Wednesday, January 18, 2017

January 18 Curriculum Threads

"Paradise is a lot like where we are right now, except much much better" (Laurie Anderson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvOoR8m0oms


At least a DBAE comprehensive curriculum: What is a discipline? A disciple? To be disciplined? What is Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE)?  Why is DBAE important?  Why was it put together in the first place?
A discipline is a branch of knowledge… It incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, methods, languages, and research areas that are strongly associated with a given academic discipline. Jerome Bruner thought education or schooling would be strengthened by focusing on the  structure of a discipline, its literacies, its ways of knowing, its questions and ways of inquiry  rather than  inert, once and for all, facts or information…

at least DBAE










The history of  struggle for American curriculum: 4 major interest groups or reformers, who defined or had  a different conception of what knowledge should be embodied in the curriculum in schools and the purposes of this curriculum.

The humanists (or scholar academic): Guardians of ancient traditions tied to the power of reason and the finest elements of Western culture, the ideas of a liberal arts education for all. Mental disciplinarians believed that mind is a muscle that needs to be trained. So curriculum was about  developing the powers of the mind (the ability to think) and filling the mind with content (acquisition of skills and knowledge,).  This traditional form of curriculum and school was met by reformers with a different conception of what knowledge was of most worth. This school of thought emphasized disciplines and  teacher as transmitter of knowledge.

The developmentalists of the child study movement (learner centered): Curriculum should be based on the natural developmental order of children.  Though frequently infused with romantic notions of childhood, like the natural spontaneity of the child and adolescent,  they were also informed by scientific research on child and adolescent development  and the nature of learning, asking questions such as what is learning? How do we learn best?  The sought to create a curriculum in harmony with the child’s interests, needs and learning patterns, thus the natural power of the child could be unharnesses. Teacher is facilitator

Social efficiency educators apply the standardization techniques of industry to the business of school, waste would be eliminated and schooling could efficiently prepare students for their (often preordained) adult roles in society. People had to be controlled for their own good and for the good of society. Society was falling apart, but a scientifically constructed curriculum could remedy this calamity.
Standardization and efficiency. Clear goals and clear measurement. Teacher is manager.

The social meliorists (social reconstruction): education is the way to create a just society. School as the principal force for social change and social justice and correct corruption, vice, inequality, abuse of power and privilege, etc.  They believed in the power of schools to create a new social vision. They rejected  social Darwinism,  and the survival of the fittest. Teacher is colleague.


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