Kumashiro defines commonsense as what everyone should know. It is very important to pay attention to the commonsense to discover how someone’s knowledge is shaped by their environment, education, and home/life experiences. One person’s commonsense knowledge may not be the same as another’s due to differences in what they were taught. You can pay attention to knowledge that is commonsense to yourself and analyze how this knowledge is biased to your own life and may be untrue to another individual (Ex. The Nepalian children’s knowledge of what school should be like vs. the teacher from the US where teaching methods are different). Beginning this course my commonsense knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy is based on my own K-12 schooling experience. That teachers are given curriculum they must teach to their students and that there is little room for activities that could take extra time to enhance this knowledge if they want to get through all the material by the end of the year. That a behaviourist teaching/learning pedagogy usually gets through all the material that needs to be taught, but is often less helpful in making sure students retain what they were taught. On the other hand, a constructivist teaching/learning pedagogy may be more beneficial in helping student’s remember the things they’re learning, but that it takes more time and they might not get through all they need to learn, which can be harmful for government examinations and future grades when the knowledge they were supposed to have received in the previous grade needs to be built upon further. Curriculum and pedagogy need to be considerate of what commonsense knowledge each student may have or may not have from previous learning experiences/environments.
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