One part of my job description is to oversee and develop my school's curriculum. Over the years, I have seen that many people misunderstand what the "curriculum" is and how it is designed.
One misunderstanding is seen in a common question I am asked, especially in Christian school circles: "What curriculum does your school use?" What this usually means is, "What series of textbooks do you follow - Bob Jones or A Beka?" It is assumed that a school will simply purchase textbooks from one publisher (usually one of those two) and will use them in all subjects in all grade levels as the "curriculum."
Another misunderstanding revolves around the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Especially in conservative circles, I hear criticisms of "the Common Core curriculum." When these criticisms are analyzed, they almost always refer to textbooks - textbook series which are aligned to the CCSS. (I have addressed CCSS in other posts in this blog, so I won't go over that again.)
Yet another problem comes from some teachers. When they are asked to plan out their curriculum for the year (sometimes in a process of "curriculum mapping"), they sometimes just take the outline straight from the textbook. Sometimes the titles of their units are simply the numbers of the chapters in the book (the first unit of study is titled "Chapter 1," the second is "Chapter 2," etc.).
The problem with all these is that textbooks are equated with the curriculum. However, this confuses the tools with the goals. Let me give an example: I enjoy photography as a hobby. If someone asked me what kind of pictures I like to take, I might say sports photography, or landscapes, or portraits, or something like that. I would not answer that question with, "I take Nikon pictures." It might be true that I use a Nikon camera and Nikkor lenses. But those are just the tools I use to take pictures of the ice on trees in my yard this morning.
Similarly, the school's curriculum is the set of learning goals and objectives the school teaches, in the sequence the school desires. Those goals might be the desired content and knowledge ("Students will know four ways to prove two lines crossed by a transversal are parallel") or they might be skills ("Students will be able to write a persuasive essay"). When those goals are divided among grade levels and put in a sequence (they need to learn objective A before objective B), that is the school's curriculum.
So what are the textbooks? They are just tools (like the Nikon camera) to achieve the goals of the curriculum. Teachers don't teach the textbook - they teach the curriculum, and use the textbooks to teach that curriculum. The school should select textbooks, not because they are part of some all-encompassing series, but because they are the best tool available to achieve the goals of the curriculum. For example, the school might decide that the Bob Jones textbooks are the best tool for teaching elementary reading, while the A Beka books are the best tool for teaching elementary math. Or perhaps the Glencoe textbook is best for high school geometry, but the Houghton Mifflin book is better for trigonometry.
This then changes the approach teachers have toward their curriculum. Teachers don't teach "chapter 1" but they teach about "America's first settlers." When children go home and their parents ask them, "What did you learn today?" we don't want the answer to be "Chapter 1." Instead, we want children to answer, "We learned about the scientific method." So how does a school decide what curriculum it will teach? And how does it then decide which textbooks it will use? We'll look at some of that in the next post.
One misunderstanding is seen in a common question I am asked, especially in Christian school circles: "What curriculum does your school use?" What this usually means is, "What series of textbooks do you follow - Bob Jones or A Beka?" It is assumed that a school will simply purchase textbooks from one publisher (usually one of those two) and will use them in all subjects in all grade levels as the "curriculum."
Another misunderstanding revolves around the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Especially in conservative circles, I hear criticisms of "the Common Core curriculum." When these criticisms are analyzed, they almost always refer to textbooks - textbook series which are aligned to the CCSS. (I have addressed CCSS in other posts in this blog, so I won't go over that again.)
Yet another problem comes from some teachers. When they are asked to plan out their curriculum for the year (sometimes in a process of "curriculum mapping"), they sometimes just take the outline straight from the textbook. Sometimes the titles of their units are simply the numbers of the chapters in the book (the first unit of study is titled "Chapter 1," the second is "Chapter 2," etc.).
The problem with all these is that textbooks are equated with the curriculum. However, this confuses the tools with the goals. Let me give an example: I enjoy photography as a hobby. If someone asked me what kind of pictures I like to take, I might say sports photography, or landscapes, or portraits, or something like that. I would not answer that question with, "I take Nikon pictures." It might be true that I use a Nikon camera and Nikkor lenses. But those are just the tools I use to take pictures of the ice on trees in my yard this morning.
Similarly, the school's curriculum is the set of learning goals and objectives the school teaches, in the sequence the school desires. Those goals might be the desired content and knowledge ("Students will know four ways to prove two lines crossed by a transversal are parallel") or they might be skills ("Students will be able to write a persuasive essay"). When those goals are divided among grade levels and put in a sequence (they need to learn objective A before objective B), that is the school's curriculum.
So what are the textbooks? They are just tools (like the Nikon camera) to achieve the goals of the curriculum. Teachers don't teach the textbook - they teach the curriculum, and use the textbooks to teach that curriculum. The school should select textbooks, not because they are part of some all-encompassing series, but because they are the best tool available to achieve the goals of the curriculum. For example, the school might decide that the Bob Jones textbooks are the best tool for teaching elementary reading, while the A Beka books are the best tool for teaching elementary math. Or perhaps the Glencoe textbook is best for high school geometry, but the Houghton Mifflin book is better for trigonometry.
This then changes the approach teachers have toward their curriculum. Teachers don't teach "chapter 1" but they teach about "America's first settlers." When children go home and their parents ask them, "What did you learn today?" we don't want the answer to be "Chapter 1." Instead, we want children to answer, "We learned about the scientific method." So how does a school decide what curriculum it will teach? And how does it then decide which textbooks it will use? We'll look at some of that in the next post.