Sopheaktra Chan

Notes from Steppingstones Book

Setting Out on the Curriculum Path
Chapter 01
Is a Neutral Curriculum Possible?
Two reasons given by those who advocate neutrality in teaching:
1) You must avoid indoctrination.
2) Students must draw their own conclusions from their own
exploration and constructions.
Making Curriculum decisions
Teachers do not choose curriculum alone.
Teacher make the most vital curriculum decisions.
Steps of Curriculum:
1. Government department of education
2. Textbook publishers
3. Professional associations
4. School systems and schools
5. Teachers
6. Students
The underlying Basis for Making Curriculum Decisions
The point here is that as educational leaders and teachers plan
curriculum, they need a common vision of life to be able to
reach consensus on major curriculum decisions.
The Teacher as Guide
Christian teachers are more than facilitators, they are guides.
The Bible calls Jesus our great Shepherd
Such guidance requires unfolding meaningful content- especially
making known the basis, contours, and implication of a biblical
vision of life.
Teaching for Commitment in Christian Schools
Teachers in Christian schools, especially in higher grades, nay
not find it easy to keep in balance initiation into a Christian
tradition and growth toward normal autonomy.
The Christian school curriculum, therefore, needs to give
students room to examine various views and to formulate their
own.
Teaching for commitment in Public schools
Public school, like Christian ones, cannot be neutral. Public
schools serve all sectors of society; the curriculum is secular.
What is curriculum?
Curriculum is what is taught =, particularly the subject matter
contained in a schools course of study.
Curriculum is an organized set of documents to attain
preconceived goals.
Aims of the curriculum:
Curriculum aims are general goals that provide a framework for
action.
Sopheaktra Chan

Curriculum planning for Christian schools needs to be based on

clear aims and intents that relate to a biblical worldview.
The unit consists of tour main parts:
The beginning of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom grows-early Europe
The kingdom of God- the Middle ages
The kingdom in Conflict.

Reflection on Chapter 01

This chapter taught me a lots. It is about curriculum and why curriculum is

essential to all school and all teachers. I learned that curriculum was designed by

the government, then pass on to the text book publishers, then pass on to the

professional association to check, then pass on to the schools, then the schools pass

on to teachers and then the teachers pass on to their students. The benefit of

curriculum is to help guide the school program and both the teachers and the

students to reach the goal or to get to the goals. Without curriculum teachers and

students still can operate their duty but will not be able to reach the target. There is

curriculum for secular schools and curriculum for Christian schools. The different is

that Christian schools use the biblical worldview as their motivation.

Sopheaktra Chan

Chapter 2
Choosing a Curriculum Orientation:
The purpose of a curriculum orientation is to provide a school, a
department, or a teacher with a clear sense of direction for an
educational program.
Four Curriculum Orientations
Traditionalists
The curriculum consists of prescribed and carefully
structured subject matter
Emphasize basic literacy and numerous skills
Process/mastery supporters
The curriculum uses efficient means to reach
predetermined, detailed and measurable ends.
Knowledge is viewed as an objective, impersonal, value-
free commodity to grasped.
Experientialists
Students are innately good
Students learn through active involvement in personally
meaningful learning experiences.
Teachers facilitate learning by providing, positive learning
environments.
Proponents of a Christian curriculum orientation
A Christian worldview and therefore a Christian curriculum
orientation, takes as its starting point that the Bible is
Gods authoritative Word of life.
Knowledge depends on Gods revelation in His creation
and in His Word.

Reflection on chapter 02

This chapter talked about how to choose curriculum. The curriculum contains

Traditionalists, Process/ mastery supporters and experientialists. However, at the

end of the chapter also talked about the proponents of a Christian curriculum. I

learned many aspects about curriculum and how it works. We teachers or school

managers need to choose wisely which curriculum that we want our school to adapt

to. Mostly, for Christian school we want our school to have Christian curriculum. In

Christian curriculum we believed that the Bible is the word of God and we study it.
Sopheaktra Chan

Chapter 03
A Christian Worldview as a basis for Curriculum
The creation Mandate
Created reality reflects Gods handiwork.
We gain awe, understanding, and insight from the way God
speaks to us in His creation order.
Genesis 1:28, 2:15, These verses have been called the Creation
Mandate or the cultural Mandate.
The Great Commandment
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as
yourself Mathew 22:37-39
Here are some marks of classroom that strive to obey the Great
Commandment:
1. Teachers care and pray for their students
2. Teachers encourage students to use their minds to the
best of their ability in service to and love for God.
3. Teachers promote constructive and fair relationships.
4. Rather that insisting on personal rights, teachers and
students together observe personal and communal
gratitude for Gods gift of grace.
The Great Commission
Now Christian usually think if the Great Commission in terms of
witnessing to those who do not believe in Christ, and that is an
important aspect of it.
The Great Commission requires Christian to tell the story of
salvation and at the same time act on its demands.
Worldviews, Values, and Schooling
Values are integral part of all worldviews. Values are ideals or
desirable guides for living that are deemed to be important.
They set direction in life, giving it meaning and purpose.
Some key Biblically Based Values:
1. Spiritual
2. Moral
3. Political/legal
4. Economic
5. Social
6. Language/Communication
7. Analytic/Logical
8. Aesthetic
9. Psychological
10.Physical Health
11.Biological and Physical
12.Mathematical
Sopheaktra Chan

The Implicit and Null Curricula

School have a planned curriculum. Many things happen in the
classroom, however, that teacher not fully plan.

Reflection on Chapter 03

This chapter talked about the curriculum in Christian school. Everything we

do, we must give glory to God. Both teachers and students must always keep the

Great Commandment in their heart. Moreover, they should focus on the Great

Commission. Both supposed to help each other to glorify God. From this chapter I

learned that no matter what, I should always have the Great commandments in my

heart and teach my students about the Great commandment. Following the

Christian curriculum can lead me to the servant of God. We are here on earth to

help restore the broken whole that been destroyed by Satan. So we need to focus

on the Great commission which is our work as the teachers.