Curriculum and Society Reflection

Curriculum and Society: Rethinking the Link Author(s): Alicia de Alba Source: International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 45, No. 5/6, Education, Equity and Transformation (Nov., 1999), pp. 479-490

I did not find it easy to understand the hypothesis of this article. I will attempt to explain my general understanding of the author’s point and also illuminate the portions which I did not fully grasp.
I believe the author was seeking to illustrate the connection between curriculum and society. In terms of the history of American public education, the curriculum has always been a reflection of what society values. In the past less emphasis was placed on math and science, until the Russians launched Sputnik. Suddenly society valued the sciences more greatly and public school curriculums reflected this shift. More recently, I have witnessed the shift toward greater accountability as measured by standardized test scores. I think this reflects our society valuing an emphasis on achievement which can be measured and demonstrated.
The author states that society is retreating from grand projects and instead curriculum is influenced by traits and contours. My interpretation is that society is less single-minded now than in the past. Some might describe this as the era of political correctness, but dissenting and opposing views are more acceptable now than ever. In society today it is “unacceptable” to discount or demean opinions which differ from our own. For example, the curriculum for a health class in the past was without dispute. The values of society with respect to sex education were more universal. The “grand project” was to teach abstinence until marriage and other societal values. Now, more than ever, there are multiple views of marriage. There is no “grand project” to connect the curriculum to; instead the local traits of society are more influential. This concept can be expanded to other curricula where it can be said that the global vision provided by the immediacy of knowledge accessed on the internet makes a grand, social project obsolete. Curriculum is more fluid and reactive to the culture it is intended to educate.

Curriculum Integration Reflection

Curriculum Integration
Author(s): J. A. Gibbons
Source: Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter, 1979), pp. 321-332
Published by: Blackwell Publishing
Reflection
The concept of integrating two curriculums was most clearly illustrated to me by the image of a spectrum with overlapping ideas. I will focus on the author’s example of integrating math and physics, since I am a math teacher. Math is at the pure end of the spectrum and physics is on the applied end of the spectrum. Some topics overlap on the spectrum, but it is the modification of one domain to fit the other domain that truly exhibits integration. Mathematical equations which model physical behaviors always have caveats. For example, when I teach quadratic functions, I like to use the example of motion. However, in order for a parabola to truly model the physical situation we must ignore friction and assume motion only in the vertical direction. This concept was summarized by the author when he discussed “idealizing physics” in order to include mathematics and “de-idealizing” math in order to model physics. Both domains undergo changes therefore integration is achieved via metamorphosis.
Another intriguing idea discussed in the article was multidisciplinary versus integrated instruction. A distinction was made between the two similar concepts in the following way. When two disciplines are brought together to achieve the same outcome, but no synthesis occurs, it is called multidisciplinary instruction. When the two disciplines are synthesized, it is called integrated instruction. Back to the example of math and physics, if quadratic functions are studied from the math perspective and the physics perspective separately, then this is a multidisciplinary approach to teaching quadratic functions. If quadratic functions are explored while combining math and physics concepts, then an integrated approach is being taken.
I now have a deeper understanding of what it means to integrate curriculums. I think the biggest hurdle is that each curriculum must be modified in order to achieve this integration. In practice, one teacher is usually not skilled or educated enough in more than one discipline to truly achieve integration.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Rebecca Rivan. I have been teaching high school math for 17 years. I began integrating graphing calculator technology into my instruction during my first year of teaching. I developed an interest in learning about new graphing calculators and computer algebra systems and attended summer workshops to learn more. I became a resource for other teachers in my department and led sessions during Institute Days to train other math teachers. This role expanded when my District instituted a program which gave teachers a computer in exchange for attending 72 hours of training. I became one of the trainers and taught sessions in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Several years later, a position opened up to become a technology staff developer during two periods of release time each day. I have held this position for six years.
Our class defined technology integration in the following way: Technology Integration is seamlessly incorporating multimedia and other innovative tools to enhance the teaching and learning of subject matter. This could be my job description. Each week I provide training sessions for teachers to attend during their planning periods. The purpose of these training sessions is to empower teachers to utilize current tools more fully and explore new tools more confidently. In the beginning there were only two technology coaches, and now we have seven. A tablet PC program began three years ago with 25 teachers and has been growing ever since. This tool has been integral to technology integration at Lyons Township High School.