-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Feb 2006

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I remember a lot of that in school.

Probably because when I was at school, with the exception of the exams at age 15 and 17, there was no curriculum, so a school couldn't rely on any students transferring in from outside to know any particular subject. So they repeated a lot until high school.

-- TracyW - 06 Feb 2006

Math and Text suggests that textbooks are given to spiraling because the curriculum is so incoherent. Since publishers don't know what is taught in different grades and different schools, the textbooks try to cover all bases. This is plausible. Another reason I favor a solid, coherent national curriculum.

-- CharlesH - 06 Feb 2006

so a school couldn't rely on any students transferring in from outside to know any particular subject

Right, that's where countries with national curricula are WAY ahead of the game.

There are countries in which every teacher is on the same page in the same book every day (SLAVE PARENT ALERT!), which means that you don't have transfer students dropping out of the curriculum.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Feb 2006

Math and Text suggests that textbooks are given to spiraling because the curriculum is so incoherent. Since publishers don't know what is taught in different grades and different schools, the textbooks try to cover all bases

That's funny!

That may certainly be the reason today.

This is an example of path dependency - of people downstream not knowing why things are as they are. (This isn't in any way a criticism of J.D., btw. Unless we spend time learning the history of an institution, none of us knows why institutional practices came into being.)

Spiralling was invented by Jerome Bruner; it's part and parcel of constructivist philosophy.

So-called 'traditional' math textbooks, after 1980, were constructivist in that sense.

'Path dependency' is one of my favorite ideas. It's a little like the 'cognitive unconscious' of an institution. Path dependency keeps everyone on the same path, without knowing why we're on the path, but thinking we do!

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Feb 2006

As far as I can tell (I could be wrong about this), the difference with the NSF-funded books is that they decided to tell parents they were spiral curriculum.

Until that moment, parents had never heard of spirals.

I sure hadn't.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Feb 2006

I think that was a big mistake on their part.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Feb 2006

J.D.'s comment on spiraling was more nuanced than I indicated. So that I don't get jumped at for distortion, here is the entire entry:

Sometimes Spiraling

In the January 2006 edition of the Phi Delta Kappan, Barbara and Robert Reys (I met them at an NCTM conference--lovely people) remind us that not only do publishers of basal mathematics texts spiral for pedagogical reasons, they also do so for financial reasons:

In the past four years most states have devleoped new mathematics curriculum frameworks that define grade-level learning expectations, which are to be the focus of instruction and assessment. While there are many similarities across these frameworks, there are also many differences, particularly in the assignment of topics to different grade levels. In fact, the placement of specific learning goals, such as fluency with whole-number computation or with fractions, differs across state standards by as much as two to four grade levels. Differences in state-mandated learning goals for mathematics represent a major challenge for textbook authors and publishers and may result in large books that cover more topics than any one state requires. (378-379)

The first sentence in this quote communicates an unintended implication, I think, that grade-level disparities in learning standards among certain states represent an issue that is only about four years old. It is not. Nor is the cyclical revision of state standards a primary cause of these disparities.

However, it is undoubtedly true that publishers, not being afraid to spiral in general, can be forced to spiral by (a) the incongruity in grade-level standards among states and (b) the obligation all basal publishers assume--to publish the same textbook virtually nationwide.

-- CharlesH - 07 Feb 2006

oh!

thanks, Charles!

Interesting.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Feb 2006