Chapter 9 Designing Programs for Learners Types of

Chapter 9: Designing Programs for Learners • Types of curriculum – Formal and informal – Serves to attain the objectives of the school • Each state/region has particular differences and goals that have to be addressed in the planning process

Approaches to curriculum Design • Forward approach – Introduce favored or elected textbooks • Backward approach – Begin with targeted goals or outcomes – Identify learner performances – Identify learning experiences needed to produce performances – Identify materials necessary – Assessment should be part of the backward planning process

Types of Curriculum Design • Range from subject-centered to learnercentered curricula • Instructional designs depend on degree of emphasis on subject and learner in the curriculum • Separate course designs • Fused course designs • Core Courses design • Activity courses design

Separate courses design • Oldest design – Continues to be used • All subjects for instruction separated – Offered in isolation • Intent to teach students to set classifications and recognizable arrangements of facts and ideas • Puts learning into extensive receiving role – Gives no opportunities to explore, experience and experiment with alternatives • Formal step-by-step study of ideas and facts • Teachers rely on verbal activities – Lectures, discussion

Fused Courses Design • Attempts to decrease the number of separate courses offered to the learner – Fusing into broader discipline courses • Present relationships in whole to the student rather than in bits and pieces • Various subjects meshed into broader subjects – Example: writing, spelling, literature, grammar fused into English or language arts • Teaching practices remain the same as in the single subject design • Gives teachers and students more latitude within subject area • Used most often in elementary schools

Core Courses Design • Allows for considerable change and alternatives in program design – Begins to use backward approach – Provides increased attention to divergent thinking and learning – Moves beyond fused curriculum • Greater attention to the social and psychological needs of the learner • Emphasis on intrinsic motivation—generated from within by the student • May cross broader subject matter lines – Greater stress on the need to integrate subject matter than does the fused design

Activity Courses Design • • • Treats the child as the sole center of learning Students’ needs and interests assessed Curriculum is built on that assessment Encompasses all subject matter Example: curriculum for early learner may center on topics such as play, pets, toys, boats, letter carriers, police officers – Emphasis on observation, play, stories, and handiwork

Characteristics of Activity Courses Design • Interests and purposes of children determine the educational program • Common learning (general education) comes about as a result of individual interests • Curriculum is not planned in advance – Guidelines are established to help students choose alternatives intelligently as they progress through the program

Students Served by the Curriculum • Number and kind of each category vary amongst districts • Every district has some mix of categories • Terminal students • College-bound students • Vocational-technical students • Destination unknown • Non traditional students

Terminal Students • Students at risk—those that are going to drop out along the way • Minority groups have considerably higher rates

College-Bound Students • Preparing for some form of post-high school education • May attend 2 -yr or 4 - yr institutions • Majority of curriculum design and attention given to this category

Vocational-Technical Students • Preparing for entrance into the workforce after high school or post-high school vocational schooling

Destination Unknown • Late bloomers • Drift through school • May fall into other categories

Nontraditional Students • Variety of needs • English language students whose first language is not English

Purposes of Curriculum • General education • Exploratory education • Education for career

Purposes of Curriculum • Each purpose receives about the same emphasis in varying school districts – State and national standards set for schools allow for same amount of emphasis – Purposes are fulfilled for the learner may vary considerably • Carnegie unit requirement—traditional standard for all secondary schools – Mandates time and intensity requirements for course offerings – One unit=200 minutes of instruction per week for thirty -six weeks

General Education purposes • • • Learning experiences for citizenship participation Good mental health Reading development Composition Speaking Listening Computing Humanities and arts Social and natural sciences

General Education Purposes • Addresses the common learning requirements for all learners • Stresses learning the skills of knowledge application and inquiry • Elementary program is primarily general education – Every student gets the same exposure to the same basic curriculum – Differences are found in the intensity of the program for individual students

General Education Purposes • Secondary level – Identification of different student abilities has led to different intensities in programs – Example: all 12 th graders take English, but some take for college bound, or some take for general or vocational reasons • Society’s needs for people with special skills helped to reduce the major emphasis on general education during the past thirty years • 21 st century—state and national standards stress the importance of general education

Exploratory Education Purposes • Middle schools provide exploratory education for a particular group of young learners • Introduce students to a variety of specialized subjects on a limited basis

Junior High School • Provides a transitional period • Allows students to explore interest, aptitudes, and abilities • Introduces students to an elaborate program of guidance and counseling that continues through the senior high school

Middle School • Newer label for schools with goals of the original junior high school • The original intent of the junior high school has seldom been achieved • Middle school stresses the use of interdisciplinary teaching teams • Greater attention to advisory programs • Increased exploratory exposure to unified arts programs

Education for Career • Senior high school unites general education and introduction to exploratory education – Produces education for career – Prepare students to function in working world • Vocational-technical programs • Tech-prep programs: student remains in regular high school and prepares for work during last 2 years of high school

Alternative Curriculum Programs • Extensions of regular program beyond 12 th grade or before 1 st grade • Charter schools • Effective schools • School Vouchers • Outcomes-Based Education

Charter Schools • Choice among public schools for families and children • Entrepreneurial opportunities to create schools and programs • Explicit responsibility for improved achievement, as demonstrated by standardized tests and other measures • Carefully designed competition in public education

Charter Schools • Waivers-exempt charter schools from state restrictions and regulations – Still held accountable for achieving positive educational results • Design their own curricula – – Guidelines vary state by state Different technology use Magnet school approach used by some Mirror local school districts • Achievement performances held to a national standard that the local school district was not meeting

Effective Schools • Program characteristics – Instructional program is goal oriented – Constant and consistent assessment and monitoring of student progress – Immediate feedback on student performance – Instruction is appropriate to the learner – Emphasis on basic academic and life skills – Continuity of instruction across the grades – Effective grouping for instruction

Effective Schools • Environment characteristics – – – – Democratic administrative leadership Orderly, safe environment Clear, firm, consistent discipline Few classroom interruptions Parental involvement Positive community relations Adequate facilities and learning materials School plant well kept

School Vouchers • Loomed on the horizon for past 3 decades • States provided public funds for this type of private education starting in 1990’s • Never gained significant acceptance in the legislatures of the nation • Allow parents to use vouchers with private schools of choice – Including religious schools – Procedure continuously challenged in court as a violation of the principle of separation of church and state

School Vouchers • Curriculum alternative – Vouchers provide the possibility for students to experience school programs that are not available in their home schools – Differences in math, science, language programs – Allow students to attend schools that have made significant commitment to the use of technology in education when their home school has not made the commitment to technology

Outcomes-Based Education • Associated with William Spady • Intended to address meaningful culminating experiences • Demonstrations of outcomes must occur in some contest or performance setting – Must be of high quality – Expected to occur at culminating periods such as 5 th, 8 th, and 12 th grade levels – Students expected to be implementers and performers, problem finders and solvers, creators and producers, learners and thinkers, team members and partners, and listeners and communicators etc.

Private Industry • Business and industry have a high stake in educational system • Business and industry have been highly critical of the American education • Business and industry have sought for ways to be more involved with education beyond vocational schooling. – Facilitating school to work programs – Work study programs – Private business operating for profit schools

Coalition of Essential Schools • Started by Theodore Sizer in 1984 ~ 1, 000 of them today. • Common principles guiding these schools – Teachers design assignments that require students to hone their research skills – Assignments are built around assessment, creation and collaboration – Teachers guide, inform, criticize, and evaluate – Students are responsible for their own learning – Mastery of projects, research papers, and presentations are used to present evidence of real learning