The Centrality of Curriculum and the Function of Standards: The Curriculum is a Mind-altering Device

In this episode I unpack Eisner’s (2002) publication titled “The centrality of curriculum and the function of standards: The curriculum is a mind-altering device,” which problematizes curricula and standards by discussing how both can deprofessionalize the field of education.

  • Curricula and standards can provide

    guidance to Educators but I don't often

    see them being critiqued or discussed in

    the field do we even need them if so

    when and when not the chapter titled the

    centrality of curriculum and the

    function of Standards the curriculum is

    a mind-altering device explores this a

    little bit this chapter is written by

    Elliot Eisner in this episode I'm going

    to relate this to Computer Science

    Education my name is Jared O'Leary and I

    have a background in music education and

    computer science education and a variety

    of teaching contexts all the way from

    kindergarten through doctoral students

    this episode going to kind of build off

    of some of the things I talked about

    last week in episode 174. you can find a

    direct link to it in the show notes at

    jaredoleery.com where there are a

    hundreds if not thousands of free

    computer science education resources as

    well as over 1300 hours of drumming

    content and a bunch of gaming content as

    well because I'm a nerd now the title of

    this chapter is a bit provocative but

    here's a quote from page 148 that kind

    of elaborates a little bit more quote

    when policy makers and educational

    theorists Define a curriculum for a

    school or a classroom they are also

    defining the forms of thinking that are

    likely to be promoted in the school they

    are in effect laying out an agenda for

    the development of Mind end quote and as

    we've talked about in other episodes

    they are laying out an agenda for what

    they want people to value and understand

    and behave in society how do we do that

    well I mean if we think about it from

    like a behavioral standpoint if we

    reward certain behaviors and punish

    other behaviors or certain ways of

    knowing or being as opposed to others

    that makes us a different axiologies

    ontology disease epistemologies Etc are

    valued more than others which inherently

    makes it so that some cultures are

    valued more than others from an equity

    standpoint this can be problematic which

    is why many educators are talking about

    decolonization so instead of having one

    way of thinking or doing or being in a

    classroom we instead are focusing on

    having many but people who were in the

    dominant culture that was promoted view

    this as an Erasure so Eisner goes on a

    little bit further to say that

    curriculum can come in many different

    forms so as somebody who previously

    developed curriculum and designed

    professional development full-time I can

    say that yeah there's a lot of things

    that need to be discussed I've talked

    about this in other episodes but there

    are like different layers of curricula

    so as a former curriculum developer what

    I designed or intended for people to do

    is like one layer the next one is what

    is actually taught then is what is

    actually like experienced by the

    students in the classroom and then how

    they actually embody that so Ellie

    Eisner is going to talk about some of

    these in this opening section of the

    chapter now because I've talked about

    this more in other episodes that I will

    include in the show notes I'm going to

    go through this section fairly quickly

    but I want to read a quote here from

    page 149 quote but there's always a

    distance between the intentions of

    curriculum designers and actual teaching

    practices the curriculum in Vivo as

    contrasted with in vitro consists in the

    actual activities employed in classrooms

    no professional curriculum designer can

    know the details or specifics of

    individual classrooms or the needs of

    particular children end quote I totally

    agree with that as a former curriculum

    developer I can say that what I designed

    was intended to be customized for the

    students that the teacher was working

    with because I don't know what your

    classroom context is like I don't know

    what students are interested in I want

    you to be able to modify the lessons and

    the projects and the resources Etc to

    align with the kids that you're working

    with I can't just say hey this is going

    to work for everybody even though I know

    many kids will enjoy the projects that I

    created as they were originally designed

    however they could be even better if

    they were customized a little bit or

    maybe a lot of it for the students that

    you're working with and this doesn't

    mean just for customization for all

    right I'm going to make a project that

    matches the 30 kids that I work with but

    instead saying how can I make it so that

    we have 30 different projects that match

    to the 30 Unique Individuals that I'm

    working with so if you are a curriculum

    designer I highly recommend thinking of

    this when you are creating your content

    whether it's your resources your lessons

    your projects whatever try and think of

    them as like a platform or a springboard

    for further ideas to be remixed and

    expanded upon rather than like immutable

    lessons and projects that need to be

    left intact from how you originally

    designed it yeah what you design may

    have worked great for the kids that you

    were thinking of when you're creating it

    but it might not work for I don't know

    outside of that context and that's okay

    and that should be expected but if we

    dive a little bit deeper into that idea

    that doesn't just apply to curriculum

    designers professional development

    designers Etc this also applies to

    teachers so if you are picking up any

    kind of a lesson plan I strongly

    recommend that you customize it in some

    way to better match the kids that you're

    working even if you feel like you are

    brand new to a domain like computer

    science and you don't have a lot of

    experience in it try and find ways to

    customize it for the kids you're working

    with and one way that you can easily do

    that is just ask kids how they might

    modify this so if you're working on like

