At the beginning of class, the question was posed: what is curriculum? For as many students there were as many different responses, reflecting the openness and ambiguity of the term across education. After seven weeks of studying curriculum design in American Education, from notable theorists, current events and implementation to seeing examples of it in process, my understanding of this broad topic has grown immeasurably.
As a non-educator, I have had to understand the subject matter from a different starting point. With my political science background, which is essentially the study of organized, self-interested human interaction, I found quickly drawn to the myriad personalities: Dewey, Taba, Pinar, and Skinner to name a few, all have point their indelible prints on the field, and have borrowed and built upon each other when possible. Despite some of their eccentricities, all of them have at bottom the ostensibly simple goal of putting the student first, and helping them achieve the most amount of success from a system that’s often cited as being slow to change to more efficient methods.
What’s most intriguing to me is the mutability of curriculum design. Now, the practice is the UbD model; in ten years, having studied the immensity of past reform, it’ll undoubtedly be another approach that’s assumed to be the model most inducing student success. The authors of UbD present the crux of their backwards design pretty well, and the approach makes sense to me as a practical way of doing things in the classroom. I haven’t had the privilege of attempting it in a classroom setting, and, as my Masters program progresses, I look forward to being able to try the method firsthand, to better determine its strengths and weaknesses.
As the sole text, the UbD book was by turns challenging, frustrating and compelling. Each chapter put a slightly different twist on the same backwards design concept, introducing new ways to explore the idea. Still, from my academically neophyte position, much of it seems complicated and overwhelming. With every look into an existing curriculum, however, I gained clarity, and things like rubrics and assessments are a little less mystifying. With whatever role I take after earning my degree, I’m certain I’ll develop greater a greater understanding of what UbD was getting at.
I’ve also enjoyed seeing curriculum development as applicable to other aspects of my life. Having a plan prior to doing anything typically yields more success, whether planning a trip, cooking a meal, or holding an interview at work. Prior preparation, or, what I want to accomplish when it’s done, enables me to work smarter, mindful of final goals. For instance, how will I know when my interview has gone well? When they don’t have any questions, and want to enroll. How will I know that I’ve developed a quality system of backwards design? When, at the end of a month, I can see my goals satisfied.
Everything, especially daily workplace obligations can seem tedious and dissatisfying without a meaningful, purposeful understanding of why it’s being done, in what greater context, and means of measuring success. My interviews have become more highly structured over the past seven weeks, in large part due to the awareness that they can be, and that there are many methods for evaluation; methods that are constantly subject to revision. If I took anything from the course, it’s that flexibility and adaptability are essential to successful curriculum development. This is not a black and white field.
So, in what way will having studied this affect my professional life? Immediately, it will help me to be a better admissions representative, to give better, more informed information to prospective students, backed by knowing how and why courses are structured the way they are. Brown’s, and by extension, other college’s designs make much more sense. My definition of curriculum hasn’t changed much since the first day of class, but my understanding of how an academic road-map is created, why, with what intentions and eventual evaluation and assessments has grown tremendously.
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