On the Naming of Curriculum Standards

Taipei Municipal University

of Education ,Yang Long-lih

National Taiwan

Normal University,Pan Li-chu

Abstract:In order to ensure the quality of basic education,all countries in the world issued requirements or norms as to the management of primary and secondary education and the behaviors of teachers and students.Terminologies vary in the issued requirements or norms,such as education act,educational norms,teaching plans,curriculum,curriculum standards,course syllabus,and course guidelines.This study aims at the discussion of the naming issue of the content and activity of basic education through the analysis,comparison,and inference of concepts so as to obtain relevant principles of naming.

Through the analysis of four concepts - learning,education,teaching and curriculum,we shall be in a position to understand the intertwined relation among them.The potential advantages and disadvantages of different names can also be inferred from these existing concepts and cases.Because every country has its own right of naming,consensus cannot be easily reached as to the meaning of the concepts of learning,education,teaching and curriculum.Every name has its own advantages and disadvantages.The author concludes with five key points for the terminology naming problem as follows.

1.Self-determination.There is no agreement among different countries and regions on the terminologies for the undertakings and activities of basic education.Thus,we should take into consideration different terminologies of different countries and regions when we are in the process of naming.

2.Ever-changing.Terminologies change with time.Names we use today are very likely to change in the future,and we should not take it for granted that the terminologies we use will last for ever.

3.Manifestation of viewpoints.The selection of names reflects the unique concern and viewpoints in each country.Thus,renaming can be conducted only when the academic views have changed or when the political situation has changed.

4.Advantages and disadvantages of different names.Strictly speaking,both advantages and disadvantages exist in the terminology named in different counties.It is essential to be aware of the advantages and to overcome the disadvantages once a certain name is adopted.

5.Names are reflection of certain viewpoints and stands.If different names are used to refer to similar content,a problem of ill-matching between the names and their content will occur.Hence,once a certain name is adopted,the content should match it well.After all,things sounds correct and are made easier if their names have suitable content.

Key words:naming;conceptual analysis;teaching and learning;curriculum standard;education standard

The authors:Yang Long-lih (1957-),male,Taiwanese of Han nationality,is dean and a professor in the Department of Education at Taipei Municipal University of Education.His main areas of research are education,curriculum,teaching,and science education.(Pan Li-chu (1959-),female,Taiwanese of Han nationality,is a professor in the Department of Chinese,National Taiwan Normal University.Her main interests of research are Chinese literature,new literature and art,theory of poetry,poetry instruction,and the teaching of Chinese in primary and secondary schools.

1.Introduction:the importance of naming

A country or a region usually has some requirements for its basic education.Ever since the 19th century,education has been controlled by the government of a country.When a large number of people demand basic education and when compulsory education booms as a result,the content and quality of basic education will become a social concern.All countries and regions in the world issued requirements for primary and secondary education,or norms for the behaviors of teachers and students.Some were promulgated in the form of laws while others in the form of official regulations.The actual names of the laws or regulations vary.Some commonly used names include education acts,educational standards,educational plans,national curriculum,curriculum standards,course syllabuses,course guidelines,etc.In Mainland China,a widely accepted name is curriculum standards;in the United States,educational standards;and in Japan,education guidelines.

It seems that different places in the world have different names,and these names seem to be rational and legitimate if respect is given to different cultures and regions.But more often than not,we find changes of names used in different places.Thus it is still necessary to discuss the issue of naming.Could it be given a better name? To many people,a country or a region took a variety of factors into consideration when it made the decision on the selection of names,and,therefore,there seems to be no point in discussing the matter.However,this paper holds the view that the naming of the requirements or norms concerning the content of basic education and behaviors of teachers and students is both a practical and theoretical issue,and that the result of the research will provoke further thinking about this issue.

The discussion of naming might offer us a broader perspective as it involves facts in history,comparison between different terminologies in the world,and analysis of relevant concepts in education.Such a study would avoid such factors as politics,power,and profit,and thus avoid controversy and bias.This paper analyzes the merits and demerits of different names.As to the selection of names,it is so complex a matter that it is beyond the domain of discussion in this paper.

2.A review of the naming of curriculum standards

The current terminologies of the requirements or norms for the content of basic education and behaviors of teacher and students can be generally understood from the information that we currently have.