    a project in scratch great instead of

    having everybody recreate the exact same

    project ask kids at the beginning to

    think of how they might take the model

    project the example project idea and

    change it so that it is more relevant to

    their own interests and needs and

    desires Etc this approach kind of

    contrasts with what was introduced in

    the 60s as Elliott Eisner discusses so

    in the 60s they talked about teacher

    proof curricula quote that is designing

    curriculum materials that were so

    prescriptive and detailed that they

    could not fail to be effective that

    illusory aspiration has long passed and

    most people today recognize that

    professional direction is needed in

    teaching just that it is in virtually

    every other professional field if

    recipes for teaching were adequate

    teacher education programs would be

    unnecessary end quote and that is from

    page 149 and 150 and that is such a good

    quote if all we needed to do was design

    like the perfect lesson plan then why

    would we even need to have teaching

    professionals we could just hire

    paraprofessionals or random people from

    off the street to pay the minimum wage

    and just say hey make sure kids aren't

    throwing things and let the curriculum

    do the work for you but that's not how

    teaching works as somebody who is taught

    every grade kindergarten through

    doctoral student I could say that I've

    always had to modify things because some

    kids are just not interested in a

    subject area other kids might be really

    interested in it some kids are having a

    bad day because maybe they fractured

    their foot jumping off the swing set

    like I did when I was a kid and other

    kids are experiencing racism in the

    schools and it's going unchecked and

    unnoticed by adults there are so many

    factors that influence how kids come

    into the classroom and experience the

    the intended or designed learning we

    need to take these into account just

    like we take into account prior

    experience so we're supposed to be able

    to modify and adjust based on how

    experienced or less experienced students

    are but everybody's going to come in at

    a different level great credit the scale

    might be shorter for some groups or

    classes where it's like okay well the

    student's likability level between 100

    let's say it's like between 40 and 50

    and they all come in within that range

    but other times it might be between like

    computer science classes that I've

    taught who have literally never seen or

    touched a computer before so as an 8th

    grader that I'm thinking of and then

    other students who go home and program

    on their weeknights and weekends Etc

    that kind of a spread in a computer

    science class is something we have to be

    able to account for and so modifying

    lessons is important but not only do we

    need to think of what is being taught

    but how we are teaching it so one of the

    lessons that I learned when I was in

    Drumline just from Glenn Crosby who is a

    phenomenal educator he was talking about

    how when he consulted a variety of drum

    lines across the country that it wasn't

    just what you say but how you say it and

    when you say it so it's very important

    to not just be correct with the the

    facts that you are giving when it comes

    to correcting like a mistake or showing

    you how to fix something but also

    figuring out what could you say in that

    moment that would help that student or

    maybe not say anything at all and let

    them kind of figure it out for

    themselves so knowing the when and the

    how is extremely important to consider

    so my computer lab was set up like an

    oval so there were computers facing all

    of the walls around the edges and then

    there was two tables that were facing

    towards the center in the middle so when

    I walked around the room I could walk

    around and assist students one-on-one so

    I'd be asking questions and kind of like

    guiding them many times when I would be

    asking them the questions I would kind

    of like notice that they had like a bug

    with a program whether it was scratch or

    Ruby or JavaScript or Swift or whatever

    language or platform they were working

    on and I would kind of like use a

    guiding question to help them think

    through where they might be able to

    figure out a solution for this and then

    I'd walk away and I'd often walk back

    and kind of just kind of like look at

    their screen and see if they've made any

    progress and whatnot or see like what

    their body language is did they look

    like they're frustrated they look like

    they're thinking really hard or do they

    look like they're bored Etc I would use

    all this information and to figure out

    what do I need to do next or maybe not

    do maybe I just continue another circle

    around the room and assist other

    students maybe they don't actually need

    my Assistance or maybe they do one

    simple way to kind of figure that out is

    just ask hey how's it going since I last

    checked in this was a form of assessment

    but there's also a valuation that is

    often occurring in different classrooms

    so we need to think of how these all

    kind of like work together to kind of

    create an experience for students how

    they assessed how they are evaluated how

    you teach what they are actually

    learning Etc all kind of have an impact

    on how they experience this classroom I

    talked about that in the episode last

    week number 174 which was titled

    educational aims objectives and other

    aspirations now here's a quote for page

    curriculum activity events are planned

    that have an impact on students as

    thought processes thus how curriculum

    activities are designed the models of

    cognition that are evoked the forms of

    representation that are presented or

    which students are given permission to

    use all affect what students are likely

    to think about end quote some people

    when they hear that they go great we

    should really Define what exactly we

    value and what we want students to think

    about as I've talked about in other

    episodes this might be curriculum as

    social reconstruction but another way of

    thinking of it is curriculum as cultural

    reproduction I've talked about these

