One of the last paragraphs from the Mullen reading mentions that most people in education would agree that the major goal of education is to improve the profession and student learning. Reguardless of whether you believe in process or product, the ultimate goal is to help the children in anyway we can. Whether it's in our teachings or life occurrances, most people in this profession are in it for the students. With that in mind, I agree with the curriculum developers that believe in process as the main means of learning. To start my point, I am going to talk about Conant, a proponant of product. He emphasizes the need of a greater influx of math and science and elimination of other non-academic areas, because they don't offer as much as the previously mentioned subjects. Being in a non-academic area, I find this to be appaling, because you are taking away areas that people can excel at. Whether it's phys ed, art, shop, etc, all of these areas allow people to experience excellence that might not comein math and science. I think Conant developed this rationale because he was comparing the US to other countries. Sometimes I think this is the rationale of people who develop our educational guidelines.
The two curriculum theorist that have the best views, in my opinion, are Thorndike and Bruner. The theories I agree with are that students have to have a connection with the facts to experience the neccassary learning. I believe children need to connect with the information to want to learn and continue to try and educate themselves. If they are force-feed than learning can be minimal and roadblocks will be encountered.As teachers we have all experienced lessons that go real smooth because the students find relivance to the materials being taught. We also have experienced the lows when students are bored or distant because of negative experiences related to the topic.
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If a student likes what they are learning, the student will generally learn and retain alot of information, of course we all know this to be true. It also means that the student may have some prior experience with the material. I also agree with the theory that students have to have a connection with the facts to experience the neccassary learning seems to be true in the above case. Some, if not alot of students don't necessarily like what they are being taught. This is where the teacher must try to make things interesting if possible.
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