FENI Conference 2008
Curriculum Mapping
Pearce Miller, President
Pennsylvania Culinary Institute
Pearce Miller Bio
• Contact information
– pmiller@paculinary.com
– PCI – 412-325-3570
• Education
– B.S. in Health & Physical Education – Slippery Rock University
– Masters of Education - Indiana University of Pennsylvania
– Doctoral Candidate in Curriculum & Instruction – Indiana University
of Pennsylvania
• Completed coursework in October 2007
• Internship
• Dissertation – Academic leadership
• Experience
– 3 years of public education – High school
– 12 years at Metromedia Steakhouses
• Last 5 years as G.M.
– Owned Bar/Restaurant – Sigmund’s Nut House
• Pittsburgh, PA – Southside
– 11 years with Pennsylvania Culinary Institute
• Started as instructor
• Recently promoted to President in October 2007
Goals of this Session
• Why should we use curriculum mapping in our
schools?
• Define & describe curriculum mapping.
• Advantages & disadvantages of aligning the
curriculum.
• What is the best process for aligning the
curriculum?
• Who should be involved in the mapping process?
A Statement of Hope
This is not a step-by-step process of how to change the curriculum in your schools. Rather, I
hope it to be an exhilarating journey into changing what has always been, to something more
meaningful and effective for your students. Much of the research shows that most instructors
teach as they were taught. Too often, a new course is written as follows: a teacher proposes a
new book, the lessons are written starting with chapter 1, at some point an assessment is given,
and then we issue a grade to the student based on their performance. Little concern is taken on
whether or not actual transformation has occurred within our students. How does this
knowledge relate to their world and will it make a difference? Are we even the least concerned
that there are redundancies in other classes and the students’ don’t see the value of coming to
class? Is our pat answer always related to this is what the accrediting bodies want?
I hope not.
The world is changing fast. Our students know more and multitask better than we could ever
dream of performing. Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Ken Bain speak at a local
university. Dr. Bain has written a book titled, “What the best college teachers do.” I would
encourage each of you to read it. His endeavor is a 15-year empirical study looking at the best
college teachers and what separates them from the rest.
“While others might be satisfied if students perform well on the examinations, the best
teachers assume that learning has little meaning unless it produces a sustained and substantial influence
on the way people think, act, and feel” (Bain, 2004, p. 17).
So begins our journey in the curriculum mapping process. This is just one step with many more
to come on what truly is a road with no end. Without a map, we may become lost. Without real
meaning to our daily lessons, the students will soon wander off on their own seeking different
avenues. The obstacles and detours are many. The desire to take a short cut will be strong. I
believe, however that we have great teachers and academic leaders who will refuse to let this
happen.
For this, I have hope.
Brief Outline
• Introduction
– What is Curriculum Mapping?
• Where are we now?
• Where are we going?
• How do we get there?
• Directions
– Who’s driving the bus?
• Curriculum committee
– The Journey
• Detours
– Obstacles and Roadblocks
• The teachers Cynics Club
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I want my academic freedom!
• The Pothole of Time
• Benefits – the quickest way from point A to point B
• Employee and Student satisfaction
– The teachers understand and can explain how and why
– The students see the real life applications
• Accrediting bodies
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Smoother roads on accreditation visits
Dr. Fenwick W. English
“I find the naïveté of some of the testing advocates appalling. When a board of
education threatens contractual nonrenewal of a superintendent who somehow
can’t improve test scores, the idea that one should not ‘teach to the test’ is
counterintuitive. The testing advocates want to believe that tests are neutral
diagnostic tools designed to ‘help’ schools become better. They ignore 30 years of
research that shows what drive most test scores has nothing to do with what is
going on in schools or who is working in them, but is predicated and anchored by
the socioeconomic disposition of school clientele.
….Tests do not treat all children with equality, let alone equity. The fact that
constant predictors of test performance are grounded in socioeconomic class, race,
and gender reveal the deep and biased fault lines which permeate the industry.
Many children as well as the teachers and administrators who work with them,
have been and continue to be unfairly labeled and categorized. Without alignment,
there is nothing fair about testing. Without alignment, accountability is a sham.
Without alignment, there can be no fair judgment about how well schools are really
doing.
(English, 2000, page xi)
How do today’s students learn versus how we learned?
Gen Y’s and Baby Boomers
• Boomers
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Rote memorization
Out of the book
More general education
Teacher was the expert
• Gen Y’s
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Real life application
Hands on learning (kinesthetic and visual)
Specific to life desires
Need to the relevance of material
Technology plays a huge role in learning process
Teacher is the facilitator
What is Curriculum Mapping?
The Latin translation of curriculum loosely means the path or
the road (English, 1980).
• What is Curriculum Mapping?
