A curriculum development case study in biology: two levels of interpretation

Abstract

Summaries English In this article, the authors examine the nature of curricular decision‐making at two levels which relate, respectively, to external curriculum developers and to teachers as curriculum users. At the first level, the process of translating scholarly, scientific material into formal curriculum materials is influenced by the curriculum developers’ interpretation of curricular constraints and intentions. At the second level, the adoption or adaptation of curricular materials in classroom teaching is influenced by the teachers’ perception and interpretation of the curriculum materials. As a study of an Israeli curriculum unit has revealed, there are significant differences between curriculum developers on the one hand, and curriculum users on the other, in their interpretation of curricular constraints, intentions and implementation possibilities.