As a student, I never paid much, if any, attention to the curriculum. I thought it was a list of what teachers needed to teach, and in a way that thought mimics aspects of the Tyler rationale.
As a high school student, I was a teacher’s dream. I came in, soaked up the knowledge like a sponge, and was able to spew the information back on command. However, like a sponge I was able to rid myself of that ‘knowledge’ with a quick rinse.
Looking back at my high school experience now, there were not many distinguishable features of excellent curriculum instruction, and aspects of the Tyler Rationale were in all of my classes. Even in my ECS 300 class this semester, we are expected to systematically plan every detail of our lesson plans, down to in what manner am I going to hand out papers. To an extent this planning is helpful for student teachers to practise their planning; a good plan can help ease some of the anxiety with teaching a new lesson.
One of the criticisms of Tyler’s Rationale is that it lacks a social aspect. This includes student involvement of how they will learn. As education students we know about the importance of socializing in school, hence the constant group work/discussions we are involved in for every class.
Miss McCrimmon 