ECS 203

The Tyler Rationale

Curriculum development from a traditionalist perspective is widely used across schools in Canada and other countries. Think about: (a) The ways in which you may have experienced the Tyler rationale in your own schooling; (b) What are the major limitations of the Tyler rationale/what does it make impossible; and (c) What are some potential benefits/what is made possible. Be sure to refer to the assigned article in your post; you may also include information from lecture if you wish.

The Tyler rationale follows four basic principles: what educational purposes should the school seek to attain?  What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?  How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?  How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?  As I look back on my K-12 years, I remember this being the model that the large majority of my teachers followed.  In all of my classes, there was certain content we were required to learn followed by a test of how well we retained that information.  Fortunately for me, I responded well to this traditionalist perspective, and I did well throughout my K-12 schooling without much effort. 

The biggest limitation, in my opinion, of this rationale is that it assumes every student learns in an identical manner.  Just because I responded well to this traditionalist perspective to teaching does not mean that everyone will have a positive response to it as well.   In 2020, about 70 years after Tyler came up with this rationale, we know that this is definitely not the case.  I do believe there are many people who can thrive under a traditionalist perspective, but I do think there are better perspectives out there, like the process perspective which favours interactions over set objectives, that can be more effective for a larger majority of people.  Another limitation to this perspective is it limits the freedom of how a teacher teaches.  Just like how everyone learns differently, I think there are many different ways to teach.  Forcing a teacher to teach in a traditionalist style when they are more effective at teaching in a different style holds the students and teacher(s) back from achieving what they are truly capable of. 

Even though the Tyler rationale does have flaws, I do think it has some benefits.  One major benefit to his rationale is it makes uniformity across a school board, province, or country possible.  When there are clear objections and goals in place, it ensures that students in Saskatoon, for example, are learning the same content and are moving at the same pace as the students in Regina, which I believe is important.  Another benefit of this rationale is it makes lesson planning faster.  Teachers have a ton of responsibility and a ton of different responsibilities.  While using the Tyle rationale, it allows teachers to focus less on lesson planning and more on other things that need to be done. 

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