    more in episode 125 titled images of

    curriculum and I'll include a link to

    that in the show notes at

    jaredoleery.com whatever image of

    curriculum you end up using the

    curriculum or standards objectives Etc

    all kind of are used to help guide or

    provide some kind of direction or a

    framework for thinking through the

    educational experiences that students

    will engage in across their K-12 or even

    higher education tenure but what that

    looks like differs for every educator or

    curriculum developer out there or even

    an administrator some people want to

    know in advance like in September what

    will students be doing in February

    others look at it and go well I don't

    actually know what students are going to

    learn or how fast they're going to learn

    and what direction they want to go in so

    we're going to kind of unpack this a

    little bit more in the following pages

    but to be honest most of what I have

    seen in education is the first one so

    most of them have like here's the

    curriculum for the entire quarter or

    semester or year planned out like the

    very first district that I taught in

    they literally handed us a series of

    notebooks that was every single lesson

    plan that you teach kindergarten all the

    way through sixth grade this made it so

    that I technically didn't have to write

    any lesson plans because they're all

    written out but are supposed to rewrite

    them and add in transition sentences

    where I literally script out what I was

    going to say word for word in each one

    of the lesson plans as a new educator

    this made it so that I had content to

    work with and I didn't have to stress

    out every single week trying to come up

    with lessons for each of the kids that I

    work with while that might sound great

    for the educator it doesn't mean that

    was a great experience for the students

    there were so many sixth graders who

    like why do we need to sing this

    childish song and I was like I don't

    know I didn't write the curriculum this

    is just what we have to do then there

    are so many classes that I worked with

    that did not speak English and we were

    forcing them to sing a song that they

    did not understand in English so on one

    hand it made my life easier and not

    having to plan things but on the other

    hand it made the educational experience

    worse for the student but with the other

    approach where things are much more

    flexible quote the teacher's task is to

    be sensitive to the flow of events and

    to the students engagement in those

    events in order to make appropriate

    adjustments and indeed to invent

    activities that are appropriate for the

    students this model suggests that

    curriculum activities grow out of or

    emerge from events that immediately

    precede them the teacher is less

    concerned with arriving at a

    predetermined destination on time than

    with getting students engaged in

    activities that are emotionally

    satisfying and intellectually productive

    sequence grows out of the links that the

    teachers help Forge between his or her

    more mature knowledge of a field of

    activity and the work that students

    engage in to be able to make educational

    gold out of emerging activities in the

    classroom requires a high degree of

    artistry in teaching Artistry and

    teaching is more likely to occur when

    the classroom provides a context for

    improvisation and where unpredictability

    rather than predictability of activities

    and consequences is acknowledged when

    plans are tightly organized when

    objectives are highly specified where a

    timeline is prescriptive in its detail

    routine is given a place of privilege

    efficiency and Effectiveness are seen as

    more likely when the tracks are smooth

    and where all students are expected to

    move down those tracks toward a common

    goal end quote from page 152 then this

    following quote is really going to

    resonate with all the podcast episodes

    that I've done on rhizomatic learning

    which again I'll include links to those

    in the show notes at jaredeliry.com but

    quote the more teachers open the door

    for the suggestions of students the more

    opportunities they provide for genuine

    individualization what such a curriculum

    promotes are individualized outcomes and

    individualized activities end quote and

    this is something that I talked about in

    a panel session at the crossroads Summit

    like a couple of weeks ago we were asked

    to kind of Define what Equity means to

    us or Equitable Computer Science

    Education and what I talked about is

    individualized learning within a group

    context and so I've unpacked this more

    in some of the other episodes on

    individual lies learning or interest

    driven learning Etc so I'll include

    links to those in the show notes but

    this kind of shows you some of the

    people who had a profound influence on

    the way that I thought of classroom

    experiences and lesson plans Etc but

    here's an important quote that's from

    page 152 and 153 quote many students

    find it difficult to cope with the

    opportunity to Define their own goals it

    takes practice to do so well and a

    willingness to accept such an

    opportunity as an appropriate part of

    One's Own education when birds have led

    their life in a cage it is not difficult

    to understand that when the door is open

    they might not have a desire to leave

    end quote that is such an important

    quote I had so many students who come to

    my classroom and be like wait so we can

    learn whatever we want we can create

    whatever we want on like several

    different programming languages and

    platforms and be like yes and be like

    overwhelmed with the amount of choice so

    I'd provide some like guiding questions

    like some things to help prompt their

    understanding for thinking through what

    they might explore all right just sit

    down with them one-on-one and be like

    what are you interested in all right

    cool you're interested in racing how can

    we explore that in coding or whatever

    platform that we're working on and kind

    of give them the tools and the ways of

    thinking to be able to do that because

    after years if not Decades of schooling

    practices that spoon feed projects and

    actions and like little activities for

