with Terry Heick
There are ideas and then there are ideas in the middle opinions.
Spaces between ideas can be conceived of their ideas in the same way that there are stars and there are spaces between stars. And these spaces are important because they are dark and dark (and their absence) reflects light.
Okay, how about this: Every reality has aspects. Every effect has a cause. Each data point has context. You can isolate this relationship in a temporary form of singularity to examine it, but in doing so you risk losing the thing itself because the thing has no context but only it exists in the situation.
We may fail to see these factors and causes and conditions, but they are there. We may fail to extract relevant lessons from these factors and facts and causes and effects and conditions and data, but they are there, ready to be extracted.
And it’s not just about situations and relationships. There are differences here as well—differences with not insignificant points. The difference, for example, between causation and correlation. The difference between cause and effect but also the fact that everything is relative (contextual) and repetitive and not linear. One thing ends and another begins and one causes the other and explains the other and depends on the other but they are also completely separate.
Which brings us to the underlying concepts.
Whether there are underlying assumptions we ‘bring’ to a thought or decision may be more interesting than examining a single set of underlying assumptions themselves, but we’re here for academic innovation, not epistemology.
Note: These are not in any kind of order because sometimes one needs one in context so I could not, for example, leave #2 last (as the most important) because it helped the rest of the meat and I thought #1 should be the first even though it may not be the most important.
Concepts and Features of the Curriculum
I. That it is readable.
II. That it is worth reading.
This obviously depends on factors but let’s assume that we mean ‘proper learning’ and knowledge for most students. And—if not, why are you studying? And this may be the single most important consideration of any given curriculum.
Are these things both knowable and worth knowing?
III. That it contains very important things that one should/does not know.
After clarifying that things are knowable and worth knowing, a third basic assumption is made which is important things that are known and that you should know.
That concepts, skills, abilities, ideas, etc.–it doesn’t make much sense for students to learn less important things while the more important things are not learned. (Obviously, this is subjective but there is an art and a science to education and this is a big part of the art. Maybe the biggest of all.)
If we live in a society where pottery is important, it would make sense to ‘teach pottery.’ If ceramics were somehow important and ‘fun to know,’ while it ‘feels good’ to teach about ceramics, the curriculum quickly becomes reduced and functional—and even destructive—on a cultural level.
By teaching pottery not teaching the rest.
IV. That, because of its study and success, people’s lives will be better because of ‘knowing all things.’
Another basic assumption of the curriculum is that there is something important that we will know and be able to do because of its good management—and more importantly, that those who study it will know (as a matter of transference) and tend (as a matter of habit and behavior) to use what they have learned in a way that enables them to learn. their health improved.
This should, immediately, result in personal change.
V. That as a result of learning and managing it, culture and society will experience development, evolution, and growth.
Human change must ultimately lead to social change. If societies don’t change, that means they don’t need to change or education can’t change them. The former is impossible and the latter is unacceptable.
And note, the benefit of the curriculum cannot be difficult in the future as we want to ‘prepare children for the jobs of tomorrow.’
If the value of knowledge is primarily academic or primarily speculative, it is a useless curriculum and will fail to be relevant to students in the world they live in—and need knowledge and skills today.
VI. That it includes an embedded system
Another basic assumption of a particular curriculum should be that, as a ‘part’, it is aligned or compatible with other parts and is similar or easily compatible with other ‘pieces’ of education.
This means that the existing infrastructure—from buildings and technology and books and assessment forms to teachers and teaching strategies and school and district divisions—must be aligned with the curriculum or we must update the curriculum to align with the infrastructure.
(You can read more about this idea at Reviewing Educational Gear.)
If we design a school backwards from what we already do well, rather than insisting on doing everything all the time for all students, is that smart design or ‘lowering our standards’?
