Children rarely [are provided work in] redefining what has been encountered, reshaping it, reordering it. The cultivation of reflectiveness is one of the great problems one faces in devising curricula: how to lead children to discover the powers and pleasures that await the exercise of retrospection.
Jerome Bruner, Beyond the Information Given, 1957, p 449
as cited by Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2005, p. 290
as cited by Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2005, p. 290
This quote highlights a major roadblock in curriculum implementation. We can easily see the content that needs to be covered, and are often overwhelmed by the immensity of that content. But who of us has not heard or said to ourselves that we just don’t have time to cover everything in each of the curriculum documents that we are required to use? That feeling or assumption causes us to shut down possibilities of varying the delivery and also to shut down the possibility of students using the information to develop higher level thinking. It also leads us to create our own ‘hidden’ curriculum and teach what we believe is important. Even if we see curriculum as praxis, a critical goal, we end up teaching to the product in a way that encourages short term memory and regurgitation.
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