40-year-old Alphabet Soup:
Curriculum Reform Projects of the 1960s

January 22, 2004

A large number of projects attempted to "reform" the educational curriculum between the late 1950's and the early 1970's. Currently a writer, Dick Miller was a teacher during that time. He reviews the history and philosophy of the reform movement and presents his personal experience teaching a course from the Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project (ECCP) and consulting with the project office. In addition, he describes several examples of student activities taken from "The Man-Made World," one of the ECCP courses.

Dick Miller has been helping people to understand complex concepts and do their jobs more effectively and efficiently since 1965. He has taught at all levels from kindergarten through graduate school; designed, developed, and delivered technical documentation and training; helped to improve the usability of products, documents, and web sites; coached and facilitated groups in problem-solving processes; facilitated access to and navigation through groups of data and information; and coached and tutored individuals in content areas as diverse as theory of flight, calculus, and playing the guitar. Dick has earned college degrees in engineering, physics, education, and business administration. For recreation, he plays Traditional Jazz (Dixieland) trombone and tuba.