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Week 2 Reading - Edible schoolyard and School gardens in Bronx

In addition to the Aoki article, I also watched 2 videos on Edible Schoolyard project in Berkeley and School Gardens in the Bronx.

Aoki’s paper presented the two worlds of the curriculum. At one end of the spectrum, there is the "curriculum-as-plan" - what should be taught in schools, planned by authorities outside the classroom. At the other end, there is the "curriculum-as-lived-experiences" – the reality inside the classroom as teachers deal with pupils each with their own uniqueness on a daily basis. Teachers are then caught in between the two worlds, accountable for maintaining the sameness of the pre-planned curriculum while taking into account the uniqueness of each individual pupil.

This is where education research should come in. By identifying the gap between the planned curriculum and the reality, education researchers can then address the gap and improve the situations for those involved.

The examples shown in the two videos are aspiring for those intend to adjust to the ever-changing world of education. As demonstrated in both videos, it is possible to connect what requires to be taught and the reality of the world that students live in. “Edible schoolyard” started off as a way to improve school lunches, and developed to become sustainable education to incorporate subjects including maths, biology, physics and so on. Stephen Ritz in “Green Bronx Machine” identified the need to address obesity and poverty amongst his students and started the school gardens project to engage students to stay in schools and provide them with skills they could later use in life. 


The result is more than satisfactory. The question then being, is this a special case, or can it be applied elsewhere?

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 14, 2018 at 6:57 PM

    Hi Jingyu,
    I totally agree with you that one function of educational research is to fill in the gap existing in teaching practice. As you said, education is not static. It is changing over time. By conducting educational research, educators managed to solve problems and improve practice in education. "Edible schoolyard" and "Green Bronx Machine" are good examples. And I think the cases can certainly be applied to other situation if they are verified by more experiments.
    Yuxi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lilian MarchesoniJanuary 15, 2018 at 6:20 PM

    Hi Jingyu. I thought it was interesting that you pointed out that education research can also be seen as a bridge that may unite the needs of curriculum and the needs of those living the curriculum. It is indeed a way to spot the areas that need improvement and to find manners to optimize the changes, as underlined in your post.

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