TEAC 801: Curriculum Inquiry
Dr. Wendy Smith
wsmith5@unl.edu
402-472-7259
June 21-25 & June 28-July 2, 2010
1:00-5:00 pm
Avery Hall Room 110
Syllabus
TEAC 801 Curriculum Inquiry is a course designed to investigate the nature and
purposes of “curriculum” in American schooling. The course is intended to give
you a solid theoretical introduction to curriculum as well as show you how to use
that knowledge as you consider the teaching and learning of mathematics. The
primary goal of this course is to help you develop a broader and deeper
understanding of curriculum and curriculum inquiry.
Throughout this course we will be investigating the following overarching
questions in the context of mathematics:
 What is curriculum?
 What is the relationship between curriculum and teaching?
 What curriculum ideologies are explicitly and implicitly presented in
textbooks?
 How does the intended curriculum positively or negatively affect an
operational curriculum?
 How might curricula, school, and teaching practices contribute to
educational inequality?
 How does curriculum influence students’ ways of knowing?
 What does it mean to “cover” the curriculum?
 How can I model a problem solving curriculum?
Class activities and homework readings are designed to help you investigate these
questions and enhance your understanding of the following main ideas regarding
curriculum:
 Curriculum development and the comparing & contrasting of theoretical
perspectives
 Curriculum purposes, content, and organization
 Curriculum implementation as a process of curricular change
 Curriculum evaluation
 Curriculum as a complicated set of interconnected ideas
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Participant Expectations
 display a positive attitude and take your work seriously
 be a team player – learning need not be a competitive sport
 be an active participant – learning should not be a spectator sport
 attend daily, be punctual
 work diligently on homework assignments and complete assigned readings
 be/become a “risk taker”
 improve yourself as a mathematician
 be/become an inquirer about teaching
 help others – if you understand what is being discussed, practice your
mentoring skills
 complete all assignments to the best of your ability
 celebrate your colleagues’ learning
 be open and responsive to feedback, be curious, ask questions, seek
opportunities to learn,
 be patient with yourself – there is a time delay between exposure to new
ideas and the ownership of those ideas, and that time will vary from person
to person
 complete daily evaluation forms to help us improve the summer institute
courses
Homework will be assigned each day. Reading and writing will serve as the basis
for much of your learning in this course. When you are asked to read or write
something, the following is expected:
 Read in a manner that enables you to be an active participant in discussions
of text.
 Write in a manner that represents a meaningful response to a posed question
and illustrates attention to grammar and the mechanics of writing.
Course Readings
Each day will include a discussion of the previous night’s reading.
Analyzing Mathematics Textbooks
Teachers will analyze the textbooks they use as elementary teachers, using the
Posner questions to frame their analyses, and Posner textbook chapters, other
course readings, and three additional articles to support the analysis. Discussions
will center on textbooks as curriculum. Some class time will be given to research
textbooks and answer curriculum analysis questions. Teachers will use pp. 20-22
of the Posner text to guide their analyses of their textbooks. Part of the end-of2
course assignment will involve a written analysis of curriculum. Teachers will
work in groups (of people using the same textbook). If someone’s textbook is
unique, that person can choose to work alone or join another group analyzing a
similar book.
What is Curriculum?
This question will be revisited periodically across the course, as well as: What
drives curriculum? How do teachers, students, content, standards, and assessment
combine to create something we call “curriculum”?
Problematizing Curriculum
We will read articles centering on “Problematizing Curriculum” and conduct a
related project, called a problem analysis, which ties to the Algebraic Thinking in
the K-4 Classroom course [if you are not enrolled in the morning course, you will
still be able to complete this assignment]. The advantages and disadvantages of
“problematizing curriculum” can be identified based on different perspectives on
curriculum that we will learn in this course. The integration of your problem
analysis experience and the readings of the literature and Posner textbook will be
part of the end-of-course-assignment.
Standards and Curriculum
Teachers will analyze the Nebraska State Standards for Mathematics (2009
version), the NCTM (2000) Standards, the NCTM (2006) Focal Points, and the
Common Core State Standards (June 1, 2010). We will look at standards as
curriculum. We will compare and contrast the various standards with teachers’
textbooks. We will also compare the U.S. mathematics standards with other highachieving countries’ mathematics standards to explore the cultural differences.
National Curriculum
NCTM’s “Guiding Principles for mathematics curriculum and assessment”
discusses the idea of a national curriculum for school mathematics. In this course,
we’ll consider assessments as curriculum, and discuss advantages and limitations
of the idea of a de facto national curriculum. Part of the end-of-course assignment
will be to examine and take a position on the idea of a national curriculum (Is there
one? If so, what does it look like? Should there be one?)
Spiral Curriculum
What does the phrase mean? Explain the metaphor. What about remedial courses?
