Students and Subject Matter

What Really Matters?

Agenda November 5, 2007

• “Into” Discussion/Quickwrite• Mingling--article share (focus: students and

subject matter)• Read: “Organization and Subject-Matter of

General Education” Discuss• Read: “Structures in Learning” Discuss• Apply articles/prior knowledge to Curricular

unit/map• Chapter 7 Workshop (Janice Gatchell) “The

Secondary School Curriculum”

Quickwrite• Do you agree with the logic of the

following quote. If you do not agree, why not? Where does this argument fit-- philosophical perspectives?

• “The more formal [teacher-directed] the teaching, the more time the pupils spend working on the subject matter at hand and, in general, ... the more time pupils spend on a subject, the more they improve at it.”

Mingling• Today’s focus is “students and subject

matter.”

• What perspectives do your articles offer on how subject-matter is “organized” and what is most “worth” teaching?

• Does the subject-matter discussed in your article provide equitable access to the curriculum, to “high” and “low” status knowledge?

“The Organization and Subject-Matter of General

Education” Robert M. Hutchins (1938)

• As you read consider the current “status” of the perennialist orientation to the curriculum.

• Do you agree/disagree with Hutchins assertions about testing, what is worth learning [Great Books], and the structure of the curriculum? Why/Why not?

“Structures in Learning” Jerome S. Bruner (1972)

• As you read, think about the following assertion made by Bruner:

• In recommending the development of “new” curricula, why does Bruner call for the involvement of the “greatly compassionate person” as well as “the great scholar and the great scientist.”

• In your small groups share and discuss your unit/curriculum maps as they relate or do not relate to the Hutchins and Bruner articles, the Paideia Proposal, and the various other perspectives we have read and discussed in class.

• Where does the organization of subject-matter and the subject-matter itself fall on the continuum of philosophical perspectives?

• How does learning occur in your unit/map: through a process of inquiry, didactic instruction, discussion, reading? Is the “how” even addressed?

• How does this particular unit/map serve a function in society or does it? What function does it serve? Whose interests does it serve?

Preparation for next class(2 weeks before we meet again)Blog Response: Respond to one of the following readings by

Sunday Nov. 18 (6:00 pm)• Read: • “What Makes a Perfect Parent” (course pdf pgs. 99-114)• “Whole Child Report” from ACSD (separate link on site under today’s date) • Havard Civil Rights Project. “Segregation of American Teachers” (separate link on site under

today’s date)• “Knowledge Alive” in Educational Leadership (passed out in class today)

• Write Final Draft Paper #2 Due 11-13-07 6:00pm via e-mail

• Prepare a five-minute overview/presentation of your school reform model to share with the class (11-19-07)

Overview Should Include

• Overview should include a brief summary of: • The philosophical basis for the school reform

model• The targeted group/s for the model design• How success is measured in the model• The role of teachers, students, parents, community

and social context in the model

Janice take it away!