Jieni LIM (301167464)

EDUC471- Summer 2014

Prof Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 2 May 20 2014

In the second week of the class, May 13
th
2014, we discussed the four curriculum
ideologies proposed by Schiro. The four curriculum ideologies are scholar academic,
learner-centered, social efficiency and social reconstruction.
The scholar academic focuses on the academic part of individual learning. For
example, mathematics, history etc and has no interest in other aspects of the learner. This
category has several goals: 1) to develop the learners intellectual ability in association with a
discipline, and tends to ignore the other aspects, such as emotions, relationship building etc
2) to cultivate students into good citizens of society. 3) Attempts to turn student into scholars.
The curriculum concept, learner-centered, holds an opposite view of traditional
schooling. Learner-centered schools regard the need and interests of students as important in
determining the school program and school curriculum, rather than those of the teachers,
parents, politicians. Leaners are viewed to have innate learning abilities, where they learn
through interacting with their surroundings. Learner-centered oriented teacher tries to meet
the interests and needs of the students, and does not put students in comparison with one
another
The social-efficiency ideology focuses on educating individuals to be socially
functioning in society. Education is viewed as a tool to prepare individuals to adopt certain
skills in order to be a competent adult in the future. It enables them to sustain the social roles
needed in relation to the contribution of the social functions, becoming competent, active
and constructive members of society. Social efficiency workers attempt to meet the demands
of society and strive for good achievement within society.
The fourth type in Schiros curriculum ideology is social reconstruction. This
ideology holds the beliefs that current society is unhealthy, unjust and bad in shape, and
there is a need to develop a vision for a better future. Changing society is one of the
emphasis in this orientation. Social Reconstructionist assigns meaning to people and things.
Jieni LIM (301167464)
EDUC471- Summer 2014
Prof Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 2 May 20 2014

Everything has meaning and value. They believe that education plays significant role in
imposing this set of ideals society. This is due to the beliefs that education may have an effect
in the meaning-making structure of the students when they are assigning meaning
(perceptions, interpretations, etc) to the world.

Critical Analysis:
From Schiros point of view, it shows that the current curriculum is imperfect and
injust. Schiros curriculum ideologies provide different types of frameworks that occur or are
able to be applied within in the school curriculum. However, some of the school program and
curriculum developments do not merely carry out only one distinct independent curriculum
ideology. They fit in more than one Schiros curriculum ideology. In this case, it may appear
contradictory when the values and beliefs of the ideologies overlap. For example, the goal of
a school program might not only focus merely on educating students to be intellectual
persons or competent scholars, but also advocate the ideas of aiding students to be socially
functional and competent in society, ensuring there ability to contribute and be part of society.
If we were to apply Schiros curriculum ideologies to the particular curriculum, it shows a
contradiction between these two frameworks. The concept of social-efficiency attempts to
help students adopt skills in order to function competently in society, but Schiros scholar
academic ideology cares only for the capability of students academic learning, and ignore
other non-academic development of the leaners. According to Schiros set of curriculum
ideologies, these two frameworks can not occur within the same system. This is because they
are two distinct categories of curriculum ideologies and both carry different values and
beliefs.
Many school programs adopt or fit into more than one of Schiros proposed
ideologies. Most programs are not distinct in any one of Schiros curriculum ideologies, but
they often overlap across the four categories.
Jieni LIM (301167464)
EDUC471- Summer 2014
Prof Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 2 May 20 2014

Schiro suggests that the teachers role and its teaching value will be different in
relation to different curriculum ideologies than the ones carried out in school programs. The
role of the teacher and the value of teaching are not only based on the adopted curriculum
ideology, but also relates with the subject, course or discipline that the teachers teach. For
instance, schools that impose Schiros ideology of social reconstruction, where the teachers
tend to carry their role as companion or peers to the learners. But this specific role might not
be applicable or effective in certain courses but applicable to others. It is because certain
courses might require more instructions from teachers/trainers, thus requiring different
methods and approaches.
Even though Schiros set of curriculum ideologies, is but one of the many
perspectives on curriculum, it is useful in to providing a form of understanding to the values
and standpoints embedded in educational curriculums. In addition, we can question the
reliability of these methods, and if they are effective or helpful. In what ways, is it helpful for
school program planning? Is it helpful to all form of education program, or is this set of
curriculum ideologies only apply to westernized institutions? Is it applicable to the school
programs which have strong ties and integration by the cultural influences?
In the class discussion, we suggested that Schiros idea of curriculum embodies
several major elements: the primary aims of schooling, the assumption of students,
underlying notions about how students learn, teaching, what should be taught / learned in
school, and the primary purpose of assessment.
We were also asked to define and establish our own definitions and assumptions of
curriculum. Oates (2011) asserts that curriculum as the students total experience, not just
the teaching, and includes unintended learning outcomes in his real curriculum. There are
three important parts to curriculum; students (learning /receivers), teacher (source/ teaching)
and content (learning outcomes/subject). The ultimate goal of developing curriculum is
Jieni LIM (301167464)
EDUC471- Summer 2014
Prof Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 2 May 20 2014

highly related to the purpose of education. Questions, such as What is the ultimate goal of
curriculum?, What do you want to get out of it as a learner or as a teacher? should be
considered as a starting point in developing curriculum for any school program.
In the last section of class, we were asked to read and discuss a short reading, The
case of the dysfunctional team. The text brings out the occurrence of conflicts when
different people work together in a group presentation. The focus was on three fictional
characters with different traits and each with their own attitudes towards peers and group
work. The short reading shows how the group fails in their group assignment, due to poor
communication and personality conflict. This short reading serves as a reminder to us of the
importance of collaborating with others as a team. In my personal experience, I was placed in
the similar situation when working for a group presentation with four other group members.
Two of them were always late for meetings, one of them did not attend any meetings except
the last meeting before the presentation, and another member was being very passive in
contributing the work and his character was quite impatient and grumpy. Even though we did
not fail on that assignment, the entire process was quite hard difficult. Therefore, this
particular short reading reminded me to be more flexible, attentive, initiative, and sensitive to
the others and to be really responsible for the work that were distributed and assigned. This
would help to avoid unpleasant conflicts when working with others. Although it is hard to
avoid some kinds of minor (or even major) conflicts when working with others, it is always
better to reduce any conflicts from major to minor, from minor to none in order to work
productively and effectively.




Jieni LIM (301167464)
EDUC471- Summer 2014
Prof Rebecca Cox (Becky) Journal Entry Week 2 May 20 2014

References
Oates, T. (2011) Could do better: using international comparisons to refine the National
Curriculum in England, Curriculum Journal, 22, 2, pp. 121150.