Understanding the Royal Decree

The next two theoretical lessons were devoted to explaining the parts of the curriculum. As I think that they were both connected, I will explain the two of them in the same entry of the portfolio.

The main goal of both classes was to understand the Royal Decree. In order to do so, we first had to focused our attention on its parts. At first glance, it seems that the curriculum has a simple structure, something that facilitates its use. Nonetheless, it is very important to understand and to know the meaning of each part in order to use this document as a help to the teachers' work. Although it is well organized, sometimes the concepts are misused, for instance, the fact that in the content blocks there are also objectives. As I said before, it is of vital importance for teachers to manage the main concepts and to read the curriculum carefully, because sometimes can lead to misunderstandings.

              

The first thing I liked about the physical education part of the curriculum are its general objectives. Although I am not a pedagogue and I cannot evaluate the content itself, I really like the fact that the general objectives are a combination of motor-cognitive, motor and attitudinal. It is a prove that physical education is not only devoted to the body, but to the whole education of the child, something that sometimes is forgotten. As I see it, every physical education teacher should pay attention to this part because among the main goals of the subject they won't be able to find any objective that says "to rise high ranking players", or "to educate through competition", or "to make the child understand that physical education is a theoretical subject that he will have to learn by heart".

In addition, reading the Royal Decree might help some teachers as well in order for them to plan their subject. Although we all know that the law is always more idealistic than reality, it may give them some clues for what to highlight. From my point of view, some teachers just forget the attitudinal part, which I think that it is the most important. The motivation of the child comes from his attitude not only to the subject, but also to his classmates and his teacher. If this part was taken into account, it would be easier to develop the subject. Moreover, the attitudinal part is not only helpful to the teacher but to the pupils as well since it is a chance for them to become better people. Unfortunately, most teachers do not see this as a obligation of this job, but as a part that they should avoid because it takes a lot of effort.

                    

On the other hand, understanding the curriculum is an essential part while designing didactic units. Therefore, it is very important to dominate the different concepts such as: content block, learning objective, general objective, content, activity or purpose of the activity. The main goal of a teacher is to cover all the content blocks which are assessed through the evaluation criteria and in order to know if they have been developed, the teacher has to wonder if the child has been able to achieve or to approximate to the general objectives along the whole Primary Education. While a content might be the same for two different grades, the teacher ought to have a clear idea of what their objectives are. They have to be adapted from the context (for instance the cycle or the ratio). In order to develop them, the classes have to be composed by different activities whose different purposes at the end will help the child acquire the objectives either motor cognitive, motor or attitudinal.

                    

In conclusion, understanding the curriculum will help us to become better teachers. It is a helpful tool that can guide us through this unpredictable job, giving us some clues about how education should be. In order to do so, we have to be able to know how to find the information we need, because sometimes is a little bit hidden. However, the curriculum has not got all the answers and the effort should come from ourselves.