The following quote provides an opportunity for educators to discuss opportunity to learn, curriculum development, essential learnings, enduring understandings, the enacted curriculum, curriculum alignment and pacing.  Additional resources on these topics may be found by clicking on the topics listed in the blog archives.  This quote explains the complexity of K-12 curriculum development. 

“The enacted curriculum, the actual instruction delivered in the classroom, is ultimately controlled by the teacher, negotiated with a particular set of students at a particular time.  In designing the enacted curriculum, teachers make content decisions about how much time to spend, what topics to cover within what time, which students are to study what content and to what standards of achievement.  Collectively, these four teacher content decisions determine school provided opportunity to learn (Porter et al. 1988).  As a result, there are substantial differences in the enacted curriculum provided by teachers teaching ostensibly the same course, even within the same school” (Porter, 1989).   

Questions for Discussion:

1.  Does our school system have a process for curriculum development?

2.  Does our school system use technology to support ongoing collaboration
    and professional conversations regarding K-12 curriculum decisions?

3.  What is our current reality?  In other words, what is the enacted
     curriculum?

4.  What are the four teacher content decisions that determine school
     provided opportunity to learn?

5.  How can this short quote help our staff improve our current K-12
    curriculum development process? 


Reference:

Porter, A. C. (1994). Standards and school improvement in the 1990's:
      Issues and Promise. American Journal of Education, 102(4), 421-449.




 


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