Stenhouse, Lawrence

The conceptualization of “curriculum as a means to an end” underlying current educational practices including the use of standards and authentic assessment can be traced to the work and theorizing of Lawrence Stenhouse (19261982). Stenhouse, a British educational theorist, framed curriculum as hypothesis and called on teachers to use an inquiry approach to develop a rigorous curriculum that promoted higher-order thinking skills and honored and attended to cultural diversity. Curriculum as a set of hypotheses moves paradigmatically away from a positivistic approach toward a metaphoric/humanistic one. Teachers then, as artistic professionals, are asked to recreate educational standards in ways that hold all students accountable for interpreting texts and constructing individual understandings.

Stenhouse is regarded as a pioneer who contributed to reshaping curriculum as a field of ...