TEAC 801: Curriculum Inquiry June 21-25 & June 28-July 2, 2010
Dr. Wendy Smith 1:00-5:00 pm
Avery Hall Room 110
402-472-7259
Syllabus
TEAC 801 Curriculum Inquiry is a course designed to investigate the nature and purposes of “curriculum” in American schooling. The course is intended to give you a solid theoretical introduction to curriculum as well as show you how to use that knowledge as you consider the teaching and learning of mathematics. The primary goal of this course is to help you develop a broader and deeper understanding of curriculum and curriculum inquiry.
Throughout this course we will be investigating the following overarching questions in the context of mathematics:
v What is curriculum?
v What is the relationship between curriculum and teaching?
v What curriculum ideologies are explicitly and implicitly presented in textbooks?
v How does the intended curriculum positively or negatively affect an operational curriculum?
v How might curricula, school, and teaching practices contribute to educational inequality?
v How does curriculum influence students’ ways of knowing?
v What does it mean to “cover” the curriculum?
v How can I model a problem solving curriculum?
Class activities and homework readings are designed to help you investigate these questions and enhance your understanding of the following main ideas regarding curriculum:
v Curriculum development and the comparing & contrasting of theoretical perspectives
v Curriculum purposes, content, and organization
v Curriculum implementation as a process of curricular change
v Curriculum evaluation
v Curriculum as a complicated set of interconnected ideas
Participant Expectations
· display a positive attitude and take your work seriously
· be a team player – learning need not be a competitive sport
· be an active participant – learning should not be a spectator sport
· attend daily, be punctual
· work diligently on homework assignments and complete assigned readings
· be/become a “risk taker”
· improve yourself as a mathematician
· be/become an inquirer about teaching
· help others – if you understand what is being discussed, practice your mentoring skills
· complete all assignments to the best of your ability
· celebrate your colleagues’ learning
· be open and responsive to feedback, be curious, ask questions, seek opportunities to learn,
· be patient with yourself – there is a time delay between exposure to new ideas and the ownership of those ideas, and that time will vary from person to person
· complete daily evaluation forms to help us improve the summer institute courses
Homework will be assigned each day. Reading and writing will serve as the basis for much of your learning in this course. When you are asked to read or write something, the following is expected:
v Read in a manner that enables you to be an active participant in discussions of text.
v Write in a manner that represents a meaningful response to a posed question and illustrates attention to grammar and the mechanics of writing.
Course Readings
Each day will include a discussion of the previous night’s reading.
Analyzing Mathematics Textbooks
Teachers will analyze the textbooks they use as elementary teachers, using the Posner questions to frame their analyses, and Posner textbook chapters, other course readings, and three additional articles to support the analysis. Discussions will center on textbooks as curriculum. Some class time will be given to research textbooks and answer curriculum analysis questions. Teachers will use pp. 20-22 of the Posner text to guide their analyses of their textbooks. Part of the end-of-course assignment will involve a written analysis of curriculum. Teachers will work in groups (of people using the same textbook). If someone’s textbook is unique, that person can choose to work alone or join another group analyzing a similar book.
What is Curriculum?
This question will be revisited periodically across the course, as well as: What drives curriculum? How do teachers, students, content, standards, and assessment combine to create something we call “curriculum”?
Problematizing Curriculum
We will read articles centering on “Problematizing Curriculum” and conduct a related project, called a problem analysis, which ties to the Algebraic Thinking in the K-4 Classroom course [if you are not enrolled in the morning course, you will still be able to complete this assignment]. The advantages and disadvantages of “problematizing curriculum” can be identified based on different perspectives on curriculum that we will learn in this course. The integration of your problem analysis experience and the readings of the literature and Posner textbook will be part of the end-of-course-assignment.
Standards and Curriculum
Teachers will analyze the Nebraska State Standards for Mathematics (2009 version), the NCTM (2000) Standards, the NCTM (2006) Focal Points, and the Common Core State Standards (June 1, 2010). We will look at standards as curriculum. We will compare and contrast the various standards with teachers’ textbooks. We will also compare the U.S. mathematics standards with other high-achieving countries’ mathematics standards to explore the cultural differences.
National Curriculum
NCTM’s “Guiding Principles for mathematics curriculum and assessment” discusses the idea of a national curriculum for school mathematics. In this course, we’ll consider assessments as curriculum, and discuss advantages and limitations of the idea of a de facto national curriculum. Part of the end-of-course assignment will be to examine and take a position on the idea of a national curriculum (Is there one? If so, what does it look like? Should there be one?)
