ED 870 Curriculum II

Perspectives, Paradigms and Practice

What is curriculum?

What influences what we see as knowledge, determining what should be taught (and what shouldn’t be taught)?

Or the question may be who makes these decisions about curriculum?

Curriculum as Lived Experience

(*please note that this “page” is in response to ED 870 – if you go to the home page you will be looking at my AR journal)

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Monday, December 8th, 2008

The Passionate Teacher

The other day I had an interesting conversation with one of my colleagues. They were talking about the fact that when students don’t take something as seriously as they do, especially something they feel passionate about, they find it hard not to take it personally.  It got me thinking more and more about Arts Educators in general and our absolute passion for what we do… it is personal.

As I plan a lesson or unit, I try to imagine all the possibilities and allow for lots of student direction.  I am always amazed by the students – they come up with responses I had not anticipated, or they contribute a deep thought I had not considered, or they take the exercise in a new direction. I  love this. It keeps me on my toes and engages me on so many levels as a teacher and facilitator. I need to read the group, listen with intent, respond, evaluate, regroup and move ahead. It is much like a dance, we work in tandem, complementing moves, sometimes in contrast, but always in response to one another. This is teaching at my best.

But what about the recalcitrant student? The one who comes late, or skips class? How do we feel when students won’t make eye contact or engage with real enthusiasm?  It can be a real confidence downer. More so for the new teacher, those without the years behind them to know better than to let it get to you.  We can get hurt in the classroom when we care so much.

We always begin from teaching what we know, and what drives us and fuels our fire.  (1st year Arts Educator)

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Thursday, November 27th, 2008

A picture is worth a thousand words…

In thinking about my project and trying to get to the heart of the curriculum, I was shown a unique open source tool that got me thinking about other ways to analyze my work.  I copied in the text from the IB Theatre Arts guide into a word-image tool (at www.wordle.net),  to create a quick snap shot of the key concepts according to word usage.

It is almost eerie for me to look at this image – it represents how I see the course in my head. As a visual person, I often have to draw, diagram and web my ideas in order to create meaning for myself. This graphic, built from the IB Theatre Arts course outline, goals and aims, provides a map that speaks to my sensibilities.

(I have tried to insert another graphic from the drama curriculum, but it seems I have used my space quota for this blog.)

A teacher librarian showed me how she used this tool to create a book guessing game. She entered in book reviews and created a wordle from the descriptions. The results were stunning to me – I could quite easily and quickly  guess most books. I was interested to watch others, who are also readers, struggle to identify the books. I believe it has to do with the way my brain works to read and organize information. I’ve always suspected this, but never had any tangible proof. Could this be used as a testing device?

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Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

To plunge in; to choose; to disclose; to move: this is the road, it seems to me, to mastery.

- Maxine Greene, 1971

(Dorothy Heathcote, 82 year old grand dame of drama education, teaching in Athens, March 2008.)

(Please see my “Inspiration” page if you wish to see more )

What do the Reconceptualists have to do with me and my practice?  As I read their essays and try to place each writer in a context, I see just how slippery the subject can be.  My time in Greece was transformative – I began to see my work from an outside view, with objectivity, as I shared with colleagues around the world. We could identify similarities, but also were able to recognize where we have made innovative steps in process and in curriculum.  The people who work for the Ministry are reconceptualists – they have questioned, challenged and placed it back in the lap of the teacher, the process ongoing and the curriculum evergreen. I have a new found respect for understanding where my practice comes from, the dues that have been paid along the way by those who came before. Much like my early days as a feminist or a socialist, I could scarcely comprehend the sacrifices made on my behalf. It is in looking back we see how far we have traveled.

The Reconceptualists:

How can one attempt to sum up a group of intellectuals who, by their nature, refuse to be categorized? These rebels of academia, they question and challenge the status quo, the naughty boys and girls who reveal the hidden passages in the hallowed halls of learning.  Who has the power? Unwrapping conventions that gag and bind us, they are post modern clowns revealing the true nature of education.

