Curriculum Ideology

Social Efficiency

Alexandra Hassel & Jessica Kuziw

Education 3501: Section GH
Professor Darlene St. Georges
October 7th, 2020

Part 1: Summary:
 Curriculum ideology encompasses the beliefs about what schools should teach students

and why. The social efficiency ideology was launched by Franklin Bobbitt in 1913. It believes

that teachers should prepare students to become contributing members of society by training

them to develop skills that will efficiently meet the needs of society. It suggests that education is

something that prepares one for adult life which relies on their ability to perform specific

activities. Rather than simply filling students minds with information, this ideology believes that

the most useful knowledge is the capability to perform skills that will be more relevant to the

future lives of students.

Students are viewed as workers, providing efforts to transform themselves, that should

obtain the required capabilities to function in life. Teachers are essentially in complete control as

they decide what the students are supposed to learn, as well as why and how they are going to

learn it. The change in behaviour that they are seeking is often based on a stimulus-response type

of learning experience where they allow the students repetitive practice to gain experience in that

particular skill.

The teacher’s instruction is guided by clearly defined behavioural objectives which are

explicitly designed by the curriculum. They are encouraged to ask/answer four questions when

creating their instructional programs. Those being; What educational purposes should the school

seek to attain? (what are the goals). What educational experiences can be provided that are likely

to attain these purposes? (what experiences will be included to attain these goals). How can these

educational experiences be effectively organized? (how will these experiences be organized to

have a cumulative effect and reinforce each other). How can we determine whether these

purposes are being attained? (what methods of evaluation can determine the degree of progress

these experiences have had on reaching the goals).

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 Part 2: Lesson Plan

Grade: Three (3)

POS: English Language Arts, Lesson Title: Exploring Empathy
Lesson Time between 30- 40 mins max - Hypothetical class time (9:00-9:40)

Overview of lesson
100 – words – Concise and clear description

Begin with a runthrough of the goal of the lesson. Next the teacher demonstrates how they will reflect on an
experience they’ve had that activated an emotion and write a brief story about this experience that they will be
willing to share with the class (~10 mins). Students will then write their story (~10 mins), get into partners and
share (~10 mins). Reconvening, willing students can share in front of the class, finishing with a review of what
they took away from the class (~10 mins).

Alberta Program of Study

General Learning Objectives (Maximum 1 ) Specific Learning Objectives (Maximum 2)

Students will be able to represent and explore their
thoughts, emotions and experiences through
listening, speaking, reading and written work.
Express ideas and develop understanding
- Express ideas through orally and written work
with a sense of fluency
- Develop an understanding of respect for others'
work by asking questions and talking to others.

Curriculum Ideology
Identify and give a brief description of the ideological lens this lesson is designed through. (Based on your
assigned Ideology Reading) Indicate how your lesson is designed to have students experience this
ideology.
100 – 150 words – Concise and clear description. Draw from your Summary

The Social Efficiency Ideology believes that teachers are to teach and educate children in order to prepare them
to be active individuals that meet the needs of society. Students are viewed as workers who are given skills in
school to function efficiently in life. This lesson plan uses this ideology as an influence by teaching the students
tangible communication skills in written and oral demonstration. It will help students gain a sense of empathy
by relating and listening to their peers' stories. Both of these skills are needed to be active and good citizens in
the world. This lesson also allows students to use experiences from their lives and appropriately reflect, portray
and develop an understanding of their emotions in that instance, as well as listen and relate to other individuals

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about their experiences.

Learning Resources / Material & Equipment used * book, manipulatives, online resources etc...

White Board
Papers or Notebooks
Vocabulary sheet

Lesson Procedures (Steps)

Introduction (time: 10 mins):

This can be done in point form For this lesson.
As you begin to develop lessons you will be require to get more elaborate and descriptive

GOAL ** our goal is to get students to develop effective communication skills and have empathy towards one
another.
Starting at 9:00am
The lesson will begin with letting the students know the outcomes and purpose of this lesson by explaining that
- Goal is to be able to express thought and emotion
- Be able to relate to others and have a sense of empathy
- Express ideas, emotions and experiences orally and through written work.
Next
- Ask students to think about an experience (one they would be comfortable sharing) that made them feel
a particular way either happy, sad, stressed, nervous etc.
- Explain, yourself the teacher, a time where you experienced emotion
- Explain how that event made you feel, who was there, what caused this emotion, why they felt this way
etc.
At approximately 9:10am, ask students to get out their notebooks for a writers workshop, write 5-10 sentences
about this experience. (10min)

Body (time: 20 mins):

Show all the steps and transitions in lesson. Indicate timing of each section. Identify teaching strategies
(that you know) and approaches. Example, direct instruction, guided inquiry, small group collaborations,
pair/share etc...These are approaches that we are using now in class. Work with what you know. We will
be learning more about instructional approaches in subsequent classes

Beginning the body of the lesson at 9:10am, the teacher will allow the students to begin writing their story
about the experience they have had that provoked some sort of emotional response.
-They will be given ten minutes to write their story. This task will take place individually at their desks.

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At 9:20am the teacher will gather the students attention, giving them a moment to switch their minds over from
individual work to direct instruction so that they are more engaful listeners. Once the class's full attention is
gathered, the teacher will then explain to them their next step.
Via direct instruction the teacher will explain;
- The students will partner up at the teachers say so (to avoid movement and loss of focus for the
remainder of the instruction).
-They will verbally exchange their written stories with another student, in the form of pair and share.
-The students will be allowed to situate wherever they would like to in the classroom (to increase their
comfort while sharing their personal stories) and notified that if they cannot keep to the task outside of
their desks that they will have to return to them.
-They will communicate with their peers and ideally demonstrate engagefulness in others experiences.
-The teacher will walk around to observe that students are remaining on task, guiding them back to
sharing their stories if they are not.
-Once the students have completed sharing with their partner they will switch partners a couple times
more and repeat (the teacher will gauge the amount of time the pairings need before finishing and losing
focus)
At 9:30am the teacher will turn the students attention back to them, requesting that they take their places in their
desks, allowing them a moment to adjust their focus.

