The document summarizes William Doll Jr.'s alternative to the traditional 3 Rs curriculum model called the 4 Rs model. The 4 Rs include richness, recursion, relations, and rigor. Richness refers to curriculum depth with possibilities and lived experiences. Recursion involves reflection and viewing learning as a loop. Relations focuses on connections within and between curricula and using narration and dialogue. Rigor means searching for alternatives and hidden assumptions. The document discusses how each R could be incorporated into classrooms and reflections that the traditional curriculum does not fully align with the 4 Rs approach.

1. The Four Rs –
an Alternative to the Tyler
Rationale
William E. Doll Jr.
Presented by
Amy MacKinnon
Evelyn MacLeod
Amanda MacIntosh

2. 2
• Everyone is familiar with the old 3 Rs
• Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic.
• Doll Jr. challenges us as
teachers to go beyond
the old 3Rs and to explore
the new 4Rs!
Out with the old and in with the new!

3. 3
• Doll Jr.'s work is based in Post Modernism times. His idea is that curriculum should be
generated with no pre-defined outcomes.
• Doll’s 4 Rs include:
 Richness
 Recursion
 Relations
 Rigor

4. 4
Richness
• Richness is the curriculum's depth.
• It may have inefficiencies, chaos,
disequilibrium, lived experience, etc.
• It is continuously negotiated between
teachers, students and texts.
• The possibilities inherent in a curriculum
are what give it not only its richness
but also its sense of being.

5. 5
Recursion
• Recursion lies at the heart of transformative curriculum.
• Recursion differs from repetition by adding in reflection.
• Recursion develops competence. Learning is thought of as a loop. Every ending is a
new beginning and this is how we make meaning from our learning.
• This curriculum will be open, not closed. It is eclectic and interpretive. Dialogue is
essential (student –student, student-teacher) to ensure learning is transformative, not
shallow
• Dewey, Piaget and Whitehead are all advocates
...and so school should be... about life.

6. 6
Relations
• Relations are transformative in two ways: pedagogically and culturally
• Pedagogical relations focus on the connections within a curriculum’s structure, which
give the curriculum its depth.
 Through all of this, the textbook is seen as something to revise, not as something to follow.
Curriculum in a post-modern frame needs to be created by the classroom community, not the
textbook authors.
• Cultural relations emphasizes narration and dialogue as key vehicles in interpretation.
 Narration brings forward the concepts of history (through story), language (through oral telling), and
place (through a story’s locality).
“Curriculum in a
post-modern
frame needs to
be created by the
classroom
community, not
by text-book
authors.”

7. 7
• We perform the teaching act when we help others negotiate passages between their constructs and ours,
between ours and others’.
As teachers, we
do not and
cannot transmit
information
directly.
This is why Dewey
says teaching is an
interactive process
with learning as a
by-product of that
interaction.

8. 8
Rigor
• Purposefully looking for different alternatives, relations or connections.
• It also means searching for and identifying hidden assumptions.
• The learner must account for these assumptions when one is constructing their learning

9. 9
Rigor is… Rigor is NOT…
• More or harder worksheets
• Honours/advanced classes
• The higher level book in reading
• More work
• More homework
• Scaffolding thinking
• Planning for thinking
• Assessing thinking about content
• Recognizing the level of thinking students
demonstrate
• Managing the teaching/learning level for the
desired thinking level

10. 10
How can we encourage these in our classrooms?
• Collaboration
 student-student, teacher-student, teacher-teacher
 richness and relations
• Cross-curricular activities
 meeting outcomes across several subject areas with one activity
 richness, relations
• Trial and error
 experiential learning
 recursion, rigor
• Production
 open-ended production vs closed reproduction
 richness, recursion, rigor

11. 11
Key Components
• Teachers must create a safe environment when students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, feelings
and findings
• Students need to have time to work with facts or information as an imaginative and dynamic way
• Teachers must pose open-ended questions
If educators taught in accordance to Doll Jr.’s 4Rs, students like the 13 year old boy in delivering this TedTalk
wouldn’t have to drop out of public education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

12. 12
Reflections
• Our curriculum does not lend itself well to the 4 Rs
• Richness and rigor require more time than our curriculum allows, given the lengthy list of
outcomes in many subjects.
• Some of the most powerful learning occurs when teachers add the 4 Rs to our skeleton
curriculum
• Cross-curricular connections are crucial
• In an ideal world, we would have unlimited time and resources to do the 4 Rs justice.
• Ideally, everyone needs to be onboard

13. 13
Reflections
• Our curriculum attempts to portray that it is open
• Time is a huge constraint/barrier
• Teachers often incorporate the 4Rs on a smaller scale
• It is not intrinsic to our curriculum.
• Grade 3 and 6 Math Projects on PEI are prime examples of how we are not allowing
experiences that are recursive. Too often we are focused on improving set performance
as opposed to developing competence and genuine understanding.

14. On PEI, there is a disconnect between teaching
based on Doll’s 4 Rs and the emphasis on particular
forms of assessment
e.g.
Progress monitoring,
Provincial assessments
Teachers are expected to
cover the outcomes!!

15. We would love for our students’ learning to always be able to
look like this!

16. References
Doll, W. (2013) The Four R’s – An Alternative to the Tyler Rationale. In:
Doll, W. A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum 1993). New
York: Teachers College Press. 174- 183.
Instrell, R. (2011) Breaking barriers:Multi-modal and media
literacy. Conference presentation retrieved
from www.mediaedscotland.org/BreakingBarriers.ppt
Lewis, N.C. (2004). The intersection of post-modernity and classroom
practice. Teacher Education Quarterly, 31, 119-134. Retrieved
from http://www.teqjournal.org/Back%20Issues/V
olume%2031/VOL31%20PDFS/31_3/lewis.pmd -
31_3.pdf