…reconceptualization is a reaction to what the field has been, and what it is seen to be at the present time. (Pinar, 1978)

• Freire (freedom & power)
• Greene (aesthetic attendance)
• Pinar (”Understanding Curriculum as Gender Text”)
• Adler (liberal arts, promise of equality, Paideia)
• Noddings (A Feminine Approach: Ethics & Moral Education; a critique of Paideia)
• McLaughlin (approach to change in the school, research from the teacher’s perspective)
• Apple (issues of class and gender)

Traditionalist View:

Tyler’s Rationale (once again, a summary) Four questions when developing curriculum and instruction:

1. what is the educational purpose?
2. What educational experiences are needed?
3. How can they be best organized?
4. How will we know if attained?

(This traditional approach was declared terminally ill or moribund by Schwab)

Conceptual-Empiricists:

- Curriculum reform in the 1960’s hindered by outsider influence (such as psychologists, sociologists or philosophers) and lack of funds to inservice teachers (the practitioners)

- research in education was much like research in the social sciences, which is based on years of testing before any significant implications can be obtained (Pinar) It is based on hypothesis and methodology used in the social sciences. They believed they could collect “hard data”  would provide a logical understanding for how to sequence content.

…a reconceptualist tends to see research as an inescapable political as well as intellectual act. (Pinar, 1978)

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Live as if your life were a curriculum for others, and balance that principle by realizing that every life you meet could be a curriculum for you if you perceive with sufficient perspective.  (Schubert, 1986)

The above quote was found on Dr. Kemp’s blog and it spoke to me as I reflect on my work in the IB classroom. All participants show deep respect for one another, the process and the purpose of the work we are creating. There is a strong sense of student as leader, as co-learner/teacher and it allows for personal growth that increases with each new risk taken.

Interrogating the Curriculum: “Just the Facts Ma’am”

• IB Theatre Arts 20/30
• 9 students (none are in other IB classes)
• 1st year teacher, Arts Ed specialist (new to IB)
• I taught one semester of the program, but it has changed since then
• global perspective
• student constructed knowledge
• student research connected to real experiences, theatre exploration
• passionate
• non-content based guide
• aesthetic perspective
• interconnected ideas and learning
• artist study
• collaborative, collective creation
• design, write, create, perform
• journal reflections
• abstract ideas, symbol, metaphor, idiographs
• transformation as a theme
• Studio Thinking habits as observed in the students, including Studio structure of: lecture or demonstration, application through student work, and then critique and reflection

Planning a Process and Team Teaching:

1. Julie Taymor, artist study, research (remember)
2. aesthetic understanding & influences (understand)
3. playing with mask, movement, symbol (applying)
4. playing with puppet, sculpture and story (applying)
5. writing, character and theme (analyzing and evaluating)
6. designing, revising and collaboration (evaluating and creating)
7. reflect (evaluating)
8. perform (creating)

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Curriculum as Product/Process/Praxis

This week has brought my practice to the test as:

• an arts researcher
• arts workshop facilitator
• artist in the schools administrator

In each case I wore a different hat, with distinct responsibilities and purpose. As a researcher, I was asked to present on a panel for the National ArtsSmart Symposium and to relate my experience with action research in regards to grant we received (I wrote more on this on my home page). As a workshop facilitator I worked with teachers from the Northern Area Teachers Association on using drama and masks in the classroom.  I also planned a second drama workshop with a colleague from Regina – we present it at the provincial conference for Drama, Art and ELA in November.  As an administrator for artists in the schools I worked with artists and teachers to design a program we would like to undertake in the new year. This will mean creating an extensive grant application with another research question. I became interested to understand the perspective of this work and how it can be analyzed according to product/process/praxis:

Curriculum as Product:

• I am least comfortable with this perspective, but accept there are connections
• participants need a certain body of knowledge as they progress – ie: historical, cultural and technical knowledge is important
• there are times when one transmits this knowledge as opposed to constructing it, a lecture component is useful for context and skill development
• programs would not operate efficiently if not for the organization and administration of details, ie: schedule, contracts, supplies, agreements
• grant writing determines funding, and grant juries are critically analyze your preparedness and efficacy as a precursor to your success.
• we look at our success by documenting the process, counting the number of participants, analyzing the budget and celebrating the production/exhibit/concert.