How does the concept of a spiral curriculum relate to equity? What are other
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possible metaphors for curriculum? What are the advantages and limitations of
particular metaphors?
Intended and Enacted Curriculum
We will be reading cases focused on the teaching practices of mathematics
teachers. We will consider “curriculum” as it relates to these cases. How do
“teacher moves” influence how students experience “curriculum”? Why are there
differences between intended and enacted (operational) forms of curriculum? What
are the origins, nature, and consequences of these differences? We will also
consider these questions based on your own teaching experiences throughout this
course.
History of Curriculum
Deeply understanding curriculum as it presents itself today is dependent on
acquiring a historical perspective on events that have had an impact on school
curriculum. Historical events impacting curriculum will be considered from world,
national, state, and local perspectives.
International Perspectives on Curriculum
International perspectives allow us to take advantage of experiences of other and
from whom we can learn what alternatives are possible. In this course, we will
explore issues of textbook representations and curriculum coherences from crossnational perspectives. We will read related scholar articles of comparative
curriculum students and watch related videos (e.g., Singapore math).
Course Assignments
This course has every day reading assignments. Some of them will be finished in
class while the others will be read after class in order to prepare for the next class
discussion. The two major assignments are the problem analysis and the end-ofcourse assignment.
1. Reading Assignments (see below for schedule)
2. Problem Analysis: Due July 2nd
3. End-of-course Assignment: Due July 19th
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Reading Schedule
The following table lists the reading homework assignments for TEAC 801. The
dates are the days the readings will be discussed. You are expected to do the
reading the night before. For most readings, you will be given a set of questions to
guide your reading. You are expected to use these questions to help yourself
prepare for a discussion of the readings. You will not be asked to turn in formal
responses to the questions. Please do take notes as you read and come each day
with notes that will help you actively participate in a discussion of the reading
questions and other questions the instructor deems useful to a discussion of the
text. The readings come both from the textbook for the course and from your
course binder (articles).
Book: Analyzing the Curriculum, 3rd Ed., George J. Posner
Day
1
Date
June 21
2
June 22
3
4
5
6
June 23
June 24
June 25
June 28
Reading in class
Posner pp. 20-22
NCTM Guiding Principles
Nebraska Standards
Common Core State Standards
NCTM Focal Points
Hiebert et al. & Responses; Ma
Heaton; Lampert
Fisher; Hersberger; Maletsky
Cai & Mayor
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8
9
10
June 29
June 30
July 1
July 2
Schmidt et al.
[Curriculum Analysis presentations]
[Problem Analysis presentations]
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Reading after class
Posner Chapter 1, 2
Posner Chapter 3
Posner Chapter 4, 5
Posner Chapter 6, 7
Posner Chapter 8
Posner Chapter 9;
Ferrini-Mundy
Posner Chapter 10,11
Posner Chapter 12
Grading Policy
Part of the instructor’s responsibility is the assessment of participants’ achievement in each
Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes course. We recognize that teacher-participants are
drawn from different grade levels, have different certifications to teach mathematics, have
varying kinds of teaching experiences, and have different educational backgrounds with respect
to previous opportunities to learn mathematics and learn about inquiry into teaching. Thus, we
believe it is appropriate to have an assessment system that values effort, teamwork, progress in
learning content and the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions for teaching and
inquiry.
Grade Expectations and typical characteristics of achievement at that level
A+
The grade of A+ is honorific and will be fairly rare. It is evidence that the instructors
have special admiration for the participant’s achievements in the course.
A
Achievement beyond the level needed to earn the grade of A-. Especially important will
be evidence that the teacher has a good command of the content studied in the course; the
ability to transfer content learned into the teacher’s classroom, and progress in
developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions of educational inquiry.
A-
Achievement beyond the level needed to earn a grade of B+. In particular, there should
be clear evidence of significant progress in learning content, in learning about issues that
impact teachers’ ability to help their students learn mathematics and developing
knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
B+
Regular class attendance, active participation, assignments submitted regularly,
supportive and helpful to peers, admirable effort to complete assignments, evidence of
good progress in learning content and developing knowledge, skills, and dispositions of
educational inquiry.
B
Regular class attendance, reasonable participation, cooperative with peers, reasonable
effort to complete assignments, to learn content and to strengthen knowledge, skills, and
dispositions of educational inquiry.
B-
A grade of B- (or lower) is a statement that the instructors do not believe that the teacher
made a reasonable effort to use the opportunity provided by the Nebraska Math and
Science Summer Institutes to develop into a stronger teacher. Evidence may include one
or more of the following traits: attendance problems, uncooperative behavior, failure to
submit assignment, habitual tendency to submit assignments late, or performance on
assignments that indicate an inadequate effort to learn content and to develop knowledge,
skills, and dispositions of educational inquiry.
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