The revival of the process model in curriculum design: changes and challenges in the new taiwanese citizenship curriculum

Abstract

ABSTRACT The new Taiwanese citizenship curriculum has converted its traditional bullet-point guidelines to hundreds of open-ended questions. Each question acts to initiate collective inquiry, to stimulate the sharing of lived experiences and to trigger within-class conversations. The previous pre-determined educational objectives and learning outcomes, in line with the Tyler Rationale, have been replaced by the process model. This Taiwanese case aims to prove that the process model, which emerged in the 1970s, remains relevant and applicable to current curriculum construction and this revived version may bring new perspectives to the scholarship on curriculum development. Based on interviews with fifteen curriculum developers, this article reveals the thinking behind the curriculum transformation and shows how the creation of such new guidelines is more attentive to students’ personal experiences and diverse views, and facilitates mutual understanding, conversations and the possible reaching of consensus. This approach also attracts less controversy or opposition while still managing to touch upon sensitive social topics in the curriculum.Meanwhile, the ‘Social Inquiry Method’ has also been integrated into Taiwan’s new curriculum to ensure question-based guidelines can bring about reforms to actual classroom practice, despite concerns regarding the required re-training of teachers and the ingrained exam-driven culture.