    students to engage in without thinking

    of creating their own they might need

    some support in how to do that here's a

    quote from page 153 that talks about

    that quote even when students have a

    hand in framing their own purposes and

    informing their own curriculum

    activities the teacher has a

    considerable role to play such an

    approach to curriculum makes greater

    demands on the teacher than one that is

    packaged by a curriculum production

    company more is required if the teacher

    is to work more or less individually

    with students to enable them to think

    through and to plan what they are going

    to address in their art program in

    addition the teacher has a key role to

    play in calling the students attention

    to qualities in the work they produce

    that need attention of one kind or

    another a little bit further down

    calling this students has attention to

    such matters addresses other many

    curricular activities that invite

    students to think about the content of

    their work in new ways and to experiment

    with ways to strengthen what needs

    attention thus curriculum and teaching

    merge within a dynamic context end quote

    now this is a really important quote and

    a really important point to consider in

    computer science education especially at

    the elementary level there's often a

    focus on this teacher-proof curriculum

    hey we've designed this platform that

    does all of the teaching all of the

    assessment everything you absolutely

    need all you need to do is just like

    make sure kids are working why did

    curriculum developers design it this way

    because many elementary teachers Etc do

    not have a background in computer

    science or programming well likely

    well-intentioned this creates a Reliance

    on the curriculum itself but because

    these platforms are designed in a way to

    take the teacher out of it the teacher

    does not end up learning the content

    knowledge or learning the pedagogical

    knowledge to be able to teach computer

    science and to be able to move beyond

    that platform it makes it so that you

    have to continue you to subscribe or

    continue to revisit the website or

    continue to buy the next unit of

    instruction Etc this is why when I

    previously designed professional

    development experiences we approached it

    from the idea of rather than giving a

    person a fish or in this case a

    curriculum or lessons or projects Etc we

    wanted to teach a person how to fish so

    how you design the curriculum how you

    design the professional development and

    how you support the learning of teachers

    over time will have a profound impact on

    whether or not they actually become

    sustainable or not now I have witnessed

    many districts move away from

    sustainability because of a variety of

    factors the biggest one being not

    attending professional development not

    giving time for teachers to be able to

    learn computer science Concepts

    practices skills understandings Etc and

    the pedagogical knowledge so yeah it's

    great you might be providing

    professional development but if you

    don't provide the time for teachers to

    attend the PD or to continue their

    learning outside of PD and actually try

    and Implement in their classroom in a

    meaningful and sustained and consistent

    way in terms of how frequently you do it

    it's going to have drastically different

    results but going back to eisner's quote

    you need to have content knowledge to be

    able to know where students are going or

    what potential directions they might

    head in order to be able to guide them

    in this way if you do not have that

    content knowledge and you are just like

    one lesson ahead then you'll be like the

    high school programming teacher that I

    had who was literally like reading the

    chapter right before we were actually

    going to learn that particular concept

    or whatever and apply it in other

    projects that we're created so we were

    handed A month's worth of projects most

    of the kids would finish it in a week or

    two including myself and then we'd

    literally just play video games on the

    computers because we had nothing else to

    do the teacher could not guide us any

    further and when we got stuck the

    teacher did not know how to help us all

    that to say again my background is in

    music education when I first went into

    the classroom and started teaching

    Computer Science Education there were

    many times students came up to me and I

    was like I don't know how to solve that

    bug or that problem or do that thing

    that you want to do let me go home and

    research it I'll come back tomorrow I'll

    talk to you about how I researched it

    the processes that I took it's kind of

    to some kind of a solution and then

    we'll work through it together this

    approach made it so that I was

    constantly learning constantly doing new

    languages figuring out new bugs to solve

    new ways to create things Etc so it's

    okay to not have the answer right away

    but you need to be willing to learn that

    answer and again not be Reliant upon

    curriculum developers or providers to

    create and solve the problems for you

    and again that's easier said than done

    and you need the support from

    administrators to be able to do that

    because I have the luxury of not having

    children at home that needed to be taken

    care of I could spend my weeknights and

    weekends figuring these things out and

    learning how to do this but most

    teachers do not have that luxury they

    need time during the work hours to

    actually be able to learn this content

    and pedagogical knowledge but I'll end

    my rant there the next subsection of

    this particular chapter talks about

    integrated arts curricula and so this is

    really relevant to the integration

    discussions that I had in previous

    episodes on integration of Computer

    Science Education there are many ways

    that you can integrate one domain into

    another and I talk about them in other

    episodes that I link to jaredelary.com

    in the show notes for this episode now

    Eisner talks about how there's a

    tendency especially in Elementary

    classes to do integrated activities

    where you might try and merge the Arts

    with social studies so he talks about an

