A curriculum design class that really helped me find the critical lens I now use when I think about learning.
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I think I came in with the belief that curriculum should be learner-centered and I left having a broader sense of awareness of the different facets to consider in designing a learner-centered curriculum. I feel that I have grown in my understanding of assessment, adaptability, the importance of feedback and revision, scaffolding, and goals. I learnt what assessment can be as opposed to what I thought it was constricted to. Initially viewing assessment negatively from previous experiences of high-stakes standardised testing, I slowly grew more aware of the different summative and formative assessments and their purposes in gaging what learners know and don’t know in order to inform our direction in adapting to the learner’s needs. The cyclical nature of curriculum design (constantly changing based on the learner’s needs and current understanding) as well as the emphasis on revising work based on feedback were definitely challenging for me, having been accustomed to the typically fixed curriculum and final assignment submission. I thought scaffolding was a tool that I wished my previous educators would have used more of—I’m reminded of moments in which my peers and I struggled to make academic jumps when the material was too dense, too quickly. I also saw how a goal-driven curriculum or backward design would keep us on track to achieve the learning goals we set out to accomplish. Besides that, I also grew more aware of designing based on the context and need of the learning environment—finding strengths in inquiry, FCL, PBL and even lectures. The practical aspect of actually having to design curriculums strengthened my prior knowledge in metacognition, collaboration, and transfer—thinking about ways we could facilitate self-awareness, self-regulation, a community that was open to dialogue and differing opinions as well as finding what they learn across different settings into the real world.
Topics surrounding distributed cognition and learning progressions seemed less clear to me as opposed to the other material we learnt mainly because they are newer concepts and I felt that I didn’t have as much time to really reflect and think more critically about these areas. I hope to further my understanding in this area of cognition and learning sciences, especially in any classes that may explore this in the future. Some weaker connections that I felt drawn too were how this relates to informal learning contexts, critical pedagogy, social-emotional learning, as well as the arts and humanities. Critical pedagogy made me curious about the agency of a learner—How much of a curriculum should be designed based on what the learners want to do? How do we as educators or designers balance between what we hope students will learn vs. what learners want to learn? I have also grown more aware about the value of the different cultures, histories, and families that learners carry with them into the learning space. The mental and emotional health of a learner is still a slightly vague area of study in relation to education but an important one to consider, I think, when we design learning environments.
In terms of my own practices, I thought the adaptive syllabus of the class aided me in keeping up with the readings and found writing to be the easier means to convey my thoughts. In discussions, I do feel like I have made progressive strides in speaking up as compared to previous semesters. Perhaps I feel more comfortable with the material and discussion-based classes. Though, there were times I felt deterred to speak as much because the class atmosphere seemed a bit quieter and at times, the workload of all my classes kept me from going deeper into the readings as I would have liked. The team project was personally the most challenging for me as we negotiated roles and workload among teammates, especially in instances when I felt the agency and interest of each member towards the project was questionable. However, I thought I did learn how things would possibly be like in a real world setting, working with a team of differing work ethics and styles.
The course has greatly enriched my knowledge in curriculum design. It has made me very aware of designing for deep understanding—identifying learning goals at the very beginning and working backwards—instead of just fun and/or random activities to do related to a subject area, which is something I wish all educators practiced. I can easily see how these design practices transcend the classroom into all kinds of communities of learners, which I hope to gain more experience in a variety of them. It has made me eager to experience more of these models executed in real classrooms and what the real-life challenges might be. Perhaps even try to design and implement some curriculums on my part, especially in restructuring assessments and designing based on the goals of the learners. I think this class has also contributed to my current question of whether I want to be a teacher and whether there are other paths in education that would also help make learning accessible, equitable, and optimal for different communities of learners. Especially when I am one person, I do question how much I can bring or create change in communities. Coming from a different country, the perspectives that I have differ at times, sometimes in frustrating ways, but I feel driven to continue to think critically about how curriculum design and what I am learning at Hampshire can transfer to systems back home—difficult but not impossible.
