every student has the exact same opportunities and resources because of the different communities they live in, the different schools they go to as well as different family environment they are raised, which is also an important education resource. To face these inequalities, as educators, one thing we can do is to enrich our curriculum as much as possible to meet different needs of our students.
Brittany - "Giving all of our children the same education, especially when that "sameness" is defined in a model of intellectual excellence, cannot equalize the quality of education" ( Noddings, p. 200)
Adam-No child can be deemed "unteachable." All students should get the opportunity to learn.
Adam-The student has to decide if they want to learn.
"Electives and specialization are. . .wholly inappropriate at the level of basic schooling" (p. 195). WOW, I have to think about how I feel about that. I really believe in differentiation and allowing students to follow their own passions in my classroom. Everyone gets the same opportunities, but they are not all doing the same thing. This is interesting. Everyone should have the same quality. Charla
Agreeing with Nodding, "Giving all our children the same education, especially when that 'sameness' is defined in a model of intellectual excellence, cannot equalize the quality of education" (p. 200). Charla
Nate M. - Charla, I enjoyed this quote you gave about electives. At the school I currently teach we do an injustice to our students because many do not look at the electives the same as the core classes. They feel the grade doesn't really count and their attitudes and behaviors in those classes are very poor. I feel certain attitudes have shaped the way our students view electives. Many students do not realize the importance of these classes and how important they are to open up the opportunities of interests or careers they could tap into.
Adam-If students are unable to get the same education, the ability to travel to get a better education is a must.
Adam-Busing becomes a hot topic in this aspect of education
Aly -The idea of choice would also be hot topic with this, along with charter schools and more non-traditntal schooling options.
Adam-And Charter Schools and their affect on public school funding.
Adam-State standards help create some equality from district to district.
Illiterates are considered 'undernourished' not in the literal sense in which many of them really are, but because they lack the 'bread of the spirit' " (p. 178).This nutritionist view of knowledge is very interesting to me because I feel like today some of my students are starving for so many of the things we offer in schools. Not just knowledge but safety, belonging, caring, and actual food. Charla
"The human word is more than mere action and vocabulary-it is word and action" (p. 181). Just knowledge is not enough, it has to be put into practice and student have to have the opportunity to use what they know. Charla
I couldn't agree more with this! So many times our students show understanding and growth more from an opportunity and getting the chance to "show" what they know and have learned. -Valerie
Aly - Also agree! Students can learn a lot when they are excited and can show what they know, especially when they see it playing out in their real lives.
Nate M. - I agree with all of you on this. Getting students to have confident conversations around the subject area they are in is what we strive for. Having the knowledge about the concepts and vocabulary and then being able to be confident to have conversations around those concepts instead of just memorizing for a test is the key to knowledge.
Brittany - I also agree! I think students gain a much better understanding of a concept when they can explain it to their peers in a way that makes sense to them. Teaching another person how to do something is one of the best ways to actually learn something!
Araceli- I am glad that you pick this quote. Experience is was make the input comprehensible, students need to relate the content to something real. As my classmates are commenting, interaction with peers is a good way to transform the information into something reliable. Hence, they will actually learn and not memorize.
Ziqi-Thank you for sharing this quote. Providing students with the opportunity to experience the knowledge gives students the free land of cognition growth. So often it involved with the higher level of thinking and longer memorization.
"This is what schools should be--the theoretical context of dialogue" (p. 182). Knowledge has to be used in dialogue to have the understanding. This is just what we are trying to add to our curriculum and value in our classrooms. "Dialogue is the seal of the act of knowing" (p. 185). Charla
Kate M. - The Reconceptualization fo Curriculum Studies - Pinar
"Curriculum change" is measured by comparing resulting behaviors with original objectives." Pinar Pg. 168 The question being, are we still getting what we want out of this vision and mission or do we need a change of plans?
Curriculum may be created through field research by former teachers, but the pressure to have a curriculum that meets the needs of society and the constant changes are challenging.
Aly - Part of the challenge is that it takes a lot of time to develop and change curriculum and by the time it is created, it's already outdated.
Kate - I agree things in our society are moving so quickly, such as technology, that it is difficult to keep up.
We are creating curriculum for the based on the information we have in front of us, while trying to teach to a generation that will belong to an unknown future.
Kate M. - As a society's needs and wants change so does the need for curriculum reform. Societal pressures are what force a change.
Ziqi- How schools shortchange Girls(AAUW)
Nate M. - The last 20 years, research reveals that males receive more teacher attention. In preschool, boys receive more instructional time, hugs, and attention. (p. 241). This can also lead to girls having lower self-esteem when getting to the middle levels in school.
Nate M. - The text discusses the "Evaded Curriculum" and goes through many different factors under this section in the text. Many of these factors are avoided by teachers. In today's society, image is a huge part of young woman's self-esteem and social media causes much harm in this scenario.