    example of teachers who have kids create

    like a Japanese style fish on plates

    that might be painted quote such an

    activity produces japanese-like images

    and is designed to give students the

    flavor of Japanese culture of course it

    is very easy to convert art programs

    into handmaidens for learning the social

    studies or history without providing

    youngsters with occasions for developing

    artistic judgment or securing aesthetic

    forms of experience that make effective

    art education it is possible to dilute

    art programs and to delude oneself that

    art is being taught when in fact there

    is little in the way of artistic

    activity going on in quotes from page

    this form of integration is really just

    kind of taking artistic processes

    without actually create getting artistic

    thinking or artistic ways of being into

    the activity you're using art in what

    might be described as like a subservient

    way to focus on the social studies

    Without Really focusing on the art this

    is often done by social studies teachers

    who do not have a background in art and

    don't necessarily feel comfortable

    teaching those Concepts and practices

    which is why I've talked about how in

    other podcasts that you can work with or

    collaborate with other Educators who are

    more experienced so if you have a

    computer science person and you are

    going to integrate with a science

    activity cool partner with the science

    teacher find ways to integrate in

    meaningful ways that are both meaningful

    for Science Education and computer

    science education don't just integrate

    computer science into the science class

    and skin the surface of basic vocabulary

    of computer science Concepts actually

    get kids creating things with those

    Concepts and understandings ideally

    things that solve problems that are

    relevant to the students that you work

    with here's a quote from page 154 and

    effort need to be devoted to enable

    willing students to attend to their work

    aesthetically as is paid to the social

    studies or history material they are

    studying a little bit further down an

    integrated curriculum makes more not

    fewer demands upon the teacher end quote

    that right there is such a key quote to

    really think about in computer science

    education far too often we integrate

    within other domains in order to save

    time I understand General classroom

    teachers especially at the elementary

    level have a lot of things that they

    need to teach they might be teaching

    several subject areas in a day and to

    now have mandatory standards for

    Computer Science Education it's just one

    more thing that they have to cram into a

    day and it's not actually being tested

    upon it's not a standardized test which

    makes it so that many people are trying

    to integrate computer science into

    something that is tested like Science

    Education or mathematics education or

    English and language arts but this is

    often done in a way that dilutes

    computer science it makes it easier for

    the teachers to teach the subjectory

    without having to have an understanding

    of computer science and computer science

    education by instead focusing on

    vocabulary and very basic applications

    of understanding like creative

    rudimentary program where everybody's

    doing the exact same thing and so yeah

    it makes it so that people are

    technically doing computer science but

    at what cost like I have a drum kit

    right behind me while I'm recording this

    if you can't see it in the audio that

    you're listening to on and if somebody

    told me that they have a integrated

    music and percussion program for their I

    don't know mathematics class where

    students are going to do basic math

    problems by clapping their hands and

    like doing body percussion where they

    like stomp their feet and Pat on their

    shoulders Etc to be able to solve a math

    problem while that technically is a form

    of percussion it's one of thousands of

    potential instruments it's just skimming

    the surface of understanding that one

    can have in the domain of percussion

    like I could talk to you for hours about

    the way that you hold your stick can

    have an impact on how the stick vibrates

    which changes the way that the stick

    sounds and the instrument sounds

    whichever one you're striking with it

    Etc and that's just one of many

    different topics let alone talking about

    the motion that you use that impacts

    that and how that relates to your

    anatomy in terms of like your fingers

    and your tendons and your muscles Etc so

    while you might be clapping out some

    rhythms to be able to solve a math

    problem I'd argue that is a subservient

    example of integration and it's the same

    thing with Computer Science Education we

    focus on definitions and terms used with

    thinking or solving a problem but

    honestly have little to do with cs

    outside of metaphors and ways of

    thinking as another example if you were

    to tell me that you were making a

    curriculum that taught kids to think

    like a native Japanese speaker but they

    wouldn't be able to read or write

    Japanese as a result of engaging in this

    curriculum I'd argue that students

    aren't learning Japanese just ways of

    thinking and it's the same thing for

    computational thinking in particular

    students are learning ways of thinking

    but not necessarily computer science

    depending on how and what is taught but

    if you listen to episode 111 titled A

    revaluation of computational thinking in

    K-12 education colon move moving toward

    computational literacies that episode

    kind of unpacks that some more as well

    as in episode 123 which is titled the

    subservient co-equal effective and

    social integration Styles and their

    implications for computer science both

    those episodes and more on integration

    really kind of unpacked some of the

    problems with this approach to

    integrating computer science into other

    domains yes it makes it easier for the

    teacher but at the cost of actually

    learning computer science Concepts and

    practices in meaningful ways for

    students and again often in a way that

    makes it so that the teacher is Reliant

    upon curriculum developers and the

