History of the Curriculum

3–5 credits · Graduate

Development of the school curriculum in historical context, from ancient notions rooted in religious traditions to present-day ideas about "blended curriculum," "problem-based learning," home schooling, and arguments about the contents of the Advanced Placement curriculum and recent "math wars" and "history wars." Focus will be on the core school subjects (history, civics, math, and science), with a emphasis on the explosion of curriculum development in the 1960s, such as Jerome Bruner's MACOS (Man-a-Course-of-Study), the "New Math," Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), and Jerrald Zacharias's "New Physics." Contemporary developments will include topics such as the Afrocentric curriculum movement along with E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum. Focus will be on understanding the historical antecedents of contemporary trends.