2.1 Chinese terminology

Mainland China issued “School Charter” in late Qing Dynasty,and used “Curriculum Standards” in the period of Republic.When it stepped into the period of People's Republic of China,“Teaching Plans and Syllabuses of all Subjects” were adopted and then changed in 1992 into “Curriculum Plans” and “Subject Syllabuses”,which again were replaced in 1995 with one name “Curriculum Plans”.In 1999,with the publication of Basic Education Curriculum Reform Guidelines,Curriculum Plans for Compulsory Education and General Senior High Schools,and Curriculum Standards for All Subjects,Mainland China began to employ “Curriculum Plans” and “Curriculum Standards” instead of “Teaching Plans” and “Syllabus”.In Hong Kong,the terms of curriculum guidelines,curriculum guides,and learning guidelines are used interchangeably.In 2000,Taiwan renamed “Curriculum Standards” as “Curriculum Guidelines”,and stressed that the guidelines were brief,and that the purpose of the renaming was to endow schools and teachers with greater autonomy.

2.2 Non-Chinese terminology

In Japan,before World War Ⅱ,the requirements of curricula were laid out in “Enforcement Rules for National Schools” and “Middle School Regulations”.In the 22nd year of Showa Period (1947 AD),Japan,influenced by the United States,published “Learning Guidelines”,and “Learning Guidelines for Primary Schools”,and “Learning Guidelines for Secondary Schools” are currently used to formulate the courses of primary school and secondary school respectively.The United States has no nation-wide uniform of primary and secondary education.Hence the educational content and curriculum requirements have varied terminologies.But ever since 1990,there has been a standardization trend.“Goals 2000” was promulgated,and then “Education Standards” were made for many subjects.Britain published “Education Reform Act 1988 ” in 1988,in which the term of “National Curriculum” was used.All in all,different countries and regions in the world have evolved different terminologies to meet their own needs of education reform.

When seen in terms of places,names of the content and activities of basic education and the norms for the behaviors of teachers and students vary with different countries,regions and cultures.When examined in terms of space,different countries and cultural systems usually have different names;when examined in terms of time,different countries,regions and cultures employs different names in different periods of time.Therefore,the current names used by different countries and cultures are subject to change.Besides,the familiar and accepted term of “Curriculum Standards”,there are many other names that we can choose and consider.The educational standards of the United States and the learning guidelines suggest to us that it is unnecessary for us to insist on the use of curriculum plans,curriculum standards or curriculum guidelines,and that the term “Curriculum ××” is not necessarily a name that cannot be changed.But whether to change names and how to change them can be determined only on the basis of relevant academic research.Different countries and regions have their own naming right.Therefore,the naming is not only a simple academic issue,but also an issue of politics and culture.

3.The intertwinement among the four terms — learning,education,teaching and curriculum

Naming involves language convention,and is also closely linked with the meaning of words and concepts.All the terminologies in China and abroad can be roughly grouped into four terms:learning,education,teaching,and curriculum,which are four important concepts in educational academia as well.These concepts will be analyzed in the following.

3.1 Learning

Learners are the subjects of learning,which is the consensus of the majority.But are learners the subjects of education? Or the subjects of teaching? There are different opinions.Education or teaching has always been considered with regard to learning.When people argue from the point of view of learning and take into account the independent and autonomous learning,the roles and functions of education or teaching will be in a paradoxical state since it seems that independent and autonomous learning does not need external and additional education or teaching.In the current educational academia,there is one prevalent argument which is both contradictory and seemingly in agreement:on one hand,independent and autonomous learning is advocated;and,on the other hand,the value of education and teaching is stressed.

In fact,learning should be divided into two kinds:actual learning and ideal learning.Actual learning is not necessarily defined as independent and autonomous,but ideal learning is.Education or teaching is indispensable in the growing process of the learners,especially in the turning process from actual learning to ideal learning.Therefore,the relationship between teaching and learning,education and learning,or instruction and learning becomes an intrinsic integrated relationship.Teaching and learning are the two interdependent factors in the teaching (i.e.teaching and learning) activity,and they promote the advance and accomplishment of the course of teaching (i.e.teaching and learning).Only in this case can teaching be formulated by learning,and learning described by teaching.In the late Qing Dynasty,the Ministry of Learning responsible for educational affairs was split from the Board of Rites and Ceremonies,and was changed into “Ministry of Education” in the period of the Republic of China.Different names assume the same responsibility.This is also true of the educational standards of the United States and the learning guidelines in Japan.

3.2 Education

The concept of education today has become a superordinate concept,the content of which,as is widely accepted,includes all matters in education.Therefore,the concept of education includes the ideas of teaching,education and curriculum.School education refers to all kinds of education and education-related matters within the educational institutions named schools,such as the education systems,education measures,education plans,education modes,education methods,educational content and educators.While the content of the concept of education is widely accepted,there are still some uncertainties that need further consideration.

