How did we come up with our curriculum?
We drafted a list of topics that we wanted to learn more about, and came up with a list of books that we’ve always wanted to read and documentaries we wished to see. Many of these books are listed below.
In addition to reading, we also wanted to anchor our learnings with on-the-ground experiences.
Thus as part of our Self-Guided Masters program, we also decided to:
Serve as an teacher aide at an elementary school, helping teach 4th graders
Conduct site-visits to a variety of schools all over the world, including Finland, Germany, Estonia and England, where we spoke with teachers, principals, parents and students.
(One quick note: the things we’re learning have a strong United States focus. That’s because all of the three of us who are involved in this Self-Guided Masters in Education grew up and live in the United States. Thus, we’ve focused our learnings on to how what we can learn can benefit the American education system.)
1. In-Classroom Volunteering
We volunteer as a teaching aide at a Montessori elementary school in California, where we help teach once a week for the entire school day (8am - 3pm).
2. Site Visits
We also conducted a series of visits to schools abroad in hopes of learning what strategies are effective internationally. We visited the following locations:
Metsokangas Comprehensive School, Metsokangas
Ritaharjun School, Oulu
Ressu Comprehensive School, Helsinki- We spoke with an American teacher who moved to Finland to teach and learned her impressions on differences between Finland and American education.n
Stadin ammattiopisto vocational school, Helsinki
The Center for Innovation in Education at Tallinn University
The International School of Estonia
3. Books We Read
In choosing books, we had a few criteria:
We preferred to read some “systems”-level books that analyzed the education system as a whole.
We also looked for books that were comprehensive in its treatment of the subject (e.g., detailed analysis of the history history, legal implications, who were the stakeholders and how they’re affected).
We also looked for books that fell into a few different categories:
Philosophy: We wanted to read books on the goals and purposes of education. These books may be more philosophical in nature, rather practical or grounded in case studies.
Historical: We wanted to also read books that covered the history of US education, so that we can see understand the bigger picture of the field.
Modern Education: Books focused on present issues, or stories of current schools.
Visions: For inspiration, we wanted to also read books on speculative or inspirational ideas about the future of education.
Below is mostly-complete list of books we’ve read or are reading:
Philosophy and purpose of education:
Why School by Will Richardson
The End of Education by Neil Postman
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
History of US Education
Class Warfare by Steven Brill
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
Education, Free & Compulsory by Murray N. Rothbard
The Teacher Wars by Dana Goldstein
Modern US School Reform
The Prize by Dale Russakoff
Work Hard, Be Nice by Jay Mathews
Moonshots in Education: Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom by Esther Wojcicki
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
Visions of the future of education:
The Education Apocalypse by Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Education Nation by Milton Chen
Mindstorms by Seymour Papert
The Children’s Machine by Seymour Papert
Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner
Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education by Ken Robinson
The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined by Sal Khan
International Education Systems:
Finnish Lessons 2.0 by Pasi Sahlberg
The Smartest Kids In the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley
Below are some documentaries we watched:
The Finland Phenomenon
Race to Nowhere
Most Likely To Succeed
- School: The Story of American Public Education by PBS