An Excellent Way To Evaluate Curriculum

Hey everybody, this is Seth from SethPerler.com.

Today I’m making a video for parents and teachers about Content, Process, and Product.

First, excuse the lighting. I’m not in my normal studio, and this board has quite a bit of glare. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I want to talk about something called Content, Process, and Product.

For teachers, this is one of my favorite ways to break down curriculum and really understand whether it’s serving students and how to maximize its effectiveness.

For parents, this is a great framework for evaluating curriculum, lessons, and homework. It gives you a filter through which you can examine educational experiences and identify modifications that might help your child get more out of their learning.

What Are Content, Process, and Product?

In a nutshell:

• Content is what you learn.

• Process is how you learn it.

• Product is how you show what you’ve learned.

Let’s break each one down.

Content: What You Learn

Content refers to the material, objectives, goals, or concepts students are expected to learn.

For example:

• Learning how to multiply two-digit numbers

• Reading Of Mice and Men and studying fiction

• Learning about space

• Studying the Roman Empire

Content can be viewed at many levels. It can be:

• A three-minute mini-lesson

• A single class period

• An entire unit

• A full course

Essentially, content is simply what students are expected to learn.

Process: How You Learn

Process refers to how students engage with and learn the content.

One useful way to think about process is through the learning styles often referred to as AVK:

• Auditory

• Visual

• Kinesthetic

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners process information primarily through listening.

These are often students who can memorize song lyrics effortlessly or remember details from conversations and lectures.

Of course, there are many different ways people learn auditorily, but listening is their strongest channel.

Visual Learners

Visual learners tend to be highly visual-spatial thinkers.

They may excel at:

• Building with Legos

• Visualizing ideas

• Remembering images and details

• Using imagination

• Creating mental pictures

These students often “see” concepts in their minds.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners process information through movement and touch.

These are often students who learn best by doing.

Many athletes, dancers, performers, and people who work extensively with their bodies tend to have strong kinesthetic abilities.

Of course, everyone uses all three learning styles to some extent.

Everyone learns through auditory, visual, and kinesthetic experiences.

However, most people tend to rely more heavily on one or two of these areas.

Personally, I’m primarily visual, then kinesthetic. As you can probably tell, I use my hands a lot and move around while teaching.

Auditory learning is probably the area I rely on the least.

But again, everyone uses all three.

The key point is that students must process information somehow.

As teachers and parents, we should be asking:

• Are they learning through hands-on experiences?

• Are they listening to lectures?

• Are they participating in discussions?

• Are they watching videos?

• Are they conducting experiments?

• Are they reading?

• Are they observing demonstrations?

How is the content being delivered?

How is the student processing and learning that information?

Those are important questions.

Product: How Students Show Learning

The final piece is product.

Product refers to how students demonstrate what they’ve learned.

Unfortunately, in many American schools, we tend to rely heavily on only two products:

• Tests

• Papers

We’re often stuck inside a very narrow box when it comes to assessment.

We frequently assume that the best way—or the only way—to evaluate learning is through quizzes, exams, essays, and written assignments.

Students take:

• Multiple-choice tests

• Short-answer tests

• Essay exams

• Quizzes

• Standardized assessments

And those assessments are expected to prove that students learned the content.

In other words, the product is supposed to demonstrate learning.

Looking at Content More Creatively

Many teachers rely heavily on curriculum materials provided by schools or districts.

Often, they are not encouraged to creatively differentiate curriculum. Instead, they’re expected to follow a script and teach the prescribed content.

But if the content isn’t engaging for students, we should ask:

How can we make it more meaningful?

When I was teaching, I often built units around key concepts I wanted every student to understand.

Then I incorporated what I called Passion Projects.

Students had complete freedom to choose an area of personal interest within the broader topic.

For example, if we were studying the Roman Empire, there might be certain core concepts everyone needed to learn.

But after that:

• One student might study Roman armor.

• Another might study Roman engineering.

• Another might focus on Roman aqueducts and water systems.

Each student could dive deeply into the aspect that interested them most.

This dramatically increased engagement and ownership of learning.

Rethinking Product

The product is where we can really think outside the box.

There are countless ways students can demonstrate learning.

If you’re a parent advocating for your child, and you know they understand the content but struggle to demonstrate that understanding through traditional testing, it may be worth exploring alternative products.

Consider this video.

This video itself is a product.

My outline for this presentation is only three words long:

Content. Process. Product.

Everything else is coming directly from my understanding and experience.

This video demonstrates my learning.

A blog post could also be a product.

Other examples include:

• Creating a model

• Building something

• Drawing

• Painting

• Singing

• Performing

• Teaching others

• Creating presentations

• Making videos

Let’s return to the Roman armor example.

A student could:

• Draw the armor

• Build a model of the armor

• Research and present information about the armor

• Teach classmates about Roman military equipment

Any of those could effectively demonstrate learning.

Anything that shows understanding can potentially serve as a product.

There are literally hundreds of possibilities.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a teacher, this framework can help you continually reflect on your instruction.

Ask yourself:

What am I teaching, and why?

Why does this content matter?

How will it benefit students in the long term?

What is the real value of what I’m asking students to learn?

You don’t want to simply follow a curriculum script and regurgitate information.

You want to think critically.

Ask:

• Why does this matter?

• How does it connect to students’ lives?

• How can I make it more meaningful?

When considering process, think about all the different ways students learn.

Provide opportunities for differentiation.

Allow students to engage with content through multiple pathways.

And finally, when it comes to product, give students as much choice as possible.

The more flexibility students have in demonstrating their learning, the more likely they are to succeed and to show what they truly know.

That’s all I’ve got for today.

A quick one.

I hope you have an awesome day, and I’ll see you soon.

Take care.