ECS 203 Blog Post #1- Tegan Naumann

During this week's readings, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of the curriculum, common sense, and certain benefits and drawbacks of the curriculum. During the reading of The Problem of Common Sense Kumashiro defines common sense as what everyone should know and was taken for granted. It is important to pay attention to common sense because common sense can be different for different parts of the world and cultures. Common sense can be accepted and used in one society but can be very different from another's society. Kumashiro stated, "Like life in the village, at first life at the school was equally disconcerting, and it simply took me time to learn what to others was simply common sense". Kumashiro was from a US school which compared to the Nepal schools had very different common sense teaching and learning practices. This soon created issues between Kumashiro and the students and also the faculty. The teacher and faculty had different ideas about how to learn and teach although Kumashiro's intent was to introduce the students to a new form of learning. Common Sense in North America is different from Nepal and it took Kumashiro to get used to their common sense in order to succeed in their environment and society.

Kumashiro was excited to go and teach in another part of the world and wanted to help were ever she could through teaching. Although she faced ups and downs with the different practices of teaching and getting used to the different common sense in the village. She experienced the curriculum in Nepal to be a lecture-practice- exam. The students often wanted her to just teach what was in the curriculum and nothing outside it because they did not have that much time and for the final that determined if you passed the grade would only have questions from the government that would be similar to the ones inside the textbook. Kumashiro also wanted to introduce certain activities, materials, and problems to solve but then realized that the class time had to revolve around the textbook. As Kumashiro came from a different education style she brought different assumptions, expectations, and values to the school.    

In Canada, the curriculum is different from school to school and classroom to classroom but the overall picture is the same. We have set times to be at school, and how long classes are which depends on if you will have that class every day or every second day and studying the four "core disciplines". The teacher also has to follow the curriculum rules of what has to be taught in class and what the students have to be tested on. The teachers often get the students to participate in activities that relate to what they are learning or even teach them more than what they have to to help challenge the student's knowledge. This model helps keeps the teachers, students, and faculty organized and to create a goal for all parties. However, most teachers find themselves cramming the rest of the topics that need to be covered at the end of the year due to a lack of time. this causes important topics not to be taught to the best of the teacher's ability and will reflect poorly upon the student in future classes or life after school. The lack of time also prevents the teachers from planning fun activities and field trips that will benefit and expand the student's knowledge on certain topics.