1. Exploratory Program in the Middle Level School
Om Thapa
What is it?
• A means of providing children with experiences outside of core classes
o Examples
! Art, Music, Technology classes
! Clubs, Activities, Mini-courses
Three earmark of an exploratory program (NMSA position paper, 1995)
1. Enables students to discover their talents, abilities, and preferences
a. Helps in preparation for the transition into adulthood
2. Provide opportunities for contributing to society
3. Acquaint students with leisure-time pursuits what are healthy and enriching
a. Such as physical activity or involvement in the arts
Exploratory curriculum Objectives
! Students discover themselves through self-knowledge in order to prepare
them for adulthood
! To build student’s intellectual, communication, social, physical, and
technological skills
! Guide intellectual development through ongoing, concrete, and experiential
learning
! Addressing topics that students perceive to be genuinely important and worth
knowing
! Provide experiences that allow students to learn through engagement and
interaction
! Allow students to be involved in the collaboration and completing of a project
that is valuable to the school community
! To increase new interests and explore in ideas
! Help students discover opportunities to make contribution to society
! Through organized team building activities, encourage students to positive
relationships with teacher and each other
! To introduce students to enriching and healthy activities that may be pursued
outside of school
Advantages of Having an Exploration Curriculum in the Middle Grades
! Students learn new ways of thinking
! Offers a plethora of opportunities and experiences
! Students need the excitement in their way
! Students with exploratory classes achieve higher levels of development in
other academic area

2. Exploratory Program in the Middle Level School
Om Thapa
! These classes can account for student growth physically, emotionally,
socially, and intellectually
According to Mitchell (1974), young adolescents need:
o Status and acceptance
o Independence
o Achievement
o Role experimentation
o Positive self-regard
Disadvantages of Having an Exploratory Curriculum in the Middle Grades
• Too many choices can shorten class time
• There tends to be a lack of communication between exploratory teachers and core
teachers
• School Budgets do not always allow for this type of program to be implemented
• Issues in Grading
o Due to the experience nature of the classes, students should not be given a
grade
o How do you assess student performance without grades?
o Often parents want grade
• Decision in creating the programs
o What classes will be offered?
o How will the classes offered tie into the core classes?
• How can Exploratory Learning be used in the classroom?
o Exploratory learning is a curriculum-based idea as opposed to a classroom-
based idea. However, we can take the concepts importance to exploratory
learning and integrate them into our classroom!
• Examples of school’s integration of Exploratory Learning
o School magazine Everything in Between showcases students’ writing and
class work
o Career Preparation where students explore career opportunities through self-
evaluation
Issues in Exploratory Programs:
Offerings:
Appropriate exploration for young adolescents (Carnegie, 1989)
• Focus on critical thinking

3. Exploratory Program in the Middle Level School
Om Thapa
• Healthy life styles
• Integrated subject matters
Effective vs. required courses
Van Hoose and Strahan (1988) stress on the students’ choice in exploration activities
Curtis and Bidwell (1977) stated on the exploration of all possible areas of the
curriculum
• To implement effectively all areas of the curriculum, a district must struggle
with all the cost of developing, reinstituting or maintaining programs that
require extensive labs or equipments ( p. 188).
Scheduling, organization and integration of Exploratory Experience
• Common planning time: interdisciplinary teams
• Lack of time to communicate between the exploratory teams and other teams
• Ethnicity seems to be factor in whether or not a student is offered exploratory
courses