Curriculum Theory Practice

Abstract There are various schools of thoughts in curriculum and education practices. This essay evaluates the existentialist curriculum as applied at Blue Valley School District in Kansas. It shows that schools should offer a learning environment that promotes individuality and a sense of freedom in pupils.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Curriculum Theory Practice specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thus, it discourages a rigid curriculum and mass teaching. Teachers remain passive as learners pursue their subjects of interests. A school can adopt other forms of curriculum such as pragmatic to support the available curriculum. The essay suggests the adoption of a pragmatic curriculum in the schools as a way of renewing the curriculum by focusing on the teacher and the subject matter to drive social aspects of learning and experimentation. It argues that a renewed approach to the curriculum based on the pragmatic c oncept should put a greater emphasis on language and literature with regard to social elements of both. Thus, social elements in studies should not be seen as special but rather as an important part of any curriculum. It encourages learners to have positive attitudes and experiences as they embrace new ideas and that learning should not occur in succession but rather in a progressive form. Hence, a pragmatic curriculum would improve learning through experiments, social elements and progressive activities. Application of an Existentialist Curriculum in American Education Practices An existentialist curriculum emanates from an influential belief in individual free will and the need for people to define and shape their own future.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More First, under existentialist curriculum, learners control their own education practices. Instructors encourage learners to under stand and value their own uniqueness, assume responsibilities and facilitate self-learning. In this regard, existentialists propagate â€Å"students’ freedom† (Null, 2011, p. 82) while teachers â€Å"arrange for students to be part of a community of learners who help each other do their best† (Null, 2011, p. 72). Consequently, they do not support any strict curriculum in education practices and the inclusion of several subjects alongside specialization at higher levels indicates an approach to education practices based on the existentialist curriculum with flexible schedule. Second, a curriculum based on existentialism recognizes individual learner unique differences. Consequently, instructors and educators should aim to develop a curriculum that meets needs of such learners. In this regard, Null notes, â€Å"Teachers and curriculum makers, instead of trying to get all students to have the same experience, should embrace the reality of â€Å"multiliteracy† (Null, 2011, p. 76). Such a curriculum should aim to meet the immediate and future needs of students. For instance, students focus on real-world applications of learned skills, such as writing, reading, science and mathematics in learner-driven classrooms through discussions, debates, and discourses to discover new meanings and answer to questions questions.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Curriculum Theory Practice specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Third, the curriculum allows learners to learn about their self. This leads to self-examination and the need for inclusion to accommodate others. At the same time, learners reflect freedom and moral decisions in learning practices. In this case, Null notes that, â€Å"Education ought to help the young learn how to create their own meanings through these forms (of representation)† (Null, 2011, p. 75). Scientific subjects and mathematics form a part of the ex istentialist curriculum to allow learners to gain objective skills and critical thinking. However, the curriculum emphasizes the importance of self and self-knowledge (Koirala, 2011, p. 42). Blue Valley School District in Kansas focuses on an existentialist curriculum. An existentialist curriculum promotes the Socratic Approach to learning. The curriculum is student-centered and learners must strive to generate solutions on their own. They must collect available evidence and review them to discover new knowledge and identify gaps in the available knowledge. In some instances, learners must discover new knowledge by conducting research and scrutinizing different studies. In this context, the school promotes the use of an existentialist curriculum for problem solving. The school encourages individual reading among learners. However, the school also encourages learners to conduct group discussions and express their thoughts.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This approach eliminates the superiority of group outcomes over individual thoughts. Learners may lose free choice and individualism that the philosophy advocates for. Teachers at Blue Valley School District aim to develop creative capabilities of learners. Consequently, learners engage in practical activities to understand and discover new ideas. Overall, the existentialist curriculum views students as the main center of focus in education practices and classroom teaching. Instructors seek to accommodate learners’ interests and needs. The role of the instructor is to guide learners. The instructor also facilitates learning to help students to achieve their learning objectives. The existentialist curriculum focuses on the future needs of learners and prepares them to discover self and be independent. Thus, learners must be creative and develop critical thinking attributes. An existentialist curriculum strives for absolute freedom and students’ responsibility as they en gage in learning. However, they must also