Curriculum Trends in the Next 10 Years
For more than 20 years, curriculum and its accompanying emphasis on standards and accountability for learning have dominated the debate over improving education. Today, the controversy over how to provide equity in achieving the curriculum, how to achieve compatibility between equity and high standards, and what comprises a meaningful curriculum are increasingly commonplace and serve to focus attention on the performance and progress of all students in America (Pugach & Warger, 2001). The most common strategy that educators have used in the past to get students to learn and do the right things is to modify the curriculum. Unfortunately, this approach to curriculum development has been largely unsuccessful. While there is no crystal ball that will allow educators to look into the future to determine the direction of curriculum trends over the next decade, a critical analysis of the relevant literature will provide some significant insights into these directions. To this end, this paper provides an analysis of curriculum trends in America's public and private schools over the next decade, followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview. In spite of initiatives such as the Eight-Year Study and student-centered learning, public schools in American have remained deeply entrenched in traditional teaching; nevertheless, because the need is so great, renewed efforts to reconceptualize teaching in order to improve learning continue to emerge (Gross, 1997). What subjects should be taught in our schools, by what means, to whom, under what circumstances, and with what objective in mind? According to Reid (1999), these are the fundamental questions of curriculum that continue to be debated by politicians, administrators, educators, and, not least, the public at large; however, just what is curriculum? "It is a multitude of encounters between teachers (practitioners) and students (clients) in circumstances of great individuality, where outcomes are seldom predictable" (Reid, 1999, p. 3). In addition, a curriculum is also, by necessity, an institution. This is possible because both educators and the public alike have a firm conception of curriculum as institution, which includes concepts of "gradedness" (what it means to be a fifth grader), concepts of "subjectness" (what it means to study fifth-grade geography), and so forth (Reid, 1993).
a.
What curricular changes will we see in the next 10 years and why? According to Larry Cuban (1993), "It is humbling to realize how little each generation learns from the experience of its equally earnest forebears out just how crude a tool curriculum change is for transforming student knowledge and behavior" (1993, p. 183). However, change it must if the curricula in private and public schools in America are to remain relevant in the coming years. Some of the more glaring changes that can reasonably be expected to take place in curricular development over next decade include:
A transition to more distance-learning programs, even for high school and perhaps even elementary school students as well.
More technology-based curricular components with an increased emphasis on real-world applications to keep them relevant.
An increased focus on world geography, international affairs and global trade at all grade levels.
b.
What will be the content of the curriculum in the next 10 years? Based on current trends, during the first decade of the 21st century, educational reformers will endeavor to exert more influence in the next 10 years. Curriculum development initiatives during this period must take into account current projections that indicate that secondary school students will change career paths on an average of seven times during their working years, and these educators are urging school districts to prepare students for critical thinking, problem solving, cooperative learning, and joint decision making (Gross, 1997). Similarly, there has also been a new emphasis on business skill development in the nation's curricula; this will not replace our traditional focus on knowledge, but rather adopts one that recognizes that particularly in terms of measuring subsequent career success, core skills such as leadership, communication, and teamwork are critically important. Another emerging direction in curriculum development is teaching students about managing diversity (Ryan, 1999).
Notwithstanding the importance of these components in future curricular development initiatives, educators would be seriously remiss if they overlooked the opportunities provided by innovations in technology. According to Odvard Egil Dyrli (2001), these technological innovations can be reasonably expected to have the following effects on curriculum content over the next 10 years:
The emergence of wireless solutions, accessing Web resources through devices including laptops, hand-held computers and PDAs. "The future is wireless technology in the classroom, the home...
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