It is stated in the Levin article, that the school curricula is developed by “governments or other sanctioned authorities for standard use in schools across a state, province, or country” (Levin, 2008, p. 7). In essence, Levin’s quote means that school curricula are formed by people of power. This information is useful because students will be aware of those groups who are in charge of their learning environment. It is important for students to take note of this because it has  a great impact on the information and material they learn at school. 

Before reading the Levin article, many people told me that curriculum refers to “the lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program” (The Glossary of Education Reform, n.d.). After reading Levin’s text, a new piece of information related to the implementation of the school curriculum that intrigued me was regarding his perspective on the defining curriculum. Levin refers to the curriculum as “an official statement of what students are expected to know and be able to do” (Levin, 2008, p. 8). This new perspective idffers from my previous understanding. This is mainly because my previous definition relates to what the students can memorize. After thoroughly reading Levin’s definition, I now understand that memorizing information does not necessarily mean that students are learning. This new perspective is critical to consider because students should understand the full picture of each concept and topic, rather than cramming their course material and being unable to apply the information to real life situations.

References: 

Levin, B. (2008). Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in schools. In F. Connelly, M. He & J. Phillion (Eds), The SAGE handbook of curriculum and instruction (pp. 7 – 24). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/16905_Chapter_1.pdf.

The Glossary of Education Reform. (n.d.). Curriculum Definition. Retrieved, March 16, 2023, from https://www.edglossary.org/curriculum/#:~:text=The%20term%20curriculum%20refers%20to,a%20general%20sense%20in%20schools.