Curriculum as Process:

• the creative process is built primarily through exploration, imagination, divergence of thought and innovation – the end is not determined before we begin
• creativity can be defined as “the process of having original ideas that have value” (Sir Ken Robinson)
• “the power of imagination is to conceive of possibilities – this is what makes us human. Creativity is applied imagination” (Sir Ken Robinson)
• we created a community (as artists and teachers) and felt a bond, we wanted the same thing – to facilitate artistic experiences for the students and to encourage them to find their Voice.
• we find our meaning through the way we feel about the experience and by analyzing how the process led to expression and greater understanding
• everyone has something important to give to the process, a valued contribution through experience, knowledge and wisdom
• working through inquiry, we get the big question, the essential question that we solve collectively

Curriculum as Praxis:

• accountability measures are demanding we clarify our indicators of success and ask us to consider this as we plan for future improvements (SMART goals)
• as we work through process we also must be aware of diversity and equity in our plans, the newest term is differentiated instruction
• we are concerned with voice, authentic expression and creative freedom. How will we get there? And what happens if we don’t like what has been expressed?
• the artist in the schools project will bring together a variety of contemporary First Nations artists to work with teachers and students (of mixed racial backgrounds) to look at the topic of “Our Voice, Our Land” in light of the new treaty documents being mandated in our schools.  As we bring to light tensions, we will use the Trickster and laughter to face our fears. This approach to curriculum will be from a perspective of Praxis.

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Saturday October 11, 2008

Readings:

In the past weeks I have been doing some readings from our textbook The Curriculum Studies Reader and found that there are quite a few interesting articles pertaining to my experience with curriculum. Here is a reflection on the articles read:

John Dewey

“My Pedagogic Creed” (1929)

I believe that… we are inheritors of the funded capital of civilization. (Dewey)

• child centered curriculum
• true education comes through social situations. We are social beings.
• school is primarily a social institution
• school is a process of living and NOT merely a preparation for the future – it is real and vital
• we give students a “command of themselves” – both physically and with good judgment to act economically and efficiently

“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative.”
- John Dewey

“Based on John Dewey’s philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner, we use a spiral path of inquiry: asking questions, investigating solutions, creating new knowledge as we gather information, discussing our discoveries and experiences, and reflecting on our new-found knowledge.”  (from: http://aseguraluis.com/individual_who_impacted_education)

Ralph Tyler: 

“Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction” (1949)

Tyler believed that we can apply scientific methods of study to analyzing student behavior and thereby create more effective teaching methods. Determined objectives for student behavior can be evaluated and measured and can provide a measure of success.

Education is a process of changing the behavior patterns of people. This is using behavior in the broad sense to include thinking and feeling as well as overt action. (Tyler)

Four Principles:

1. Purpose (envision, explore, build skill, stretch)
2. Experiences/objectives (research, compare, analyze, experiment, design, create)
3. Organization (builds upon one another, group, partner, solo, group)
4. Evaluation/attainment (journal, participate, create, rehearse, perform, write)

• we need to systematically determine our objectives (PLC’s?)
• curriculum must answer four questions: purpose; experiences needed; best organized; and how will we know we are successful
• student needs are physical, social and integrative (philosophical)
• what should be taught? Is it relevant today? Is it transferable? Is it beyond the scope of contemporary life (”cult of presentism” and being prepared for changes to come)
• subject specialists should be asked how their area is relevant to students. This extends deeper thinking, inquiry, critical and creative thinking.

Objectives are more than knowledge, skills and habits, they involve modes of thinking, or critical interpretation, emotional reactions, interests and the like. (Tyler)

Tyler outlines five functions the Arts provide within curriculum:

1. Extending perception – through the eyes of the artist
2. Communication of ideas and feelings – in addition to speaking and writing
3. Personal integration – relieving tensions through symbolic representation
4. Develop interests and values – aesthetically
5. Technical skill and competence – acquire and develop

Joseph Schwab:

“The Practical: A Language for Curriculum”   (1969)

Curriculum is based upon inappropriate theories of the social sciences and will be the death of education if they do not move from the theoretical (Tyler) to include the practical and the eclectic. He was concerned with the “how” of education (not just the “what” it should be as defined by Tyler). Schwab presented this radical idea in 1969 and it’s effects are noticeable in the Sask curriculum and the addition of  Arts Education to the Core Curriculum in the 1980’s.

Schwab’s personal experience in high school allowed him creative license and free reign to experiment, explore and to follow his interests in a practical and eclectic manner. He became known at the university for his use of discussion over lecture, invloving students in their own learning and ridding the practice of rote memorization. A liberal arts approach to education was promoted as a way to broaden experience, excite learning and to stimulate growth.

