Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Present and future

Hunkins, F. P., & Hammill, P. A. (1994). Beyond Tyler and Taba: Reconceptualizing the curriculum process. Peabody Journal of Education, 69 (3), 4-18.
Keywords: Tyler rationale, Taba, Bobbit, Modernism, Technocrat, postmodernism

Parkay, F. W., & Hass, G. (2005). Curriculum planning: A contemporary approach (7th Ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (Chapter 2. Social forces: Present and future, pp. 45-58)
Keywords: social forces, developmental tasks, future planning

Cetron, M, & Cetron, K. (2003). A forecast for schools. Educational Leadership, 61 (4).
Keywords: funding, diversity, technology, lifelong learning.

These three articles provide some basic ideas about “where we are” and “where we are headed.”

In this era of rapid social and technological change leading to increasing life complexity and psychological displacement, the educators have to rethink what modern education is and how curricula should be reformed to suit the future needs.

For decades, the modernism-scientistic tradition has been dominating curriculum and curriculum development. Even today, Bobbitt’s curriculum foundation, Ralph Tyler’s four-question rationale, and Hilda Taba’s seven-step model are still the mainstream views regarding curriculum development. However, the newly-emerged challenges, transitions and transformations, as in a post-modernism point of view, have announced that “there is no structure or master narrative in which we can wrap ourselves for comfort.” Education will be at risk if our educators continue to rely on a positivistic certainty in the procedures that Tyler and Taba advocated.

Examining contemporary social forces that influence the curriculum helps curriculum planners to understand the role education can play in shaping a desired future and thus incorporate an unknown future into their work. Among those ten major trends, I think we would draw special attentions to “increasing ethnic and cultural diversity”, “changing values and morality” and “microelectronics revolution”. Based on the understanding of these three fundamental issues, we should be able to deploy futures planning with considering three levels of social forces.

A forecast for schools projected from futurists provided directions for schools by yielding an understanding of societal and economic trends to help schools implement reforms that prepare students more effectively for the changing world. With all those concerns on funding, student population and diversity, technological transformation in the workplace, and needs in lifelong learning, our schools should make early preparations and careful countermeasures in response to the modern, high-tech world with cautious optimism.

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