Closure and consolidation (time: 10 mins)

At 9:30am the teacher will gather the student’s attention back at their desks.
Once their attention has adjusted back to the teacher, the teacher will ask if there are any students willing to
share their stories in front of the class.
If there are any volunteers, one at a time, the students will stand up at their desks and share their story.
-Students will be advised to respectfully listen to the ones sharing.
-Once the student is finished sharing, the remainder of the class will be encouraged to vocally express
their engagement and reflection to those stories/emotions.
After sharing, the teacher will then prompt conversation from the students for feedback on what they have
learned/taken away from the lesson.
Conversation of the matter and the lesson will be completed by 9:40am.

Professional Reflections:

Develop at least two important critical questions for your peers, who view your video presentation, to
consider regarding the ideology and your lesson . Ask these questions in your presentation and use them
to guide your conferencing in Sept 30th class - When you go into break out rooms

Guiding Questions to consider when you formulation your important questions: What were challenges

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you faced designing the lesson through the ideology? How did the ideology inform/influence/impact your
lesson design, teaching approaches, the materials chosen?

We found it difficult to apply this ideology (social efficiency) to a lesson plan for younger grades than we
would expect it to be for older grades. In our opinion, many life skills would be considered too advanced or
difficult to grasp for elementary and would be more easily understood/taught at older ages.
-With that being said, do you agree that the goal of this lesson can be considered a valuable life skill,
and what other ‘life skills’ could be incorporated early in elementary?

This ideology influenced our lesson design as students sharing their own personal stories with multiple
members of the class may not be a typical or comfortable approach for some, however we thought it was
important that the students develop the ability to feel empathetic and relate to their peers.
-Are there any suggestions of other approaches that we could have used in order for the students to
understand another's feelings?

What might be some challenges that teachers will face in the classroom under this ideology?

In what way does the Social Efficiency ideology effect assessment and evaluation?

Pro’s Con’s

- Preparation for the future; Adult life
- All working towards same goal
- Focuses on the greater good of society
- Efficient in training individuals for the
skills they will need later on in adult
life.
- Allows learners to prioritize and focus
on necessary skills.
- Comes off a little demanding, not
totally about the learning experience,
- Individuals needs can feel neglected
due to society's needs being the
priority
- The assumption that everyone is the
same and that everyone's goals are the
same
- Potentially feels conforming
- Could be argued that it reduces
individuality and creativity in learning

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Reflective Essay:

Curriculum ideologies are sets of beliefs that people obtain about what education's main

purpose is. This includes what they should teach, how they should teach, and why they should

teach it. These beliefs, or theories if you will, provide rationale for curriculum decisions and

defend the driving forces behind that ideology. They are often stemmed from economic,

political, philosophical and social influences. Each ideology that we encountered through this

project has its own unique set of beliefs, with occasional overlap to one another. They all agree

with such things like students should learn to read and write, however, other views are not as

unproblematic between them.

Each ideology has its own pros and cons as they each provide a foundation of learning

that might not be valued by all. They each have many possibilities as well as limitations. We

personally felt as though the ideal teaching/learning methods would involve aspects from each

ideology rather than strictly following an individual one. A limitation for most ideologies is that

with all of the knowledge of the different types of learners it is hard to implement just one

system for all. Students respond better/worse to different techniques and in order for them to

thrive they need to feel supported through many methods rather than restricted to one.

The Learner Centered ideology was rather intriguing as its primary focal point is on the

concerns of the individual. Going from focusing on the complete opposite in social efficiency

where society's needs are the priority this ideology and lesson plan stood out. In a branch of

learner centered learning, organic schools allow students to acquire knowledge when they are

developmentally ready and without pressure. This itself was both beneficial and concerning to

us. It allows individual students to grow at their own pace and this can build confidence and

independence. They discover themselves along the way and it is meant to cause less stress to the

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students. However, this can be difficult because every student matures a little bit differently than

the next. It may be difficult to continually accommodate and cater to multiple stages of growth in

a classroom. Due to its goal being to support the interests of individuals and for the student to

define instruction, knowledge comes second to that in importance. It is as if the learning

influences the teaching rather than the other way around. This leaves potential for students to not

obtain the knowledge that will beneficially help them in life. There could also be potential for a

selfish society to develop as individual’s needs and interests have been catered to for the

majority of their youth and this could lead to unrealistic expectations outside of school.

We found that the Scholar Academic Ideology was very similar to the Social Efficiency

ideology in that they both veer towards developing citizens that are fit and necessary for society.

This is beneficial because its intentions are to prepare students for the future so that they can be

contributing members by being extremely knowledgeable in one specific area of academia.

However, this can potentially reduce aspects of individualism and creativity and it places the

requirements of society over those of the individual. In this ideology teaching is more

authoritative and provides more direct instruction rather than cooperative learning between

teachers and students which may not suit every learner.

We felt as though these ideologies were not significantly easier/harder for lesson

planning than others. The academic scholar ideology would likely have a more narrow and less

varying curriculum to follow. With the point being to choose a discipline and become a scholar

in that regiment, the lessons would be to directly instruct that discipline's knowledge. However,

with that being said they all contain their own challenges in design.

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