    lessons that they create rather than

    actually teaching a person to fish

    they're just providing the fish so

    Eisner goes on to problematize how

    things are very fragmented in terms of

    you will engage in disciplines in ways

    that often are disconnected from others

    as in like silos and this can create

    some problems and then instead of going

    with this kind of approach and instead

    of going with a one-size-fits-all

    approach across an entire nation we need

    to instead focus on more localized and

    individualized instruction and learning

    experiences now some of you might be

    listening to this and going okay well I

    want to know where we're headed and I

    understand that perspective having

    previously taught that way but if you

    check out the rhizomatic learning

    episodes like episode number 150 which

    is titled fostering intersectional

    identities with rhizomatic learning and

    episode 75 rhizomatic learning with

    Catherine bornhurst John Stapleton and

    Katie Henry that can hopefully give you

    some ideas of how you might engage in

    this kind of a practice but after

    spending some time talking about

    curriculum and whatnot Eisner goes on to

    say that the social norms and

    expectations and cultures of schooling

    itself are also things that we need to

    think about in terms of having an impact

    on how students think behave Etc here's

    a quote from page 158 quote a

    comprehensive understanding of what

    students learn in school requires

    considerably more than attention to

    curriculum and teaching practices it

    also requires attention to the hidden

    messages values and ideas that are

    conveyed tacitly if not explicitly by

    fellow students and teachers in the

    classroom in which students spend so

    much time end quote so this is often

    referred to as like the hidden

    curriculum here are some questions from

    page 158 and I'm going to rephrase them

    from Arts to computer science quote what

    is the place of computer science in the

    curriculum or in the classrooms

    curriculum how does it compare to

    importance with other fields of study

    how much time is allocated for computer

    science in schools when is it taught is

    it an elective or is it part of the Core

    Curriculum are grades in computer

    science taken into account by select

    universities in calculating grade point

    averages this is a school publicly

    acknowledge as it does in athletics and

    some of the Sciences students who are

    excellent in computer science end quote

    and again like rephrasing some of it for

    computer science these are really

    important questions to consider just

    because we have mandatory standards and

    whatnot it does not mean that it is on

    the same hierarchy as other domains is

    that a good thing is that a bad thing

    should we have a hierarchy in general I

    would argue no but I know many people

    disagree with me on that and I'm happy

    to chat with you about it on the podcast

    there's a contact me button on my

    website if you want to reach out and

    then Isaac concludes this section

    talking about the null curriculum one

    which I've talked about before but that

    is basically everything in a domain or

    display land that is not taught even if

    you had an entire year where students

    are spending all of their time in class

    just working on computer science you're

    still going to leave stuff out I mean I

    have a PhD in music education and

    there's still so much related to music

    and music education that I don't know or

    understand that is the no curriculum

    from the experiences that I had getting

    three degrees in a subject area now the

    next sub section in here is on

    curriculum objectives so starting on

    page 159 I'm actually going to not like

    talk about this one just basically see

    the previous podcast episode number 174

    titled educational aims objectives and

    other aspirations so instead I'm going

    to go on to the next section titled

    standards and this is found page 161. so

    Eisner talks about how standards are

    often used to kind of Define the

    expectations of students but also what

    the teachers are going to teach

    standards are often associated with

    different reform movements Etc and are

    often born out of like National

    curriculum Frameworks kind of like the

    K-12 CS framework which I'll include a

    link to in the show notes here's a quote

    from page 162. quote the belief is that

    establishing clear standards is the

    first and most important step in school

    Improvement in addition it is assumed

    that the presence of One National set of

    standards for each subject will

    contribute to educational Equity since

    all students will be given about the

    same curricular fare and will be working

    toward the same aims Furthermore with

    the same aims the same content and the

    same standards it will be possible to

    identify failing schools and

    unproductive teachers and where

    necessary make a change the process is

    called accountability standards are also

    claimed to have other virtues using a

    uniform array of Standards will enable

    teachers to talk to one another more

    productively they will be able to learn

    from one another what works and to

    implement what works in their classroom

    but most important the public will know

    what to expect and when standards are

    operationalized supplemented by

    standardized tests it will at last be

    possible for teachers to be held truly

    accountable for their students's

    performance end quote but here's some

    interesting questions to consider on

    page 163 quote why does a nation as

    diverse as ours need a common curriculum

    is there only one defensible conception

    of a good curriculum a good school or a

    good teacher in a nation that boasts

    that one of its strengths is its

    diversity our differences in the ways

    the subjects are conceptualized Exempted

    from that diversity end quote a little

    bit further down Eisen talks about how

    what teachers are supposed to teach

    through the standards are clearly

    defined for them but how they are taught

    is supposed to be up to them but from

    eisner's perspective this is the

    deprofessionalization of teachers and

    disenfranchises the communities they

    work with here's a quote from page 164.

