Individuality in the Era of Competency-Based Curriculum

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Cultivating Global-Local Connections in the Curriculum of Places

Abstract

Korean education has suffered from the history of curriculum and education reforms predicated primarily on functionality. By my judgment, the new curriculum, 2015 National Curriculum, is still based on predictability, objectification, and “human engineering” (Thorndike, 1922) in that it still seeks for standardization by imposing predetermined competencies that all students need to acquire. This article is to directly tackle the age-old problem with curriculum reforms, a problem that curriculum does not take individuality, and subjective ethical judgment into account. Expressing my criticism of 2015 National Curriculum, and how knowledge is interpreted and applied the curriculum, I suggest individuality as an educational concept, a concept that look for one’s distinctiveness intertwined with commonality.

Author

• Jung Hoon Jung, Chonnam National University