account for the needs of society in order to cope well after studies through â€Å"the ability to think, speak and deliberate† (Null, 2011, p. 16). The Pragmatic Curriculum for Improving Learning Blue Valley School District can enhance the level of education if it implements a pragmatic curriculum to complement its current existentialist model. The school should encourage educators to join and create a niche for a pragmatic curriculum and develop inquiry approaches. The pragmatic philosophy recognizes the teacher as a guide for students. He must promote learning in a social environment in order to achieve social efficiency among learners and create a favorable relationship with students. Students at the school can benefit if the teacher adopts a sympathetic strategy to classroom learning. This would promote academic freedom and democratic learning. The teacher will work with students, suggest problems and engage in â€Å"classroom ma nagement techniques, research-based procedural skills, and the efficient use of instructional time† (Null, 2011, p. 126). He will give learners opportunities to find solutions as a way of stimulating learning. The teacher would then challenge learners to go beyond knowledge presented in the textbooks and discover their own. Students will benefit in learning if the teacher adopts experiment or encourages learners to develop specific experiences. In this context, the teacher encourages learners to learn by doing rather than by knowing. The intention of the teacher is to ensure that learners think and act to develop new ideas rather than repeat ideas from the books. In Blue Valley School District, teachers can dedicate two weeks to encourage experiments and discovery learning. Null notes that â€Å"teachers should take control† (Null, 2011, p. 143) and generate ideas that interest learners and encourage them to solve specific problems. They must organize and allow learners to demonstrate and facilitate learning among themselves. Therefore, pragmatist ideas will facilitate practical learning that learners require in a modern society. The focus on the subject matter will also facilitate learning at Blue Valley School District. John Smith notes that â€Å"changes are necessary through an innovative curriculum† (Smith, 2008, p. 74), which focuses on the subject matter. The subject matter of the school curriculum based on a pragmatic approach should promote social life among learners. In this regard, Blue Valley School District should develop a curriculum that goes beyond the current core subjects to include the learner’s own social experiences and activities (Null, 2011, p. 144). The subject matter should make the learner aware of his or her social heritage and cultural differences. This would enhance appreciation of individual uniqueness among learners. The subject matter should not consider social activities as special studies. The school should encourage social studies as fundamental forms of the subject matter. The focus on the subject matter would review how Blue Valley School District presents science studies. The current mode is entirely objective and students regard science as new subject and experience. The subject matter will introduce science as a part of a knowledge and experience, which learners have already acquired in their previous experiences. Thus, the subject matter of a science should not be new to the student and should support their current knowledge. A focus on the subject matter would restore the relevance of literature and language studies because the current form has eliminated most of the social aspects of the subject. Language should rise beyond the expression of ideas to include social elements in the content. The subject matter would allow language to function as a means of communication with social motives rather than as a means of expressing knowledge one has already learned. Finally, t he subject matter would eliminate succession in learning. That is, progress in studying should not be in the succession (Smith, 2008). Instead, it should reflect developments in learners’ attitudes and interests in learning new activities (Smith, 2008). Thus, the subject matter may eliminate the approach of introducing art, culture, science and others in later grades. In other words, approaches to curriculum contents should go beyond mere reading and writing in lower grades and â€Å"subjects such as manual training, nature study and science should replace reading and writing as the primary focus of the elementary curriculum† (Null, 2011, p. 132). References Koirala, M. P. (2011). Existentialism in Education. Academic Voices: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 1(1), 39-44. Null, W. (2011). Curriculum: from theory to practice. Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Smith, J. (2008). Reconciling subjects and contexts: the case for a pragmatic primary curriculum. Ed ucationalfutures, 1(2), 63-74. This essay on Curriculum Theory Practice was written and submitted by user Jadon Brooks to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Locating Historical U.S. Deeds Online

