ED 430 Curriculum and Instruction Spring 2019

This week’s reading is pulling my mind in a lot of different directions, in an effort for something focused for you all to react to I will try to segment my thinking. The oft quoted saying “history is told from the  perspective of the victor.” Pinar pulls out many instances where the dominant class (right wing white segregationists), tried to impact curriculum by controlling what history was published in textbooks. This sentiment was best summarized by a Californian who said, “we do have much for we are not proud, but why play up our mistakes, downgrade our heros, and please our enemies?” Also what propolled the argument to limit textbook and curriculum references to public housing and other left wing ideas was a strong anti-communist sentiment in America. They feared that teaching about racial violence and Black poverty would be somewhat of a communist dog-whistle. Another thing I thought about is decrying poverty, and advocating for better housing and jobs, and other “lef...

This article was probably one of the best ones for me. It talks about the hidden politics that was and still can be found in most curriculums. There has been a movement to fight against anti-racism for approximately 100+ years. The most significant piece being Brown v Board (1954), this court case leading to the desegregation of schools throughout the US. Yes, it is instrumental however we see little to no work being done to reform people’s belief or the schools that were conditioning students of color to feel inferior to their white counterparts. Zimmerman, a historian who advocates for fighting against prejudice mentions; “I do not say that a change in our anti-negro textbook will kill prejudice, but I am convinced it is a major step in that direction.” (Zimmerman, 2002) This quote is important because it tells us that there were people who knew that the government needed to take steps. The government was putting a treating a huge problem instead of working towards a cure. Our govern...

Week 10: Curriculum Design, Equity, and Social Justice This week’s reading called “The Racial Politics of Curriculum Reform” discussed a brief history of the efforts to diversify textbooks in the U.S. First, the author points out the four main reasons why conservatives attacked textbooks in the 1950s: communism, internationalism, sexual depravity, and race. The fear of Communism aligned with the fear of racial integration and representation in public schools. Connecting these two ideas was a little hard for me to understand, but what I take away is that many white people feared those who made efforts in changing the status quo and challenging norms that had been established for decades. The author states, “Thousands of Americans converged on local school board and classrooms to protest textbooks’ allegedly “communistic” bias toward public housing, progressive taxation, and other markers of presumed left-wing subversion” (Pinar). I did not feel like the reading adequately explai...

WEEK 9 TYLER, CHAPTER 2: HOW CAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES BE SELECTED WHICH ARE LIKELY TO BE USEFUL IN ATTAINING THESE OBJECTIVES? Desired learning objectives are inherently part of a student’s learning process. In chapter 2, Tyler provides the general principles in selecting learning experiences, followed by 4 characteristics of learning experiences that educators might find useful in attaining various learning objectives. What are learning experiences?  Tyler states that learning occurs via the experiences and reactions a learner has to the environment in which (s)he/they is placed, in other words, the reactions of the learner to the environment determines what is learned. Some important things to note:  Learning experiences are not the same as content, and instead refers to the interaction between the learner and the external conditions (s)he/they react to.  The learner is an active participant because aspects of the environment or external factors arouse inter...

This chapter talks about the ways of selecting useful learning experiences to attain learning objectives. In this chapter, learning experience refers to "the interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the environment to which he can react". It focuses on learner's behaviors during learning process, not what the teacher does. That is to say, students will have various learning experiences in the same class. The author then suggests that teachers need to have some understanding of students' interests and backgrounds, so that they are capable of predicting students' reactions for a given situation.  There are several general principles in selecting learning experiences. The first one is that teachers need to provide the chances for students practicing the kind of behavior implied by the learning objectives. For example, if Marry is going to develop her skill in counting numbers, this cannot be attained unless her teacher offers ample chanc...

Chapter 2 of Tyler discusses how to set up appropriate learning experiences to engage students in learning. The author explains that learning experiences can be described as a learner's relationships to their learning environment or external conditions that causes the learner to participate in active learning. Although students may sit in the same classroom, every student in the classroom will not gain the same learning experience. The author list principles and objectives of learning experiences that can help in structure an appropriate environment for learning. Principles. Tyler lists some principles of how a student will attain their learning experience. First, a student should be given an opportunity to practice problem solving and critical thinking within their environment. Second, the student should feel rewarded, or be given satisfactions, for completing learning objectives. Third, the learning experience should fulfill the learner's personal attributes. Fourth and f...

Experience is one of the world’s greatest teacher. As human we learn through experiencing the world as well as the people and things in it. In Chapter 2 we go over Learning experiences and teachers manipulating the environment in order to help the students learn. Our author Tyler defines learning experiences as the interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the environment to which he can react. Personally, I think it is important to comprehend this definition. Students need to be able to resonate with lesson in some way shape or form. This happens when we are able to set up situations that will evoke a desired behavior. A great example of this is talking about social justice issues with students. It is a very powerful topic that hits home for a lot of students. This motivates them to learn and be interested in the lesson. This is because it helps to invoke logical thinking in students.  Tyler even states that “learning experiences to develop thinking will util...

Week 8” The Process of Education, Chapter 2  The Bruner reading for this  week emphasized the importance of structure in curriculum design. Bruner states that in order for students have productive learning experiences, information given to them should incite pleasure and also serve students in their future experiences. He first stresses the importance of who should design curriculum and states that its design must be a combined effort of education scientists who have a deep understanding of the principles and fundamental structure of the subject, successful educators in the field and students. He identifies that it is crucial for educators to make the context of the subject clear and comprehensible then, relate it  to a broader context so that students may generalize and apply knowledge at a later encounter. Second, he states that because detailed material is conserved in our memories in  condensed versions,  in order for students to remember fundam...

I was particularly interested in the article called “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” and wanted to write about that this week. First, I’ll define what the author calls a Grecian urn lesson: “projects that look creative, that the teacher might describe as hands-on learning, interdisciplinary teaching, project-based instruction, or the integration of arts and tech, but that nonetheless lack any substantial learning for students” (Gonazelez, 2016). Gonazelez points out a lesson where a teacher has students create their own urns in response to studying about Ancient Greeks. She explains that the project simply keeps students busy while it teaches them very little about the content. This type of lesson perfectly captures a lot of my own experiences as a student, particularly in elementary and middle school. I was able to relate to so many of her examples of Grecian urn lessons, like completing a word search, spending way too much time coloring, changing fonts on a document for an hour, or...

Bruner brings some interesting perspectives on how to construct curricula in Chapter 2 of the Process of Education. They start off by examining two ways learning serves the learner. Learning can be applicable - attaining skills or training that can be transferred, or it can be principles and attitudes - transferring ideas instead of skills. The author asks how, or if, the two services of learning can be formulated into a school's curricula. If school curricula is to be structured around this approach, how will it be taught? They word this problem as "how to construct a curricula that can be taught by ordinary teachers to ordinary students that, at the same time, reflect the various fields of inquiry"  (pg. 18). When I initially read this sentiment, it reminded by of our week7 class discussion on how teachers teaching a subject they master might find difficulty conveying concepts within that subject to a group of students learning those concepts for the first time. The...