Why should I be learning this? - Roberts' Eight Curriculum Emphases

EIGHT CURRICULUM EMPHASES - Why should I learn this?
Curriculum Emphases	Description	Example
Everyday Coping	This curriculum emphasis socializes the student to grasp the subject-discipline as a way to make sense of objects and events of fairly obvious everyday importance and relevance to the real-world.	In biology, topics might be organized so that students “see” learning biology as a way to understand the functioning and intelligent care of the human body, to avoid disease, to respect the need for sanitation, etc. In physics, students can be taught to see how common home appliances work and therefore easily maintained.
Structure of Subject-discipline	This curriculum emphasis focuses on helping students understand how the subject-discipline functions as an intellectual enterprise. Importance is given such matters as the relationship between evidence and theory, the adequacy of a given model to explain phenomena, the ways in which the subject-discipline as a cumulative knowledge is self-correcting, and similar aspects of the growth and appraisal of the subject-discipline.	In biology, focusing on questions such as: What is living? How can we definitely tell something is alive?
Self as Explainer	This curriculum emphasis makes a link between a particular idea in the subject-discipline and the cultural framework of the era in which the idea was developed. There is a focus on explaining as a process, on what influences the way people explain, and on the way the process functions. By focusing on the “human-ness” of explaining, this emphasis goes far beyond the intellectual gymnastics associated with the structure of the subject-discipline. The importance of recognizing students’ explanations as a human activity, including their prior conceptions & alternate explanations, is one manifestation of this curriculum emphasis.	Issues of authority within explanatory systems are readily broached. In biology, the dilemma of the persistent tension between evolution and “intelligent design.”
Subject-discipline Skill Development	This curriculum emphasis requires that students use the right processes (and use them well) to produce reliable knowledge. It is a highly de-contextualized approach to teaching a subject-discipline.	Moving from one subject are to another without an explicit focus on the subject-matter content.
Solid Foundation	This curriculum emphasis in heavily focused on the cumulative development of propositional knowledge. It stresses the need to become increasingly sophisticated as one develops “genuine” or “deep” subject-discipline understanding.	The message to the student is that one needs to learn this, now, so that one can understand what is coming up next.
Correct Explanations	This curriculum emphasis here places an implicit focus on learning a subject-discipline to correctly interpret events in the world.	Those who exclusively focus on "Scientific Skill Development" and the "Structure of Science"
Subject-discipline, Technology, & Decisions	This curriculum emphasis tries to capture the differences between theoretical and practical reasoning. The limitations of theoretical knowledge are acknowledged and including human values in the decision-making process is underscored.	For example, the MIT STS program is driven by two questions: "How did science and technology evolve as human activities, and What role do they play in the larger civilization?"
Companion Meanings	This curriculum emphasis recognizes that, besides the deliberateness in the above seven emphases, subtle unintended choices and biases abound and should be explored.	Gender bias in science textbooks, what issues are selected and presented, etc.

Compiled by Nathan Balasubramanian from Roberts, D. A. & Östman, L. (Eds.). (1998). Problems of Meaning in Science Curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press. 8-11 for ideas that might inspire educators to address students' two most popular questions: Why is a topic worth learning? and How is the topic connected to the real world?