Curriculum-as-Stuff Model
The Curriculum-as-Stuff Model holds the idea that children
learn only through the consumption of published materials and tests. It
includes teachers who teach with stuff rather than ideas and classroom
organizations that meet the needs of the children. The Curriculum-as-Stuff
Model is an outgrowth of mass consumerism and the testing regime, which opposes
the idea that children need to encounter thinking, caring others who
communicate and explore their worlds with them. Obviously we tell learners that
we care about them by having clean, well-supplied classrooms and schools;
artifacts are useful and interesting, but the key idea is to know where the
learners need to go (goals!) and to find interesting, fascinating activities
that engage them towards those goals. Only the good teacher can build this
complex idea-based curriculum.