Araceli- Nate, I would like to link your comment with the part of the chapter that talks about windows and mirrors (p.237) Teachers were surprised that Marie Curies was the only female scientist who has been mentioned in the survey. I feel identified with this statement and I wanted to link to your comment because women need more representation in the curriculum. Females students need to have a representation so they can feel identified and have also rol model as male students usually have.
Macklin-I would love to see a better promotion of STEM and coding subjects with females.There are so many cool programs for girls like Girls who Code and it would be awesome to see more of those in the school and also more in the poorer schools. Often you see them in the richer schools but not so much in the poorer schools.
Tyler S--I would also like to see more promotion of science and math courses for females. A quick personal story, we had P/T conferences for our daughter who is in kindergarten. She is a HAL and scores very high in both reading and math. She was asked what her favorite subject was, and she answered math because you have to be good at math to be good at science. She was told, "well you have to be good at reading as well." I think sometimes people in education don't realize they are steering girls away from the field just from what they say to young girls.
Araceli-"Changing the curriculum in any substantial way is bound to result in some initial resistance"(p.239) People tend to reject changes since it's something unknown. Nonetheless, the problem of that is how the researchers found that teachers were using twenty years old curriculum. Society is something dynamic that changes, and curriculums must change as well, and they need to be adapted to the society. It's sad that female students are still in the male shadow and feel that they accomplish things because of lucky. They need to have the same control over their success as their male classmates..
Ziqi- Hi Araceli, your common reminds of the word "Learned helpless." Lack of self-confidence is a shortage of female students, and what they learned from the environment; how they are being treated greatly shaped their image of themselves. I am wondering teacher's positive interaction with female students and build "girl friendly" learning environment will lead this to a different direction.
Ziqi-Six common forms of sex bias in instructional materials(pg,237)
isolation of materials on woman
superficiality of attention to contemporary issues or social problems
subordination or degradation of girls
cultural inaccuracy
stereotyping of members of both exes
Exclusion of girls
Ziqi- Gender-fair curriculum's six attributes
"Allowing both females and males to find and identify positively with messages about themselves" As a foreign language teacher, I am often hearing some teachers said that girls could "get it quicker" than the boys. With this assumption, teachers can unknowingly "lower the bars" for boys and have higher expectations for girls. I would imagine the opposite might happen in the math or science classroom.
Brittany - Mutual Adaptation Change in Classroom Organization
Brittany - "successful implementation is characterized by a process of mutual adaptation" ( McLaughlin, p. 208)
Brittany - "Unless participants perceived that change-agent projects represented a school and district educational priority, teachers were often unwilling to put in the extra time and emotional investment necessary for successful implementation" (McLaughlin, p. 209)
Brittany - If curriculum or school policies are ever going to change to fit our diverse society, it needs to be a priority of the school. The administrators must "sell" the product to get teachers motivated to change their ways. This is very understandable as teachers have worked years and refined their practice in order to find methods that are successful.
Brittany - "Although such 'reinvention of the wheel' may not appear efficient in the short run, it appears to be a critical part of the individual learning and development necessary for significant change" (McLaughlin, p. 211)
Brittany - Staff Training
Bo---I agree that staff training is very important, when I first came to Lincoln to teach Chinese in high school, I got some training in China about cultural differences between China and America. I am so thankful for that, because it helped me know better about cultural differences, and prepared me for very different situations in my classroom that I have never met before.
Brittany - Implementation Strategy
Jiayi- Yes! I have talked a lot on the importance of implementing mutual adaptation but hardly states how to implement them apporratirely.
Jaclyn -Reaction
Jaclyn- What curriculum has been
Jaclyn-From all the curriculum theorists there is no unity it is a board territory
What it is it in the present moment
Jaclyn-Curriculum is vulnerable to criticism especially from influence of colleagues that is why extensive research is necessary before changes should be applied. (Pinar p 169, 2017)
JaclynIt is up to teachers to react about current curriculum to make needed changes. Do all teachers have the knowledge and reasoning to make these reactions and implement the changes?
Jiayi - Mutual Adaptation Change in Classroom Organization
A dynamic class organization supports the change of diversity in school and curriculum development. To meet the need of differentiated education, classroom change has become the primary adaptation of curriculum design.
How to adapt? As the author stated, the teacher should be the core. How does teacher see the change? How does teacher evaluate the differences? How does teacher support the dynamic diversity?
Bo---Creating opportunities for interaction with individuals of diverse backgrounds.
Bo---Acknowledging cultural diversity can be a challenge to teachers, students as well as communities and schools.
Bo---While it may be possible to achieve tolerance, how do teachers acknowledge and incorporate conflicting values?( Chan)
Bo---We have the expectation that children of ethnic minority background need to adapt to our school communities, but we may overlook that, as a host country for immigrants, we also need to explore the extent to which this relationship may be reciprocal. (Chan)
Bo---Many teachers are not trained to teach immigrant students, when they have immigrant students in their classrooms, they do not know how to teach these students with the current curriculum although they are willing to be cultural sensitive. So staff training is also important in this area to meet the special needs of these students.
Knowledge
