Critiques on Curriculum Taylor, P.H. & Richards, C.M. (1987)

The purpose of this chapter of the Taylor and Richard (1987) book is to provide a foundation for the book's overall effort which is to introduce the student to the basics of curriculum studies. To this end, the authors focus on delineating, in the chapter, the general nature of the field. Among the topics presented and discussed are definitions of the term "curriculum" and its various components and delineations of the objectives, design, development and evaluation of curriculum studies.

The authors make several interesting points. One of the most interesting is that curriculum shifts with the changing views of education, views which are rooted in society's economic and social change. However, the authors also note that these factors are not the sole determinants of curriculum; other important factors include such things as the need to transmit cultural values and the differing views people hold regarding the proper aims of education.

Another important point made by Taylor and Richards derives from the fact that people do hold differing views of education. The authors refer to these views as frames of reference or theories and they note that the "most effective" approach to studying curriculum and its various operations and transactions is to derive the research from one or more of these the

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sponding strategies rather than direct instruction strategies in the teaching of thinking skills. The primary point made in the article was the both students and teachers profited from the shift from direct instruction to questioning and responding strategies. Among the benefits listed were: (1) better and more accurate homework; (2) greater flexibility in students' thought processes; (3) generalization of learned thought skills; (4) higher levels of thought in students' written and oral communications; (5) increased willingness on the part of students to both expand and to justify their answers to questions; (6) rapid learning of new strategies by teachers; (7) increased interest in the strategies by teachers; and (8) increased pleasure in instructional activities on the part of teachers. The author's point of view is that, clearly, the use of questioning and responding strategies is the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to the development of thinking skills. However, what makes it difficult to fully accept this view is the paucity of information regarding how the survey was conducted. Tabor informs only that "we asked teacher in the Irvine (California) Thinking Project to describe the single greatest change in
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Approximate Word count = 3574
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)