– Procedure for collecting data about the actual curriculum within a
school using the calendar as an organizer.
– Presents an overview of the students’ actual learning experiences
– Fundamental purpose is communication
– Mapping details not what should happen, but what is happening.
• Why?
– Improves curricular decisions by looking at students’ experiences over
time
– Encourages integration of curriculum vertically as well as horizontally
• What is shown
– Brief description of content
– A description of the processes and skills emphasized
– Nature of the assessment the student produces as evidence of growth
Beginning the Journey - Alignment
Question: What resources and equipment do we need to begin
the mapping of our curriculum ?
• Procedures
– Collect the data
• Processes and skills emphasized
• Content in terms of essential concepts and topics
• Products and performances that are the assessments of learning
• The first read-through
– Teachers become the editors
• Reviewing and analyzing
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Identify gaps
Identify repetitions
Identify areas for potential integration
Match assessments with standards
Review for timeliness
• Mixed group review
• Large group review
– Curriculum consensus
• Begin the process again
Anecdotal Story
A year ago, while walking down the hall at Pennsylvania
Culinary Institute (P.C.I.), two students provided a unique insight
into our curriculum. I was close enough to overhear a
conversation that captured my attention. One turned to the other
and said, “Cheese, cheese, cheese – don’t the instructors know
that all our classes tasted the same cheese today?” The second
student responded, “I know exactly what you mean, Swiss could
be my middle name.” For a culinary school that might not seem
out of place however, it caught my interest and prompted further
review. Not surprisingly, the students’ conversation over the
repetition with cheese was accurate. I was left to consider how
this happened and what could be done about it.
Pit Stops – Assessing progress
Question: Is there one best method or approach for writing
curriculum and assessing results?
• “Bubble Up” method of writing curriculum
– Front-loading method
– Identifies the work to be done
• Doesn’t take into account the end evaluation
• Curriculum mapping utilizes the backward design
process
– Ensures 100% alignment of the outcomes to the teaching
methodology and material
• Wiggins & McTighe
– 3 Stages in the design process (backward)
• Identify desired results (learning outcomes)
• Determine acceptable evidence (assessment)
• Plan the learning experiences and instruction
More Pit Stops
• Essential questions and enduring understandings
– Essential questions
• It is the essence of what you believe students should examine and
know in the short time they have with you
• 6 Facets of Understanding
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Can explain
Can interpret
Can Apply
Have perspective
Can empathize
Have self-knowledge
– Enduring understandings
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Long-lasting impact
At the heart of the discipline
Needing uncoverage
Potentially engaging
One key design strategy is to build curriculum around the questions that gave rise to the content
knowledge in the first place, rather than simply teaching students the “expert” answers found in textbooks
(Wiggins & McTighe)
We don’t learn from experience, we learn from thinking about experience (John Dewey).
Charting the Trip
• A simple Excel spreadsheet is
an excellent tool for aligning
the curriculum
• Focus on time and content
• Community access allows for
everyone to see the progress
and to help ensure alignment
• Realignment is achieved
quickly and easily
• New standards or changes to
the curriculum are more easily
adapted
Mapping Board - PCI
Curriculum Committee – The Bus
Question: Who in your school should be involved in
curriculum mapping?
• Not everyone should be initially involved in the committee.
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Some teachers are just not ready
Time is a major commitment and some don’t have it
• As many individuals as possible in order to build consensus.
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How do we get as many involved as possible without creating chaos?
• Councils and Task forces
Utilization of Department chairs as team leaders
Subject matter experts
• Critical individuals that are often overlooked
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School librarians
• Research experts – knows what material is available and often helps students
outside of class
• Can add academic rigor to the program - CECybrary
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Directors of Compliance
• Accreditation standards
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Registrars
Curriculum Design Team
Mission Statement
Work together in groups. Create a mission statement
that speaks to the academic mission of your school.
How would the curriculum design team support the
effort? What message do we need to deliver to the
faculty, staff, and students?
Curriculum Design Team
Mission Statement
The C.D.T. will serve as a faculty resource to ensure
consistency, accuracy, and validity in (your
institution’s) curriculum. This will be accomplished by
establishing a standard design template, a
compendium of best practices, and a staffed support
center to work with faculty and administration to
develop a rich curriculum. Special emphasis will be
given to learning outcomes as they relate to
accreditation and industry standards, student-centered
instruction, and backwards design. We view
curriculum as a living document which must be fed
and nurtured as it continually evolves to meet the
needs of our diverse student population.
The Process
Question: Does every course and program need to have
alignment or is it possible to have more than one map?
• From start to finish, we took approximately 8 months to align
horizontally, vertically, and within all 3 programs.
• This was only the beginning - keep in mind that changes occur frequently.
