Chapter 15

The chapter addressed Year Round Education. Do you feel Year Round Education would be beneficial, why or why not?

Chapter 14

To quote our text, “Curriculum guides serve as a source from which teachers may derive ideas for developing their own resource units, learning units, and lesson plans. A curriculum guide may be written by a group of teachers or planners, or by an individual.” Does your school system have curriculum guides currently in place? If yes, who worked to create the curriculum guides?

Chapter 13

What is your feeling about the author’s statement, “Whatever is taught in school should in some way possess transfer value, that is learning in school should have applicability…outside of school and after school years?” With the intense focus on testing, is education today enriching the lives of our students?

Chapter 12

Should schools use more norm-referenced or more criterion-referenced tests? Explain your reasoning.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 addresses a topic called Styles of Teaching. In an era of standard based testing how large of a role does such things as dress, dramatic talent, and gestures affect teaching and learning? As a future administrator utilizing the standards how can you address these topics if they are so important?

Chapter 10

This chapter discussed the debate over the use of behavioral objectives.Do you feel that behavioral objectives are beneficial, why or why not?

Chapter 9

What are your feelings on Sleight’s prophetic comments from 1980—“It may be that children won’t attend schools at all, but attend classes in their homes, taking lessons through the computer with the teacher talking to them through a video image?” What implications do you think this would have for student learning and achievement?

Chapter 8

As stated in the text, validation is the process of determining whether the goals and objectives are accepted as appropriate or “right” for the intended audience. Do you have additional goals and objectives to teach as mandated by your division and/or school? Do you feel that the goals and objectives you are required to teach are appropriate and beneficial for your students?

Chapter 7

In this chapter it is stated that curriculum planners must attend to the needs of students and society. Given the Virginia Standards of Learning and the specific details of these content standards how can a school administrator develop curriculum that meets the needs of students and society?

Chapter 6

In the summary for Chapter 6, Olivia states, "The curriculum worker should be able not only to formulate his or her own statement of aims but should also be knowledgeable about historic and significant statements of aims." Is a principal a curriculum worker? Presumably, the wide majority of us hope to become principals (as opposed to curriculum specialists), so, what should be a principal's role in terms of curriculum? What would your statement of the aims of education be?

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, four different models of curriculum development are presented: "The Tyler Model", "The Taba Model", "The Saylor, Alexander, and Lewis Model", and “The Olivia Model.” Could you use the Tyler Model to lead effective curriculum development in your current school? Which ISLLC standards are related to using this model?

Chapter 4

Some states allow students to participate in district curriculum councils. California even allows students to work at the state level. Should students be allowed to participate on district or state curriculum councils? What would be the pros and cons of this approach?

Chapter 3 Blog Topic

What do you believe is the best way for organizing a curriculum council on the individual school level? On the school district level?

Chapter 2

Is what ways is today's public school curriculum suitable for the times?Similarily, in what ways do you view today's public school curriculum as not suitable for the times?

Chapter 1

This is the space for the Chapter 1 Blogging Statement. All students are expected to participate in all blogs. The Chapter 1 Blog Statement is:

What is the purpose of distinguishing curriculum from instruction, does it really matter?

Welcome to EDUC 615 for Fall 2008

Welcome to our blog for EDUC 615 for the Fall 2008 Semester. We will be blogging about our content in our readings. If you are new to Blogs, feel free to practice with this posting.