Tell The Teacher just What to Teach

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

What is a curriculum? It is, "the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university" (Wikipedia, 28 Dec 2010). To me that means, this is what you teach.

A teacher friend told us of the "curriculum" for the final year of high school. It included something like, "the basics of particle physics". This teacher managed to cram the absolute bare essentials of particle physics into just a week or so of very crowded lessons...

Well, then came the external exam, based on that curriculum. (Is it TEE? TER? Sorry, I forget what it's called, this year.)

Sufficient particle physics -- for the exam -- could have been taught in a half-hour lesson.

So what use was the formal curriculum?

No use at all.

And speaking of exams...

There are national tests of all students, on literacy and numeracy.

First, there were the cries of, But they are meaningless!

With mutterings of, Huh! Teachers will just teach to the test!

Now there are cries of, Woe! Woe! Our students are below the national average!

So what do we want? Do we want to not do do the exams because the results are meaningless? Or do we want to do the exams and -- somehow -- improve our students' results.

Now here's a good idea...

First, set exams that test what we want our students to actually learn. If you pass the exam, we will say, you have learnt what we want you to learn.

If we really do want our children to do better in the national literacy and numeracy tests -- say so. Then use those exams as the standard of what we would like our students to learn in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

So we have a standard. For each subject. A standard defined by the final exam.

Now set a curriculum... a project plan... a means by which we will take students from knowing nothing, to knowing enough to pass the exam. If you now this, and this, and this -- says the curriculum -- then you will pass the exams.

Then -- let's be daring -- write text books! Based on the curriculum!

No need to be too narrow: Give the curriculum -- and the exam -- to experts. Allow them to write their own text books. Best text book sells most copies. All text books are checked to ensure that they do follow the curriculum.

Tell the teachers what to teach. And let the teachers teach.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com