Curriculum Models

Let's take a trip through time....

Schooling first started with very little idea of curriculum.  Most of our models were designed from educators who had all the knowledge and served as leaders within their community imparting knowledge they had onto students and community. They were the gatekeepers to all things education.

Text book companies and government standards mostly due to military needs created a content crisis where standardization of the curriculum was necessary.  This generation of education led to the model of teaching students in rows, the obedient learner and the standardized assessment.

Similar to the 20th century model our current model sets the standards wether they be CCSS, NGSS, NCSS or whatever still focusing on standardization.  This thinking keeps us in rows and focused on performance on paper/pencil assessment.  

The 21st century model and current brain research shows that students have different needs than they did in the past.  To develop true transferrable knowledge and skill we need to engage students in a different way and elicit new kinds of thinking about curriculum, education, and student-centered learning.

As we continue down this path in the Webster Groves School District I am hopeful to continue to strive to push the envelop of traditional schooling.  Putting student passion, interest, problem, projects and games at the center allows for the personalization of learning.  This diagram above is just the beginning of our journey and will continue to be added upon as we develop more detailed and supportive part of the curriculum.