A learning solution proposal

Running head: A LEARNING SOLUTION PROPOSAL

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A Learning Solution Proposal

A LEARNING SOLUTION PROPOSAL

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A Learning Solution Proposal

Various situations evolving in the school and classroom environment are often related to

teachers’ and students’ efforts, intensions and actions aimed at achieving academic success and

avoiding school dropout. Therefore, one of the basic instructional problems a teacher needs to

address is to ensure efficient academic progress of students by means of implementing an

adequate curriculum, instruction, evaluation and other teaching and learning technologies and

policies.

Curriculum design and development have been key issues in discussing the teaching and

learning process for decades. Major principles and requirements to the school curriculum

formulated by R.W. Tyler (1969) are as relevant today as they were decades before, when the

book was published for the first time. They include defining clearly and precisely educational

purposes sought by schools, selecting learning experiences that will be useful in attaining

intended objectives, organizing learning experiences for achieving efficient instruction,

evaluating academic progress and learning experiences, and designing curriculum by school and

college staff. Today, when both our world and school environment are becoming ever more

dynamic, diverse, multicultural and controversial, these concepts remain relevant and are

developed both theoretically and practically, for different real settings.

Designing an efficient curriculum starts with determining the subject area and

constructing the core curriculum that meets basic learning needs of students and serves as the

foundation for further steps in developing differentiated and individualized approaches to

learning and teaching. The target of the core curriculum is in not to let children “fall off the

cliffs”, that is to provide for their academic progress in the best possible way by addressing their

similar features depending on age and other cognitive and behavioral characteristics and


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avoiding the need of dividing the class into too many small target groups for instructing in the

core academic areas (Begeny, Schulte & Johnson, 2012, p.12). A comprehensive analysis of sub-

skills that should be developed by the core curriculum is also a prerequisite for making the

curriculum a powerful tool of enhancing students’ academic progress. Teachers and educators

cannot afford to have “trivial and fluffy curriculum [that] remains trivial and fluffy even after

differentiation” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000, p. 12). Recent steps aimed at improving educational

standards in general and methods of testing in particular, although they have given rise to heated

discussions, provide the basis for a more integrative understanding of the role of the curriculum

and its interconnection with other teaching activities. This is the way to improve both the

curriculum, in terms of its content, structure and methods of implementation, and evaluation

procedures that need to be integrated in the curriculum rather than function as a separate target

inviting justified criticism because of excessive training to make students learn specific test

formats or the resulting limitation of knowledge and skill areas that could be useful for students

in the future.

The curriculum is a component of the teaching and learning process closely associated

with certain other basic aspects, primarily evaluating the academic progress and students’

proficiency, developing students’ motivation, which is the instrumental for sustaining any

learning activities, and individualized or differentiated approach to teaching. Individualization

and differentiation in teaching is the imperative of our time, with multicultural and bilingual or

multilingual environment modifying and transforming people’s daily lives and mentality.

Therefore, as prominent educationalists point out, it is time “to embrace the idea of differentiated

or academically responsive classrooms” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000, p. v). Differentiated

instruction enables to personalize teaching and accept the fact that seeing differences and


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individual traits of students is as important as acknowledging their similarities in acquiring

knowledge and skills that are used as the basis for designing standard procedures of teaching and

instructions. It also requires not “to situate the institution, the curriculum, and ourselves in an

overly deterministic way” (Apple, 2004, p. 3). Only by implementing two basic principles

teachers can guarantee that students in the future will become productive individuals. The first of

these is aimed at creating a well-designed curriculum meeting the requirements of the actual

teaching environment and students’ common characteristics; the other is based on the assumption

that every student is a personality with his or her unique learning skills, abilities and motivation

that should be provided for by the curriculum.

The commitment of scholars in education and teachers “to new and more critical social

perspectives” can modify the educational process giving it “more vitality” to (Apple, 2004, p.

viii). Therefore, the particular features of teaching culturally different or exceptional students

should be also reflected in the curriculum. This step serves as a powerful instrument for

enhancing students’ motivation for learning. School and college curricula need to be culturally

responsive to assist students in gaining better control over their academic progress and help them

interact with the social environment. The curriculum that takes into account such aspects will not

only help to develop the student’s identity but will be also beneficial for the social environment

the student lives in. Copeland & Knapp (2006) provide a good example of how culturally-based

approach can be practiced in the class and school setting by introducing inter-subject

communications into the curriculum design for students who are non-native speakers of English.

Bringing “a rich base of knowledge to [the] curriculum design” that addresses a wide range of

topics (Copeland & Knapp, 2006, p. 11), with students contributing their own strengths and


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interests, is a feasible method of making the curriculum an instrument of improving the academic

progress and fighting school dropout.


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References

Apple, M.W. Ideology and Curriculum. (Third edition). (2004). New York: Routledge.

Begeny, C.J., Schulte, A.C., & Johnson, K. (2012). Enhancing instructional problem solving.

New York: The Guilford Press.

Copeland, M. A., & Knapp, M. S. (2006). Connecting leadership with learning: A framework for

reflection, planning, and action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and

Curriculum Development.

Tomlinson, C.A., & Allan S.D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms.

Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

Tyler, R.W. (1969). Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Chicago: The University Of

Chicago Press.


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Education

A learning solution proposal