The question "what is worth learning?" is one future educators should have on their minds. The answer will vary from teacher to teacher and will have to adhere to the rules of whichever educational philosophy the district of your choosing follows. In my opinion, there is nothing not worth learning, especially in today's society. Explicit curriculum is taught in every classroom, it is the intended plans, objectives, and content the school expects you to teach. Its' focus is mainly aimed towards reading and writing skills. The null curriculum is the pieces of history that are relevant but didn't make the cut to get taught directly in the lesson plan. The hidden curriculum is the information that lies under the surface of what is being taught. It's full of ideological meaning and can be inferred based on your own experiences.
Teachers will always teach the explicit curriculum, but they get to choose whether or not they bring the null curriculum or the hidden curriculum to their student's attention. I think it's a good idea to share pieces of information from both the null and hidden curriculum to a certain extent, based on the student's maturity level. Sharing information from both will allow the students to draw their own conclusions on many situations in history instead of just being told what's right and what's wrong. I personally didn't learn about many important parts of history until college and it has changed my perspectives on many subjects in a positive way and I think it should be taught sooner in the educational system.
Hi Kady!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that nothing is not worth learning. I think giving students access to be able to pursue higher level questions is extremely important to their learning. I was surprised to read on the Facebook post by Kyleene Beers about the attempt to close classroom libraries. I think that would be completely contradictory to a child’s education!
There was a lot of very impactful history that I didn’t learn until college as well! I feel like everything was very minimized. I think that teaching a more accurate history sooner would be much more beneficial to students because I’ve been in a class so many times where our professor would be telling us about an event and not very many people in the class had heard about it previously. With appropriate exposure, students are allowed to begin perceiving and understanding the world outside of their immediate perspective so that they can then begin learning independently.
Hello Kady,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you stating how the teacher needs to share their own experiences from the null and hidden curriculum. It is important to do this because it brings the idea of teaching and education to a more personal basis and allows a student to connect in a more true relationship to the educator. I truly believe though that the question of what is worth learning is far more philosophical than anything else. Nothing could be considered not worth learning. The educating that takes place in a classroom setting from a teacher and a student is just a small fraction of the knowledge that is learned through someone’s life. I believe firmly that explicit curriculum is not worth the effort of teaching if null curriculum is not also brought into the classroom. The both compliment each other and a students education career will not be complete if one is neglected.