Ecs210 week 2

What are the four models of curriculum described in the article, and what are the main benefits and/or drawbacks of each?

The four models to curriculum I found were

• Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted
• Curriculum as a product
• Curriculum as a process
• Curriculum as a praxis

I personally found that curriculum as a syllabus to be transmitted to be the most common of the four simply because of the emphasis on vocal education. While it can definitely help knock out all the important bits in a class, not all students learn in a lecture setting and this area is very heavy in the one sided discussions that are lectures. “Basically it means a concise statement or table of the heads of a discourse, the contents of a treatise, the subjects of a series of lectures.” (Smith, 2) Something that should also be said or brought to light is that “A syllabus will not generally indicate the relative importance of its topics or the order in which they are to be studied.” (Smith, 2)

    Curriculum as a product is definitely not one of my favourites as it makes children out to be tiny robots you just need to program and let go. “Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured.” (Smith, 3) I will however admit that it produces results. This was one of the more prominent areas of curriculum I faced in my early years at school.

     Curriculum as a process follows a similar dynamic as what I stated above, however I feel there’s more room for the individual rather than the hive. Though these differences are small, they are still slightly different. Smith states this best, “Another way of looking at curriculum theory and practice is via process. In this sense curriculum is not a physical thing, but rather the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge. In other words, curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate.” (Smith, 4) However, this also falls into mandatory testing, which I personally despise, as I feel it doesn’t truly show anyone how much a student knows, it just how much they can regurgitate. I witness quite a bit of this in my elementary school years as well.

    Finally we have curriculum as a praxis. This one is definitely my favourite as it does focus on the individual, not the collective “While the process model is driven by general principles and places an emphasis on judgment and meaning making, it does not make explicit statements about the interests it serves.” (Smith, 11) However, this could lead to some kids being put on hold. It forces action and not all people may be okay with that. I never really experienced this as a child. http://infed.org/mobi/curriculum-theory-and-practice/