• Pretest
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Readings
• Powerpoint
• Assignments
• 529 Homepage
• 529 Syllabus

Lesson Two

The Role of Philosophy in Curriculum Development

Pretest:

Complete the pretest located in Moodle to see how much you know about this week's lesson.

Introduction:

Our readings this week examine the characteristics and current status of CTE curriculum development.  As we explore the current purpose of General Education and Career and Technical Education specifically pay attention to the similarities and differences between them.  Next look at what constitutes CTE, what are its characteristics?  Using the readings as a basis think about what your own education philosophy is (both in general and for CTE specifically). 

As you study this further and as you gain educational work experience, how will your philosophy and outlook change?  As developers of curriculum you can lead changes in education by the changes and advancements you apply to your philosophy and your curriculum.  It is important to be open to examining other educational philosophies, to stretch your thinking to incorporate improvements. 

Lastly the fable of the Saber Tooth Curriculum presents ideas in a story that is hopefully entertaining, and may be familiar to many of us.  The author, Harold Benjamin-writing as Peddiwell, was born in the late 1800’s.  He taught at many universities throughout his career and researched comparative differences between the US and other countries’ education systems.  With the Saber-Tooth Curriculum Benjamin explores the pitfalls of an unexamined educational tradition. 

So our primary question for this lesson is-- How do we decide what education should be-by looking at what it was, what it is, or by looking at what it could be?

 

Objectives:

• Describe the unique characteristics of career and technical education curriculum.

• Assess individual educational philosophies as they relate to curriculum development.

• Examine the educational philosophy of a school, college, or extension office.

• Discuss the relationship between the needs of society and curriculum development.

Readings:

• Read the short story titled "The Saber-Tooth Curriculum" by Abner Peddiwell.

• Finch, C.B. & Crunkilton, J. R. (1999). "Curriculum Development: An Overview" in V. Lanigan, B. Keane (Eds.), Curriculum Development in Vocational and Technical Education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon p.1-24. **If you PRINT this reading, you must manually choose 'LETTER' within the printer settings or you will lose the lefthand text.**

• Wiles, J. & Bondi, J. (1998). The Role of Philosophy in Curriculum Planning. In A. Stollenwerk, M. Harlan (Eds.), Curriculum Development: A Guide to Practice, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall , p.35-75. These readings are in PDF format and have been divided up into parts to decrease download times. Please download and read all parts.

  • Part I

  • Part II (might need to scroll down to view)

  • Part III

  • Part IV

Powerpoint Presentations:

Download this week's two presentations:

Characteristics of Career and Technical Education

Educational Philosophies Related to Curriculum

 

Assignments:

• Complete this worksheet and submit under "Worksheet 2" in Moodle. This assignment is due midnight September 7th.

• Go to the AEE 529 Moodle page, and post to this week's forum debating the Saber-Toothed Curriculum by J.Abner Peddiwell. Make sure to follow the directions on the forum posting

Plugins to third party applications found in this lesson such as Quicktime, Powerpoint, Word, Adobe, etc can be downloaded from the AEE 529 course syllabus.