(1) Whether the concept of education still contains the meaning of educating.The semantic meaning of the concept “education” before the nineteenth century differs from that of today.The early meaning of education involves the meaning of cultivating and nurturing,more or less like the nurturing of small animals.In the nineteenth century,the Japanese translated the word “education” into “jiaoyu” (education),which was in line with the semantic meaning of the concept at that time.When we consult Chinese and foreign language reference books,we cannot find the meaning of cultivating and nurturing.The term “education” in many English reference books is interpreted as teaching (instruction) and learning.Therefore,what is left in the meaning of the English word “education” today is teaching and learning without the meaning of educating.Similarly,the Chinese word for “education” also seems to have lost the meaning of educating,which was particularly stressed in ancient China.

(2) Whether the two words “education” and “teaching” can be interchanged.When “education” is defined by the content of teaching and learning,we are confused with these questions:do education and teaching bear some differences? Are they interchangeable? The meaning of “teaching” here does not merely mean teaching,but teaching and learning.The concept was translated as “education” by Japanese in the nineteenth century,and then borrowed and used in China.If it had been translated by Japanese as teaching,nurturing or cultivating,then the meaning of education would not have been translated as jiaoyu (education) when it began to be widely used in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The high degree of overlapping between education and teaching can be proved by two other words.(a) “Pedagogy” is translated as teaching,education,instruction and so on.It is sometimes considered as a method of teaching.The conception of a teaching method here differs from teaching skills and actions within a specific discipline that is widely acknowledged nowadays.Therefore,the widely-used words of education and teaching are actually interchangeable,such as language teaching (teaching and learning) and language education.(b) Didactic can refer to instruction or teaching.The modern Western educator Comenius (John Amos Comenius,1592-1670) wrote The Great Didactics or Didactics Magna.In the preface of the book,he made it clear that he was seeking for methods and art of teaching.In the book chapters,general principles of teaching and subjects to be taught were discussed.The whole book seems to be discussing ways,principles and measures concerning school education.From the title of the book and the discussion in it,it is not easy for us to clearly distinguish the concepts of teaching and education.Simply speaking,education is to study the phenomena and activities of teaching and learning.So is the teaching.Therefore,both the concepts of education and teaching bear inherent similarity and unity.

(3) Whether education includes some hidden curriculum that produces poor students.Many definitions of education discuss one characteristic — “Education should be activities of positive value”.Education is not only of value,but also heads to a better and higher degree of value.It is positive rather than negative.In short,education is to teach students to behave well,and it is by no means an attempt to teach students to misbehave.When the curriculum is seen as a subordinate concept under the concept of education,or a tool to achieve the aims of education,the curriculum should reflect the core characteristics of education.When the concept of the implicit or hidden curriculum was introduced in the middle of the 20th century,it was capable of accepting negative value and producing poor students.As a result,the concept of implicit or hidden curriculum has grown larger than the concept of education. Further consideration is needed as to how to resolve this problem.

(4) Education is a concept of wide coverage,and therefore should avoid being specific.As mentioned earlier,education refers to education system,education measures,education plans,education modes,education methods,educational content,educators and the like.When people use the word education,do they mean everything in education,or only a part of it? When it refers to a part of education,what specific part is it? If we discuss education in terms of teaching and curriculum in school education,we can generally identify four levels of education (from narrow to wide):(a) the education of one single subject;(b) the education of all subjects;(c) the education of all subjects plus various activities of the teachers and students;(d) the education of all subjects,various activities of the teachers and students and all such relevant factors as school buildings,books,instruments and equipment,the welfare and professional development of the teachers.This is the largest concept of education.Thus,“school education” can refer to the four respective levels.

3.3 Teaching

Teaching is a term familiar to everyone.In the educational academia,there is a family of relevant terms:teaching,teaching method,teaching strategy,teaching mode and teaching method.In the English educational academia,the concept of “teaching” is understood in terms of this family of terms.Teaching is clearly defined as in the phrase “teaching skills”.The meaning and concept of teaching here is clear.It is the same as the Chinese term jiaoxue.However,as to the conceptual meaning of teaching,there are still some points left for further consideration.

