The Overt and Covert Curriculum

-

 


Pathways World school, Aravalli

IBMYP program (International Baccalaureate, IBO, n.d), Mathematics

Section 1: Work that is influenced by external factors, such as community or structure of a school. This is the planned curriculum. “Formal curriculum is often referred to as planned learning experiences and can include the content to be learned as prescribed by authority”. (UNESCO, 2004)

Section 2: Work that is independent, that is my own belief system that I take to classes. This is the unplanned and hidden curriculum. “Informal curriculum is unplanned curriculum, the interactions and experiences that happen daily in our classrooms. Hidden curriculum is about attitudes and beliefs that are attached to what we learn and teach”. (UNESCO, 2004)

I think that Section 2 happens within the bounds of section 1. There is a lot of tug of war happening all the time between planned and unplanned curricula.

 Section 1

We do yearly planning as a team, the department teachers, with inputs from the head of department, principal and also the school director. The director is the conduit for influence from the parents and the larger society. This is where the big idea becomes clear. What is expected of us. Our school director has had an international exposure and is a big-time supporter of group work among adults. He believes that “…group work or cooperative exercise where deportment, or collaborative or cooperative skills are discussed, used, and emphasized qualifies as having the potential for affective growth.” (Wilson, 2016, p4) This has led to some good teamwork among us, though we argue a lot over what goes and what does not go in curricula. J

I find that the team gravitates more towards cognitive domain primarily. “It is the “thinking” domain. This domain focuses on intellectual skills and is familiar to educators.” (Kasilingam, Ramalingam, & Chinnavan, 2014, p14). Whereas “I believe teachers should attempt to construct more holistic lessons by using all 3 domains in constructing learning tasks.” (Wilson, 2016, p1). Since our subject is Maths, the teachers feel that cognition is the only thing they need to care about. Add to that in India, Maths is considered the god of all subjects, for maths related careers are highest held by public opinion (Banerjee, 2017), we are always under pressure from parents to have higher scores. My department believes that having affective domain involved would be time consuming.

Section 2

The unplanned curriculum or the hidden curriculum (UNESCO, 2004) is where there is no roadmap. “It is thinking about teaching and learning in new and different ways. There is no beginning or end. It is a process, and as such it continually develops. Therefore, there is no one correct way to do it. There is no cookbook, recipe, and ingredient that will work all the time.” (UNESCO, p8)

 The three domains in my pedagogy:

I was quite proud of myself and my prowess in the three domains till I came to unit 4! Now I realize that my main focus is on Cognitive domain, since I am a Maths teacher. However, I use the affective domain to provide the right stimulus to get the students interested in learning and also stay interested in it. I connect Maths to emotions “Since emotion draws both attention and channels strong residual memory”. (Wilson, 2016, p4)

Cognitive domain comes easy through problem solving and having an interactive class. I bring in the affective domain by bringing in chiefly 3 strategies:

1.       Integrating Maths with arts (visual, role play, singing). For example, present a concept in a dramatic way to the class. Or draw a logo based on your life using symmetry.

2.       Integrating Maths with English (vocabulary, concept summary). For example, write all words associated with ‘Triangles’ and create a word game.

3.       Changing settings in class (“…including whole-class, small group, and individual learning” (Teach for America, n.d), p1). Rotate between different settings. For example, I teach the whole class, then they break into small groups to discuss their learning and solve problems cooperatively and then I take a short 4 min test to check individual clarity.

The prevalent domain out of cognitive and affective keeps fluctuating. It depends on the group psychology, topic in hand and time available. As I am an extremely reflective teacher I am someone who “… observes his or her own teaching, what is happening in the learning process and makes a critical assessment as to what is working and what is not.” (UNESCO, p4). That is my base. The domains depend on the situation. I am a big believer of “mindfulness in the classroom” (Zinn, 2013)

Psychomotor is a challenge. Understanding from (Wilson, 2016, p5) I have been using the physical domain a lot. I keep the students moving. I also give them a lot of flexible physical space environment. (UNESCO, p46). That has been very rewarding. To observe students carve out their own personal physical spaces has worked in my favour.

