edea 780f

1. EDEA 780F Chapter 8 Frame Factors and Curriculum

3. Tasks of teaching According to Westbury (1973), there are five tasks in teaching: Coverage Mastery Management Positive affect Evaluation

4. Coverage This refers to the breadth of the curriculum that a teacher must incorporate into lessons. When new objectives, lessons, subjects, or other requirements are added to curriculum, it is often referred to as “accretion”.

5. Mastery This refers to the level of attainment students are expected to reach. This used to be thought of in degrees or percentages, giving rise to report card grades or ranges within test scores. Now, however, more and more states are expecting total mastery of a specified set of criteria in order to promote a student, or for graduation.

6. Management This task refers to the need for teachers to maintain a classroom environment that permits and promotes learning for all students. It must be safe and orderly in a fashion that supports the teacher’s goals. A useful adage: Teach individuals and manage groups.

7. Positive affect Research suggests that students learn better when they are in an atmosphere of caring and respect. They need to know that their teacher is genuinely supportive of their learning and believes they can learn. Teachers must be able to inspire reluctant students to be interested and to want to learn.

8. Evaluation The teacher must not only know what he is judging with respect to student work, he must also know what criteria will be used and how it will be applied. Furthermore, the teacher must communicate these things to students and parents. Evaluation must have a purpose, a plan, and a product.

9. Frame factors Posner defines frame factors as “limitations or constraints on teaching, and thus on curriculum implementation” (p.193). However in a positive light they may be viewed as resources that administrators and teachers use to make teaching possible.

10. The factors Temporal Physical Political-legal Organizational Personal Economic Cultural

11. Temporal This frame covers time, frequency, quantity, duration, scheduling. It is usually considered the most precious resource by teachers, thus is the one they first consider when making change. Merely rearranging time is rarely effective for improving instruction, however. It needs to be combined with other changes.

12. Physical This refers to the natural and built environment and the materials and equipment. This is a highly tangible factor that can affect many other things; quality of student/teacher interaction, access to certain learning activities, safety, etc.

13. Political legal This frame has to do with state and federal mandates and their limits and requirements. It used to be a minor frame for people at the school level, but in the past two decades has become major. Its effect on instruction can be positive or negative, depending on how well it is understood and used by principals and teachers.

14. Organizational This frame includes administrative factors of size, grouping, and policies. It is the frame most often used by principals in assigning teachers, creating course sections, and developing school rules. Key players in this frame are the principal, SASA, registrar, and leadership team.

15. Personal This frame focuses on the backgrounds, abilities, and interests of students, staff, and parents. It is the “relationship” frame. Customer satisfaction would fall under this umbrella, as well as teacher expertise and evaluation, students interest, and parent involvement.

16. Economic This frame encompasses costs and benefits, but it is more broadly conceived than mere budget. The debate over the Weighted Pupil Funding program falls squarely here. Questions of how available resources may best be distributed and used to support learning are the main focus of the economic frame.

17. Cultural This frame refers to the values and beliefs of the school community. As you can imagine, this one varies across islands and across the state. Although we like to pretend that socioeconomics don’t play a factor here, they often do. The debates about including religion in curriculum (i.e. Intelligent Design) also fall here.

18. Theoretical perspectives The five theoretical perspectives: Traditional Experiential Structure of the disciplines Behavioral Constructivist

19. Discussion How would the frame factors apply from each of these perspectives? Traditional Temporal Experiential Physical Structure of the Political legal disciplines Organizational Behavioral Personal Constructivist Economic Cultural

20. The meaning oriented curriculum Experiential, structure of the disciplines, and constructivist curricula are referred to as “meaning oriented”. Why do you think the traditional and behavioral aren’t included? What perspectives do you think are reflected in most standardized testing? School reform models? Public school curricula? Private schools?

21. Multiculturalism The personal and cultural frames typically incorporate issues of student diversity. Do you think any others might also address diversity, either positively or negatively?

22. Technology The physical frame generally covers this area, but do you think it might be included in any others? Where and why?