UNIT 4: How is the curriculum
enacted in practice?
P117-148
At the end of this unit you should be able to:
Unit Describe different dimensions of the enacted curriculum
or pedagogy
outcome Understand how different pedagogic practices are likely to
have different implications for different groups of people
s Think more systematically about what goes on in
classrooms
Conduct an analysis of an enacted curriculum
UNIT 4: How is the curriculum
enacted in practice?
Introduction
• Curriculum can be thought about in two ways:
• Narrowly: as the pieces of paper on which
curriculum content, objectives, and so on are
written for teachers to use in their teaching.
• Broadly: as the sum of the plan and all that
happens in schools, including the experience and
consequences of teaching and learning.
Teachers
centred
• Teacher-centred
classroom: The
teacher does most of
the talking. He/she
makes all decisions in
the classroom and
often doesn’t consider
individual learners
Learners centred
approach
• Learner centred: The focus is on the
learners and their interests. Learners
are able to make decisions in the
classroom and much of the
classroom talk is likely to be learners’
questions and discussions
• There is an emphasis on learners making their own
There is an emphasis on learners
making their own meaning or
constructing their own knowledge.
A teacher-centred approach is often termed traditional
and contrasted with more progressive or constructivist
learner centred pedagogies (teaching and learning).
Teacher-
Analysing Pedagogies: The specialisation of time, space
centred and text.
approach
Teacher work from the same intended, national
curriculum, but each one has a very different way of
going about things in the classroom.
Defining Pedagogy
• There is some critical difference between the teacher in terms of the relationship
established between teachers and learners. Read the case studies in your prescribed
textbook pages 126-129. then analyse how teachers analyse the enacted curriculum
• Pedagogy involves a relationship between someone who knows (often a teacher) and
someone who doesn’t know (usually a learner or student). It’s a two way relationship
• What the other person stands to learn can be termed “criteria” or evaluative criteria.
• Evaluation criteria can refer to something like skills or content, or a particular
concept.
• We use the term evaluative criteria because when we learn something, we don’t only
learn the content, we also learn how it relates to other content and how we express
or present/use that content.
• In other words we learn criteria for reading and writing different specialised texts and
we learn to judge what is correct or incorrect, relevant or irrelevant.
Pedagogy specialises time, text and
space
• Pedagogy brings them(time, text and space) into a special relationship
with each other for the purpose of learning.
• Time is organised in a special way for learning. It is timetabled and
planned, and the focus of activities is on something specific.
• We can think of text: as specialised knowledge, the knowledge taught
or curriculum knowledge.
• Space, as how time and text will be used within a particular space
Time, Text and Space
Time:
• The time available for teaching is an important teaching resource.
• Teaching time is the same by law for all schools, it is, therefore,
important to spend time optimally. There are other factors, of cause,
that can affect teaching and learning time.
• Take a moment to reflect on such factors which you experienced in
the teaching practice or during your visit to schools
Text:
• Teaching is a specialized activity. It requires space and the
demarcation of time. It also requires a special kind of knowledge or
text in which teachers need expertise.
Text continues…
• Teachers’ knowledge of content and conceptual knowledge is a very
important resource they have, it defines their professionalism.
• A rich subject knowledge enables teachers to enrich the learning
process with a brought range of illustrations, different concepts, and
ideas
• The more specialized the text, the stronger the connection the teacher
can make between different subjects and everyday knowledge.
Space
Teaching and learning uses space, so the physical space
available for teaching and learning influences the way we teach
or the way in which curriculum is implemented
Space continues…
• Space is related to time or/and the age cohort of learners.
E.g. for the Foundation phase learners, they can learn
sitting on the ground, or playing outside, but in higher
grades, different kinds of space are needed, e.g.
laboratories for science or space for woodwork equipment
Different subjects require different teaching space, therefore
there should be a connection between space, teachers, and
learners
Reproducing
inequalities
through
pedagogy
• The home . A second site of
acquisition
• Children come into school very
differently prepared for learning
formal school knowledge
• Many poorer learners come
from homes that cannot always
support what they learn at
school.
Bernstein calls the home a second site of acquisition, the
The home first site is a school
. A second Many children have only one site of acquisition(school)
site of Homes that do not function as a second site of
acquisition:
acquisitio Parents may be illiterate and thus unable to assist learners
with their schoolwork
n cont.. There may be few resources such as reading books, the
internet or encyclopedias to assist learning
Learners are unlikely to have a desk, a study, or electricity
a home to facilitate their doing homework at night
The home: A second
site of acquisition cont
• In many wealthier homes,
children are better prepared for
school because school learning
is supported by the types of
conversations between children
and parents
•,
Homes They are exposed to books, and the
types of responsibilities and
that expectations of children.
function They learn ways of thinking,
as a reasoning, and speaking required by
the school
second
site of The kind of jobs parents do influence
impact on how children learn at
acquisition home capacity of their children
Thank you