What is curriculum? What is its purpose?
This is an interesting time to discuss curriculum and its meaning. My school district and many/all school districts in Michigan are looking at aligning their current curriculum with the Common Core Standards that have been adopted by many states, Michigan included. I think that for school districts it’s difficult to discuss the Common Core Standards without thinking about the curriculums that the district has in place or the curriculums that may need to be replaced as a result of redefining the standards and expectations for each grade level.
A simple definition of curriculum would be the methods and techniques we use to get students from point A to point B. Methods and techniques are part of curriculum but a larger, more important aspect of curriculum is content. What should I teach? Why should I teach it? How should I teach it? And when should I teach it? Every state, school district, etc. has goals for what the students will learn at key stages in their education, I see curriculum as a tool to help students meet those milestones. One district might use EveryDay Mathematics to get their students to master the grade level math objectives while another district might opt to use Math Trailblazers. I think that curriculum guides educators in how to teach and scaffold skills for students.
However, that’s just a simple definition for a very simple concept, basic curriculum. Curriculum becomes harder to define when you consider things like implied curriculum, intended curriculum, excluded curriculum, etc. Although I do think that it is important to consider and reflect on the lessons that we are teaching our students with the supported curriculum, I think it’s equally, if not more, important to think about the lessons we are teaching our students based off of the excluded curriculum or the hidden curriculum that we may be teaching unintentionally.
Although I teach in a general education classroom, I have a number of students in my classroom that have identified special needs, including one student with autism.
For me, any discussion of curriculum leads me to think about that student and several others. The answers to the questions I posed above change when I consider my autistic student or my other students who are cognitively impaired, otherwise health impaired, or even speech and language impaired. The Donovan article this week reinforced those thoughts and feelings for me. What was most striking for me with regard to the Donovan article was my sense that the article was not only exposing the world of educating individuals with multiple impairments but asking questions like, What should we teach these students? How can we measure mastery? Should we involve families as we develop not only IEPs but also curriculum? Although I think it would be fantastic to have parents involved in curriculum decisions for their child or children, my classroom experience leads me the other direction. How can we involve parents and families in those decisions and still meet the needs of all students? The Donovan article demonstrated quite clearly that one parent might feel that their child would benefit from a more “academic” curriculum while another parent might feel a more “functional” curriculum would be the best use of time for their child.
If we extend the discussion to general education students who are “typically developing,” the question remains difficult to answer. Is it possible to involve parents in meaningful ways when some parents think a product-based classroom is more important than a classroom that attempts to create more authentic learning opportunities? As a classroom teacher, I also ask myself how do we hold teachers accountable to curriculum when it may look different for every student in the classroom. I think that teachers already struggle to learn and adapt their curriculums as necessary based on who their students are as learners. If you add parents to the mix of students, administrators, state guidelines, and more, I think that teachers will feel even more overwhelmed.
In the end, as a first grade teacher I am acutely aware that children learn just as much, if not more, by watching and observing those around them. Children also make connections and inferences based on what they observe or fail to observe. For these reasons I think that it is imperative that educators think about what curriculum they are teaching both intentionally and unintentionally. If I tell my students I am really excited about a certain book, math concept, or topic they too become excited. Conversely, if I tell my students that I think a certain book, topic, or concept is irrelevant or unimportant; they will put little stock into it. What I am trying to say is that as educators we teach our students many things outside of the prescribed curriculum. I personally think that many of these lessons are good lessons however; I do think there are some lessons that we teach unintentionally that cause our children to leave our classrooms with false notions, stereotypes, misinformation, and perhaps most devastatingly a lesser sense of self-worth. So needless to say, having a discussion about what curriculum is and who should be involved in developing curriculum for students is important and will continue to be important in the future, regardless of government mandates and Common Core Standards.
