Essay - Curriculum Concept-based Curriculums: What is a True Curriculum? War. Peace....

Curriculum

Concept-based curriculums: What is a true curriculum?

War. Peace. Love. All of these are concepts. According to one school district using a concept-based curriculum: "A concept is an idea that ***** timeless, abstract, broad and can be shown through a variety of examples...Concepts, due to their broad nature, provide opportunities for curriculum integration" ("***** is ***** curriculum?"1998, District 118). The challenge ***** a teacher using a concept-based curriculum is ***** find a meaningful concept for his or her students, and to tie that concept into all areas of classroom study. Concept-based design highlights the fact that a teacher's curriculum should be a program, a plan, a map ***** the journey that a teacher and her students will take over ***** course of a ye*****r. Some detours can occur from the ********** *****, but the destination should remain clear. ***** concept-based ***** gives a firm sense of purpose to le*****rning, and unifies all ***** of ***** study in a meaningful and cohesive manner.

Unfortunately, "in most ***** districts...curriculum often exists as disjointed clusters of content," rather than a meaningful ***** of enrichment ***** sharpens students learning skills as well as expands their storehouse of knowledge (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1999, p.2). Instead, ********** ***** and Francis ***** advocate a value-based curriculum which conveys a holistic message about learning, ***** than merely a series of facts. Conceptually based *****s reinforce the ***** that school subjects are not discrete, but are really cross-disciplinary. Instead of artificially created subjects like 'math' ***** 'science' students must understand that they must use math to measure scientific experiments. Students come to appreciate that if they wish to ***** a culture, they must study the liter*****ture, geography, and politics, ***** a region.

Although a conceptually ***** curriculum requires a great deal of planning on the part of a te*****cher, learning is still "a social process...students bring ideas and experiences to learning situati*****s that advance and enrich the understanding of others. Success in learning this way is achieved by those who have the authority to sh***** *****ir ideas and experiences." (Muir & Blake, 2006)This idea is still commensurate with concept-based curricular design in its ideal form. Students, ***** seeing that a concept c*****n unite so many different aspects of an idea are *****tter able to draw connections between what is learned in the classroom ***** subjects that are common ***** their daily lives.

For example, take the ***** ***** concept ***** 'travel.' The ***** obvious application of ***** concept is in a literature class, where students can learn about travel from stories about o*****r lands, or ***** people travel*****g ***** the course ***** a story. But students ***** also apply ***** concept to math class, as they learn to budget for a trip, and calculate the speeds of various modes of transportation. They can learn about the science ***** how trains and planes are propelled, as well as research the weather conditions and geography of a possible *****. They can learn about the ***** people, cultures, religions, and wildlife