Milieu and Curricular issues.

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Milieu and Curricular issues.

Milieu is defined as “the people, physical and social conditions and events that provide the environment in which someone acts or lives.”

Curriculum is defined in multiple ways. The one I feel resonance to is “all the experiences that a learner has under the guidance of the school”. (Su, S, 2012)

 The milieu I am taking is a school that runs International Baccalaureate programs (Iborganization, n.d.) at primary and senior levels and (Cambridge IGCSE curriculum, n.d.) at the high school level. For middle school, that is grades 6 to 8, it has no formal program. The school builds its own multi-sensory curriculum (Morin, A, n.d.). I take maths for grade 6 in this school

 The first issue is the diversity of learners in my class.

Our school believes that “adaptation of the curriculum to meet the learning needs of all children is the responsibility, after all, of the teacher and not of the curriculum itself”. (UNESCO-IBE, 2016).

Hence, I am learning to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners on my own.

The diversity in capabilities in the maths class is very intense. On one side is P who is a gifted kid and on the other side is N who is frightened at the thought of maths. To make it worse, P is very emotional and requires constant validation whereas N needs special help. The rest of the class is somewhere within this spectrum. Although I bring a lot of new ideas in the class, I feel mostly that there are some students who were left behind in each lesson. I am not satisfied.

 Both P and N are affected by any decision that I take. If I keep the needs of P in mind, N is affected and if I focus on N, P is affected. If I stay in the middle, both are affected. How do I map the two ends of the spectrum? What kind of planning would assist me in meeting the needs of diverse learners?

 In my opinion, the reason for this difficulty is that the school has decided to call itself inclusive, created inclusive classrooms, set up a Special needs department with an incharge, however there is no inclusive policy or inclusive curriculum. That is a “… permanent search for the intersection points among the curricular proposal, the school conception, and the teacher’s profile, role and practices.”. (UNESCO-IBE, 2013, p.12.). We are a school, working within “constraints of a prescribed curriculum …and a wishful teacher (me).”. (UNESCO-IBE, 2013, p.12.).

 To combat this, we need to work on multi levels:

-       We need to move away from a ‘top down’ school to a school that opens the space for collaborative learning of teachers from each other. “The deeper problems of schooling have to do with teacher isolation…”. (Eisner, E, 2001)

-       We need to first define for ourselves what is curriculum. “There are a variety of definitions in relation to the term “curriculum.” The indecisive nature of the term is owing to divided perceptions of stakeholders, e.g. students, educators, researchers, administrators, evaluators with their own agenda of emphasis in educational discourse.” (Su, S., 2012)

-       We need to understand for ourselves, “…what is curriculum and what is not curriculum?” (Kliebard, H, 1977) “Through continuous discussions, all teachers need to come to a single answer, that should have a range of points to it.”  (Fell, R, 2014)

-       We need to work on teacher isolation. For “…teachers don’t often have access to other people who know what they’re doing when they teach and who can help them do it better.” (Eisner, E, 2001)

-       We need to ask ourselves, “What is the quality framework within which curriculum developers can set goals, develop and implement change processes, and eventually gauge their success?” (UNESCO-IBE, 2006).

-       We also need to undergo continuously “Evaluation of curriculum”. (UNESCO-IBE, 2006, pp.9.).

-       We need to learn to “…create diversity in curriculum” (Robinson, K, 2011), in order to cover the diversity of learners.

 The second issue is the school policy.

The students have come from primary program of the IB and are moving to IGCSE and then IBDP. Between three structured programs, they are in a loosely structured program without adequate evaluation of the same. That creates a gap in the quality of curricular programs. From a rich program of IB at primary years, they are exposed to a content heavy middle school program.

 Since there isn’t an evaluation structure that can be used the work is largely dependent on teacher capability. Some teachers, aware and attentive, work at their level. While others largely stay with formal content and ignore the hidden side of curriculum, i.e. “…the unintended development of personal values and beliefs of learners, teachers and communities; unexpected impact of a curriculum; unforeseen aspects of a learning process”. (International Bureau of Education, n.d.).

 This affects everyone. Students, teachers and parents. Hence the solution would be multi fold.

 -       Educate the teachers: Develop teacher capacity in designing curriculum, as most of us are Indians and not developed enough to think in the way of a curriculum designer. We need to develop “…a continuous dynamic cycle of development, implementation and evaluation, which leads to and informs a new cycle.” (UNESCO-IBE, 2016).

-       Educate the parents: Develop the perspective of parents, as despite being independent in 1947, we are a largely examination driven community. This is an International school, but most of the students are from India.

-       Become a full IB school: Now that IB middle years’ program has an examination too, the school could become a completely an IB school which would ensure a basic quality framework in place. This would ensure that the gap between a rich primary and rich senior school program would be covered.

 

 One needs to be sure of sending out deeply committed human beings to the larger society who will “…learn the challenge of facing life creatively”. (Robinson, K, 2011)

 

References:

1.     Eisner, E.  What does it mean to say a school is doing well?  In Flinders, D. J., &   Thornton, S. J. (Eds.), The Curriculum Studies Reader, Fourth Edition (pp.297-305). New York, NY: Routledge. Retrieved from: https://chrisdavidcampbell.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/eisener-2001.pdf

2.     Kliebard, H. (1977). Problems of Definition in Curriculum. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision Fall 1989 (5) 1, pp.1-5. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/jcs/jcs_1989fall_kliebard.pdf

3.     MILIEU. (n.d.).  Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/milieu

4.     Morin, A. (n.d.). Multisensory Instruction: What You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/multisensory-instruction-what-you-need-to-know

5.     Su, S. (2012). The Various Concepts of Curriculum and the Factors Involved in Curricula-making. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268348184_The_Various_Concepts_of_Curriculum_and_the_Factors_Involved_in_Curricula-making

6.     What is Curriculum? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/curriculum/6468

7.     International Bureau of Education. (n.d.). Different Meanings of “Curriculum". Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/geqaf/annexes/technical-notes/different-meanings-%E2%80%9Ccurriculum%E2%80%9D

8.     UNESCO International Bureau of Education (UNESCO-IBE). (2016). What makes a quality curriculum? Current and Critical Issues in Curriculum and Learning (2), pp.1-41. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002439/243975e.pdf

9.     7 . UNESCO International Bureau of Education (UNESCO-IBE). (2013). The Curriculum Debate: why it is important today. Geneva: UNESCO-IBE. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/wpci-10-curr_debate_eng.pdf
8. Fell, R. (2014, April 09). What is Curriculum [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHM9AGmF7T8 (2:06)

10.  9. lwf. (2011, March 21). Sir Ken Robinson, Creativity, Learning & the Curriculum [Video File].

 

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