The Curriculum Design Coherence Model in the Knowledge‐Rich School Project

Abstract

This Research Report describes the trialling of the Curriculum Design Coherence (CDC) Model in the Knowledge‐Rich School Project in New Zealand. The Project’s findings suggest that a CDC Model curriculum development design programme may be of use more widely. The CDC Model achieves conceptual coherence and progression, firstly by using generalising subject concepts as the mechanism to create coherence; secondly by using connected content to materialise the subject concepts; and thirdly by employing the cohering subject concepts in competencies for real‐life application. It is argued that a curriculum designed according to a subject’s internal cohering mechanism gives rich depth and breadth to a national curriculum. It also assists students in acquiring deep understanding as their engagement with knowledge builds cognition. The sections in this report, ‘Introduction’, ‘The Knowledge‐Rich School Project’, ‘Knowledge Project Findings—Teachers’ Practice’, and ‘Knowledge Project Findings—the CDC Model’, provide accounts of the Project’s methods which have been used to create the findings. The collaborative design by researchers and teachers of ‘worked examples’ which apply the CDC Model was looked at first. Secondly, the ongoing refinement of the Model was investigated as the worked examples revealed its strengths and limitations, refinements which were fed back into the Model’s application. The sections ‘The Curriculum Design Coherence Model’, ‘Knowledge Types’, ‘Knowledge and Learning’, and ‘Knowledge and Language’ contain discussions of the realist (rational) theory of knowledge which informs the Model as well as explanations of how this knowledge theory justifies the Model’s design as a concept‐cohering tool. The CDC Model’s theoretical strength as a curriculum design tool makes it useful for professional programmes and teacher education. It avoids the limitations of both content‐list and skills‐based approaches for a concept‐cohering ‘rich’ approach to the curriculum.