Conceptual Bases is Curriculum Development

I recently attended the Wisconsin Art Education Fall Conference at Bruce Guadalupe Community School in Milwaukee. The most beneficial sectional was given by Concordia University's Director of Art education, Dr. Gaylund Stone.

Dr. Stone's presentation focused on conceptual bases and their vital role in curriculum development. Citing from such educational scholars as Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (UbD) as well as Ernest Boyer, Dr. Stone proposes six conceptual bases, in order of importance, that should be the first factor in curriculum development, even before standards, objectives, or outcomes.

Human Purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I then act?
Sense of Place: time, space, social setting; Where am I? How do I know?
Life Experience: birth, life, death, health, wellness
Language Forms: visual, auditory, verbal
Interpersonal Behavior: communication, relationships, social structures
Production, Consumption, and Conservation: within culture (work-leisure-play), in nature

Revision and Prioritization of Boyer’s Eight Units (G. Stone)

Dr. Stone posits that all curriculum design must flow from these conceptual bases. This leads me to the following questions:

Why don't we more frequently think about the BIG picture when we plan curriculum?
Should we use Dr. Stone's Revision and Prioritization of Boyer's Eight Units to help us make learning more relevant to our students?
How can we use Dr. Stone's Revision?
What specific steps can we use to move toward realization of conceptual bases in our curricula?

Comments

Life grows when...

I am currently reading Art as Experience by John Dewey for an Art History course that I am taking. As you know, Dewey is a revered education psychology contributor. He writes, "Life itself consists of phases in which the organism falls out of step with the march of surrounding things and then recovers unison with it--either through effort or by some happy change. And, in a growing life, the recovery is never mere return to a prior state, for it is enriched by the state of disparity and resistance through which it has successfully passed. If the gap between organism and environment is too wide, the creature dies. If its activity is not enhanced by the temporary alienation, it merely subsists. Life grows when a temporary falling out is a transition to a more extensive balance of the energies of the organism with those of the conditions under which it lives" (13). I have been contemplating a few of Dewey's ideas for awhile now. Here are my app...

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The More I Lecture, the Less I Know They Understand

Josh S. sent me this interesting article regarding lecturing in a classroom. It is really common to hear that lecturing is bad, and that hands-on inquiry is good. However, this article puts the debate in a new light. It isn't that lecturing is always bad. Sometimes it may be good. However, lecturing prohibits the teacher from truly knowing what the students know.

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