Curriculum as Conversation: Transforming Traditions of Teaching and Learning

by Arthur N. Applebee

Book Overview

"Applebee's central point, the need to teach 'knowledge in context, ' is absolutely crucial for the hopes of any reformed curriculum. His experience and knowledge give his voice an authority that makes many of the current proposals on both the left and right seem shallow by comparison."-Gerald Graff, University of Chicago

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226021238
• ISBN13: 9780226021232
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

If we're talking then the curriculum is alive

In this quick read, Applebee suggests that when considering curriculum, educators think about the role of conversation. Without a need for real, deep, meaningful conversation around unanswered intriguing questions, curriculum is dead. All too frequently curriculum rests in a set of standards, benchmarks and already answered questions which are asked to the learner. If the questions already have answers why ask them? This book asks the fundamental question, how do we design learning contexts in which learners are invited into the conversations that are taking place between experts in any field of study. When we invite students to wrestle with these questions we are including them in authentic learning experiences because they, like the experts must engage in the struggle to find a solution to an unanswered question. What could be more inspirational?