Standards and curriculum

Making the Curriculum Exciting
The book Curriculum and Imagination, James McKernan expresses his thoughts on how a curriculum should be laid out and implemented. The most important aspect to think about when creating a curriculum is the audience in which you are teaching. The students’ thoughts and interest should be taken into account before the final curriculum layout is made. The problem with a curriculum is the fact that the school districts are not able to make their own curriculum; this is where the challenge appears. Teachers can think of a curriculum as molding clay; where as you are given a block to work with, but what you make of it is your own choice.
There are three major curriculum orientations, with one of them being the scientific curriculum, which includes social sciences. In the Ohio Department Standards for Social Studies students should be able to use knowledge of perspectives and products of cultural, ethic, and social groups to analyze the impact of their communality and diversity within local, national, regional and global settings. This is known as people in societies. McKernan stressed in the book that a curriculum is a powerful selection of values from contemporary culture. I think that in this always changing world that students need to be exposed or at least learn about various groups of individuals. The book explains unity versus diversity through the Social Market Model (SMM) perspective which advocates unity at the expense of diversity. This perspective stresses the notion of multiculturalism of values and cultures. Although people in Midwest Nebraska may not experience the same type of diversity as the individuals in Compton, both should still learn about different cultures throughout the world.
McKernan expresses that individuals should not only meet a pre-fixed standard, but rather expand the individual thought process and creativity. He also suggests that the idea of standards and performance levels and goals could be universally applied to all subjects across a curriculum. Education should not be measured by preset notions, but rather should be evaluated on how the information is implemented and evaluated. Through the social studies skills and methods benchmark students collect, organize, evaluate and synthesize information from multiple sources to draw logical conclusions. Students communicate this information using appropriate social studies terminology in oral, written or multimedia form and apply what they have learned to societal issues in simulated or real-world settings.
This will be different throughout various school settings, because this standard is very much socially based. Through this standard students will be able to engage in open discussion of the issues brought up though their research. By allowing the students to be involved in independent research the teacher is emerging the students into different cultures and enabling them to form their own opinions. A curriculum learning objective is to apply both theoretical and practical knowledge in the classroom. Students not only need to apply what they learn in the school setting, but rather be able to apply their knowledge in everyday situations.
Through the geography standard students use knowledge of geographic locations, patterns and processes to show the interrelationship between the physical environment and human activity, and to explain the interactions that occur in an increasingly interdependent world. The key word in this phrase is interdependent, all cultures and societies depend on each other for services and resources. I believe that there are multiple ways for teachers to address this standard along with a multitude of other standards. Teachers could either take on the traditional or epistemological form of teaching, learner-based, objective-based, or society and problem-centered curriculum in the classroom.
The traditional curriculum is approached in two separate forms which are the disciplines forms of knowledge approach and fields of knowledge, which are defined by their subject knowledge, rather than their distinctive forms. The learner-based curriculum is centered on the students’ strengths and interests. This curriculum is focused on the development of the individual rather than the subject, as a source of planning. The personal-progressive perspective is based on this curriculum where the focus is completely on the student.
The objectives model derives from a view that efficient technology, teaching and resources aid in the specific outcome. Ideas are based upon the behavioral change in students in both their educational and personal development. The society and problem-centered curriculum is based on the difficulties of living, this curriculum attempts to form a life-adjustment education using personal, group and institutional issues and problems. This curriculum I believe is most important when teaching social sciences, because it addresses issues such as racism, inequality, terrorism and a variety of other problems. I believe that no matter which curriculum path you choice to follow you need to make sure that the path is clear and adventurous. Children are more adapt to remember the classes that are interesting and innovative, as opposed to the classes where students just sit in their seats while the teacher lectures for an hour. I hope that my future classroom is a place where children cannot wait to escape to and completely dive head first into the learning process.