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1. What role does high stakes testing play in education? How can we
expect students to be more than receptacles when all we do is deposit
information into them based on tests?
2. Are there resources in place to determine standards-based pedagogy?
3. Doll’s post-modern view of the curriculum offers four R’s to improve
the curriculum content. As future teachers, administrators, and educators,
do you feel that we incorporate Doll’s ideas about the curriculum
effectively into our everyday teaching?
The 3rd question is mine. Question 1 and 2 were contributed by my group
partners Ellen and Richard
The Four R’s – an
Alternative to the
Tyler Rationale
William E. Doll Jr.
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Ralph Tyler (1902 -1994) was an American Educator who worked in the
field of assessment and evaluation.
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In 1949, he wrote “Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instructions”
which laid out the structure for delivering and evaluating instructions. It
consisted of 4 parts that became known as Tyler Rationale. The 4 parts
are:
1)What educational purposes should the school seek to obtain?
2) How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful
in attaining these objectives?
3) How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction?
4) How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?
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William E. Doll Jr. is an Emeritus Professor at John Hopkins University.
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In his book, “A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum, William E. Doll Jr. traced
the movement of the curriculum from a modernist viewpoint to that of a
post-modernist.
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In this excerpt he examined the assumptions of the educational polices and
practices that existed when he was younger and offers his view on the curriculum
as a post-modernist.
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His post-modern curriculum is characterized by metaphors and ideas that form a
complex system of uncertainty, ambiguity and transformation.
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His idea for a post-modern perspective on the curriculum stems from ideas of
Piaget, Dewey, Bruner and Whitehead.
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The late 19th and early 20th century curriculum included the three R’s
“Readin, Ritin and Rithmetic”
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These creations were geared to the needs of a developing industrial
society.
Doll saw the education system in which he grew up in :
- as a “factory model” that has roots in behaviorist psychology.
- learning followed a specific guideline, deviations were not accepted.
- information was transmitted to the students (learners) in a linear order.
- the curriculum was predefined and goals were set.
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Writing – Palmer method was
used (ledger-oriented style)
Arithmetic – not mathematics, included column
addition and subtraction with algorithmic division
and multiplication in later elementary years.
Reading – prepared students to read
sales slips and bills of lading.
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A pre-set functionalism underlies both.
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Tyler’s frame broadens industrial functionalism beyond the three R’s.
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However goals are still predetermined , experiences are predetermined and so are
the methods for developing these experiences in Tyler’s frame.
Goals and experiences are already in place before any type of student interaction
occurs.
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Evaluations are not designed to correlate with what students can produce after
gaining experience.
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Doll offered a post-modern view of the curriculum that is composed of
spontaneous and complex ideas. His idea of a curriculum is one that is, for
example:
-generated and not pre-defined
-indeterminate yet bounded
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His idea of a curriculum is one that is transformative and embodies four R’s which
include:
- Richness
- Recursion
- Relations
- Rigor
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Richness - refers to the depth of the curriculum, the multiple layers that
exist and as a result the numerous possibilities or interpretations that there
may be.
Both teachers and students have to be transformed so :
- According to Doll,“ there should be a right amount of indeterminacy,
anomaly, inefficiency, chaos, disequilibrium, dissipation and lived
experience.”
- In addition, Doll states that there should be, “problematics,
perturbations and possibilities” as part of a rich and transforming
curriculum.
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Each discipline interprets richness in its own way.
Let us take a look at some disciplines
Language
Mathematics
Sciences
(Biological and
Physical)
Develops richness by
focusing on the
interpretation of narratives,
myths and metaphors.
Develops richness by playing
with patterns.
Develop richness by creating
and testing hypotheses
Language has to be as
integrated with culture, as
one of the determinants of
culture.
Uses tools to enrich
curriculum like computers.
Social Sciences question
assumptions. Participate in
dialogues and compare
passages to interpret issues
in society.
Table 1: Developing Richness in 3 Disciplines
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Recursion – an interaction that involves reflection with one’s knowledge,
environment (surroundings), culture and other people.
Recursion is usually associated with the mathematical operation of iteration. Take
the following , a = 3+b
a
4
7
10
13
16
b
1
4
7
10
13
Table 2: Iteration in Mathematics
In this case, formula stays the same but the variables
keep changing. The output (a) becomes the input (b)and
the process in repeated all over again
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In terms of the curriculum there is no fixed beginning or end (Dewey).
The parts of the curriculum are not separated entities but are opportunities for
continuous entries for discussion, reflection, and exploration (Piaget’s reflexive
intelligence)
How is recursion different from repetition? Neither reflects the other.
Recursion
Repetition
Part of an open frame
Closed frame
Develops competence
Improve set performance
Reflection plays a positive rolethoughts leap back on themselves
(Bruner). Include reflection plus
dialogue
Reflection plays a negative role- it
breaks the process (flash cards)
Table 3: Recursion and Repetition
Relations – important to the curriculum in two ways:
a) Pedagogical relation – The matrix or network that exists in the
curriculum that gives it its richness.
b) Cultural relation - Cultural or cosmological relations exist outside the
curriculum but form a matrix deep within the curriculum.
Pedagogical relations and the curriculum
 The process of doing and reflecting makes curriculum richer overtime.
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Students master material to a certain predetermined level of repetitious
proficiency.
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Relations are developed during the course(changing conditions and situations
within the curriculum as time progresses result in a difference between beginning
and end of semester).
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Doll supports Whitehead’s dictum, to not teach many subjects rather to teach
thoroughly with the central ideas being thrown to students in every possible
combination.
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Curriculum needs to be created by classroom community.
Cultural relation and the curriculum
 Narration and dialogue are important in interpretation.
 Narration includes history (through story), language (orally) and place (story’s
locality).
 Dialogue connects history, language and place to show us that although culture has
a local origin, the interconnections are global.
 Cultural relation is an extension of what we know, it extends to include the
cosmos.
Together then, what do pedagogical and cultural relations mean for us?
We have to incorporate both pedagogical and cultural relations into our
existence. Our progress as a society depends on how well we can connect these
two perspectives together. In other words, we should be able to understand how our
local perceptions integrate into a larger cosmic and cultural matrix.
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According to Doll, Rigor may be the most important of all R’s
Rigor according to Doll, can be conceived as a dialectic between the complexity
of indeterminacy and critical interpretation.
Indeterminacy - One is never sure he/she is right. He/she is always looking for new
combinations, interpretations, alternatives and patterns.
Interpretation – attempt to rummage through problems, procedures and valued
results. In order for dialogue to become meaningful and transformative, there should
be an attempt to sort out what is important.
Rigor is therefore a mixing between these two components. Doll wants the quality of
interpretation to be rich and this depends on how well we develop the alternatives that
indeterminacy present.