As someone who has been a student only in Canada, I’ve had a very small experience with different forms of education, or different curriculums for that matter. In my years of education I can look back and see this curriculum theory of ‘Curriculum as a product’ or the ‘Tyler rationale’ being used a lot in the years of K-8, and less so in 9-12. In the K-8 years you are figuring out not only, who you are as an individual in society, but also as student, as well as going through a bunch of fundamental developmental changes such as reading, writing, social cues. All of these very important to being an educated student and the basis for the rest of your education career, the curriculum as a product was used heavily here. Having things such as, “RAD” tests to find where we were at as students in literacy was a big part of K-8 education. The purpose of the “RAD” tests were to look at the final product of what this student knows about literacy, as every student had the same test even though we would all be at different levels.
With this, there comes some problems. Every student is at a different point especially in K-8, some are more advanced and others were not. With this “RAD” test, we were all given the same time limit, expecting those who possibly are neurodivergent to fall behind due to the time limit. For me this happened, making me believe I wasn’t falling where I needed to seeing my other classmates succeed allowing the ‘null curriculum’ or the invisible curriculum to determine where my learning was at. In moments like these, looking at the education of a student as a product can lead to students being faulty in reasons not their own but feeling the pressure and guilt as if it was their own. Such as it is called the “Factory Model”, if the line is only concerned with the final product and not how the final product is made, there will be a recall. It makes it impossible to use in the 9-12 years because, students have slowly began to understand themselves and how they learn becomes the focus of their education. As someone who has troubles focusing, this was seen immediately by my teachers in my highschool years, as I was not falling under what a grade nine should be able to do within a set amount of time. As the reading explains “Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured.” (Smith 2000), in my case nothing measured up and the plans ruined because of the past use of this model and setting me up for failure believing all students were at the same level.
On the other hand, this model is important for the years K-3 when fundamental development is happening, these first four years will set students up for the rest of their educational career, at this point is it important that the students are able to read, and write, and do basic math. Without these things schooling could be very difficult for anyone who do not have the basic knowledge to do these things as well as the rest of their lives.If they do not have this knowledge not only will schooling be difficult, but so will the social pressures. At this point meeting an outcome and making the product is important to ensure that the children being taught are prepared for the rest of their education and life within this society. As mentioned in class we spoke about “by whose standards are we meeting” seeing as the curriculum is heavily influenced by the society we live in today, I believe it is important that these standards are met, we cannot change to the society we want, without going through the society we have.