 Variety of domains:

I believe that it is indispensable for my subject at least. A lot of students have maths anxiety (MA). “MA is a debilitating emotional reaction to mathematics that is increasingly recognised in psychology and education.” (Szucs, 2019) I have tackled this to a large extent by using multiple domains. I am getting the title of ‘the teacher with who maths fear disappears’ and I would give the credit to my exposure to international education through the IB (IBO, n.d) school and coming in touch with multiple domains. I am now a firm believer that “…teachers should attempt to construct more holistic lessons by using all 3 domains in constructing learning tasks.” (Wilson, 2016, p1)

Maths is an abstract subject belonging to cognitive domain chiefly. Hence integration of other domains is a must to be able to reach out to all students. You can make the classes sensorially appealing for it helps in “…forming of associations (connections) between sensory experiences (perceptions of stimuli or events) and neural impulses (responses) that manifest themselves behaviourally”, (Schunk, p73) the behaviour expected here being that of being open to the challenge of doing Math.

 Psychomotor complexity:

I thought that I used psychomotor learning, however now I realize that I used physical and not psychomotor (Wilson, 2016, p5). I do a lot of Maths with physical movement. And I discovered that “"The children learn more if they move and use the whole body to learn.” (Bergland, 2017)

Psychomotor is definitely included, and that is anything where there is drawing work required using tools – Geometry or Statistics. For example, “Construct a triangle with all 3 sides given”, requires a whole lot of psychomotor skills by using a protractor and ruler. “Construct a Bar Graph” requires use of a ruler and pencil.

In other, I have tried it by integrating art to Maths (#). For example, I took art works from ‘Sacred geometry design sourcebook’ (Rawles, 2017) and asked students to construct them perfectly (imbibing geometry through psychomotor) and then colour them as they wished to (affective domain).

 My framework:

Psychologists have failed to find any one theory that explains learning differences. (Peterson, 2006, p6). My style is a combination of Multiple Intelligences (Gardener, 2011)) and ATL skills from IBO (MYP, 2014, p20). I like to call it ‘variety and novelty’ as given by Eric Jensen (Jensen, 2005). I don’t think that it represents a learning domain as it is a mix of everything. My objective is to “In a way, it’s just shaking up the classroom so it’s a better fit for more kids.” (UNESCO, p8)

I believe “…that the most fundamental type of learning involves the forming of associations (connections) between sensory experiences (perceptions of stimuli or events) and neural impulses (responses) that manifest themselves behaviourally”. (Schunk, 2012, p73) Hence having a variety of learning experiences drawn from all domains of learning is my way. I have an adaptable framework. What I find that within it all students find a way to emotionally connect to Maths and be receptive to learning. It serves the purpose.

 References:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judge a man by the questions he asks!

-
Image
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. (Voltaire) All our lives, we have been told that our smartness is measured by the answers that we have. And here comes Voltaire who says the opposite! My initial reaction is, ‘What does this mean?’ However, since it is Voltaire that says it, I think it must have some meaning and I dig deeper! As a listener, I may learn more by the questions I ask instead of by the quiet judgments I make. As a reader I may gain more by my questioning the text instead of believing what I read blindly. As a human being, I may contribute more to society by questioning the traditions than blindly following them. “The questions do mean a lot in life, not just for the sake of saying it, but for the sake that they define where your life is headed and how you are going to shape your life”, (Inspire99, 2019, para. 5) . As I read this blog piece, I felt pieces dropping in my mind and a change in the way I approached questions. Questions as a way to ...
Read more

Free Maths Resources

-
Image
PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY FILE.  Download only. Others need them too.  Click on each link to get the folder.  Algebra Geometry Numbers Probability Space Statistics or Data Handling Transformation Trigonometry Cross Curricular Games Creative Ideas Thinking Questions Good Websites Senior school Mental Maths Mixed Worksheets Book Links
Read more

Use body to make numbers

-
Image
  "Use your bodies and make the figure of 8". Not that great, but they tried. Activities such as these are taught for the pre-primary kids to do. They learn through their bodies. Primary teachers enjoyed it thoroughly!
Read more