Abstract
Content in education is typically conceived as subject matter, often divided into disciplines such as mathematics, English, history, science, geography, and so forth. Content is often further conceived as being embedded in media such as textbooks, handouts, movies, computers, posters, and bulletin boards that are used in the context of classrooms inside school buildings. First, I discuss the difference between “what is” and “what should be.” The latter is a philosophical question, not an empirical one. I argue, as does Steiner, that content should support the primary educational goal to develop student rationality. Next, I discuss existing conceptions of content (“what is”) and their limitations. As an alternative, I subsequently discuss totally integrated education (TIE) as a way to facilitate the educational aim of guiding students to form strongly connected cognitive, conative, and affective mental structures that have been grounded through direct, firsthand, real-world experiences. Grounding of knowing, feeling, and intending is vitally important for development of strongly connected, holistic mental structures. Students with integrated mental structures that have been grounded and who are rational are less easily deceived and misled by others who are ignorant, prejudiced, or deceptive. If rational, we humans are free to seek truth and justice, instead of being misled by our false beliefs, emotions, and desires.
Originally submitted as a chapter for discussion at the Summer Research Symposium Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Bloomington, Indiana July 16–17, 2018
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Frick, T.W. (2020). What Should Be the Content for Student Learning?. In: Hokanson, B., Clinton, G., Tawfik, A.A., Grincewicz, A., Schmidt, M. (eds) Educational Technology Beyond Content. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37254-5_3
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