    quote one of these problems is the

    belief that it is possible to predict

    what a class will study and at what pace

    over the course of the school year what

    we do know is that political economic

    and social events do affect schools and

    that students interests develop that

    provide teachers with especially

    teachable opportunities opportunities

    during which sticking to the lesson plan

    is the surest road to a pedagogical

    Waterloo what is needed in such

    circumstances is pedagogical

    improvisation in the service of

    meaningful teaching and learning it is

    here especially that teaches

    professional judgment must come into

    play so that they can exploit those

    moments in the class classroom end quote

    a little bit further down on page 164

    quote during the course of the work

    students and teachers alike encounter

    the unexpected students in images and

    qualities that they could not have

    foreseen but that beckon in One

    Direction rather than another and

    teachers in surprises that unscripted

    students create the joys of teaching are

    often found in these unpredictable

    events just what do such events have to

    do with standards only this to the

    extent that standards dampen the desire

    to treat the content and aims of

    teaching flexibly they impede Artistry

    in teaching and therefore impede moments

    in learning that can be among the most

    meaningful for students planning and

    teaching profit from the flexibility

    from attention to the changing colors of

    the context assumptions and Concepts

    that seek predictability of routine and

    the security of Conformity militate

    against it end quote now I've heard some

    educational Scholars talk about how this

    focus on standards and focus on teachers

    teaching the exact same thing in the

    exact same way is a form of

    deprofessionalization but if we go

    deeper into that kind of thinking one of

    the things that is talked about is how

    this can lead to a removal of qualified

    educational Professionals in the field

    and I've seen this in some districts

    well instead of having a certified

    educator teach computer science let's

    just have a paraprofessional do it

    they're much cheaper and we can just

    have the curriculum teach it for us you

    don't really need to have an

    understanding of the content knowledge

    and pedagogical knowledge Etc all we

    need is somebody in the classroom to

    make sure that students are engaged in

    the platform that we have paid for now

    maybe a few years ago I would have been

    like ah I don't know about that that's

    not necessarily deprofessionalization

    but again I've seen districts do this

    I've also lived in a state where a

    principal determines whether or not you

    are considered highly qualified you no

    longer need a degree to be able to teach

    in Arizona that's also the case in other

    states like I believe it's Florida where

    you just need to be a veteran and then

    you can start teaching there are other

    programs that claim to be able to teach

    you in a couple of weeks or a couple of

    months to be able to teach these

    programs are trying to address the

    teacher shortages that are going on but

    to claim that in a couple of weeks or a

    couple of months that somebody's going

    to have the same understanding as

    somebody who has earned a 4 four-year

    degree in the subject area or has

    multiple years of experience it just

    doesn't cut it we have to acknowledge

    that these are all Band-Aids to a

    systemic problem it's well known that

    teachers are overworked and underpaid

    and undervalued in society but rather

    than try and alleviate that or remedy

    that we are instead finding individuals

    with less experience less understanding

    who are willing to take a smaller

    paycheck fill those open positions and

    unfortunately it's not up to people

    within the field to be able to fix that

    it's up to politicians to do that so the

    power is out of our hands except in the

    power to vote and to make our voices be

    heard so if you have teacher

    organizations or rallies or things that

    are trying to advocate for the field

    find ways to support because we're ahead

    in an erection that is continuing to

    de-professionalize and devalue our field

    in my opinion a little bit further down

    on page 166 Eisner talks about how quote

    the idea that students will take the

    same paths and learn the same things at

    the same rate flies in the face of what

    is known about human development end

    quote he talks about how this approach

    to Uniformed standards and learning and

    everybody going the same way resembles

    an assembly line which is very

    problematic and again listen to last

    week's episode to learn more about that

    I'm going to skip to a later section

    titled do standards have a constructive

    role to play in arts education reads as

    follows I'm going to change it so that

    it's talking about computer science

    rather than Arts so this is from page

    respect to standards in computer science

    education does the analysis I have

    provided mean that having well-stated

    aims or objectives is useless am I

    saying that reflection on what one wants

    to accomplish as a teacher or curriculum

    developer is irrelevant to better

    practice am I advocating a policy for

    Computer Science Education that has no

    Rudder I hope I am not interpreted that

    way I believe standards can make a

    contribution to Computer Science

    Education if they do the following if

    they represent in a meaningful and

    non-rigid way the values we Embrace and

    the general goals we seek to attain if

    they provide those who plan curricula

    with an opportunity to discuss and

    debate what is considered important to

    teach and learn and if they suggest

    criteria that can be used to make

    judgments about our Effectiveness

    standards should be viewed as AIDS as

    heuristics for debate and for planning

    they should not be regarded as contracts

    or prescriptions that override local

    judgments my argument is an argument not

    for mindlessness but for a recognition

    of the virtues of diversity and of the

    need for curriculum planners and

    teachers to be sensitive to local

    circumstances and individual efforts the

    idea of using the process of formulating

    standards as a heuristic is to me

    especially appealing it provides a focus

    for discussion deliberation debate

    analysis and ultimately clarification

    regarding the aims one wants to achieve

    in a classroom a school or even a school

    district it provides a practical Hub

    around which conversations can take

    place among teachers and others working

    in a school or school district end quote

    so again if you listen to the episode

    once 150 fostering intersection

    identities through razzmatic learning

    John Stapleton and I talk about how you

    can use standards as landmarks that you

    can head toward that you can discuss

    that you can even move away from from

    they can all be viewed as optional but

    it really depends on how you kind of

    design and think through education and

    educational experiences so I highly

    recommend checking that episode out if

    you want to learn more about that this

    chapter concludes with the discussion on

    what the public needs to understand one

    of the suggestions that Eisner gives is

    that instead of doing like an art walk

    of artwork you could have an

    educationally interpretive exhibition of

    their artwork so students will actually

    share what they learned and how they

    created things I did this in one of the

    like parent teacher nights where parents

    would come into their classroom and when

    the students were with them I would

    encourage them to show the projects that

    they created and talk about the things

    that they've learned while doing that I

    think this is a really good way to be

    able to communicate the things that

    students are learning within a

    particular domain in this case it might

    be Computer Science Education or

    something else so I'm going to read for