Spiral Curriculum
What does the phrase mean? Explain the metaphor. What about remedial courses? How does the concept of a spiral curriculum relate to equity? What are other possible metaphors for curriculum? What are the advantages and limitations of particular metaphors?
Intended and Enacted Curriculum
We will be reading cases focused on the teaching practices of mathematics teachers. We will consider “curriculum” as it relates to these cases. How do “teacher moves” influence how students experience “curriculum”? Why are there differences between intended and enacted (operational) forms of curriculum? What are the origins, nature, and consequences of these differences? We will also consider these questions based on your own teaching experiences throughout this course.
History of Curriculum
Deeply understanding curriculum as it presents itself today is dependent on acquiring a historical perspective on events that have had an impact on school curriculum. Historical events impacting curriculum will be considered from world, national, state, and local perspectives.
International Perspectives on Curriculum
International perspectives allow us to take advantage of experiences of other and from whom we can learn what alternatives are possible. In this course, we will explore issues of textbook representations and curriculum coherences from cross-national perspectives. We will read related scholar articles of comparative curriculum students and watch related videos (e.g., Singapore math).
Course Assignments
This course has every day reading assignments. Some of them will be finished in class while the others will be read after class in order to prepare for the next class discussion. The two major assignments are the problem analysis and the end-of-course assignment.
1. Reading Assignments (see below for schedule)
2. Problem Analysis: Due July 2nd
3. End-of-course Assignment: Due July 19th
Reading Schedule
The following table lists the reading homework assignments for TEAC 801. The dates are the days the readings will be discussed. You are expected to do the reading the night before. For most readings, you will be given a set of questions to guide your reading. You are expected to use these questions to help yourself prepare for a discussion of the readings. You will not be asked to turn in formal responses to the questions. Please do take notes as you read and come each day with notes that will help you actively participate in a discussion of the reading questions and other questions the instructor deems useful to a discussion of the text. The readings come both from the textbook for the course and from your course binder (articles).
Book: Analyzing the Curriculum, 3rd Ed., George J. Posner
Day / Date / Reading in class / Reading after class1 / June 21 / Posner pp. 20-22
NCTM Guiding Principles / Posner Chapter 1, 2
2 / June 22 / Nebraska Standards
Common Core State Standards
NCTM Focal Points
Adding It Up / Posner Chapter 3
3 / June 23 / Hiebert et al. & Responses; Ma / Posner Chapter 4, 5
4 / June 24 / Heaton; Lampert / Posner Chapter 6, 7
5 / June 25 / Van de Walle; Russell et al. / Posner Chapter 8; Crown
6 / June 28 / Porter et al. / Posner Chapter 9; Ferrini-Mundy
7 / June 29 / Posner Chapter 10,11
8 / June 30 / Stein et al.; Schmidt et al. / Posner Chapter 12
9 / July 1 / [Curriculum Analysis presentations] / Cai & Moyer
10 / July 2 / [Problem Analysis presentations]
Grading Policy
Part of the instructor’s responsibility is the assessment of participants’ achievement in each Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes course. We recognize that teacher-participants are drawn from different grade levels, have different certifications to teach mathematics, have varying kinds of teaching experiences, and have different educational backgrounds with respect to previous opportunities to learn mathematics and learn about inquiry into teaching. Thus, we believe it is appropriate to have an assessment system that values effort, teamwork, progress in learning content and the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions for teaching and inquiry.
Grade Expectations and typical characteristics of achievement at that level
A+ The grade of A+ is honorific and will be fairly rare. It is evidence that the instructors have special admiration for the participant’s achievements in the course.
A Achievement beyond the level needed to earn the grade of A-. Especially important will be evidence that the teacher has a good command of the content studied in the course; the ability to transfer content learned into the teacher’s classroom, and progress in developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions of educational inquiry.
A- Achievement beyond the level needed to earn a grade of B+. In particular, there should be clear evidence of significant progress in learning content, in learning about issues that impact teachers’ ability to help their students learn mathematics and developing knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
B+ Regular class attendance, active participation, assignments submitted regularly, supportive and helpful to peers, admirable effort to complete assignments, evidence of good progress in learning content and developing knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
B Regular class attendance, reasonable participation, cooperative with peers, reasonable effort to complete assignments, to learn content and to strengthen knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
B- A grade of B- (or lower) is a statement that the instructors do not believe that the teacher made a reasonable effort to use the opportunity provided by the Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes to develop into a stronger teacher. Evidence may include one or more of the following traits: attendance problems, uncooperative behavior, failure to submit assignment, habitual tendency to submit assignments late, or performance on assignments that indicate an inadequate effort to learn content and to develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
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