What is Meat by curriculum? - Response

The first impression of curriculum that I had is I viewed "curriculum" simply as the prescribed syllabus—the specific topics and learning outcomes mandated by the BC Ministry of Education for high school courses. Eisner broadened this definition by showing that curriculum is a lived experience made up of three distinct dimensions: the explicit, the implicit, and the null.

My 1st stop: How Schools Teach Compliance Instead of Thinking - When Eisner described how schools unintentionally lead students to focus getting good marks over learning, I stopped to think that it is somewhat true as per my own experience. When I was in high school, every single student of my class was so focused on getting good grades that they memorized steps and formulas to just to find the correct answer. Instead of taking the time to comprehend how the maths works, they learn to follow the teacher's instructions.

My 2nd Stop: How the Bell Schedule Interrupts Learning - The constant interruption of momentum created by fixed 50- or 80-minute block scheduling at the high school level sends students a clear message: don't invest yourself too much into anything. When I was a student, I remember finally starting to understand a hard math concept right as class ended and we had to move on. It made me think about the importance of giving students enough time to explore and understand mathematical ideas.

My 3rd Stop: The Null Curriculum (what is not taught) - I agree with Eisner's view that the amount of things that schools fail to teach is just as important as the things they do teach. In my own experience in high school math classes we did a great deal of practice on worksheets, but we were never shown how formulas were created and what the use of them is in real life. 

Connecting Eisner to the BC Secondary Math Curriculum

The BC math curriculum determines the explicit curriculum by identifying concepts (i.e. algebra) and skills (i.e. Logical reasoning) that must be incorporated. The implicit curriculum will largely depend on the classroom culture. For instance, if I reward students for providing the correct answer quickly, the culture will be compliance. To counter this, I will ignore students who are first to provide the correct answer. To counter the null curriculum, I will incorporate what has been traditionally excluded from math. The First People’s Principles of Learning emphasize learning through experience. I therefore, incorporate experiences that will enable students to learn math by engaging and sharing in various ways through a sense of responsibility and accountability. I will further integrate what traditional math has excluded and engage students to help identify real-world situations.

As a future teacher, Eisner’s work reminds me that my job is not just to cover textbook topics. I need to build a classroom environment where high school students feel safe to ask questions, learn from their mistakes, and see how math connects to the real world.