INFORMING THE SHAPE OF THE CURRICULUM - NEW VIEWS OF KNOWLEDGE AND ITS REPRESENTATION IN SCHOOLING

Fundamental reform of American secondary schooling will require more t han just revising the structures and relationships within schools; it demands as well a serious rethinking of the curriculum, the heart of t eaching and learning. Drawing on several school-based examples, the pa per illustrates the differences between 'subject matter learning' and disciplinary learning. It then proceeds to explore some of the problem s posed by using disciplines as the primary source of authority in sha ping the curriculum, and goes on to propose a more radical, alternativ e model for thinking about curriculum. This alternative attempts to in tegrate more evenly the influence of disciplines with other influences on the curriculum, such as the child's world, the particulars of cont ext and the knowledge of professions.