Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How would you describe your learning experience during each of the demonstrations?
(Please explain with details).
presented a year-long plan for Social Studies 8, the “Gaming Wizards” camouflaged
their learning intentions very cleverly within a game activity. The curriculum culture
resonated a constructionist philosophy that makes the student the agent of meaningful
and relevant learning . Of all the knowledge that can be found around a learner, the
individual can only “learn” the knowledge that is internalized through a personal
experience. I felt that the “Gaming Wizards” reflected this subjective nature of learning
by allowing team members to contribute a fact for each category. Each category was
devised collectively in our groups, but each of us was given the opportunity to perceive
that category in a personal way and provide any fact we felt was relevant to the topic
contributions for group members, none of which were considered wrong. Instead, they
catalyzed a greater understanding of scope and application of the category for all team
members. For example, we learned about new books and received validation for others
that another team member also knew of. There were also some suggested facts that
seemed to fit in more than one category, and this disequilibrium was resolved by
discussion with other people. Most of the learning was student-driven, while the
presenters (in the role of educators) facilitated further discussion as they navigated
Mandhir Singh Sambhi
throughout the classroom. The gaming aspect of the activity hid the learning very well,
to the extent that I almost forgot about the educational component for a little while. The
“Constructors”, on the other hand, were able to keep my focus on the learning goals for
the entirety of their presentation (albeit some people at my table became so much more
involved in discussion that they disrupted the class). Their demonstration shed light on
some challenges for educators when making curricula (namely, the Humanities
courses), but I felt as disconnected as I was intrigued by the information they shared.
The level of flexibility allowed in these curricula may undoubtedly help students reach
depths of analysis and focus that kindle their interests in one topic or subject, but I
sensed that the subjectivity of results, perceptions, and expectations may become
overwhelming for teachers. Nevertheless, the team’s approach to use peer review and
feedback to optimize their final result was very commendable, as it demonstrated a life-
wide and life-long evolution of knowledge as educators collaborate to achieve the best
What thoughts do you have about the way each team approached this curriculum
development project? Are there aspects of their project/approach that you particularly
appreciate? Are there aspects of their project/approach that you are curious about (and
I was skeptical about the “Dream Wizards”’ approach for the game, which I
presumed could not be comprehensive if it was “fun”. But I was gladly proven wrong
when I realized how versatile the game process was. It can be used as an assessment
of learning or review of taught material. The most impressive aspect of this approach is
that there is no limit to what extent an individual or a team can take the facts pertaining
to a category, and that the categories can be from any part of a larger theme. The
“Constructors” also demonstrated their understanding of the curricular culture, but I felt
present a preliminary draft that would be improved with colleague input, but I was more
curious to see if any of the group members would have shown a typical final product of
the Socials 8 curriculum. Participants who aren’t familiar with creating curriculum (in
general or for this particular case) could have seen how accurate their interpretation had
In reflecting back about each team's demonstration, are there ways that you can use
other readings/concepts from this course to analyze it? For example, could you use
Joseph's framework to reflect on the ways that a particular curricular culture was
enacted?
The curricular culture of Constructing Understanding puts the learner at the center of
the learning process. As part of Joseph’s framework of curriculum, this culture pays
close attention to the needs and nature of the learners. Teachers become coaches and
facilitators who supplement student efforts to gain and grow in knowledge. The
educator’s main role becomes to find out and cater to the subject matter that students
would be interested in, what type of learning environment they need, and when planning
the curriculum, how can academic content be connected to experience. Both groups
portrayed these characteristics well, but the “Gaming Wizards’” approach presented it in
a much more appealing way. The “Constructors’” strong point was their ability to
demonstrate a critical analysis of the challenges and dilemmas educators face when
Mandhir Singh Sambhi
formulating the curriculum. Even though we may not experience the curriculum as
students, the concerns, questions, and curiosities we expressed during our discussion
of the proposed plan may very well have represented those of legitimate stakeholders --
parents and teachers -- in the education system. So, as a curricular culture, many
student learns while living and working within a community becomes a social issue, a
topic of importance that requires input from all who can be affected by it. The learner is
the primary focus of this culture, and other criteria of the general framework are
weighed in to support the main objective. Both groups highlighted different aspects of
which the class benefited from a more holistic representation of the curricular culture.