Ensure Technical and Academic Rigor of Programs :: Curriculum Education Careers Essays

Ensure Technical and Academic Rigor of Programs Effective career and technical education programs clearly articulate course outcomes and align content with national or state occupational skill standards. These standards, endorsed by business and industry, are designed to prepare students with skills that reflect job market requirements and address all aspects of the industry, not just skills required for single jobs. Curricula developed around these standards offer teachers a variety of strategies for improving standards in their classrooms. Ohio has developed a set of cluster guides based on the Integrated Technical and Academic Competencies (ITACS) that employers have identified as necessary for work: solving problems and thinking skillfully, communicating effectively, applying technology, and so forth. The curriculum for each of these cluster guides follows the same format. Each begins with a workplace scenario, engages students in a problem-solving approach to learning, and integrates technical and academic competencies from state and national standards. Through the scenarios outlined in the guides, students are led to construct knowledge by engaging in learning experiences and problem-solving activities that have value beyond the classroom (Vocational Instructional Materials Laboratory 1999). Projects that use the context of the workplace and the community to teach academic and technical skills offer another strategy for ensuring program rigor. Students learn best in the context of real life experiences. Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Delaware; William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami; and Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professionals in Houston are three schools that combine rigorous academic coursework with career and technical education through hands-on activities set in real-world contexts (Roberts 1999). In this way, "students can combine what they're learning in the field or laboratory with basic writing, science, and math skills" (p. 22). "Curriculum integration, contextual and applied learning, tech prep, and team teaching have increased the academic rigor of career and technical education disciplines" (Lozada 1999, p. 16). Traditional instructional roles, however, do not support these strategies for applying academic and technical understandings to real-world problems. To involve students in learning experiences that are situated in certain physical and social contexts and require interaction with other people, teachers must assume the role of coach or mentor, encouraging students to create their own knowledge from experiences beyond the classroom. When CTE instruction supports what is known about intelligence, brain development, cognition and learning, it gives credence to initiatives that integrate academic education with career and technical education (Reese 2002). Ensure Technical and Academic Rigor of Programs :: Curriculum Education Careers Essays Ensure Technical and Academic Rigor of Programs Effective career and technical education programs clearly articulate course outcomes and align content with national or state occupational skill standards. These standards, endorsed by business and industry, are designed to prepare students with skills that reflect job market requirements and address all aspects of the industry, not just skills required for single jobs. Curricula developed around these standards offer teachers a variety of strategies for improving standards in their classrooms. Ohio has developed a set of cluster guides based on the Integrated Technical and Academic Competencies (ITACS) that employers have identified as necessary for work: solving problems and thinking skillfully, communicating effectively, applying technology, and so forth. The curriculum for each of these cluster guides follows the same format. Each begins with a workplace scenario, engages students in a problem-solving approach to learning, and integrates technical and academic competencies from state and national standards. Through the scenarios outlined in the guides, students are led to construct knowledge by engaging in learning experiences and problem-solving activities that have value beyond the classroom (Vocational Instructional Materials Laboratory 1999). Projects that use the context of the workplace and the community to teach academic and technical skills offer another strategy for ensuring program rigor. Students learn best in the context of real life experiences. Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Delaware; William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami; and Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professionals in Houston are three schools that combine rigorous academic coursework with career and technical education through hands-on activities set in real-world contexts (Roberts 1999). In this way, "students can combine what they're learning in the field or laboratory with basic writing, science, and math skills" (p. 22). "Curriculum integration, contextual and applied learning, tech prep, and team teaching have increased the academic rigor of career and technical education disciplines" (Lozada 1999, p. 16). Traditional instructional roles, however, do not support these strategies for applying academic and technical understandings to real-world problems. To involve students in learning experiences that are situated in certain physical and social contexts and require interaction with other people, teachers must assume the role of coach or mentor, encouraging students to create their own knowledge from experiences beyond the classroom. When CTE instruction supports what is known about intelligence, brain development, cognition and learning, it gives credence to initiatives that integrate academic education with career and technical education (Reese 2002).