Introduction
In the modern-day, the educational world is not just multicultural but also keeps on changing, so educators should examine the curriculum to ensure it enhances inclusivity, cultural responsiveness, and critical thinking skills. Biases, which can be different, could perpetuate stereotypes, underrepresent certain groups of people, or promote dominant cultural stories (Adams et al., 2022; Banks Banks, 2019). Furthermore, students fail to develop adequate higher thinking skills because the curriculum does not push them to solve more complex and demanding tasks that require their minds to do analysis, evaluation, creation, and application of knowledge (Widana et al., 2018). In the light of a complete analysis of curricula and learning activities, it would be possible to detect and renounce any biases to make the environment more productive for those who think critically and solve problems.
Section I: Bias
Purpose and Strategy for Evaluating Curriculum for Bias
Examining bias in a curriculum is essential to ensure that education for the whole student population is even and unbiased. Of the existent subject matter in the curriculum, bias can come in many forms, such as sexism, racism, and culturalism. Gender prejudice is also equated with one of the plots using sex-based stereotypes, or the stories mainly focus on men where the experiences belong to one gender. Racial and ethnic bias can either bring the Eurocentric historical narratives, undermine or pervert particular groups, whether they are races or ethnicities, as well as propagate harmful stereotypes, which in some cases might be stereotypes that groups are not familiar with; hence, they are not well informed in the current situation. By the same token, cultural prejudice may reflect on the ambiguous and unfair portrayal of various cultures, traditions, and religious systems.
Educators might follow a well-established system in evaluating and checking curricula for bias. First, they should critically assess texts, images, and guidelines to determine whether they contain stereotypes, offensive expressions, or misrepresentations in any group. The next step would be to evaluate the materials’ diverse viewpoints and inclusiveness by representing different races, ethnicities, cultures, genders, abilities, and perspectives. The educator is advised to also check for the perspectives that are introduced in the curricula materials to see whether these promote a particular culture whose narrative is dominant or are presented in a way that marginalizes certain groups like Native Americans, as presented by Adams et al. and Banks and Banks (2022). Material resources like the Washington Model and the Social Justice Guidelines can be used as references to raise awareness of unconscious or structural bias and foster more liberal-minded and equitable teaching and learning materials. Lastly, involving students, parents, and community members, who may have diverse perspectives and insights, in the evaluation process provides a viewpoint other than the instructor (Tomlinson & Imbeau, 2023).
Curriculum Materials Evaluated for Bias
Along with this evaluation of ecosystem unit elements, the materials were found to be ineffective and biased. The sexual unhealthiness in Brody’s is carefully examined in terms of stereotypical portrayals, negative portrayal of race, or biased inclusion of diverse groups. Videos and multimedia materials were selected for their content, narratives, and diverse perspectives, not to promote an exclusive narrative but to show that people are equal. Lessons such as case studies and examples are utilized to check if they harbor diversity in culture, ecosystems, and perspective spectra.
These materials proposed some instances of bias, so several changes were made to the original version. Secondly, multicultural materials, such as texts, videos, or case studies, from minorities and marginalized communities were integrated into the course. Such collection provided a wider angle of view on the subject. In addition to this, any biases or misrepresentations would be analyzed and discussed with students. Some of the students’ misconceptions would be addressed throughout this critical thinking process, and the lessons would be open for dialogue. Collaborative relations, including colleagues, students, and community members, were focused on averting and constantly addressing potential biases in the course.
Section II: Higher-Order Thinking
Purpose and Strategy for Evaluating Curriculum for Higher-Order Thinking Skills
It is paramount to assess curriculum in terms of higher-order thinking skills to ensure that students rely on rote memorizing and engage actively in cognitive processes such as inferencing. Higher-order thinking skills do their job when one analyzes information, evaluates it, creates something new, or applies knowledge to solving complex problems (Widana et al., 2018). Tasks need to be more complex for creating a comprehensive plan to deal with climate change in a particular ecosystem; in this scenario, using skills such as data analysis, evaluation of options, and synthesizing diverse sources of information might be needed.
Educators can use the systematic approach to assess the curriculum designed to develop higher-order thinking skills. First, this sort of learning observation should start by reviewing the learning targets and tasks using either Bloom’s Taxonomy or the DOK program to identify the cognitive processes required. In the second step, they need to check the level of cognitive processes, which is assured by the problem statement, showing whether the task implies analyzing, evaluating, creating, using knowledge in different contexts, etc. Educators must also detect if the tasks engage students in integrating information from various sources, solving complex problems, or cultivating innovative ideas or solutions. In conclusion, appropriate technology is needed to measure the effectiveness of the set target, the teaching activity, and the assessments to develop higher-level thinking skills.
Tasks Requiring Higher-Order Thinking Skills
The courses consisted of tasks that caused higher-order thinking regarding implementing work content. A task we had to get my students involved in was the online ecosystem simulation, where we changed some variables and observed how those changes affected different system components. Finally, they were assigned to initiate a long-run effect study on the ecosystems at large while giving long-term solutions whenever the ecosystems were out of balance. It indicated they had learned how to analyze, evaluate, and develop solutions. Analysis of several case studies of ecological systems, either resilient or vulnerable, was my other task, which was to interpret the factors leading to their sustainability. Subsequently, students used their knowledge to draw up an arrangement for preserving or restoring a neighboring ecosystem of their choice, bridging their skills to analyze, think clearly, and apply knowledge to a different context.
Furthermore, the individuals engaged in a joint project to investigate and project a complete solution related to any ecosystem of students’ choices that has such issues. Such a project required implementing information obtained from different sources and analyzing, evaluating, creating, and applying knowledge on the façade using higher-order thinking skills. Involving the students in the process of this unit further developed these learning skills, and thus, as one of the modifications, these skills were encouraged even more. The use of more open-ended questions and prompts was thorough in this essay to incite students to analyze, evaluate, and predict the cause-effect relationships as they learn about ecosystems. The organization created avenues for conducting personal research and researching from different sources and enumerating them. Also, the mutual activities consisted of critical conversation, evaluation of several standpoints, and building communal knowledge.
Conclusion
With a conscious look at the curriculum and completing revisions to eliminate prejudice and promote the development of higher-level thinking skills, teachers deliver instruction that increases students’ variety of thought processes. Therefore, including teaching resources that represent multiple perspectives and do not contribute to misrepresentations or stereotype perpetuation is significant in democratizing education. Moreover, tailing students to work on questions that require them to study, analyze, evaluate, create, and apply knowledge encourages the intellectual development of critical and problem-solving capabilities, two vital skills for today’s learners. The effectiveness of the curriculum evaluation depends on an intentional and detailed process that brings education to the next level of active involvement and intellectual brightness.
References
Adams, M., Bell, L. A., Goodman, D. J., Shlasko, D., Briggs, R. R., & Pacheco, R. (Eds.). (2022). Teaching for diversity and social justice. Taylor & Francis.
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (Eds.). (2019). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.
Tomlinson, C. A., & Imbeau, M. B. (2023). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom. Ascd.
Widana, I. W., Parwata, I., & Sukendra, I. K. (2018). Higher order thinking skills assessment towards critical thinking on mathematics lesson. International journal of social sciences and humanities, 2(1), 24-32.
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