I just finished reading the blog post “Everything you know about curriculum might be wrong. Really.” by Grant Wiggins. It was really fascinating. In his post, Wiggins explains why we need to reevaluate the way that we define curriculum and the meaning of education. To do this, we have to flip our thinking around: knowledge does not lead to performance, but rather performance leads to knowledge. Thus Wiggins argues that education should be focused on the present and future, not the past. As a part of this, learning is done through doing, rather than rote learning. He argues that if we adopted this progressive form of curriculum, our students would be actively engaged in their education and become better 21st century citizens. In essence, it is the solution to our current education problems.
Wiggins gave a lot of real-life examples and quotes from educational researchers, all of which really resonated with me. When I as a student, I often wondered why I was in school. How was all of this “knowledge” going to help me? What I wanted more than anything was just to be out in the world–traveling, exploring, learning from my experiences.
As an educator, adopting this kind of progressive curriculum would be challenging, but very meaningful and rewarding because I could learn and grow with my students. It would motivate and inspire me to be more creative and innovative with my lessons, instead of passively teaching the same material again and again.
I wholeheartedly believe that if we teach our students how to grow with the constant evolution of current knowledge and apply what they learn to future problems and needs, our students will learn everything they need to be successful in the 21st century work force and create a better world.
Elizabeth's Blog for EDUC 932 
I suppose that I will have to check out the article because I am a bit confused. What would be an example of “doing” instead of just “learning”? Would this be field trips or hands-on experiments and activities? If so, then I think that the author is overstating his message. Most teachers realise that people learn better by doing. As I said, I’ll have to check out the original text. -Bill
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Its not that that learning by doing is a new concept. His point is that even though many educators and famous intellectuals have pointed this out many times, our education system does not reflect this. Our current system focuses on gaining knowledge by just sitting in a classroom and trying to study/memorize facts.
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Ah, I see
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I liked the idea of “flipping the script.” Saying that performance leads to knowledge.
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Great post, especially regarding some of the challenges of implementation.
It sounds like you’re describing some elements of the Finnish school system. They focus on radically different, more relevant tasks, and their students consistently outperform everyone else. Here’s a really cool article about their schools/approach.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?all
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Thanks for the article Andrew!^^ I’ll definitely check it out~~
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This article echoes the ideals we discussed during our curriculum course. In my most recent blog I found an article based on ‘learning through the medium of play,’ and once again 21st century skills came up. It really seems that these issues need to be addressed and taken more seriously if administrations and institutions want produce 21st century graduates.
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Just as Gareth said, as I read I kept jumping back to Curriculum, but I also thought back to our Leadership class. Dr. Andolina stressed the use of “authentic lessons.” We need to learn to walk before we can run, right? Teaching material is necessary but allowing students to explore (guided) application of learned material can be extremely helpful.
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