Category: ECS203- Blog Posts

Tyler’s rationale has had a huge impact on the majority of my education. In particular in elementary and high school. It seemed throughout elementary and high school majority of teachers had set-in-stone curriculums and that’s what we were supposed to learn by the end of the year. Tyler’s theory was based on the product and what the outcome is going to be and how to achieve the correct product.  To achieve the goal of us learning everything all teachers went through the objectives, content, teaching, and learning, and evaluating us as explained in “Curriculum Theory and Practice”. Throughout my education, it seemed like teachers were frequently pressed for time to complete the curriculum before the end of the year, but many of the things on the curriculum that we “needed” to learn were not what we should have been taught because some of it wasn’t applicable to our daily lives. Throughout my education, tests constituted the majority of the evaluations. As education progresses, I’ve seen that more teachers seem to be moving away from examinations and concentrating more on assessment items like projects or papers. This has changed, in my opinion, as a result of Tyler’s justification, according to which Tyler believed that when teachers stated their objectives in terms of modifying student behaviour, it helped them change the curriculum. Teachers now feel less of a need to test due to the change in the curriculum and they develop more of an understanding of their students. Teachers are starting to realize that exams or tests do not always show if children understand the material being taught whereas a project or written paper can.   

Tyler’s theory offers several drawbacks that make things impossible as well as many potential advantages that open up possibilities. This rationale can be negative due to every student having to go through the same process. Nowadays some students have a variety of learning difficulties and some children need a different way to learn. Some students won’t be successful in this way of teaching. As explained in “Curriculum Theory and Practice” the pedagogy in the classrooms is being undermined by the curriculum, which has an impact on what teachers do in the classroom. Smith also explains that sometimes teachers can take the wrong approach to teach something that is in the curriculum. The way they connected some of the theories and curriculum to real-world situations struck me throughout the reading of “Curriculum Theory and Practice”. For example; the curriculum is kind of like a shopping list when all the items are ticked, the person has passed the course or has learned something” (pg.5). Some positive attributions that Tyler’s theory brings forward is that it sets out a clear plan for the developmental process and the proper order of the process so students gain the best understanding of what is being taught. Since the value-neutral method can be applied to all subjects, it is another way it can be a good procedure. 

Common sense, according to Kumashiro, is the knowledge that everyone should know. People behave and act in accordance with common sense throughout their lives. Kumashiro explains throughout the reading that an individual’s common sense can be different depending on many things. Some examples are where the individuals live or what school they go to. One example of different common sense between individuals is what is considered to be a good cook. People from different cultures or locations may have different ideas about what makes a good cook. Kumashiro claimed that because he employed American cooking techniques, people in Nepal believed less of her as a cook since he used other things besides rice, lentils, and vegetables. People need some time to adjust to common sense because you have to comprehend what it means to others and the reasons why their way of life is set up the way it is.  

It is important to pay attention to common sense due to it being a way individuals go about their everyday life. Common sense within schools may differ depending on the type of common sense the teachers and students bring to the school. If someone is not paying attention to the common sense by which they are surrounded they may be accused of doing something wrong way, inaccurately, or even getting into dangerous situations. Kumashiro experienced this when he began teaching at the Nepal school. Kumashiro taught her way of teaching was correct due to her own common sense but others within the school accused her of incorrectly teaching or being a bad teacher. If you pay attention to common sense, you will be able to understand how others live their lives and why they live them in that certain way. Kumashiro being an outsider looking into Nepal’s common sense he could either; adapt to their ways of life or teach her own common sense or way of life to the Nepal community. If he adapted to it, it would be very important to pay attention to Nepal’s common sense.   

According to my understanding of common-sense curriculum is a guideline that teachers follow to know what to teach the students. A curriculum outlines what to teach when, at what ages, and in what order, and how to teach it effectively enough for kids to learn the lesson’s main points. A curriculum is something that all teachers follow due to it being fixed expectations that the government has set into place. I believe the curriculum is a great way to keep all students’ progress consistent due to many students being taught by different teachers in different classrooms at different schools. Some things that are new to me are the hidden curriculum or curriculum as a place. In my common-sense curriculum has always been a guide used by teachers. Coming into this course I actually had no understanding of what pedagogy was or even meant. It is a totally new concept to me. I learned from our first lecture that pedagogy is how all teachers have different approaches to teaching. Even though I didn’t know the correct terminology for pedagogy, I grasped and knew what it was from the definition and what we learned in the first lecture.