Download March 2012 - Day 3 - Curriculum Orientations

Curriculum Orientations
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Self-actualisation
Social Reconstructionist
Focus
• Helpful ideas
• Assignment questions
• Homework
• Being wrong
• Predictions and questions
• Orientation island
Helpful ideas
• Veteran teacher Rita Tenorio (2004, in Churchill, et
al, 2010, p. 178) insists:
– Curriculum is everything that happens. It's not just books
and lesson plans. It's relationships, attitudes, feelings,
interactions. If kids feel safe, if they feel inspired, if they feel
motivated, they’re going to learn important and positive
things. But if those elements are not there, if they feel
disrespected or neglected in school, they’re learning from
that too. But they’re not necessarily learning the curriculum
you think you’re teaching them.
Churchill, R. et al. (2010). Teaching: Making a Difference. Australia: John Wiley & Sons).
Helpful ideas
• Hendrick and Weissman (2007, in Churchill, et al, 2010, p. 178)
describe everything that happens to a learner in the course of a day
as the curriculum. Again, such a definition reminds us that it not just
about what is planned and intended, but about all that transpires,
and the meanings, feelings and understanding that those events
generate. Lots of lessons get taught that were not necessarily
intended…; they also occur as the result of the unintended
curriculum. Lots of lessons get learned each day, in positive ways
— unexpected teachable moments and spontaneous opportunities
to veer off in a new direction — and less positive ways — mishaps,
accidents, things not going to plan, and the silencing or
marginalising of certain students.
Churchill, R. et al. (2010). Teaching: Making a Difference. Australia: John Wiley & Sons).
Helpful ideas
• Michael Apple (1979, 1990, in Churchill, et al, 2010, pp. 179-180)
asks about whose knowledge is of most worth and who benefits from
that knowledge. If teachers ask those questions of the school
curriculum, what will they find? Take, for instance, the idea that
schooling is and should be committed to democratic ideals (see, for
example, Apple & Beane 2007). How is that evident in the curriculum
— beyond explicit teaching about democracy and the democratic
process? From your earliest years you were probably taught about
sharing, turn-taking, consensus decision making, listening to all
opinions and the like. Whose values are espoused in such lessons?
Whose knowledge is demonstrated as of most worth through such
lessons? The point is not to suggest that these lessons were
inappropriate (though some people might), but rather to simply
illustrate that what is learned has been chosen by people who have
particular values and want to transmit those values and even
inculcate them in others.
Churchill, R. et al. (2010). Teaching: Making a Difference. Australia: John Wiley & Sons).
Helpful ideas
•
…the curriculum as a construction, or more specifically, that it is a social and cultural
construction. Such a notion is meant to work against a naturalised conception of
curriculum that sees it as universal, unchanging or obvious. Quite to the contrary, what a
curriculum could and should entail is almost always a matter of great debate. Far from
being obvious or straightforward, curriculum needs to be delineated and debated upon,
and as such it is indeed a construction of the social and cultural contexts from which it
arises.
– cultural construction: Something that was created by people who are located in a
particular time and place, and who bring their own values, attitudes, interests and
priorities to bear on its construction and articulation.
Churchill, R. et al. (2010). Teaching: Making a Difference. Australia: John Wiley & Sons).
A little research project
Social Reconstructionism
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Academic
Rationalism
History
Knowledge
Learners &
Learning
Teachers
& Teaching
Evaluation
Cognitive
Processes
Self
Actualisation
Social
Reconstructionism
You and EDUC8678
SA
AR
CP
SR
Orientation Island
Key
AR – Academic Rationalism
SA – Self Actualisation
CP – Cognitive Processes
SR – Social Reconstructionism
Writing your essay questions
• Describe
• Analyse
• Evaluate
• Tuesday’s schedule:
• Prepare a 10 minute presentation
–
–
–
–
–
Option 1 ,2 or 3
My Topic
Why I am interested in this topic?
My general question
My 3 guiding questions
• My descriptive question
• My analytical question
• My evaluation question
Time
Presenter
11:00
11:10
11:20
11:30
11:40
11:50
12:00
1:00
1:10
1:20
1:30
Lunch Break
My General Question
•
Do curriculum materials in primary science education in Singapore encourage student
collaboration or competition?
•
How do curriculum materials shape our understanding of civics/science/art…?
•
Is there room for greater creativity and innovation in the … (name of curriculum)
for…(name of institution, subject, year level)?
•
Is there a case for reforming clinical supervision practices in the nursing curriculum of a
Singapore hospital?
•
Then and Now: How has the nursing curriculum changed?
•
To what extent is team work and collaboration fostered by the problem-based
curriculum in the Diploma in Communication and Automation Electronics at the
Republic Polytechnic?
•
How does the content, pedagogy and assessment of primary science syllabus orientate
this curriculum?
•
What is the ideological orientation of …(name of curriculum materials)?
•
How should values be taught?
•
What are the implicit values being presented by the textbook for…? Whose voices are
being heard? Whose voices are absent?
Questions about Curriculum Models
• What is a:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Inquiry-based curriculum
Problem-solving curriculum
Emergent curriculum
Integrated curriculum
Curriculum for thinking
Art-based curriculum
Outcomes-based curriculum
• Describe it, analyse it (compare and contrast to …),
evaluate it (could the implementation of this
curriculum model be justified for Nursing
Education?)
