Headmaster’s Coffee Curriculum Mapping…

1. Headmaster’s CoffeeCurriculum Mapping… Dr. Mitchell April 2012

2. The Challenge • We do not have a single document that encapsulates our curriculum…a map of our entire curriculum.

3. What is a Curriculum Map? • If you were driving to Kalamazoo what would you do? • Get Directions/map… • If you were asked to teach a brand new course what would you do?

4. What’s the Goal? • The goal for TA is to have a fully documented curriculum by the end of the 2012-2013 school year. • As such, all administrators and teachers are asked to map their curricula. • The survey says…

5. The curriculum has a sound scope and sequence i.e., it is vertically integrated – Mean = 3.53

6. Relevance for Parents? • Curriculum is the “bedrock” of a school • Accountability, for all, will be increased • Board level • Mission is met e.g., college prep • Administrative level • Oversight • Ensure best practice • Alignment/overlap and gaps • Curriculum evaluation • Teacher transitions • Marketing • Accreditation • Teacher level • Alignment/overlap and gaps • Curriculum evaluation • Innovation • Parent level • Access/communication

7. What does the process look like? 1 Each individual teacher creates a map 6 With this collective learning, teachers are ready to start the next cycle with more knowledge about the teaching and learning process. 2 These maps are shared among teachers over grades and subjects –allowing individual expertise to be adopted and adapted among all teachers 5 Teachers reflect upon what they learn from sharing, make adjustments, and select quality innovations. 3 Teachers share and identify gaps and repetitions in the curriculum. 4 Sharing enhances analysis and understanding about the process of teaching as described in the maps. Adapted from The Knowledge Creating Company, Nonaka And Takeuchi

8. Enhancing the Process Via Technology • TA will use a web-based mapping software • What are the advantages of web based mapping? • It is data base software designed specifically for mapping. Thus, • It’s very sophisticated • e.g., searchable • Yet, easy to use • Access to state standards and/or national databases • Access to other templates

9. Atlas – Rubiconhttp://al.rubiconatlas.net

10. Challenges • Buy-in • Professional development/training • Cost

11. The Mapping Process…in a nutshell

12. An Application to AP Psychology (Chapter 1) • Establish Standards • National standards have been established for every grade and subject…many are integrated as part of the Rubicon Atlas package • For AP classes: College Board prescribes goals • At this level the goals manifest themselves as topic headings which in turn essentially manifest themselves as chapter headings. • Thus, the students in AP Psych should learn about the nature of psychology, learning, memory, thinking, intelligence, language, social psychology, CNS, motivation, emotion, perception, research methods, statistics, states of consciousness, personality, pathology, treatments, physiology, etc.

13. Create Essential Questions • Why is psychology a science? • What are the major perspectives of psychology? • What are the different types of psychologists? • How do psychologists think? • How do psychologists do research?

14. Determine Enduring Understandings Students will understand… • Psychology has evolved markedly since its inception as a discipline in 1879. There have been significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain behavior and mental processes. In addition, the methodology of psychological research has expanded to include a diversity of approaches to data gathering…or something conceptually similar…

15. Determine Assessment • Assessment should align with standards, essential questions and enduring understandings. This is to avoid assessing something that was not a goal and ensure that the goals are assessedi.e., alignment. • Or put another way…the idea is that an assessment isn’t done because it is convenient, cool, easy, etc. it is done because it directly stems from standards, essential questions and enduring understandings…then it’s great that they are convenient, cool, easy etc.

16. Thus…using the essential questions to guide you make sure whatever assessment you use requires the learner to answer these questions. • Why is psychology a science? • What are the major perspectives of psychology? • What are the different types of psychologists? • How do psychologists think? • How do psychologists do research?

17. Skills…the students will be able to… • Recognize how philosophical perspectives shaped the development of psychological thought. • Describe and compare different theoretical approaches in explaining behavior: structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism in the early years; Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, and humanism emerging later; evolutionary, biological, and cognitive as more contemporary approaches. • Recognize the strengths and limitations of applying theories to explain behavior. • Distinguish the different domains of psychology: biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational, experimental, human factors, industrial–organizational, personality, psychometric, and social. • Identify the major historical figures in psychology (e.g., Mary Whiton Calkins, Charles Darwin, Dorothea Dix, Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Margaret Floy Washburn, John B. Watson, Wilhelm Wundt). • Distinguish the research methods used in psychology. • Describe the statistical approaches used to analyze data in psychology.

18. Unit/Lesson Plans • List the essential questions to be considered in individual lessons or units (in the case of curriculum planning). • This ensures that lessons and units flow towards the goals and that learning and understanding is assessed properly.

19. Specific Content for the Lessons…The essential questions broken down… • Why is psychology a science, and how can it be distinguished from pseudoscience and folk wisdom? • How does the biological perspective explain thoughts, feelings, and behavior? • How does the learning perspective approach understanding behavior? • What does the cognitive perspective in psychology emphasize? • What does the sociocultural perspective in psychology focus on? • How does the psychodynamic perspective explain thoughts and behavior? • What are the main differences between basic and applied psychology? • How do psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and psychiatrists differ from one another in their training, background, and approach to treatment? • What are the eight critical thinking guidelines that help in understanding psychological issues? • What are the defining elements of descriptive research? • Can you give an example of a case study, observational research, a psychological test, and a survey?

20. Ideally our Mapping Process would evolve such that we could answer some of the following Essential Questions about the mapping process • How varied and reliable are the ways we assess student learning? • Do our assessments require increasingly complex knowledge and skills as students progress through the curriculum? • Do our assessment methods really tell us what students understand deeply and can apply in new situations? • What kinds of writing assignments and processes are students taught in each grade and in the various subjects? • Are we teaching methods of writing or research skills that are not compatible? • Are we teaching similar methods but labeling them differently so that students are confused? • Would rearranging the sequence in which we teach certain topics and skills enhance student learning and retention? • Are we integrating web and other technological resources in our curriculum? • What is the evidence of that in our maps? • What do we see if we review our curriculum and our pedagogy through a multicultural lens?

21. Essential Questions… • Could we adapt curriculum mapping methods to help us with our service learning programs? Our athletic and physical education programs? Our special programs such as AP Scholars or 21st Century learning? • What values and what habits of mind are taught overtly as skills or content? • What are taught indirectly through specific pedagogical and assessment practices? • What evidence is there in the maps that we are addressing multiple intelligences and multiple learning styles? • What about age and developmental appropriateness? • What opportunities for interdisciplinary work can be seen in our maps? • What can we see in the maps that clarifies curriculum priorities? • Are there some things that we can let go of?

22. Conclusion: Outcomes of Mapping • Enhance student learning • Stimulate innovation • Increase coherence of curriculum • See http://drmtablog.blogspot.com/ • Visit www.rubicon.com