By: Megan Prats

06/19/2013

A customized curriculum is crucial and MUST be implemented into every lesson because without the customized curriculum, the student will likely not maximize her learning experience at every lesson. The customized curriculum is so important because when the student is learning what is in the student’s self-interest to learn, the student learns with purpose, and thus the student absorbs what she learns in the lesson and is motivated to apply what she’s learned in the lesson outside of the lesson to her own life. On the other hand, when the student learns things that she believes will not advance her self-interest, the student becomes detached in the lesson and frustrated, and the learning comes to a halt.

Also, the customized curriculum is crucial because each student is unique and thus no standardized curriculum works with every student. For instance, you have two students who want to learn piano and are at the beginner level. However, since Student A wants to learn how to play Jazz and Student B wants to learn how to play Blues, the curriculum should be different.

Designing the customized curriculum on its surface is a simple task but there are a lot of subtleties that should be considered and I will discuss them in further detail in future articles. However, for the adult student, the customized curriculum consists of two main elements – you and the student.

• The Student.

The student contributes to the customized curriculum by telling you what she wants to learn. Adult students come to 2learn® with learning goals in mind and they want to achieve those learning goals as a result of attending the lessons. These learning goals are what the student wants to learn. Thus, it is crucial that you ask the student in the first lesson what the student’s learning goals are. The student may have one learning goal in mind or the student may have several. If the student has more than one learning goal, you must incorporate all of the student’s learning goals in the curriculum at some point in time during the lessons. It might take a while before the student can reach her learning goals because she might need to develop a foundation before she gets there however, just make sure to tell the student along the way that what she is learning is a stepping- stone to achieving her goals.

• You.

You contribute to the customized curriculum by providing the student what the student needs to achieve her learning goals. Thus, if the student wants to learn how to play a blues song on the guitar but the student does not know how to play in the time signature 6/8 because the student hasn’t learned the basics of time signatures, you need to devote the lesson to time signatures because the student needs to learn that to reach her learning goals. Make sure to tell the student that she is learning time signatures because it is necessary to be able to play blues so that she understands that what she’s learning is pertinent to her learning goals.

The customized curriculum is of utmost importance and there is a lot more to this crucial element of the 2learn® Method that I will describe in future articles. However, simply stated, the customized curriculum is made up of two main elements – you and the student. The student’s input into the customized curriculum is telling you what the student wants to learn and your input into the customized curriculum is providing the student what she needs to learn to achieve her learning goals. Since every student is unique, no two customized curriculums should look the same.

© Megan Prats 2013