For whom do we write the curriculum?

Abstract

The classroom experience contains an infinite number of variables that cannot realistically be related to in any manageable teacher's manual. When manuals aim at being ‘practical’, what is produced is often something that looks like practicality, but is not. Curriculum‐writing needs a new approach, intended to educate teacher rather than students. Such curriculum‐writing can be described as ‘rehearsal curriculum’. A rehearsal curriculum allows the teacher to work through a process of learning, as a ‘rehearsal’ for directing his or her students through that same process. A rehearsal curriculum is written in a way that also motivates the teacher to learn.

Keywords:

• adult learning
• curriculum design
• curriculum organization
• curriculum theory

Notes

1. ‘Adult learning differs from children's learning, for while children learn, adults often re‐learn. Relearning requires revision, and often, un‐learning. So much of what we remember learning … is actually a distortion of the truth and needs to be unlearned before we can go on to relearn’ (Reimer 1987: 73).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Morey Schwartz

Morey Schwartz is the Curriculum Co‐ordinator for the Florence Melton Adult Mini‐School Institute (FMAMSI), a project of the Melton Centre, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel 91905; e‐mail: [email protected]. FMAMSI has developed a 2‐year text‐based curriculum that is studied by adults in more than 60 cities worldwide.