Can curriculum managers’ reflections produce new strategies through Moodlei visions and resources?

Simon Bheki Khoza

doi:10.15700/saje.v36n4a1317

Abstract

This article presents a critical action research of three curriculum managers (managers) who used Moodle visions to manage their school curriculum at a school in Durban, South Africa. The curriculum managers’ main aim of using Moodle was to improve teacher and learner performance. The purpose of the study was to explore the managers’ reflections on their use of visions of Moodle for curriculum management. The managers’ reflective journals, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussion were used for data generation. Purposive and convenience samplings were used to select the three most easily accessible participants. The managers’ reflections on curriculum management through Moodle visions (personal, social and professional) suggest new strategies for curriculum management (habitual, opinion and factual). The study concluded that the managers understood/learned new strategies of managing curriculum through their reflections on their use of visions for the use of Moodle. This article consequently recommends the use of Moodle visions for curriculum management and the incorporation of a reflective process to help managers to interrogate their past and present in order to generate new strategies to improve future management knowledge/skills. Keywords: curriculum managers; factual; habitual; Moodle; opinion; reflection

Highlights

The post-2015 challenge is no longer about recruiting more learners to schools, but instead, about the achievement of high quality education that improves learners’ overall performance (Berkvens, Van den Akker & Brugman, 2014)
Theme One: Modular ObjectOriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle) Visions that Produce Curriculum Management Strategies The findings from the managers’ reflections on curriculum management through Moodle visions indicate that there are three new curriculum management strategies that were generated from the data
Previous studies on Moodle have presented the importance of Moodle hardware and software (Deng & Tavares, 2013; Rushkof, 2006; Sánchez & Hueros, 2010) and missed the importance of Moodle visions

Summary

Introduction

The post-2015 challenge is no longer about recruiting more learners to schools, but instead, about the achievement of high quality education that improves learners’ overall performance (Berkvens, Van den Akker & Brugman, 2014). A well-managed curriculum is able “to enhance [teacher/learner]’s critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking and prepare them for democratic citizenship” (Green & Condy, 2016:1). This suggests that educational management is about managers’ competencies of managing curriculum learning environments with the relevant resources that empower teachers, managers, and learners

Objectives

Results

Conclusion