Journal of Curriculum Studies 47卷3期文章

1. Taylorism and the logic of learning outcomes

Author: Stoller, Aaron

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 317-333.

Abstract: This essay examines the shared philosophical foundations of Fredrick W. Taylor’s scientific management principles and the contemporary learning outcomes movement (LOM). It analyses the shared philosophical ground between the focal point of Taylor’s system—‘the task’—and the conceptualization and deployment of ‘learning outcomes’ in American post-secondary systems. It further critiques Taylor’s principles and the logic of outcomes from the standpoint of John Dewey’s educational philosophy. This essay will show how the contemporary LOM is not only an extension of Taylorism, but also yields the very real possibility of restricting the creative capacities and unique potentials of students

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2. The problems of ‘competence’ and alternatives from the Scandinavian perspective of Bildung

Author: Willbergh, Ilmi

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 334-354.

Abstract: The paper aims to show how competence as an educational concept for the 21stcentury is struggling with theoretical problems for which the concept ofBildungin the European tradition can offer alternatives, and to discuss the possibility of developing a sustainable educational concept from the perspectives of competence andBildung. The method of the study is conceptual analysis of ‘competence’ andBildung. The paper concludes that (1) competence must be abandoned as an educational concept, as its problems cannot be solved due to the lack of a theory of educational content. With competence, the content aspect of education is obscured and hidden from public debate, and human autonomy is threatened. (2)Bildungcan be revised as an educational concept by reinventing educational content as subject to interpretation and open debate by autonomous individuals on all levels from the transnational to the classroom. (3) A revised ‘mimetic’ concept ofBildungcan prepare students for the knowledge society, as imagining is a type of higher order thinking essential for innovation and creativity. Instructional content in school is meaningful to students if they are able to imagine the representational object ‘as if’ it is both subject matter and real to them

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3. Prioritizing social and moral learning amid conservative curriculum trends: spaces of possibility

Author: Keddie, Amanda

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 334-354.

Abstract: Conservative trends across western schooling contexts are signalling an explicit devaluing of social and moral learning within their official curriculum mandates. These mandates are increasingly privileging the ‘academic rigour’ of traditional subject disciplines. This paper draws on interview and observation data from a case study of a large and highly diverse English secondary school to explore this school’s prioritizing of social and moral learning. Such prioritizing is supported at this school by its ‘Academy’ status—which in the English context allows schools a measure of freedom over curriculum as part of broader government moves to increase school autonomy. The paper’s focus is on how these conservative trends are understood and disrupted to support a critical view of existing curriculum and a desire to modify and re-shape it to support more relevant and connected learning for students. The paper describes particular examples of practice at the school in the areas of Citizenship and Religious Education to illustrate this approach. Engaging with social and moral learning along these lines is argued as productive in working within and against the constraints of current conservative curriculum priorities.

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4. Developing mathematical thinking in the primary classroom: liberating students and teachers as learners of mathematics

Author: Hudson, Brian; Henderson, Sheila; Hudson, Alison

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 374-398.

Abstract: This paper reports on a research study conducted with a group of practising primary school teachers (n = 24) in North East Scotland during 2011–2012. The teachers were all participants in a newly developed Masters course that had been designed with the aim of promoting the development of mathematical thinking in the primary classroom as part of project supported by the Scottish Government. The paper presents the background for this initiative within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence reform. Particular attention is given to the epistemological positioning of the researchers as this influenced both the curriculum design process and also the theoretical framing of the research study which are both described. The project was set up within a design research framework, which aimed to promote classroom-based action research on the part of participants through the course and also research by the university researchers into the process of curriculum development. The research questions focused on the teachers’ confidence, competence, attitudes and beliefs in relation to mathematics and their expectations and experiences of the impact on pupil learning arising from this course. Empirical data were drawn from pre- and post-course surveys, interviews and observations of the discussion forums in the online environment. Findings from this study highlight the way the course had a transformational and emancipatory impact on these teachers. They also highlight ways in which the ‘framing’ of particular aspects of the curriculum had an oppressive impact on learners in the ways that suppressed creativity and limited the exercise of learner autonomy. Furthermore, they highlight the ways in which a number of these teachers had experienced mathematics as a school subject in very negative ways, involving high levels of ‘symbolic violence’ and of being ‘labelled’.

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5. Between curriculum complexity and stereotypes: exploring stereotypes of teachers and education in media as a question of structural violence

Author: Edling, Silvia

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 399-415.

Abstract: The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and education: (a) recurring patterns of defining education in crisis, (b) mantling responsibility as exterior spokespersons for education and teachers, (c) excluding teachers’ and educational researchers’ knowledge and experiences in the media and (d) simplifying the notion of a good and bad teacher through stereotypes and dualistic frameworks that overlook task and relational complexity. In this paper, I explore how the simplifications of teachers and education that are often presented in the media can be interpreted as structural violence. In the light of these tendencies, research on structural violence helps to remind us that: (a) teachers are unwillingly forced into aparadoxical (in)visibility,(b) they aresqueezed in-betweentwo pressuring external demands, namely the complexities in their professional assignment that are politically steered and stereotypes of the good and bad teacher produced by, in this case, the media, (c) they riskwasting time and energyon addressing prejudices that have nothing to do with the specific work they are expected to do and (d) the logic ofbinary stereotypes is a power issue that brands teachers into a position of permanent failure

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6. The building blocks of digital media literacy: socio-material participation and the production of media knowledge

Author: Dezuanni, Michael

Source: Journal of Curriculum Studies 47.3( Jun. 2015): 416-439.

Abstract: This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of ‘digital building blocks’ is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy. The article argues that the two established approaches to media literacy education, critical reading and media production, do not adequately explain how students develop media knowledge. It suggests there has been too little focus on material practices and how these relate to the development of conceptual understanding in media learning. The article explores empirical evidence from a four-year investigation in a primary school in Queensland, Australia using actor–network theory to explore ‘moments of translation’ as students deploy technologies and concepts to materially participate in digital culture. A generative model of media learning is presented with four categories of building blocks that isolate the specific skills and knowledge that can be taught and learnt to promote participation in digital media contexts: digital materials, conceptual understandings, media production and media analysis. The final section of the article makes initial comments on how the model might become the basis for curriculum development in schools and argues that further empirical research needs to occur to confirm the model’s utility.