For the inaugural post to Adventures in Education it would seem best to introduce myself. I'm currently in my penultimate year of teacher education at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. This blog is actually for one of my courses, and due to this, it will deal primarily deal with my musings surrounding education, curriculum, and learning in general. My degree will cover teachable subjects in both visual arts and English. They are similar in many aspects, as they both provide opportunity to look closely at the creations of others and, in addition, create works of your own.
However, the method in which these two subjects are taught, are, in my opinion, vastly different. As such, I'll need a variety of teaching methods and strategies in order to cover both of these. I'm getting ahead of myself though, we're just starting out on our Adventure. It will be an interesting practice to see if my thoughts change throughout the development of this blog, though!
Let's start with curriculum, shall we? The actual definition is a bit hazy; curriculum means a lot of different things to different people. Clandinin and Connelly define it as "life", a definition that I find next to useless. The International Baccalaureate Organization claims it consists of what is to be learned (written curriculum), how it is learned (taught curriculum), and how it is to be assessed (learned curriculum). I find this explanation a lot easier to comprehend, but I would like to make the addition of a fourth component, the hidden curriculum (which includes biases and thought patterns unintentionally communicated to students). Other courses I have dealt with previously always stressed the importance of this "hidden curriculum", so I was surprised when it wasn't even mentioned in my reading. Let's file this thought away for later; it still may surface later on.
Next up is the concept and different styles of assessment. The three types outlined are assessment for learning (AfL), assessment as learning (AaL) and assessment of learning (AoL).Honestly, prior to reading about these different types, I had no idea they were defined as such. Most teachers I have encountered use a combination of all three types of assessment seamlessly. So much so, I had thought the concept and practice of assessment was taught under a single heading. My text further stated that that a combination of AfL, AaL, and AoL, which helped to assuage my initial confusion. As these concepts are in no way distinct or separate, I have to question why they are taught separately at all? They seem to be intertwined in such as a way as to be inseparable, so why not teach them as one large concept? Perhaps further analysis will yield some answers to my questions.
It is undoubtedly an exciting time to become a teacher. We are at an interesting fork in the metaphorical road that is education. A transition is occurring between traditional methods and new, constructivist inspired practices. We, as future educators, will be an integral part of this transition, and I, for one, can't wait to see what directions we take this!
To finish this post off, I'll leave you with an artwork by one of my favourite artists, Alex Gray. The Artist' Hand (1997) applies perfectly to our knowledge of curriculum and assessment thus far. The layers and changing nature of the hand depicted reflect the many layers and complexity of education. Nothing is solitary here; everything is interconnected. In addition, we as the artist (architect, educator, etc.) have the ability to change our very reality. Use this power wisely, I know I will!
Until next time Internet,
cjarvis
Alex Gray
The Artist's Hand (1997)
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