1. Chapter 14 Curriculum and Instruction
Mandisa Williams
Dr. Larsen
EDU 505
October 24, 2013

2. Objectives of Chapter 14
Review the sociopolitical and professional forces that influence curriculum policy making and design.
Compare the subject-centered and student-centered patterns of curriculum organization.
Describe the hidden curriculum and null curriculum and their effects on schooling.
Discuss the difference between educational goals and educational objectives.
Identify the models of instruction that have been classified as belonging to the information processing family of models and the behavioral systems family of models.
Explain the relationship between teaching and learning.
Describe ways technology impacts what is taught, how it is taught, and how students learn.

3. Reflection Question
Who should determine the curriculum? Who should decide how to teach the content?

4. Define Curriculum
According to the Webb, Metha and Jordan (2010), “The curriculum is said to be all the educational experiences of students that take place under the auspices of the school” (p. 315).

5. Forces Influencing the Curriculum
National Curriculum Standards
Textbooks
Mandated Assessments
State Governments
Teachers
Local School Boards
Parent and Community Groups
The Federal Government
Standards: What students should know and be able to do. Rigorous content, emphasizing problem solving, integrated tasks, real-life problems and higher order thinking skills.
Textbooks: Teachers rely on textbooks for instructional content, organization and evaluation. Textbooks influence what is taught and learned in the classrooms. Special interest groups have been able to influence textbook content and adoption decisions as well as textbook industry. Teachers need to be sensitive to textbook treatment of topics such as cultural diversity, gender differences, and special populations. Textbooks must be aligned to the state standards. Textbooks can influence the curriculum so care should be taken when choosing them.
Mandated Assessments: Test makers exercise considerable influence and decide which knowledge should be tested.
State Governments: adopt curriculum standards in subject areas since they are responsible for education, students receive a passing grade in certain courses, or pass a proficiency test to graduate, influences the curriculum through the state board of education.
Teachers: Before teachers had more control in what was taught in the classroom. Teachers have less control over what is to be taught and when…teachers have some influence because they are responsible for passing on the knowledge students are required to know.
Local School Boards: decided textbooks, instructional materials, curriculum guides, who should be hired, make policies to respond to various issues that might arise. (vocal groups, parents, the elite)
Parent and Community Group: PTA, for example some African American communities demand Afrocentric curriculum.
The Federal Government: form initiatives and pass laws that influence education such as NCLB Act, NAEP(National Assessment of Educational Progress.

6. Reflection Question
What are the pros and cons of having academic professionals set standards and goals in their subject areas?

7. Diversity Question
What kinds of cultural, racial, ethnic, or gender bias have you experienced in the textbooks you have used?

8. Reflection Question
What are the concerns about testing companies designing what knowledge should be tested? What role should they play?

9. Patterns of Curriculum Design
The Subject-Area Curriculum Design: “Is the oldest and most common curriculum design. The subject matter is included in the curriculum. It is based on lecture and discussion, rote memorization and recitation” (Foundations of American Education, p. 358).
The Integrated Curriculum Design: The subjects are integrated. For examples language arts will include reading, writing, spelling, speaking, grammar, drama, and literature. Mathematics will include arithmetic, geometry, algebra. This is more found in the elementary level. (block periods)
Teacher are trained and teach individual subject areas.
Critics says this curriculum design ignore the needs, interests and experiences of students and discourages creativity.

10. The Core Curriculum Design: “The core curriculum as defined, de facto, by the NCLB Act are English, reading, or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics, government, economics, arts, history and geography” (Foundations of American Education, p. 359).
The Student-Centered Curriculum Design: “The student’s freedom to learn, activities and creative self expression that engages the student in the learning process…it focuses on the individual learner and the development of the whole student. It is a broad curriculum that includes nature study, number concept, games, drama, storytelling” (Foundations of American Education, p. 359, 360).
De facto: concerning fact in law.

11. The Constructivism Curriculum Design: “Students are allowed to construct new ideas and concepts based on their current and past knowledge and experiences” (p. 360). Teachers guide students through discussions and do not follow the curriculum.
The Social Justice Curriculum Design: “It believes that through the curriculum the school can and should effect social change and create a more equitable society. This curriculum engages students with critical analysis of every level of society to improve it” (p. 361) Students are given assignments that requires them to problem solve and inquire.

12. The Hidden and Null Curricula
Hidden Curriculum- are signals that can be in the form of frowns, gold stars and certificates, in the ways teachers and students interact, (norms and values, biasness, stereotyping –treating students differently)
Null Curriculum - (things that are not taught and can be controversial)

13. The Curriculum in the United States
The Curriculum Cycle
Always Evolving
Was subjected- centered, now student-centered curriculum

14. Instruction Goals and Objectives
Educational goals- are broad statements such as students will be able to develop basic math skills.
Educational Objectives- “is a clearly defined, observable and measurable student outcome that indicates learner progress toward the achievement of a particular educational goal” (p. 363).
For example: “Using a ruler and a protractor; draw 45-,90-, and 120-degrees angles.”
Taxonomies of Educational Objectives-Bloom’s taxonomy.

15. Models
Instructional Strategies
Information processing family (student-centered and the teacher is the facilitator)
Inquiry instruction – also known as problem solving (identify a problem, and ways to go about solving it), and students are required to seek knowledge (John Dewey)
Critical thinking instruction-students are active learners, students are required to defend and support their positions. (Hilda Taba)
Social family (student-centered)
Cooperative learning- students with different abilities work in groups. It teaches students to collaborate.
Problem-based instruction- students have more control over their learning, they will identify the problem, the materials used to solve it and students will also find a solution.
Personal family
Nondirective instruction- “the student and the teachers decides how and what the student will learn” (p. 369). It follows the same steps as problem solving.
Behavioral systems family (teacher-centered)
Direct instruction –the teacher lectures and provides all the knowledge.
Mastery learning- learning outcomes are observed or measurable, mastery of subject, whole group

16. The Relationship between Teaching and Learning
What is the relationship between teaching and learning?
Imaginative Learner
Analytic Learner
Common Sense Learner
Dynamic Learner
Which of these learning styles is most like your own?

17. Using Technology to Enhance Instruction
What technologies can teachers use to enhance their instruction?

18. Reference
Webb, L. D., Metha, A. & Jordan K. F. (2010) Foundations of American education (6th ed.) . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.