Curriculum and Constructivism

Curriculum Overview

The Neighborhood Charter School's core philosophy is based on the constructivist paradigm. "When teachers recognize and honor the human impulse to construct new understandings, unlimited possibilities are created for students. Educational settings that encourage the active construction of meaning have several characteristics.

• Freeing students from the dreariness of fact-driven curriculum and allow them to focus on large ideas.
• Placing in students' hands the exhilarating power to follow trails of interest, to make connections, to reformulate ideas, and to reach unique conclusions.
• Sharing with students the important message that the world is a complex place in which multiple perspectives exist and truth is often a matter of interpretation.
• Acknowledging that learning, and the process of assessing learning, are, at best, elusive and messy endeavors that are not easily managed.

To understand constructivism, educators must focus attention on the learner. However, opportunities for learners to learn are heavily controlled by the structure of schools. We must always remember that in order to realize the possibilities for learning that a constructivist pedagogy offers, schools need to take a closer, more respectful look at their learners."

Brooks, Jacqueline, and Martin G. Brooks. In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999.

To read more about constructivism click here.

Content Overview

The charter's goal — to provide students with a solid scientific foundation so that they can make good conservation decisions throughout their lifetimes — was used in the design of the following curriculum maps. The premise that children must first develop a relationship with their world before they can care for it shaped the overarching theme caring and sharing for grades K-2. Only after children have had personal experience and built solid relationships and understandings about their world can they problem solve conservation issues and world crises. Therefore, the overarching theme for grades 3-5 is exploration.

The curriculum uses basic scientific concepts as its focus. Each grade level has a yearlong theme, which serves as an organizing concept for the skills and knowledge expected for each year. Both the Georgia Performance Standards and national professional standards were considered in the creation of the curriculum maps. Listed below are the themes (with content summaries) for each grade level.

Language Arts standards are imbedded throughout the curriculum. Specific Language Arts goals are not noted within the maps, but are present throughout the scientific explorations. In order for these skills to be truly integrated into the science curriculum, a Language Arts program that uses content driven materials for reading and writing instruction is utilized.

Within each curriculum map, there are potential mathematical inquiry questions related to the content being taught. These inquiry questions follow National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards. They serve as the linking idea between the scientific content and mathematical skill development.