1. Curriculum in an Era of Standards and Accountability
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EDUC Chapter 11

2. Different Definitions of Curriculum
The subject matter taught to students
A course of study, or a systematic arrangement of courses
The planned educational experiences offered by a school
The experiences students have under the guidance of the school
The process teachers go through in selecting and organizing learning experiences for their students

3. 4 Different Dimensions of the Curriculum
The explicit curriculum (formal curriculum) pg 322
Integrated curriculum (interdisciplinary)
The implicit curriculum “un-intended or hidden,” pg 325
The null curriculum (what is left out)
Extracurriculum (clubs sports plays field trips)

4. The Explicit Curriculum at Different Grade Levels
The current elementary curriculum emphasizes language arts and math, and de-emphasizes science, social studies, art, and music.
The Jr. high and high school curriculum focuses on specialized & separate content courses.

5. Where do teachers find information about the Explicit Curriculum?
urses/descriptions/index.html

6. The Implicit Curriculum
Includes the types of learning children acquire from the nature and organization of the classroom as well as the attitudes and actions of the teacher.
Curriculum presentation
Classroom management
Treatment of students
Influences the attitudes and values students take away from school.
Teachers and their actions exert the strongest influence on the implicit curriculum.
What are some things you have learned in school that were part of the Implicit Curriculum?

7. The Null Curriculum
Includes topics left out of the explicit curriculum
Often includes controversial topics or ones that teachers don’t know about or feel uncomfortable teaching
Currently is strongly influenced by standards and their corresponding high- stakes tests
What has been the effect of the Null Curriculum on your education?

8. The Extracurriculum
Consists of learning experiences that extend beyond the core of students’ formal studies
Includes clubs, sports, school plays, and other activities that don’t earn academic credit
Low-ability students, members of cultural minorities, and students placed at-risk are less likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

9. The Extracurriculum
Students who participate in extracurricular activities have:
higher academic performance and attainment
reduced dropout rates
lower rates of substance abuse
less sexual activity among girls
better psychological adjustment, including higher self-esteem and reduced feelings of social isolation
reduced rates of delinquent behavior

10. Extracurricular Participation and Student Engagement
 Percentage of public school seniors reporting selected indicators of school success by participation and nonparticipation in extracurricular activities
What extracurricular activities were/are you involved in and how did/does it impact your education?

11. Forces That Influence the Curriculum
Standards and accountability
NCLB
Utah Comprehensive Accountability System (UCAS)
Professional organizations
The federal government (see next slide)
Textbooks
The professional teacher—perhaps more than any of the others

13. Controversial Issues in the curriculum
21st century skills
Communication
Promptness
Deadlines
Civic literacy
Critical thinking
Professional skills (interview, dress, etc.)

14. Controversial Issues in the curriculum
Moral and Character Education
Character education stresses, teaches, and rewards moral values and positive character traits such as honesty and citizenship.
Moral education emphasizes student decision making and moral reasoning.
Compliments Project
There is general public consensus about the teaching of these values:
Honesty
Democracy
Acceptance of diverse peoples
Caring for friends and family members

15. Controversial Issues in the curriculum
Service Learning – a part of character education
Combines service to the community with content-learning objectives to promote ethical and moral development
Becoming more popular, with 25% of high school students participating
Courts have upheld the legality of required service learning courses.

16. Controversial Issues in the curriculum
Censorship:
The following books have been banned from the public school curriculum at various times:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Courts have generally sided against censorship as a parental right, ruling that schools and teachers have a right to expose students to different ideas and points of view.

17. Women and Minorities in the Curriculum
Critics contend the explicit curriculum over-emphasizes the contributions of white males and has ignored or failed to adequately represent the contributions of women/cultural minorities.
Efforts are being made to include more literary works by women and cultural minorities in the curriculum as well as their contributions to history. Also know as postmodernism.