He calls for the unification of departments, to communicate and share their knowledge with one another and to recognize the connections that exist in thinking and learning. While Schwab ackowledges the need for specialists he also warns of the territorial nature of specialized subjects, which inhibits dialogue and narrows our possibilities for collaboration.

Above all, it will require renunciation of the specious priviledges and hegemonies by which we maintain the fiction that problems of science curriculum, for example, have no bearing on problems of English literature or the Social Studies. The aim here is not a dissolving of specializationand special responsibilities. Quite the contrary: if the variety of lights we need are to be obtained, the variety of specialized interests, competences, and habits of mind which characterize education must be cherished and nurtured. The aim rather, is to bring the members of this variety to bear on curriculum problems by communication with one another. (Schwab)

Swhwab warns us, however, as we assess education and make changes for improvement, that we must be rigorous in our use of journals and research methods. He wisely cautions us of “the procession of ephemeral bandwagons”.

Maxine Greene:

“Through inquiries into sociology, history, and especially philosophy and literature, Maxine Greene explores living in awareness and “wide-awakeness” in order to advance social justice. Her thinking about existence and the power of imagination have been brought to life through her study, academic appointments, essays and books.” (from http://www.maxinegreene.org/about_maxine_greene.html)

Ms. Greene was the invited guest speaker at the U of Regina in 1985. I had no real understanding of her importance at the time, but I remember this small, well-dressed woman, who came all the way from New York to address us in this huge hall.  She talked about aesthetics as “thoughtful feeling, and feelingful thought”.  It was the first time I really began to understand the word and could see how it applied to my own experience.  Those years at university were a process of slowly – and sometimes joltingly – coming awake.  Becoming aware of the world, of myself and of my thoughts. Becoming awake….

“Curriculum and Consciousness” (1971)

Greene is a philosopher and approaches her essay by posing the question of how we find meaning. The “critics of consciousness” describe how art is a genesis of life experience, and that as a “reader” one must also draw upon their experience to “penetrate it existentially and empathetically”. T.S. Eliot refers to the poem as having a life of it’s own, separate from the artist, the poem as a literary object. Sartre says that “knowing is a moment of praxis” opening into “what has not yet been”.  However we come to understand, perceive, know and feel – we are creating meaning aesthetically through our attentiveness and imagination. We (the readers) have to work at creating meaning for ourselves if we are to appreciate the art.

Greene quotes Schutz, “…wide-awakeness … a plane of consciousness of highest tension originating in an attitude of full attention to life and its requirements.” How do we bring ourselves and our students to this state of awakeness?

To plunge in; to choose; to disclose; to move: this is the road, it seems to me, to mastery. (Greene)

• praxis is needed, not mere process. Action is required along with awareness of experience. This leads to attentiveness and engagement. Through reflection we become brave enough to incorporate your past into the present, and link to the future.
• students can only learn when they are committed to act upon their world
• the phenomenologist approach requires individual awareness, searching for meaning, experience is always happening (always incomplete)

Teachers must stimulate awareness of the questionable, to aid in the identification of the thematically relevant, to beckon beyond the everyday. (Greene)

William Doll Jr:

Professor Doll describes himself as “an aging post-modernist with an interest in complexity, Dewey, and spirituality” (from the website of Louisiana State University)

“The Four R’s – an Alternative to the Tyler Rationale”  (1993)

In response to Tyler’s notion of pre-set goals, methods and evaluations, Doll questions if we are truly open to the learning journey we take with students. If we have pre-determined how what will be taught and how it is measured then we must lead the students to all reach the same destination (objective).  Doll presents a post modern approach to curriculum, one where we are creating an environment for the four Rs:

1. Richness – learning which has layers of meaning; it is transformative; the curriculum needs “indeterminacy, anomoly, inefficiency, chaos, disequlibrium, dissapation, lived experience”; curriculum must have disturbing qualities; “problematics, perturbations, possibilities … gives curriculum its richness and also a sense of being.”
2. Recursive – learning happens through reflecting on what has happened and continuing from that point onward. “Every ending is a new beginning.” (Dewey); every test, journal entry, paper leads to something else; it is eclectic and interpretive.
3. Relations – pedagogical relations are necessary to a post-modern, transformative approach to curriculum, this is the “matrix or network which gives it richness”; and cultural relations, whereby we come to understand ourselves and our history through story, language and place.
4. Rigor – this prevents transformative education from falling into “sentimental solipsism”, the academic rigor by which we find validity and credence in our beliefs; builds a critical climate that is also supportive.

