Decisions and Levels of Decision-Making Processes and Data-Sources

Decisions and Levels of
Decision-Making Processes and

Data-Sources
By John I. Goodlad with
Maurice N. Richter Jr.
The Author – John I. Goodlad
• Canadian born 1920
• Earned Ph.D. at University of Chicago
• Authored, Co-authored, or edited over 30 books.
• In 1964, wrote The Changing School Curriculum –
an overview of the content centered reform
movement in curriculum and an examination of
the related problems and issues.
• 1984, wrote A Place Called School – selected
The Distinguished Book of the Year by Kappa
Delta Pi.
• Asserted that the purpose of education was to
develop the individual and collective democratic
character.
How Is A Rational Curriculum Built?
A Derivative Model
• Educational Aims are created from values.
– One must make a beginning, and to make a
beginning is to accept certain assumptions;
values are embedded in assumptions.
• Objectives created from educational aims.
• Learning opportunities from objectives.
• Process is logical and deductive – this is
too simplistic, other data sources impact
curriculum design.
Values = Aims
Reasons to be Concerned
• Institutions may not contribute to the
achievement of pre-selected aims (values) or,
some schools may be better suited to the
attainment of these aims.
• Students may possess the values before they
come to school.
• Aims may be ideal but unrealistic given certain
constraints.
• Present learning opportunities may contradict
selected aims and increase the likelihood of its
removal from local curriculum.
Ralph Tyler: Basic Principals of
Curriculum (1949)
• Director of famous Eight Year Study to determine
which type (progressive schools vs. project based
schools) of school produced the most prepared
students. Progressive (Dewey) style schools received
unfavorable critiques.
• Fundamental Question:
– What educational purposes should the school seek to
attain?
• Multiple data-sources are necessary to build a curriculum.
Each source has its own values and deserve consideration.
Three sources – the students, society, and subject matter
specialists should each contribute to the curriculum.
– Goodlad contends that curriculum begins simultaneously
with values and data sources as opposed to Tyler.
– Goodlad suggests that philosophy should be used to
determine the levels of irrationality in curriculum.
• Recommend informal and formal checks on the curriculum
at all levels to check against initial values espoused.
Evaluation
• A means of checking each step in the
curriculum planning process.
– Check backwards:
• Assess learning opportunities in relation to
educational objectives.
• Assess objectives in relation to aims.
• Assess aims in relation to values.
• Careful evaluation forces validation and
justification.
Levels of Curriculum Decision
Making
• In primitive cultures, this process was simple – related to
survival and passing of essential skills.
• More and more complicated in modern society.
• The organizing center is deduced from the objective.
The organizing center is a description of the stimulus to
which the student is to respond. Some responses are
not visible, therefore, an evaluation is necessary to
reveal the success or failure of the organizing center.
– Many organizing centers can be derived from one educational
objective.
– Objectives are the primary data-source for organizing centers.
– Similarly, objectives are derived from educational aims which are
/ were set by the controlling agency (Board of Education).
• The Board makes societal decisions to represent the larger
constituency.
Levels of Decision Making II
• The Board delegates the responsibility of
checking the learning opportunities they devise
to a manager or administrator.
– This derivative process is done to determine whether
the selected educational aims are appropriate or not.
– Boards typically acknowledge the evaluation is better
done by a competent expert. (Thin-slicing is done
more accurately by experts – unless the context is
pressure filled or otherwise uncertain – Blink)
– The new level of decision making introduced is called
the institutional level. A transaction takes place
between teachers and Board with Director of
Curriculum in the middle.
The Institutional Level
• Formulation of Educational Objectives
– Create illustrative learning opportunities.
– Use research to make effective curricular decisions.
– Demands specialized knowledge.
– Allows school board to be concerned with more general matters.
– Authors recommend that schools create a well-established
process of rational curriculum decision making process at this
level.
– This would ensure that societal decisions rationally enter
institutional decisions.
– Prevents outside pressure group(s) from determining the ends
and means of education.
– Authors suggest that school boards should state their major
aims in general terms and the Director of Curriculum works with
teachers to determine the specifics of instruction.
Hierarchical Word Choice
• Refinements of Mager (studied under
Tyler) – Instructional Level.
• Taxonomies developed by Bloom
(predecessor of Tyler) used at the
Institutional Level.
Rational Curriculum Planning
• Sanctioning body (district taxpayers) must assume responsibility for
creating educational aims and their attainment.
• The board, through a transaction, assumes responsibility.
• The board should devote its energies to maintaining a dialogue and
inquiry to define educational ends. (Systems Thinking)
– Tremendously difficult task, time consuming, may lead to inappropriate
conclusions, could result in loss of votes – board members are likely to
concentrate on more practical matters.
• Thus, educational personnel at institutional and instructional levels
of decision making have no clear data-source to guide their daily
actions.
– Blame for this usually falls on the educators.
Levels of Curricular Decision
Making III
• Federal – significant direct or indirect role (ESEA / NCLB).
• State – state legislatures and state education departments are
major contributors in curriculum development.
• Local – respond to community issues to influence curriculum.
– Very little research at the time of writing done to determine which level
is best suited to create curriculum.
– Authors were suspect of the irrationality encroaching on curricular
decision making.
– Political influences enter the various levels (transactions) of curriculum.
Hence, curriculum is exposed to the inherent impact of politics.
– New data-sources enter the decision making process which may be
illogical.
– A new category / level of curriculum is introduced – the ideological level.
• Definitions, decisions, data-sources and derivations be set forth rigorously.
• Hard research data is (1964) is missing to support the rational curriculum
planning process and it is much needed.
Questions
• Our curriculum has become very national – how has that impacted
student learning? Teaching? Leadership? Attitudes (parent,
student, teacher, etc.)
• Can we anticipate a trend toward child based curriculum?
• Has this (nationalization) resulted in a more rational process?
• Is Conant correct today in his thoughts about high schools smaller
than 750 students?
• Is it wise to separate core and non-core (elective) curriculums for
discussion purposes?
• What influences lead to the consolidation of curriculum?
• What are the values of the state test designers? Could they (or do
they) articulate those values?

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