1. How can you determine the hidden curriculum of a school? What clues would you look for?
2. Study the standards for a discipline area in which you are interested. (You can find standards web sites listed at the end of this chapter.) Do you believe they are appropriate for the level of students you would like to teach? Why or why not?
3. Do you support the use of "high stakes" tests to determine graduation from high school? Why or why not?
4. What is your view of the issues and trends in your favorite subject field? Are there any other developments that you would like to see?
5. In your opinion, what best explains the relatively poor performance of U.S. students in international comparisons of student achievement in mathematics and science?
6. Do you think the U.S. should have a national curriculum, as do so many other industrialized nations? Why or why not?
7. Have you had personal experience with any of the instructional approaches described above? If so, were they positive or negative? What made them so?
8. Where do you stand on the tracking issue? Has your own educational background included tracking? How does your background affect where you stand on this issue?
9. How would you adapt your curriculum to meet the needs of a very diverse group of students?