KnowledgeBases > Video: The History of Mapping
In this YouTube video, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs is interviewed by West Chester (Pennsylvania) East High School senior class president and "Norse Code" editor-in-chief Matt Young. Mr. Young asked Dr. Jacobs about the history of curriculum mapping and how many schools have adopted it throughout the United States and globally. Answering the second question first, Dr. Jacobs explained how the use of curriculum mapping has spread throughout the world. This advancement has coincided with the development of electronic software to support mapping in the classroom. While its application varies from state to state, mapping is actively used in all fifty states. Globally, it used by educators on all continents except Antarctica.
In response to the first question on the history of mapping, Dr. Jacobs reviewed her background including her research interest in vertical communication among K-12 teachers. Historically, teachers have communicated horizontally at grade-level in the elementary grades and within departments in the high school grades. Dr. Jacobs noted teachers were not discussing what was happening in the classroom. Dr. Jacobs was interested in exploring how teachers could break out of these boundaries to communicate vertically with each other throughout the grade structure. Through her curriculum design and planning experience, she developed a model based on curriculum auditing processes teachers could use. Previously done by committee, curriculum planning and review could now be done by teachers.
Her book, Mapping the Big Picture, described the mapping concept which has been adopted around the world. The subsequent development of software tools has supported the spread of curriculum mapping.
This video runs 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
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