Steppingstone Notes Chapter 1

Setting Out on the Curriculum Path

(Footstep 1-1)

*This book therefore, explores, how worldviews affect school programs.

*In particular, it examines how a worldview based on the Bible, Gods word, provides a
framework for school curriculum.

(Brummelen 2)

(Footstep 1-2)

*A curriculum must include a diversity of value positions without promoting any particular
one.

* Is a neutral curriculum possible

* You must avoid indoctrination.

* Students must draw their own conclusions from their own explorations and constructions.

* Warnock next shows that it is impossible to be neutral in teaching

* Teachers must present various positions fairly and leave students free to their own conclusions.

* Teaching cannot bit encourage commitment of some kind, even if it is to the idea that all
worldviews are equally acceptable.

* Making curriculum is published by the curriculum guides of the government. Doing curriculum
is very difficult. Professionals are part of it so that curriculum is accurate to all schools.

* Schools and teachers still decide if they are going to use the curriculum all or just part of it.

(Brummelen 4)

(Footstep 1-4)

*Developing the unit around such applications might encourage some students to become
interested in technical design, an area with good job prospects.

*For this part, the teacher is confused if she is going to use all part of the curriculum for her
subject Math so that her student will pass the evaluation of the school board. However, her
learning approach is against the curriculum because she is more into interactive. She needs to
choose. Time is too short.
The Underlying Basis for Making Curriculum Decisions

*Overall aims of schooling

*How can schooling help the humanity work toward a more just and compassionate society?

*Ought to be done in the curriculum and the right thing to do.

*Curriculum lead student to discover meaning and how can it connect to the meaning; link
believing, thinking and doing; make them both more discerning and more committed to a
principled of life.

*In this process, what soon becomes clear is that diverse views of the purpose and meaning of
life and of education may make it difficult for curriculum-planning group to arrive at specific
decisions.

*Ministry of Education in British Columbia launched an extensive process of deliberation in

order to develop a new social studies curriculum. Many people are engaged the process. They
were consulted and involved to make the curriculum best for the students.

*Critical theorist ae one group of educators who recognize that all curricula promote vision of
life.

(Brummelen pp. 5-6)

(Footstep 1-5)

*He believed that curriculum should be used to liberate oppressed people.

*It is right that redemptive pedagogy and a curriculum of compassion obey the teachings of
Jesus.

*It is right that Christian faith and accepting the Christian narrative or story leads us to a
covenant not only with Christ but also with the students.

*If the Christians education take seriously the teachings of Jesus, they will, like the critical
theorist, teach with and for commitment.

(Brummelen pg. 7)

(Footstep 1-6)

The Teacher as Guide

*Christian teachers are more than facilitators.

*They develop their teaching skills reflectively within a well-defined philosophical and religious
framework.

*Teachers are shepherds.

*A shepherd guides his sheep, using his rod and staff to nudge them in the right direction.

*Christian teachers are prophets in that their teaching proclaims Gods handiwork in creation, the
effects of sin and the possibilities of reconciliation and restoration. (Luke 1:76-79)

*The unfolding of meaningful content deepens students insight into Gods world and their place
in it and leads them to take delight in Gods creation as well as feel hurt by the effects of sin.

*Planning a curriculum that guides into truth does not mean that Christian teachers put children
into narrow Christian straitjackets.

Teaching for Commitment in Christian Schools

*Every child is necessarily initiated into a particular religious tradition. Thissen argues that it is
not only desirable but essential that schools only desirable but essential that schools deliberately
initiate children into stable, secure and coherent tradition.

*The Christian school curriculum, therefore, needs to give students room to examine various
views and to formulate their own. Teachers should also challenge students not to give easy or pat
answers to difficult issues. They should present non-Christian beliefs and positions honestly and
fairly.

Christian schoolteachers need to remember three key points to formulate their classroom
curriculum:

*They confidently initiate their students into their cultural and Christian heritage.

*They encourage their students to grow in normal rational responsibility.

*They teach with commitment since they want to teach for commitment.

