Hello Everyone,
The primary focus of this blog is how
curriculum is integrated into the classroom through three different components
curriculum as planned, taught, and lived as well as the many issues that are
brought up about these components of the curriculum.
Curriculum as planned
entails administrators, policy makers, and teachers continuously striving to
make the curriculum better suited for the students. It is their job to increase
student success rates and prepare students to be engaged citizens of the 21st
century. This is where the administrators, policy makers, and teachers plan out
topics and primary focuses within the curriculum to engage students while
allowing them to further develop themselves in all aspects. Curriculum as taught
is how the teacher plans and delivers the content within the classroom. It is
an interpretation of curriculum as planned from their own eyes, as well as
other influences such as principles, other teachers, parents, etc. This area
includes lesson plans/ activities and assignments that the teachers create
based off curriculum as planned. It is crucial that curriculum as planned and
curriculum as taught are aligned because there is so much room for teacher
freedom. Therefore, they need to be aligned to provide students with the best
opportunities to support their learning needs within a classroom environment. Finally,
curriculum as lived is how the teachers and students act upon the curriculum
that revolves around the individual’s lived curriculum (Laura Lane, personal
communication, January 25th, 2016).
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There are multiple difficulties that
come with these three components and the interconnections between them all. It
is absolutely essential that teachers must be able to recognize their own lived
curriculum and hidden curriculum when teaching within the classroom. The hidden curriculum is lessons that are learned, but not openly intended such as
transmission of norms, beliefs, values, and ideological assumptions in
classrooms and society. If the teacher does not have the self-awareness that
they are teaching their own assumptions or hidden curriculum within the
classroom then it could be detrimental to the students. It is very important
that this self-awareness is recognized and continuously reflected upon by
teachers so that the hidden curriculum only brings positive things to the
classroom. Secondly, when students do not feel like their lived curriculum and
the schools planned curriculum are aligned, it poses huge challenges and forces
them to either conform or reject the planned curriculum that was created. This
can cause students to fall behind in school, be bored in class, not get good
marks, and even possibly drop out. This connection between these two is
essential because if they align then it could potentially provide students with
more intrinsic motivation and allow them to reach their full educational
potential, instead of not even trying. Lastly, it is important for a teacher to
implement their integrity and identity into their work to build a connectedness
between the content, themselves, and their students, but it must be paid
attention to because too much can lead a strong hidden curriculum with a
negative impact.
A teacher who does this must find a balance because when you
incorporate your own identity it shows students that their identity can exist
within the school environment meaning they will be more likely to be
successful.
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In conclusion, it is important to
understand and reflect upon the theory to practice aspect within these three
components of the curriculum. The importance of aligning curriculum as planned,
taught, and as lived is crucial because it allows students to reach their full
educational potential creating an environment fostering high student
achievement.
References
Personal communication: Laura Lane, January 25th, 2016.
