Resource Units

Resource units are accumulated and nonprescriptive packages of curriculum materials and information that can enhance a given teaching-learning situation. It was a boon to teaching in larger more integrated units of instruction, rather than in isolated and discrete daily lessons. A teaching or curricular resource unit is a set of lessons on a topic with a unified purpose, set of learning content or activities that elicit learning experiences to facilitate the purpose(s), organizational plans to translate the purposes into practice, and evaluation to determine the success of the plans to meet or revise the designated purposes. Harold Alberty and Ralph Tyler each contributed much to the development of the idea of resource units that facilitate instructional units, by collecting or designating sources of information that teachers could use to elaborate the instructional unit or plan through the teaching process. Hilda Taba helped to refine the resource unit, as did Roland Faunce and Nelson Bossing in the 1950s and 1960s.

The resource unit was derived as a response to the development of the core curriculum, elaborated by Alberty in the 1940s. Core curriculum was a form of curriculum integration that relied on teacher-pupil cooperative planning. It would be developed around common student interests and concerns, contemporary problems and issues, and at the most sophisticated levels, it would be centered within the conscious development of individuals or learning communities by those individuals or communities themselves. The evolving nature of such a curriculum orientation was partially based on the philosophy of John Dewey and other progressives, such as George Counts, William Kilpatrick, Harold Rugg, L. Thomas Hopkins, and Boyd Bode. Such a philosophy eschewed extensive advance planning, which was characteristic of instructional or teaching units. Therefore, the resource unit was devised to facilitate the evolving nature of teacher-pupil planning. [Page 750]Preordained patterns and procedures were replaced with provision of a vast array of possibilities (e.g., files of ideas, approaches, media, resource persons, print materials, inventories, illustrative projects) that teachers and learners could consider as a basis for imagining what they could do to learn and grow most effectively. With the advent of computerized storage today, the resource file has immeasurably increased potential. This emphasis on flexibility allowed for variation that responded to different abilities, needs, interests, attitudes, background characteristics, and situational exigencies of students.

The content of most resource units, according to Alberty initially and promoted by others over the decades, can be categorized as follows: introduction and orientation; purposes and underlying philosophy; scope of the unit to be facilitate; suggested activities; bibliography and resource lists, including teaching aids; alternatives for evaluation; connections to other units; and diverse uses of the unit. Harold Alberty and Elsie Alberty provided samples of resource units and emphasized the need for facilities, released time, and professional development to develop and to frequently revise them. The consistency, ease of use, and relevance of the previously mentioned components of resource units serve as criteria for evaluating them. More specifically, Faunce and Bossing indicate that resource units should recognize student needs and interests; offer diverse and specific strategies for involving students in planning, developing, and evaluating their curricular experiences; enable socializing activities; present relevant community resources; embody sound principles of learning; spur professional growth through democratic interaction; stimulate reflective thinking in students as well as in educators; provide for easy and efficient use; reflect a consistent philosophy of education; present many more suggestions than any situation can use; and adapt to the range of student maturity levels.

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