This post comes as the first in my class focused on curriculum, TE818, which is a part of my coursework leading to the MAED degree. I teach 10th grade Biology in a rural, small town in Western North Carolina, at Shelby High School. I love my job and students and look forward to improving my skills as a young teacher. In this post, I try to grapple with and better understand the basic curriculum I teach as a part of my Biology class, and reconcile that curriculum with the other facets of curriculum that I learned about from this week’s readings. I had not formerly considered the meaning of curriculum, and how it guides and relates to the work we do in my class; it was relieving to hear it is not only acceptable, but is a benefit to students to focus in on time spent in class on topics other than in my content area. I hope you comment on this post with your questions, ideas, and suggestions!
The basis for the curriculum I teach is the same around the state of North Carolina: it is most simply the explicit curriculum. The NCSCOS is broken into five simple goals. When students really remember something, it is not typically due to its importance in the official curriculum; it is because of some activity, story, or even mnemonic device that causes a student to remember. These are a part of the implicit curriculum I teach, and is the type of curriculum in which I want to focus more attention. What am I teaching students about how to approach problem solving? Do the techniques we use to comprehend genetics translate to understanding the news? When a student says they love science, is it because we made it lovable in class?
Evolution is a controversial topic in many places, and is perhaps more so in the rural Western North Carolina district in which I work. With regards to science we live during interesting times -most people think the Earth is 4,000 or 5,000 years old, when science says otherwise. In my process of writing this post I discovered the website for the recently famous Kentucky Creation Museum. Students need to know how to think critically and to analyze the myriad information they receive. And many people find religion and science to be dichotomous, when it might not be so simple.
I came home from the day at school where I started teaching Evolution a bit confused and discouraged; students were really resistant to learning about this facet of Biology. I love my students; I can’t imagine teaching without having that feeling toward them; but this moment was really discouraging. As we moved on and I reflected on this lesson, it occured to me that the grating and awkward feeling from that class was the feeling of true education. What is education (and a curriculum) for if it only serves to further solidfy beliefs and ways of thinking and being? I realized that class was extremely important and is why I am at school. Evolution is not taught in spite of those things it makes us feel; it is taught exactly because of those dissonant feelings.
In addition to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, I teach my students an implicit curriculum. Eisner makes it clear that the implicit curriculum is as or is more important than the explicit curriculum: these are the things we teach students through our procedures and rules, and even our actions and speech toward students and one another. My implicit curriculum is that which differentiates my instruction and class from those other Biology classrooms around the district and state. My background in education and teaching is foremost from an education school (the University of North Carolina in Asheville). Last weekend I thought about how I was never asked to be aware of my personal style of instruction, and to figure out those methods that worked for me as a developing teacher.
Schubert’s Four Curricular Traditions is most true to me in the academic realm. The four curricular traditions are the Intellectual Traditionalists, the Social Behaviorists, the Experiantialists, and the Social Reconstructionists. At the University of North Carolina in Asheville, I was taught to view curriculum, in mall parts, through each of the four lenses of Scubert’s four curricular traditions. My explicit curriculum is primarily from the Intellectual Traditionalist curricular tradition; the North Carolina Standard Course of Study represents the instruction of a tested body of knowledge this particular tradition encourages. The Social Behaviorist tradition is espoused in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at my school and in my district. We have recently begun exploring Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS); we will fully implement this next year. I began offering “Rosey Rewards” to those students who come to class ready to learn, or to those who answer difficult questions or volunteer to help fellow students. Students use their “Rosies” on Fridays to purchase some food, a homework pass, or extra credit. Encouraging positive behavior is a recent trend in education; this fits with the Social Behaviorist proclivity to teach what works to each generation.
I believe I was not taught this explicitly; this was part of the implicit curriculum of my school’s department of education, and was also imparted to me through its null curriculum. I recall learning about Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs and Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development in Educational Psychology. These models helped me to frame my early exploratory experiences in other teacher’s classes. As I came closer to my professional year experience I learned about science-specific lesson planning, safety issues for students in laboratory, how to design a syllabus and finally tips on interviewing for our first position.
I’d be proud to say otherwise, but I did not learn about techniques that brought out my best characteristics in a classroom; I never reflected on why some things led to quiet and engaged students, while others left the room and my state of mind a mess. I had an epiphany over the weekend where I realized that I need to teach from my core; I need to express myself completely through my lectures, the design of my lessons, my projects, and even my methods of assessment. I need to yell, laugh, use technology constantly and tell personal stories Biology when a more introverted teacher needs one-one-one discussions, creative writing, a quiet environment and privacy.
Donovan’s story filled me with curiosity and empathy. My life would be so different if I were like him, or if I had a child with a serious developmental disability. Donovan made me think about how I discuss trisomy-21 (Down’s Syndrome) with the students in my Biology class like we discuss the deforestation in a rainforest in Brazil or melting ice packs in Antarctica. These topics merit our attention, but in an it’s-far-away-from-here sense that lets us quickly move on to the next topic. Both my students and I need to recognize that real people are affected by problems that we are fortunate to live without. I will continue to reflect on Donovan and students like him, and their roll in the educational system in which I play an important part. How does my curriculum differ from that of Donovan? Is it fair that his curriculum does not adequately meet his needs? Is Donovan in need of a Radical Reconstructionist?
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