(1) The concept of jiaoxue in Chinese has two conceptual meanings.It is a unique feature of the Chinese language that each character in a word contains a meaning and that the meaning of a word is the combination of the meanings of its characters.Take,for example,the Chinese saying “jiaoxuexiangzhang (the teacher learns while he teaches)”.The word “teaching” has the following two conceptual meanings:(a) it can refer specifically to “teaching” or “instruction”;(b) it can cover both “teaching” and “learning”.The dual meaning of the concept of teaching can be studied from the integration process of teaching and learning.Wang Cesan put forward the idea of teaching epistemology,advocating a Trinity Structure consisting of the interaction of the students,the curriculum and the teacher. Cong Lixin argued that teaching and learning could neither be separated nor combined,but always unified in the situation of teaching.Therefore,the conceptual meaning of teaching can be both narrow and broad.People should be careful enough to ensure the meaning of the Chinese word “jiaoxue” when use it.For example,what does it mean when we say “improving teachers' teaching”,or “small class teaching”? Sensitive readers may thereby notice that such current popular terms as “teaching principles”,“teaching modes”,“teaching strategy”,etc.put more emphasis on the aspect of teaching than on learning.In English,“teaching principles” and “teaching modes” contain only the literal meaning of teaching.Therefore,there is little doubt in the discussion of the aspect of teaching.However,in Chinese,if “jiaoxue (teaching)” is defined as “teaching and learning”,the name and its meaning seem to be discrepant.

(2) Differences between teaching and instruction.The widely used word “jiaoxue” is the accepted translation of the English word “teaching” or “instruction”.“Teaching” and “instruction” are virtually different in meaning.Their differences can be seen in the following table.

Table 1 The differences between “teaching” and “instruction”

The word “teaching” is mostly used to describe situations where students are taught to appreciate and understand,and allowed to be independent and autonomous.Their learning is free of restrictions and the outcome of their learning is not defined.The learning process is not controlled and subject to change.Otherwise,the word “instruction” is used.If the objective theory is used for description,the differences between the two terms lie in that teaching is the “non-behavior objective” and instruction the “behavior objective”.In most cases,people who actually use the words teaching and instruction don't always make such distinctions.Some people would like to distinguish the two in two different teaching and learning situations although they know that both words refer to “to teach”,“to instruct” or “teaching”.Since in English teaching and learning differs in their semantic meaning,the Chinese word “jiaoxue” should also reflect the distinction.However,the Chinese word “jiaoxue” doesn't refer to “teaching and learning”,nor does it refer to “teaching principles and learning theories”,or the“teacher”s teaching activities or the students' learning activities',but it sometimes refers to instruction just as some English-speaking people do.For example,“kecheng yu jiaoxue”,which is a department very popular in universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan,is usually translated into “curriculum and instruction”.

(3) Various broad-sensed and narrow-sensed teaching (instruction and teaching).Teaching is often regarded as educational methods,and sometimes is also seen as a synonym of teaching method.However,the senses of educational methods,teaching method or educational modes can be wide or narrow.Three senses have been roughly identified.

(a) The broad-sensed teaching free from the limitations of teaching materials:such as Dolton system and Winnetka system.

(b) The narrow-sensed teaching free from the limitations of teaching materials:such as narrative teaching,constructive teaching,discovering teaching,problem-based teaching,teaching models,teaching strategies and so on.

(c) The extremely-narrow-sensed teaching free from the limitations of teaching materials:such teaching skills and techniques as inquiring,asking and answering,blackboard writing,and story telling.

From the perspective of discrete discipline-based education,another kind of teaching is identified as narrow-sensed teaching with specific teaching materials,such as constructive teaching in mathematics,discovery teaching in natural science and so on.Obviously,the broad-sensed teaching free from the limitations of teaching materials has often been raised to the level of education.Its implementation entails great adjustments of the school system and operation.All the disciplines and teaching materials need to be planned and arranged before teaching.The extremely narrow-sensed teaching free from the limitations of teaching materials is just what we call teaching method in its narrow sense.The meaning of teaching has been narrowed to teaching conducted by teachers to students,or the teacher's behavior,skill and techniques.What many people know as teaching is often the narrow-sensed teaching,rather than the broad-sensed.

(4)Curriculum

The term “curriculum” has been commonly used for 100 years,but it has been causing conceptual controversies ever since it appeared.Besides the controversy over the definition of curricula,there has been another unending controversy over the distinction between curriculum and teaching.Special attention should be given to the following points on the evolution of the term of curriculum.

(a) The original meaning of curriculum refers to the issue of what should be taught.In the 19th century,Spenser used the term “curriculum” in his article entitled What Knowledge is of Most Worth? In many currently-published books on philosophy of education,a curriculum is regarded as the answer to “what to teach”.The general public holds the same view.What the teacher teaches in school and what the children learn or what classes they have constitute the content of the term “curriculum”.

(b) The narrow-sensed curriculum.In educational activity,what is taught is usually illustrated by the subjects or textbooks.So the narrow-sensed curriculum has been taken as the subjects or textbooks,i.e.knowledge expected to gain,activities and experiences or designed program.The curriculum that J.Dewey once discussed in The Child and the Curriculum (published in 1902) refers to a child's experience.The curriculum here is the culture and society.Simply put,Dewey's curriculum is the narrow-sensed curriculum.