The Importance Of The Learned Curriculum

Curriculums are the roadmaps for schools which provide purpose and direction for administrators, educators, parents, and students. Curriculum typically refers to, “the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning.” (Curriculum, 2015, para. 1) Curriculums may come in many shapes and forms, whether they’re purchased as a package at the school or district level or they’re created or refined by educators and

Ralph Tyler (1957) describes curriculum as “. . . all the learning experiences planned and directed by the school to attain its educational goals (Glatthorn, 2011, p.3). Going by this definition, one can regard curricula as encompassing what is taught in the classroom, as well as

Also, throughout curriculum development the goals and aims of the curriculum need to be taken into account. Without specific goals and aims for the curriculum, the curriculum could be unfocused with no purpose identified. Within the social studies curriculum that I analyzed, I noticed societal goals for the curriculum (Posner, 2004). Societal goals are emphasized because the curriculum supports the development of knowledgeable and engaged citizens within our country. By understanding the goal of my curriculum I am better able to understand the purpose of what I am teaching, which in turn helps me to differentiate for my students while still keeping the ultimate goal in mind. I also was able to identify the further learning aims within the curriculum (Posner, 2004). By identifying this aim I was able to see how the curriculum I was teaching tied into the curriculum that the students would experience in subsequent grades. By reflecting on the further learning aims I was able to see how my teaching was a valuable piece of a bigger puzzle

Brady and Kennedy (2010) define the term curriculum as ‘the means by which young people and adults gain the essential knowledge, skills and attributes they need to be productive and informed citizens in a democratic society.’ However the term has many varied definitions, it can be described as being the subject matter, the overall plan for teaching or the outcome of what is taught (Wiles, 2005). Marsh and Willis (cited in Marsh, 2009, p. 3) break curriculum down into three individual areas of ‘planned curriculum’, the objectives and aims, ‘enacted curriculum’, how the objectives are

Any student, whether in elementary or college, learns better when the subject matter is thought-provoking and appealing. Traditional and old curriculum provides a baseline for students to meet and follow. Also, traditional curriculum is based of individualism and discourages exchanges between the student and teacher. Individual work teaches the child to develop internal critical thinking skills but it may bore the student. Teachers should continually interact with their students and challenge the student to think outside the box. Great teachers in today's system should help students develop a new way of thinking about history, math, english, and science and their education in general.

This involves, teacher proofing, which minimizes a teacher’s amount of sovereignty. So, teachers have less say in what they will teach in their classroom, and is causing some controversy. Next, the article compares teachers that have a curriculum to those having no curriculum. Teachers that have a curriculum to follow should have the ability to make adjustments in lessons, while being given materials and new ideas. Having no curriculum to follow is more difficult to create, but has it’s advantages because the teacher has compete

My personal belief is that teaching is not just the profession of spitting out information to students that they in turn regurgitate to me. I think that teaching is a process of life learning for these students. I believe there are four extremely important factors that distinguish a well-disciplined class from others. They include the following factors: classroom environment, expectations and procedures, student-teacher relationships, and active learning.

Wiggins & McTighe (2005) said it best “teachers are designers” and we need the right to craft our curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes (Pg. 13. Ch. 1). We are all teaching different students, in different cities, in different states; all of whom that have individual strengths and weaknesses, come from various homes, a multitude of diversified backgrounds, who speak different languages and all of whom who have experienced their lives in different manners. I have been teaching for well over 11 years, and I have never once modified my teaching to meet the needs of a curriculum, I always have and will continue to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of my students.

In the practice of teaching, it is the responsibility of a teacher not only to teach students subject matter, but to teach students in order to enable them to grow and develop as a person. While it is essential for students to have an understanding of academic material, it is also equally as important that when students finish their education they have skills to use in

Developing a curriculum is a difficult process, moreso when an educator has to keep in mind the number of students they are trying to reach. At the secondary level, it is not uncommon for a teacher to be responsible for 150 or more students. Each of these students presents a unique and trying task for educators who want to help students learn. Students have different modalities for which they gain knowledge, and it is the teacher’s job to engage those

From the Rusken College speech in 1976, a whole new approach to education was to be invented and from this came the introduction of the craft based qualifications, his idea of the government putting money into education and seeing very little return, made him concentrate on making people fit for work, in turn helping the economy and paying the government back on their investment. This is the main model used in my specialised curriculum. One of the attractions of this approach to curriculum theory is that it involves detailed attention to what people need to know in order for it to work. Lesson plans are produced with the main theme of ‘by the end of the session the learner will

In order to teach successfully teachers must learn about first learn about their students. Teachers must assess the student’s capabilities and interests. Some students are visual learners, while others learn from hands on activities, or verbal communication. Not all students can learn through memorization, rather they learn through interest and relation to the topic. “To realize what an experience, or empirical situation, means, we have to call to mind the sort of situation that presents itself outside of school" (Democracy and Education). The curriculum should encompass material that is most useful for a student to learn. It seems that in the majority of schools, students are not given the flexibility to guide their own learning, but rather follow rigid instructions that destroy the student’s imagination.

Curriculum is a term often highlighted during discourse about education and most commonly understood as a policy with overt leaning outcomes for teachers to apply and achieve. Ornstein and Hunkins (1998), as cited by Selvaraj (2010), defined curriculum based on two lenses; micro and macro, which identify the term as both policy towards certain goals and what students experience with consideration for relevant theories and principles central to its development and implementation. However, Wilson (n.d.) argued that curriculum is not restricted to certain individuals, subjects and environments, since teaching and learning can also occur beyond the scope of official curriculum (Ebert & Culyer, as cited in Marsh, Clarke & Pittaway, 2014). I believe this interpretation is the closest to the true nature of curriculum, or education, as there are more complex layers to curriculum than just a written guideline. For example, not one curriculum is similar to another because it is subjected to influences from continuum number of factors, such as politics and economy. Hence, it is wise to conclude that curriculum could not be defined based on a singular perspective due to its dependability on context.

Throughout the majority of my education, including college, I have felt like a passive member of the classroom. Teachers saw me as a clear slate that needed to be filled with information. I consumed countless facts, and memorized numerous processes, most of them not being my own. This approach to teaching has proven to be unsuccessful to the goals of education. Students are diverse, with their own learning styles and their own knowledge that they bring to the table, and these should be supported and expanded on in the classroom. The goal of education is to support learners and thinkers, and not to condition minds to all think the same ways.

According to Blaise and Nuttall (2011), to understand curriculum, we must first understand what is meant by the term curriculum. Within curriculum there are five key concepts, they are the intended curriculum The Intended curriculum is the curriculum that the teachers want the children to experience in order to develop particular knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (Blaise & Nuttall, 2011, p. 82). The enacted curriculum is what teachers want students to experience. important reason why the intended curriculum is enacted differently from teacher to teacher, from classroom to classroom, is that a key part of a teachers work is to interpret the official curriculum, taking into account a wide range of variables that are specific to their classroom and school setting.