In Saber-Tooth Curriculum, New Fist was a doer and a thinker. He came up with a curriculum to better the world around him for the people. His educational goal / leading thought was, “If I could only get these children to do the things that will give more and better food, shelter, clothing and security”. These were the things important to his society’s well being. That is how he came up with fish catching, horse clubbing and tiger scaring. These can be compared to our age old skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. As the world changed and evolved the curriculum became obsolete but society was still preserving it because it was “magical”, our word for traditional. For the students and society’s sake the curriculum was irrelevant.
As we discussed this, Wednesday night, in class, so many points hit home. The decline portrayed in Saber-Tooth Curriculum depicts failure to recognize societal changes, rejection of innovation, separation of teachers from teaching, replacement of education with policy, and giving students irrelevant work and boring them. If only New Fist stuck to his original educational goal, he could have come up with a new curriculum and the education would have stayed relevant. I see all of these points ring true, to some degree, in the education system of today.
The second design principle is the The Ends Principle. Students need PICKLE to live to learn and learn to live. PICKLE is problem solving, information using, community participation, knowledge, literacy, and ethical decision making. This reminds me of the 21st century skills in education today; critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creation and contribution. PICKLE cannot be abstract teaching but teaching in action with something or about something. As educators burdened with SOLs, we can use PICKLE and the content (SOLs) as the means of getting to the end and not the end itself. The 4th grade Burma Shave activity on Regions of VA was an example of students using PICKLE to create a presentation with the content they learned on the Regions.
In LCPS, our Vision 2020 mission is empowering all students to make meaningful contributions to the world. Our first strategic goal is to develop knowledgeable critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators, creators, and contributors. As an IFT, my job is to facilitate this in the instruction at my school. The first step this school year was to explicitly explain the first strategic goal to all of our students. Then as the days go on and the lessons are learned, not only do we point out the content they learned but the 21st century skills the students used to acquire the knowledge. I plan to explain PICKLE to my teachers to use as a tool to design lessons for students.
In integrating elements of the PICKLE, as you mentioned, into instruction, you're teaching students to think critically in ways that will benefit the needs of society today. When you mentioned the VISION 20/20 mission, I think that relates perfectly to the article we read in the first class (Top 10 Workforce Skills Students Will Need By 2020) and how the McGraw Hill Education Survey saw just 40 percent of college seniors feeling prepared for a career based on their college experience. Just like in the Sabertooth-Curriculum, we have to teach future generations to be able to develop the necessary workforce skills of the current century and beyond (and to be able to adapt) or they will not be able to meet the needs of society.
ReplyDeleteI also was thinking about how 21st century skills pair with the PICKLE components. It is refreshing that what we are learning in class echos the changes that are starting in school divisions. Through this journey, I hope we gain a deeper understanding of what is to come and the skills to look at education with more perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree that PICKLE is the way to connect living and learning and to make education regain its meaning. I also reflected on how activities like the Burma Shave use the pressure of the SOLs to the teacher’s advantage and transform them into a way to achieve the PICKLE.
ReplyDeleteI think the question now becomes how do you organize content in a particular subject area in a way that is designed? I like to think back to the Serial podcast example, but there is always a question of creating units that achieve the PICKLE and also integrate the SOLs (like the Burma Shaves).
ReplyDelete