A hierarchy
Area
Nurse Education
Topic
Clinical supervision
General question
Is there case for reforming the clinical supervision practices in the nursing curriculum of a
Singapore hospital?
Specific questions
What are the overt characteristics of clinical supervision practices in the nursing curriculums of
Singapore and the UK?
What are the similarities and differences between clinical supervision practices in the nursing
curriculums of Singapore and the UK?
What arguments can be made ‘for’ and ‘against’ reforming the clinical supervision practices in the
nursing curriculum of a Singapore hospital?
Kathryn Schulz
• On being wrong
– Directions:
• View the presentation and jot down key words and
phrases
• Write a 20 word summary using as many of the key
words and phrases as you can
• Share your summary with your group.
Having a go…
• Take 15 minutes
• Write your current ideas
down
• Try out the hierarchy
• Chat about your ideas
• Be prepared to be wrong –
writing your own assignment
question is not easy
• Sharing our thoughts
SA
AR
CP
SR
Orientation Island
Key
AR – Academic Rationalism
SA – Self Actualisation
CP – Cognitive Processes
SR – Social Reconstructionism
Graphing curriculum orientations
• Transfer inventory responses to sorting form
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
C
D
A
B
D
C
B
A
D
A
B
C
A
B
D
C
D
A
B
C
D
B
C
A
Part 4
Part 5
3
2
4
1
• Transfer data from sorting form to graph
Part 1
A-1
A-2
A-3
A-4
B-1
B-2
B-3
B-4
C-1
C-2
C-3
Part 2
Part 3
Part 6
Your Orientation
• How accurate is the graph of your ideology?
•
When you were in high school, did you ever have a teacher
who you think taught in accordance with the Scholar
Academic (Academic Rationalism), Social Efficiency
(Cognitive Processes), Learner Centered (Self-actualisation),
or Social Reconstruction ideology? Describe the teacher(s).
•
When you were in college/univerity, did you ever have a
teacher who you think taught in accordance with the Scholar
Academic (Academic Rationalism), Social Efficiency
(Cognitive Processes), Learner Centered (Self-actualisation),
or Social Reconstruction ideology? Describe the teacher(s).
Curriculum Orientations
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Self-actualisation
Social Reconstructionist
Academic Rationalist Orientation
• Oldest curriculum orientation
• A knowledge perspective to curriculum
– Subject areas most worthy of study
– Depositories of accumulated wisdom
• Production of effective members in adult society
– Development of the rational mind
• Two directions
– Traditional pathway
– Recent theories
• Approaches, characteristics and Issues
Approaches
• Forms of knowledge
– Students learn how to acquire or justify facts rather
than just recall them
• Integrated studies
– Two or more previously separate subjects are
combined
• Back to basics
– The direct teaching of school subjects with the
emphasis on learning to read, write and solve
mathematical problems
Characteristics
• Purpose
– To develop rational minds
– To train students to do research
• Methods
– Exposition
– Inquiry
• Organisation
– Themes
– Integration
– Problems
• Evaluation
– Aligned to the objectives of the subject matter
Issues
• Selecting subjects
– Categorising academic disciplines
• 8 Forms of Knowledge
– Mathematics
– Physical Sciences
– History
– Human Sciences
–
–
–
–
Morals
Religion
Philosophy
Literature and the Fine Arts
– Driven by university entrance requirements
• Making learning interesting
– Fallacy of content
• Preoccupied with ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’ of learning
– Fallacy of universalism
• Content is interesting regardless of learner characteristics
Sir Ken Robertson
Curriculum Orientations
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Self-actualisation
Social Reconstructionist
Cognitive Processes Orientation
• Critical of academic rationalism
– excessively content-bound
– underemphasises processes
– content is outdated
• Focuses on cognitive faculties and abilities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Problem solving
Visualising
Extrapolating
Synthesising
Conceptualising
Evaluating
Dealing with ambiguity
Analysing
Qualifier
– Academic disciplines provide
the framework or structure
that make sense out of
acquiring cognitive skills
Curriculum Orientations
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Self-actualisation
Social Reconstructionist
Self Actualisation Orientation
• A Confluent (add-on) Curriculum
– Adding on the affective domain (emotions, attitudes and
feelings) to the traditional cognitive domain (intellectual
knowledge and abilities) of curriculum
• The curriculum does not teach students what to feel or
what attitudes to have but provides choices that
encourages students to take responsibility for their
choices
• Intrinsically rewarding experiences to enhance personal
development
– Third force of psychology
• supportive environment
• Facilitation
Resisting Academic Rationalism
• A concentration on subject matter might lead to
depersonalisation
• Element of a Confluent Curriculum
– Participation
– Integration
– Relevance
– Self
– Goal
Self-directed Learning
• A response to the threat of depersonalisation of
academic rationalism
• A desire to promote:
–
–
–
–
–
sense of ability
clarity of values
a positive self-concept
a capacity for innovation
openness
• Key curriculum ideas
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–
–
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Achievement motivation
Attribution theory
Student’s interests
Locus of control
Curriculum Orientations
Academic Rationalism
Cognitive Processes
Self-actualisation
Social Reconstructionist
Social Reconstructionist Orientation
• Purpose of Education
• Schools as agents for social change
• Possible areas of study
• Role of the Teacher
Academic
Rationalism
Knowledge
The Child
Learning
Teaching
Evaluation
Cognitive
Processes
Self
Actualisation
Social
Reconstructionism