Too Simple to Fail by Bausell R. Barker

Author:Bausell, R. Barker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2011-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Difficulties Inherent in the Curriculum Review Process

Regardless of how we go about it, three problems must be overcome before a truly effective ongoing curriculum evaluation process can be implemented. These involve (a) the difficulty of choosing reasonable criteria for making deletion/addition decisions, (b) the lack of a national curriculum, and (c) the need to identify true versus bogus prerequisites higher up the educational chain.

Criteria

There is nothing sacrosanct about the three criteria just advanced to decide whether or not something should be taught. Each is fraught with it own difficulties. The first is tenuous, because we don’t know what the future holds for our children. The second is probably the most objective of the three, as long as we don’t overestimate the transferability of elementary school concepts, including the realities that (a) the way we teach concepts to younger children may not be at the same level of complexity they will need to later apply them and (b) subject matter that isn’t constantly used requires periodic review or it will be forgotten. We are much more likely to be disappointed than pleasantly surprised when we expect instruction in one arena to transfer or facilitate learning in another. (The best way to ascertain the likelihood of such transfer occurring is to perform a task analysis to ascertain prerequisite concepts involved in learning a targeted objective or skill.10)

The final criterion, aesthetic value, unquestionably involves the most subjective judgments of all. Every art and science will have its vociferous advocates in a curriculum review process such as I’m suggesting, and there will be equally adamant objections to including many topics simply because of competition for the limited instructional time available.

Personally, I’m not convinced, for example, that universal music and art instruction belong in the school curriculum, but this the opinion of one person who has no knowledge or expertise in either. Individuals who do possess these qualifications therefore need to have input, and their decisions should be made on the basis of what future artistic outcomes will and will not accrue as a function of mastering specific instructional objectives in these arenas. Said another way, these individuals should ask themselves: “What will mastery of, say, each (or all) of the 124 proposed musical objectives accomplish for a student?” Will it make someone more likely to obtain employment as a musician?11 Achieve self-actualization by either performing for others or for oneself in adulthood? Be more likely to attend concerts that improve his or her quality of life after leaving school? Having the actual objectives in front of these experts when they make their judgments can be quite instructive, because the objectives (if properly written) are what will be taught, and it is only what is taught that must be judged—nothing else.

A caveat: Someone, such as a music (or impoverished children’s) advocate, could reasonably argue that the school is the only place where some children will have the opportunity to experience playing an instrument or being a member of a band. My view of schooling, however,

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