EDUPRO5- The Teacher and the School Curriculum

1. EDUPRO5- The Teacher and the School Curriculum
Chapter 7 CURRICULUM INNOVATION
Activity 23
1. Give the possible pitfalls os Standard-Based curriculum.
One possible pitfall is that all students are placed under the same demands and
expectations. Students learn in different ways and at different speeds. A standard-based
curriculum might not take that into consideration.
2. B. Define Multicultural Curriculum.
Multicultural education describes a system of instruction that attempts to foster cultural
pluralism and acknowledges the differences between races and cultures. It addresses the
educationalneeds of a society that contains morethan one set of traditions, that is a mixture
of many cultures. Multicultural education is an idea, an approach to school reform, and a
movement for equity, social justice, and democracy. Specialists within multicultural
education emphasize different components and cultural groups. However, a significant
degree of consensus exists within the field regarding its major principles, concepts, and
goals.
3. Identify the five (5) dimensions that schools could adopt when trying to implement
multicultural curriculum (Banks 1994)
The five dimensions are:
(1) content integration;

2. (2) the knowledge construction process;
(3) prejudice reduction;
(4) an equity pedagogy;
(5) an empowering school culture and social structure.
Although each dimension is conceptually distinct, in practice they overlap and are
interrelated. Content integration.
4. Explain the five (5) dimensions one by one.
Content integration
Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use examples and
content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, principles,
generalizations, and theories in their subject area or discipline. The infusion of ethnic and
cultural content into a subject area is logical and not contrived when this dimension is
implemented properly.
The knowledge construction process
The knowledge construction process describes teaching activities that help students
to understand, investigate, and determine how the implicit cultural assumptions, frames of
references, perspectives, and biases of researchers and textbook writers influence the ways
in which knowledge is constructed.
Prejudice reduction

3. The prejudice reduction dimension of multicultural education seeks to help students
develop positive and democratic racial attitudes. It also helps students to understand how
ethnic identity is influenced by the context of schooling and the attitudes and beliefs of
dominant social groups.
An equity pedagogy
An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that will facilitate
the academic achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and
language groups. This includes using a variety of teaching styles and approaches that are
consistent with the range of learning styles within various cultural and ethnic groups, such
as being demanding but highly personalized when working with American Indian and
Native Alaskan students. It also includes using cooperativelearning techniques in math and
science instruction to enhance the academic achievement of students of color.
An empowering school culture and social structure.
This dimension involves restructuring the culture and organization of the school so that
students from diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and language groups experience
equality. Members of the school staff examine and change the culture and social structure
of the school. Grouping and labeling practices, sports participation, gaps in achievement
among groups, different rates of enrollment in gifted and special education programs

4. among groups, and the interaction of the staff and students across ethnic and racial lines
are important variables that are examined and reformed.
5. Express your idea on how can curriculum standards influence assessment of
learning?
Using my interpretation of ‘curriculum standards’ to mean the overall goals and intentions
of the curriculumwhy it is there, I think that curriculumstandards will undoubtedlyinfluence
the assessment of learningis the followingways: The aims and learningobjectives/outcomes
of the course/curriculum are derived directly from the curriculum standards. There will also
be consideration about the course content (knowledge and skills) and the level of learning
the students are expected to achieve.