    you the closing from eisner's chapter

    this is on page 177 quote I would urge

    teachers to use standards as an

    opportunity for discussion as

    considerations for curriculum

    development but not as prescriptions for

    processes or even for goals what goals

    or aims are appropriate for students is

    not best defined by policy makers who

    are not in contact with the students

    schools as intended to serve localism in

    this context is far preferable that is

    the route I would urge teachers to take

    with it Computer Science Education like

    the rest of Education can be a kind of

    Rainbow Coalition of teachers designing

    programs and indeed adopting programs

    when they suit the educational needs of

    the students they teach end quote and

    again I modified that to say Computer

    Science Education rather than Arts

    education so this leads into some of my

    lingering questions and thoughts that I

    have when I do these unpacking

    scholarship episodes so one of them is

    on individualized approach to education

    does put more responsibility on teachers

    I'd argue we could take away a lot of

    the mundane responsibilities we have to

    do in order to focus our time and energy

    on teaching so like how many times did

    you have like a duty before during or

    after school I had multiple of those

    depending on the district some had more

    than others one of the responsibilities

    that I had was just like standing in a

    lunchroom and making sure that kids

    weren't throwing their food another was

    like standing at the bus line making

    sure that kids got on the right bus

    things like that these are all things

    that you could have a minimum wage

    employee work on but instead as a

    certified educator I was doing these

    things that we could have volunteers or

    staff members who are getting minimum

    wage to work on the reason why I bring

    this up is because this is not to brag

    or anything like this but I created for

    a previous employer content that

    received several million dollars worth

    of funding so as a content creator I

    have very high high value but rather

    than spending time working on content

    like that or like trying to improve as a

    teacher or to design better educational

    experiences for the kids that I was

    working with ours instead spending a lot

    of my time throughout the day working on

    those things that you could have a staff

    member do who is receiving minimum wage

    I understand why we are treating

    everybody the same way but to ignore the

    expertise or even the pay scale of the

    teachers that are in schools again

    deprofessionalizes the teachers that are

    working there and that's just in my

    opinion as another example how many

    endless meetings have you had that could

    have been an email or mandatory PD

    sessions where you might actually be an

    expert on but you were required to

    attend why can't we treat teachers as

    professionals and like even with a PD

    example why not make it so that all the

    PD sessions are optional and there's a

    variety of topics that you can pick from

    why treat all teachers as the same as if

    they're incompetent on a topic a

    district PD person may have read a

    single book on like I've mentioned

    previously I had to attend attend a

    first year teaching PD that went the

    entire year and this was after I

    finished my residency for a PhD in music

    education and had already taught for

    several years in the classroom but

    because this was a new District that I

    was moving to I was asked to attend this

    thing year round but fortunately I was

    teaching a college class at that time so

    I only had to attend like the first and

    last session of that year because I had

    a prior conflict but to put somebody

    like myself who has a lot of experience

    in education and put them in the same

    room and treat them the exact same way

    of somebody who is fresh out of their

    undergraduate degree and to say that we

    are on the same level again

    deprofessionalizes things that for me is

    one of like the lingering thoughts that

    I have about this is like the amount of

    deprofessionalization that has been

    going on the amount of time that is

    wasted for educators when they could be

    spent learning content Knowledge

    Learning pedagogical knowledge and just

    like learning how to better improve the

    educational experiences of the kids that

    work with but instead they are forced to

    participate in mindless activities or

    attend PD sessions that they might not

    need to attend another like broader

    takeaway for me is I might have paid

    more attention in other subject areas if

    I could have explored it in ways that

    were actually meaningful to me and I've

    talked about this in other episodes I

    left computer science before I ever

    really got started because my teacher

    could not push me he was unable to help

    me to move Beyond where we were in the

    class I really wanted to learn a lot but

    I was not being challenged the reason

    why I jumped back into computer science

    is because one of the very last classes

    that I took from my doctorate I audited

    a course that was just called electronic

    music and in it we actually were

    creating music apps through a graphical

    programming language and the professor

    encouraged us to create a wide variety

    of apps that were individually

    meaningful to each of the students who

    were participating in this class the

    content itself was not the issue I

    really enjoyed the content in both

    classes but how it was taught and the

    expertise of the person teaching it had

    a profoundly positive or negative impact

    on the exact same content area so again

    we need to really focus on on developing

    the content and pedagogical knowledge of

    teachers within the field in order to

    make it so that they can teach in ways

    that are meaningful we can't just rely

    on curriculum developers and PD

    providers to do that for us and we can't

    just integrate in ways that are not

    meaningful again if you're just skimming

    on the surface you're not going to

    develop the expertise as an educator and

    students aren't going to develop the

    expertise as a student every subject

    area is beautiful in its own way the

    people who really understand that often

    are the ones who end up teaching that

    particular subject area however how we

    teach that subject can have a profoundly

    positive or negative impact on whether

    or not people will find that beauty or

    not but just because everything can be

    beautiful it does not mean that everyone

    needs to explore or understand that

    beauty we have to accept that even if we

    try to cover everything there will

    always be a null curriculum so why do we

    pretend like we have to make sure

    everyone walks out with the same

    incomplete understanding which leads me

    to again Ask as I have in many episodes

    why do we even need to have mandatory

    classes in general but I won't rant

    about that on this episode if you join

    into this conversation please consider

    sharing with somebody else or leaving a

    review on whatever platform you're

    listening to the song stay tuned next

    week for another episode until then I

    hope you're all staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week

Article

Eisner, E. W. (2002). The centrality of curriculum and the function of standards: The curriculum is a mind-altering device. In The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press, 148-177.


My One Sentence Summary

This chapter problematizes curricula and standards by discussing how both can deprofessionalize the field of education.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • While an individualized approach to educaiton does put more responsibility on teachers, I’d argue we could take away a lot of the mundane responsibilities we have to do in order to focus our time and energy on teaching

  • I might have paid more attention in other subject areas if I could have explored it in ways that were actually meaningful to me


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