Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 46

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
(For further information see Smith and Lynch, 2010). Taken together these three capabilities form the
context and substance of Learning Management and show what the personal capabilities required of a
teacher are in a 2000s teaching world.
Table 3.1 The Traditional teachers approach to learning management elements contrasted to that of the (new)
Teacher (the practitioner of Learning Management)
Learning Management
Element
Knowledge Base
Capability
‘New Teacher’ Mindset
-Innovation
-Design
-Diagnostics
-Execution
Capacity
-
Entrepreneurship
Traditional Teacher Approach
Broad general
disciplines
Latest fads
knowledge
New Teacher Approach
of
Expert knowledge of disciplines
Evidence based strategies
Favourite preferred approaches to
teaching based on assumed needs of
students
Pedagogy is based on individual
teacher creativity Approaches aligned to required student
learning outcomes and student profiles
There are ‘Smart kids and dumb
kids’
Teachers can make a difference
when circumstances are right ‘Students with diverse abilities’
Problems require school ‘admin’
intervention Problems generate analysis and innovative
responses
Experience is the benchmark for
performance
Responsible for curriculum delivery Expertise relies on continuous learning
Risk Averse
Traditional approaches
Maintain the status quo
Content specific
Situational Analysis
Instruments developed that indicate
when content has been covered
Pedagogy is not outlined in design
documents Calculated risk taker
Researching and seeking new ways
Experimenting
Content specific
Evidence based learning design process
Evidence that student learning outcomes
have been achieved
Approaches aligned to required student
learning outcomes and student profiles
Pedagogy is made explicit in design
documentation
Part of the teaching process
Seeking out and exploiting opportunities
Teaching Expertise
The classroom is part of a larger learning
industry system
Networked
Stakeholders engaged
Not known nor applied
Relies on what the system provides
Creativity as expertise
Classroom Centred
Staffroom friendship groups
Stakeholders informed
Creative uses of evidence based pedagogy
Teachers create the right circumstances and
make a difference
Accountable for student learning outcomes
These three capability domains are the enablers for developing a robust teaching plan: what is termed in
this book as the classroom curriculum. Put simply, in the absence of Learning Management, the LMDP
will illicit responses biased to the traditions of classroom teachers and which are an anathema to the ‘all
students making the required learning gains’ agenda and the profile of the Knowledge Age as previous
chapters have highlighted.
Table 3.1 uses the three Learning Management capability domains to contrast the response of the traditional
teacher with the practitioner of learning management. In reviewing this table we want you to be conscious
of how an understanding and an embracing of the theory and practice of Learning Management forces you
to act and react differently as a teacher. Let us reiterate some key points previous in the book before
proceeding.
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