Franconian International School
Humanities Department

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The humanities department at the Franconian International School has undertaken a project to indentify and develop key competencies of the whole student as means to focus its efforts on what it means to be competent in the humanities.  An organizing framework is the curriculum development process described by Stephani (2004-2005).  This framework has curriculum developers first identify the desired outcomes and then describe how the successful development of those competencies might be assessed.  The next step is to identify the learning processes students would use to develop those desired outcomes and the pedagogical methods teachers would use to guide student learning.  Finally, instruments and methods would be developed to actually evaluate student learning and prepare documentation that can be communicated to interested stakeholders such as the learners themselves, teachers, administrators, board members, etc.

Curriculum development process

Figure 1. A simplified version of Cowan & Harding’s Logical Model of Curriculum Development (1986). The model places learning outcomes at the centre and includes ‘why’ in addition to ‘what’ and ‘how’, relating to assessment, learning and teaching (Stefani, 2004-05).

Two primary sources were used to develop an initial set of desired outcomes: the syllabi and documentation for the courses taught within the humanities department and the learner profile developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization (2009).  Huitt's (2013) analysis of desired attributes listed in a variety of frameworks showed the Learner Profile to be one of the most complete overviews currently available.  After much discussion the department constructed the following statement regarding desired outcomes:

Humanities learners will be knowledgeable thinkers who can gather and organize information and communicate what they know. 

Humanities Framework

Standards

Templates and Rubrics

A variety of theories were used to develop rubrics for each of these areas.

 

Sample Lessons and Units

Presentation at ECIS Conference

Referenced Materials