Teaching for Commitment in Public Schools

*As Christian teachers, you may not use the public-school classroom as a forum for evangelism.

*Accepting a position in a public school means that you agree to teach a curriculum that is
suitable for all children, no matter what their background.

*Public school teachers do have an obligation to teach and encourage commitment to a set of
basic values without which democratic society cannot function.

Suggestions for planning a curriculum that is fair to all religious

*Choose content that helps students to function well in society and contribute to it.

*Ensure that your pedagogy reflects the implications of a biblical view of the person.

*Acquaint students with the Christian heritage.

*Be balanced in your approach.

*Use the templates in chapter 7 for planning units.

*Adapt the unit examples in Chapter 7 to public school classrooms.

(Blummener pp. 7-12)

(Footstep 1-7)

*If you teach to plan in a Christian school, discuss how you can teach for commitment while
allowing students to express and hold other points of view.

*Discuss whether you can allow your worldview to influence your curriculum is suitable for
students of all backgrounds.

(Blummener pg. 12)

(Footstep 1-8)

Curriculum defines;

*is what is taught, particularly the subject matter contained in a schools course of study.

*is an organized set of documented, formal educational plans intended to attain preconceived
goals.

*is a dynamic, ever-changing series of planned learning experiences

*is everything learners experience in school.

Aims of the Curriculum

*To unfold the basis, framework, and implications of a Christian vision of life.

*To learn about Gods world and how humans have responded to Gods mandate to take care of
the earth.

*To develop and apply the concepts, abilities, and creative gifts that enable students to contribute
positively to Gods kingdom and have a transformational impact on culture.
*To discern and confront idols of our time such as materialism, hedonism technicism, relativism,
and other isms in which faith is placed in something other than God

*To become committed to Christ and to a Christian way of life, able and willing to serve God
and neighbor.

(Blummener Chapter 1)

Steppingstone Chapter 2

Choosing a Curriculum Orientation

*The Glendale Traditional School emphasizes the teaching of basic skills and the accumulated
wisdom of civilization. The school puts most of its time and effort into imparting knowledge in
basic subject areas.

*The Valley Achievement School has tightly structured curriculum. Teacher taught classes follow
precise steps of direct instruction or mastery learning.

*The Coulee Discovery School wants its students to be agents of their own learning. It believes
in their essential goodness and limitless potential.

(Blummener Chapter 2)

Steppingstone 3

A Christian Worldview as a Basis for Curriculum

*God governs all things in His sovereignty and faithfulness. Further, all knowledge depends on
Gods revelation

*God assigned to humans was the great Commandment: Love God above all and your neighbor
as yourself. Therefore, in physics class we discuss, for instance, how the subject has led to a
technology that provides new opportunities but can also enslave us.

*God gave us was the Great Commission. It bids Christian to preach the Gospel and to teach
nations everything that Christ commanded.

(Blummender Chapter 3)

Steppingstone 7
Knowledge and the Curriculum

*Explains how we can categorize knowledge into different aspects or disciplines, and how that
affects the organization of the curriculum.
Biblical View of truth and knowledge

*Believing the truth of Scripture means not so much believing that as it does believing in.

*Truth is personal relationship with Christ, not just in objective statements of that truth but in
subjective meaning discovered by the individual self.

*Knowledge is rooted in Gods revelation.

Classifying the Aspects of Reality

*The Bible does not provide a formula for organizing the curriculum. Such organization changes
as the culture unfolds. The Bible does convey, however, that all of education must be used to
nurture obedient living.

*Human thinking about aspects of reality corresponds to subject content, that is, to distinct ways
of organizing knowledge in one or more aspects.

Curriculum Subjects and the Aspects of Reality

*Situations in real life never fall neatly into a specific category.

*The separation of academic disciplines into independent pigeonholes contributes to a

fragmentation of knowledge.

*Some school subjects combine or cut across several aspects of reality.

*Some modes of knowing and some aspects of reality can be learned well in the context of
subjects that focus on other aspects.

*Students own developmental levels affect how we organize the curriculum.

(Blummener Chapter 7)