Can Students Have a Say in Curriculum?

In a recent post "Student Pathways into a Curriculum: Chaotic or Empowering," Benjamin Freud raises many questions we've heard from teachers about how we build student-centered curricula.

He introduces the challenge, which is that standards (and some other outside forces) dictate what we MUST teach students, but these skills and concepts themselves may not be innately interesting to our students. But, if we give students license to learn what they want to learn, then how will we know if they've learned what they need to learn? Some would argue that the more structure we put into curriculum, the better. The more common our activities and assessments, the more equitable the education. Correct?

Freud says, 

"Careful! There is a bait and switch at play: in order not to see ourselves as one of those people who force curriculum down students’ throats, we defend our ways by saying we’re helping students, guiding them. “You’ll see,” we declare, “they’ll thank us for it one day when they realize that we were that inspiring figure who opened them up to the unknown world of calculating the angle of the refraction of light!” It’s all nicely brought together in a conscience-appeasing dictum. Our job is to introduce students to subjects they don’t know they love yet.

The problem is that all these good intentions can quickly lead us to teaching what the teacher is in love with, or worse, what the teacher somehow feels the students should love because that is what the teacher was told she should love back when she was at school. Good intentions gone astray. "

While the post raises more questions than it provides in answer, the post is timely as many teachers are thinking about revising and implementing curricula and performance tasks while working toward our Griswold Forward goals. Consider: 

• Are all of the tasks or topics that we think we "have to do" really mandatory? Or are they simply customary, a reflection of what past teachers said was important or what the individual teacher likes? 
• Can we provide flexibility in the content, process, or product for the unit while still meeting the spirit and rigor of the standards for our grade level and content? 
• Can we build our units around meaningful topics or questions that can be customized for student interest, but which are still manageable for a single teacher or team to monitor and implement?

Placing students at the center may mean leaving behind traditions and opening our minds to new texts, new activities, and new ways of structuring class time. If you are interested in looking for places in your curriculum to incorporate student-centered learning, check out this resource from Cult of Pedagogy that breaks down the steps for planning a unit around an authentic "task."

What questions or concerns do you have about project-based learning (or similarly, problem-based learning or inquiry-based learning)?