Locating Historical U.S. Deeds Online The Bureau of Land Managements General Land Office records are a great online resource for U.S. genealogists researching homestead records, bounty land grants, and other records for ancestors who purchased or received land in the thirty federal or public land states. In the eastern United States, many state archives have made available at least a portion of original grants and patents online. These online land records are all wonderful resources, however they generally only provide information on first owners or purchasers of the land. The bulk of American land records are found in the form of deeds, or private land/property transfers between individuals and corporations (non-governments). The vast majority of deeds in the United States are recorded and maintained by the county, parish (Louisiana), or district (Alaska). In the New England states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, deeds are recorded at the town level. Due primarily to increased interest by title searchers for online access, as well as to help cut access/personnel costs in the future, many U.S. counties, especially in the eastern part of the country, have started putting their historical deed records online. The best place to begin your search for online historical deed records is the website of the Register of Deeds, or Clerk of Court, or whoever is in charge of recording deeds and other real estate records for your county/locality of interest. Salem, Massachusetts historic deed books 1-20 (1641-1709), for example, are available online from the Essex County Registry of Deeds. Thirty Pennsylvania counties have deeds available online (several going back to the time of county formation) through a system called Landex (fee for access). There are also other online sources for historical deed records, such as state archives and local historical societies. The Maryland State Archives is especially notable for its cooperative project to provide access to deeds and other land record instruments from across the state. Check out MDLandRec.net with searchable indexes and viewable volumes from Maryland counties dating back to the 1600s. The Georgia Virtual Vault, hosted by the Georgia State Archives, includes Chatham County, Georgia Deed Books 1785-1806. How to Find Historical Deeds Online Locate and browse the website of the local office in charge of recording property deeds. This might be the Register of Deeds, Recorder, Auditor, or County Clerk, depending on the particular locality. You can often locate these offices through a Google search ([county name] state deeds, or by going directly to the county government site and then drilling down to the appropriate department. If the county uses a third-party service to provide online access to historical deeds, they will generally include access information on the home page of the Register of Deeds. Explore FamilySearch. Search the user-supported FamilySearch Research Wiki for your locality of interest, preferably the government level at which deeds are recorded, to learn what deeds might be available and whether they may be available either online or on microfilm from FamilySearch. The FamilySearch Research Wiki often includes links to external resources with online records as well, and may include details on any poten tial loss of deed records due to fire, flood, etc. If FamilySearch has deed or other land records for your locality online, you can find this by browsing FamilySearch Historical Records. The Family History Library Catalog (browse this by location as well) includes information on any microfilmed deed records, and may link to the record set online at FamilySearch, if it has also been digitized. Investigate the holdings of state archives, local historical society and other historical repositories. In some areas, the state archives or other historical records repository hold either the originals or copies of older deed records, and some have placed these online. U.S. State Archives Online includes links to each U.S. State Archives website, along with information on digitized online records. Or try a Google search such as locality name historical deeds. Look for state-level finding aids. A Google search such as digital deeds [state name] or historical deeds [state name] may turn up helpful finding aids such as this collection on North Carolina Digital Records, which brings together information and links for each North Carolina county deeds office, including dates and coverage for available online digital deed records. Tips for Researching Historical Deeds Online Once you locate a deeds collection of interest, explore it thoroughly to be sure the actual records available match the stated description. County record offices are putting digitized deeds online so fast that the available online documents sometimes exceed the text description. For example, the online Document Retrieval System for Martin County, North Carolina, states that it includes Old Deed Books U (08/26/1866) thru XXXXX, however, if you manually enter the book and page numbers from the older books in the search box, you will find that the digitized deed books available online actually go back to 1774, the date of county formation. Understand what you are looking at before you give up. Researchers new to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, research might move on after entering their ancestors name in the search box for Historical Deeds 1792–1857 and receiving no results. What they might not realize, however, is that this database, despite its misleading name, is a collection of documents recorded in deed books that described people who were involved in the slave trade in the early days of Allegheny County, and does not include all deeds recorded between 1792 and 1857. Take advantage of current property records, tax maps and plat maps. Edgecombe County, North Carolina, has their historical deed indexes online, but the actual deed books are available online only back to September 1973. However, in some cases the deeds of current property owners include information on previous owners going back several generations, including deed book and page references. This type of online research can be especially helpful when platting historical deeds or conducting other types of historical neighborhood reconstruction. The Edgecombe County GIS Maps database, for example, lets you select parcel locations on a map and view information on the neighbors, along with digital copies of the most recent deed record for that parcel.