The Pros and Cons of Curriculum Mapping
By: Thuy Lien Nguyen
Tags: Proself, Education, Curriculum, Mapping, Rethinking

Curriculum papping clearly has its own advantages and limitations right at the system’s coherence.

Image from EDUCTECHALOGY

“Curriculum mapping is a procedure for collecting data about the operational curriculum in a school or district referenced directly to the calendar. Mapping provides the basis for authentic examination of that database in conjunction with assessment information about learners”. (Jacobs, 2004, para. 2).

As we can see, the complete curriculum map can be considered as a powerful means that help all three parties (teachers, parents, and students) clearly understand the journey that they have been going together.

However, everything has two sides. In this piece, I would like to express my own personal thoughts, which result from my experiences in instructing Spiritual Intelligence Development for adults, on the pros and cons of the curriculum mapping idea revolving around three main groups. Those groups are schools, instructors, and students.

Image from Carnegie Mellon University

With schools, curriculum mapping makes brand experiences united, but it can limit the adaptation ability to meet undefined demands.

Many researchers like Jacobs (2004), Hoyle (1985), Shilling (2013) comment that mapping help ensure the continuity of instruction within a class and among classes because of the alignment in goals, standards, subjects, levels, experiences, and outcomes regardless instructors. This keeps the unity in the learning journey, which plays a critical role in delivering the school brand promises.

However, as Jacob (2004) states,

“Mapping can be an extraordinary vehicle to meet carefully defined needs” (para. 2).

Schools can face big challenges in adjusting and designing new courses to satisfy undefined demands of customers because of the strictness of the mapping system.

In practice, my school serves diverse customers requirements. Some need a yearly solution, and some ask for just a one-day course with a completely new objective. In this case, if I have to meet all the rules of the map, I may lose those such customers because of the time lag.

With instructors, curriculum mapping increases their work performance thanks to benefiting from collective intellectual assets but it can confine to solve unexpected pedagogical situations innovatively.

Because curriculum mapping is an art of collaboration, teachers can save a great deal of time in improving teaching plan as well as continuously growing themselves.

However, like any collective system, a complete map limits itself in a common foundation of theories, principles and past experiences, which can restrain some innovative teachers from flexibly handling actual situations that may require a paradigm shift.

In my milieu of Spiritual Intelligence Development, the instructional goals are to help students not only construct new right conceptions but also destroy old wrong ones, which often arise from their core belief level.

Coming to this issue of reconceptualization, past experiences may not work because each student coming from different cultures has unpredicted inner obstacles, which must be removed.

Changing the teaching plan, and even creating a new approach right in the situation are not a rare work for me.

Moreover, though the learning journey is designed in some sequential stages, the actual journey is completely flexible and chaotic, so if I rigidly accord the map “referenced directly to the calendar”, I can not help my students follow their suitable ways.

Therefore, in my point of view, a curriculum map is a very extraordinary tool for constructing new knowledge but is seemingly a shackle for reconstructing the core belief system.

With students, a clear curriculum map can trigger their motivation but it may hold them back from their own way of growth.

As Hoyle (1985) states, if a curriculum system is mapped well, it can help students optimize their time, avoid unnecessary instructional overlaps, prevent gaps, and minimize boredom.

Moreover, understanding the reason why behind learning the subjects make them feel that their efforts are meaningful (Jacobs, 2004).

However, “curriculum mapping helps ensure that all students are getting the same education and the same foundations” (Shilling, 2013, p. 26).

In fact, people differ from each other, and this is extremely true in my milieu. Although my class has enrollment criteria, every student comes to my class with different motives, different past experiences, different tendencies, and different learning styles.

If they must all learn under the same instructing and learning approach, they will hardly find their true selves.

Image by Michael Gaida from Pixabay

Summary

The idea of curriculum mapping is a great approach to “transform low-performing schools into high-performing learning communities” ( Burns, 2011, Conclusion, para. 4) but it clearly has its own limitation right at the system’s coherence.

Although we try our best to create a living map, which can adapt well with the rapid change of reality, I think that the actual map will hardly serve our needs of innovation based on the individual growth.

Therefore, the school leaders and teachers have to think about how to take the most advantage of the map rather than rigidly following it.

References:

Burns, R. C. (2001). Curriculum mapping. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved May 11, 2019, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/curriculum-handbook/421/chapters/Overview.aspx

Hoyle, J. R. (1985). Skills for Successful School Leaders. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED264654.pdf

Jacobs, H.H. (2004). Development of a Prologue: Setting the Stage for Curriculum Mapping. Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping. Retrieved May 11, 2019, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104011/chapters/Development-of-a-Prologue@-Setting-the-Stage-for-Curriculum-Mapping.aspx

Shilling, T. (2013). Opportunities and challenges of curriculum mapping implementation in one school setting: Considerations for school leaders. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 7(2), 20–37. DOI:10.3776/joci.2013.v7n2p20–37