• Communication and frequent meetings are minimal requirements to
get everyone on the same page.
• Weekly curriculum committee meetings take place to chart progress,
discuss roadblocks, and to solicit feedback.
• Individual meetings with key instructors occur as needed. Specific
disciplines might meet as a group and eventually as the entire faculty.
• In-service days with professional development is the opportune place to
look at the “big picture.”
• Alignment occurs both horizontally and vertically
Curriculum Design Group Project
The Potholes
Question: What challenges exist on your own campuses that
might prevent curricular mapping?
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Can exaggerate differences instead of building stronger alignment on what is
fundamentally important
Some faculty may view mapping as a way for administration to dictate views
and agendas
Just another program and the laggards begin to surface
Some faculty may disagree on the direction and feel that standards are being
softened
The worst four-letter word in teaching – TIME
Some faculty view backward design assessment and curriculum writing as
teaching to the test and cheating
Benefits of Curriculum Alignment
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Builds learning communities
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Creates a “culture” of student success
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Teachers work together in an environment of positive support
Student success and understanding becomes the central focus rather than an
outcome of learning by coincidence
Accrediting bodies see how learning outcomes are attained through the
curriculum process.
Students understand why specific classes are important to them and how it
will benefit their careers.
Learning becomes an all encompassing activity rather than something that just
occurs behind closed doors.
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Everyone works to together for the same result
Professional development activities can support this process
Librarians assist with research projects knowing what the student needs now and in
the future.
Registrars and advisors are better equipped to guide the scheduling process.
Mapping can quickly take advantage of new or changed standards.
Improves educational accountability (Anderson, 2002)
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understands the effect of instruction on learning
identifies the differences in schooling on student achievement
eliminates the marginalization of students by race and gender through the
curriculum
Anecdotal Story - Revisited
Let’s revisit the cheese story. After discussing this with our faculty, I concluded no
one understood the big picture. The instructors are laying out course work and
assessments without thought as to what is occurring in their colleagues’
classrooms or kitchens. The result, as described by the students earlier, were three
different classes all working with cheese on the same day. The instructors could
explain the rationale behind using cheese in each class, however the students
didn’t understand nor did they see the connection.
The solution to this curricular jigsaw puzzle lies in the mapping process. With
communication between instructors, they could then explain to each student how
the classes would intertwine for the day. Perhaps each class would choose a
different cheese thus expanding the students’ exposure and knowledge base.
Because of mapping, the teachers are better equipped to explain the why and how.
The students are informed and engaged, therefore satisfaction levels with their
program increases.
Going a step further in the culinary model, let’s take an example of three specific
classes taught at the same time; a meat cookery lab, a wine studies class, and a
nutrition class. It is possible to align the content vertically with the instructor
linking the daily activities from one class to the next. Students benefit by having
key concepts reinforced through different disciplines and engaging them in real
world examples. For example, preparing a steak in the kitchen lab, sampling
various red wines along with an assortment of cheeses in wines class, and then
discussing the French paradox in the nutrition class; would provide crosscurricular support of the learning outcomes. The chance of this happening without
the efforts of the staff and instructors utilizing curriculum alignment techniques
are slim.
Anecdotal Story - Conclusion
Recently, I roamed the halls once again listening to our students
chatting indiscriminately about the day’s topic. I stopped and
asked a couple of students how things were going, meaning
school. Expecting a typical ho-hum response, two students
surprised me with an effusive description of how much they
enjoyed their current classes. Prodding the students further, I
heard them describe how they prepared a steak in kitchens,
sipped some red wine in wines class, and then discussed in the
nutrition class how the reseveritrol (anti-oxidant) in red wine
contributes to the French paradox. In a little over a year, the
process has come full circle.
Notable “Big Fish”
• Curriculum Mapping
• Heidi Hayes Jacobs
• Fenwick English
• Curriculum Planning and Assessment
• Grant Wiggins
• Jay McTighe
• Rick Stiggins
• Professional Development
• Linda Darling Hammond
• Great Teaching
• Ken Bain
• Herbert Kohl
• Andy Hargreaves
• Leadership
• Michael Fullan
• Todd Whitaker
Questions?
References
Anderson, L. W. (2002). Curricular alignment: A re-examination. Theory into Practice, 41(4),
255-260.
Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
English, F. W. (1980). Curriculum mapping. Educational Leadership, 1(1), 558-559.
English, F. W. (2000). Deciding what to teach and test: Developing, aligning, and auditing the
curriculum. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the big picture: Integrating curriculum and assessment K-12.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Jacobs, H. H. (Ed.). (2004). Getting results with curriculum mapping. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Koppang, A. (2004). Curriculum mapping: Building collaboration and communication.
Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(3), 154-161.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, Virginia:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Thank You