What is the Impact of our Curriculum?
In all my years working in organizational development I have been results-oriented.
I believe in results and outcomes.
I understand results come from action and focus.
I think in terms of focus, then action and finally the results.
So if I turn my attention onto the education of students, I see that schools focus primarily on intellectual development. Obviously intellectual development is important, and shows up in scores in math, reading comprehension, English, science. The results in all core subjects areas are directly related to the amount of time and energy spent on these subjects.
What about the social and emotional development of our youth? Where do you think those results might show up on a school’s report card?
From my perspective it shows up in classroom behavior, schoolyard interactions, as well as student dealings with teachers, administrative staff and each other throughout the campus. It shows up in how students communicate with each other.
Most schools review the numbers of principal referrals and bullying incidents. Some schools might interview teachers on the classroom management issues they are facing. All of these give us information regarding the job we are doing as educators.
Measuring Emotional and Social Literacy on a scale like that used for intellectual development is much harder. It might even be an illusive ideal to have a school wide measure for these things. But it might be time to start thinking along these lines.
The community in which your school, your family and in fact my family and friends live is dependent on us measuring and developing the emotional and social well being of students in our classrooms.
The community we want tomorrow is dependent on the results of schools today.
You may have mentioned this in a previous post, but maybe we should begin by reserving a portion of students’ grades for group work. You can make this group work concrete, such as quizzes or projects; however, I believe that is essential that we begin communicating to our students that success depends on how well they work and acutally collaborate with others towards a finished product. At least this is a simple start, with more of a positive focus.
I’m still working on assessments and other ways to measure EQ and SQ.
@Ashley
I’m sorry I’m so late in replying. I went to wish my 92 year old mother Happy Birthday. She lives 2500 miles away and I was on the road for 10 days.
Thanks for the great thoughts and ideas on group work. I usually develop a rubric for the students based on what I want them to improve in… Rubrics on items such as collaboration, thoughtfulness, patience in listening to their partners on the team, helping team members etc.
I find that rubrics help students make distinctions about really appropriate and less appropriate social and emotional behaviors. I’d love to see the assessment you’re developing… Maybe we could collaborate.
Trinidad@TrinidadHunt.com