Elliot Eisner:

I have known about Eisner’s work since 1983, when I first began in the Arts Education program at the U of Regina.  His influence on the arts and education is legendary.  (A personal aside: I had the fortune of meeting him at an International Educators through Art conference in the USA about 15 years ago. My colleague and I approached him and Edmund Burke (another Arts guru) and asked if we might join them for lunch. They agreed and we, completely awestruck, had a lovely time together, but I cannot remember a word of it now.)

“What Does it Mean to Say a School is Doing Well?” (2001)

This article is a response to the “No Child Left Behind” legislation in the USA, but is also a warning to others who may be tempted to follow in their footsteps. The lure of the rationalization concept, where one can measure improvement and improve education through assessment. If something can be stated numerically then it must be irrefutable proof, right? Good test scores = quality education.  Using test scores to define your priorities leads  to a narrower and narrower curriculum.

The function of schooling is to enable students to do better in life. (Eisner)

• students on an intellectual journey are risk-takers, explorers, uncertain, speculate, curious, and engage readily with challenging ideas
• Signs of a School Doing Well: inquiry; intellectual significance; multiple perspectives; many forms of thinking; connections to the world; literate in representational forms; student led purpose; students as communities of learners (not necessarily by age); self assessment; motivated to learn; teachers as learners; parent connections to help define quality; greater equity.

When youngsters have no reason to raise questions, the processes that enable them to learn how to discover intellectual problems go undeveloped. (Eisner)

Here is a link to 10 Lessons the Arts Teach, by Eisner

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Steve has challenged us to create a philosophical doctrine that defines our beliefs about curriculum: a Burnsian point of view!

Welcome to the School of “Awakening”

Motto “Excitavisti”

(have you awakened)

Definition: We must become awake to our senses, emotions and thoughts by engaging, questioning, diverging, analyzing, reflecting and creating within our learning.

Key Theorists: S. Burns, Dr. N. Yakel, Dr. E. Eisner, Maxine Greene,  J. Harman (my mom)

Epistemology: We can call upon a storehouse of tacit knowledge and experiences that impact they way we come to understand and grow once we are open to the experience of learning. We are all meaningful participants in construction of learning.

Ontology: This philosophy arises from notions of play and the belief that we undervalue what might be learned through exploration, spontaneous actions and creative wandering.

Role of Teacher: facilitate, orchestrate, play, stimulate, challenge, create, question, reflect

Role of Student: play, respond, question, lead, explore, create, reflect

Situatedness of Curriculum: The philosophy is strongly rooted in time and place. The environment in which we play and create must be safe and risky at the same time.

Visual Metaphor:

Like a baby, we need to open our senses, trust others, learn by doing/trying, be open and honest about our feelings and needs, and live our lives in balance.

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September 23, 2008:

I have a project!

I have been invited to work with a high school drama teacher and her students to explore the process of collective creations in IB Theatre Arts 30.  I plan to compare the Saskatchewan curriculum for Drama 30 (very old!) with the International Baccalaureate curriculum for Theatre Arts 30.  There are quite a few differences even though the drama foundations remain the same.  I wonder why these differences exist and what it says about what we view as important.

As the teacher and I began our planning yesterday, we discussed the Studio Thinking Framework and decided to apply the revised Bloom’s taxonomy  to the unit as a way to analyze the thinking skills required. (This teacher is also a part of the Studio Thinking committee and will be take part in my Action Research project.) We plan to team teach the lessons and will document the process. The documentation will help us as we reflect on the progress of the unit.

We will work through steps, as negotiated by students, in order to create a drama production influenced by world theatre traditions. The process will invlove:

• character exploration and inner worlds
• finding meaning in movement
• bringing the neutral mask to life
• deconstructing notions of audience and actor
• reconceptualizing the use of puppet/mask/prop

I beleive the project will also ask students to reflect on the journey through the use of a design portfolio. It might include background information, comparison of styles, analysis of performance, design of puppet/mask/prop, choreographed (and notated) dance and a directed scene with proper notation. We meet later this week and will continue preparing the material together.

Things to consider:

IB Theatre Arts an overview

Saskatchewan curriculum Drama 30

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Studio Thinking a review