Dimensions Of Curriculum Research Articles

The challenges of the internationalisation of the curriculum: a pedagogical intervention to promote interculturality and plurilingualism in English-Medium Instruction

ABSTRACT Purpose This study presents the design, implementation and results of a pedagogical intervention aimed at Internationalising the Curriculum and developing Global Competence (GC) in an English-Medium Instruction (EMI) class in a Catalan university. The first goal is to unpack different pedagogical strategies which are considered relevant for the design of an internationalised EMI course. The second goal is to evaluate students’ reception and compliance/resistance to the intervention, and to assess the extent to which the proposed framework allowed for the development of interculturality and plurilingualism. Design The intervention was designed considering the guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for Higher Education (OECD 2018). 16 Primary Education teacher-trainees participated in it. The data included a questionnaire, video/audio recordings of the intervention sessions, one focus group with students, one interview with the lecturer, and classroom materials. Findings First, the results suggest that curricular interventions shall be based on the students’ attainment of local/global content and of the ability to communicate effectively within/across cultures, through critical metalinguistic reflection. Second, they show that, although students develop GC awareness of and proactively engage with a ‘cultural other’, after the intervention they reproduce ethnocentric frames concerning language and culture, constructing plurilingualism as an exception. Originality The paper contributes to a better understanding of the specific challenges and curricular dimensions in plurilingual EMI pedagogy which may be addressed for an effective Internationalisation of the Curriculum.

School Space and Sustainability in the Tropics: The Case of Thermal Comfort in Brazil

This work aims to discuss thermal comfort and school architecture in Brazil, within the Anthropocene framework. The objective traverses the fields of school management, curriculum, and educational policy. The importance of the environmental emergency in the context of the Anthropocene is recognized, understanding it as a space-time in which climate change biopolitically impacts both local and global daily life. In this way, we consider that the curricular dimension together with school architecture, in the Anthropocene scenario, tends to respond to the demands of biosecurity. The methodology of this article is the analysis of documentary sources, particularly current Brazilian legislation on school architecture, thermal comfort, and public funding. The initial hypothesis of this work operates with the argument that in Brazilian legislation there is a predominance of HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) systems over sustainable forms such as natural ventilation, design of classrooms, placement of windows, use of trees and vegetation and management of the student’s schedule. The assumption of the research lies in the need for reconfigurations of the principles of school architecture, considering both biosecurity and bioclimatic architecture essential for the future in the scenario of climate extremes along the Anthropocene.

2020-2021 Eğitim Öğretim Yılı İlkokul Öğretim Programları Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

Bu çalışmada yürürlükte olan ilkokul öğretim programları incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden doküman analizine dayalı olarak 2020-2021 eğitim-öğretim yılında ilkokullarda uygulanan öğretim programları, program geliştirme süreci doğrultusunda değerlendirilmiştir. İnceleme amacıyla ders programlarının hedefleri, içerikleri, öğrenme öğretme süreçleri ve değerlendirme öğeleri analize tabi tutulmuş ve elde edilen bulguların programın genel hedefleri ve ilkeleri ile tutarlılığı araştırılmıştır. 2018 yılında MEB’in uygulamaya koyduğu güncellenmiş öğretim programlarında görülen önemli özelliklerden biri, programların giriş bölümünde yer alan açıklamalarla tutarlılık oluşturulmaya çalışılmasıdır. 1980’li yıllardan itibaren hazırlanan ders temelli program geliştirme çalışmaları programların birbirinden kopuk olmasına yol açmıştır. Zaman içinde bu sorun giderilmeye çalışılmış ancak programların birbiriyle uyumsuzluğu sorununun devam ettiği görülmektedir. Bu sorunların programların felsefi temelleri, program tasarımları, içerik düzenlemeleri ve kazanım düzeyleri gibi alanlarda devam ettiği görülmektedir. Bu doğrultuda program geliştirme ve güncelleme çalışmalarının dersler özelinde ve öğretim kademeleri düzeyinde devam edeceği öngörülmektedir.

Curriculum response to the crisis.

Education is going through a period of crisis related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that most probably will follow a continuum organized into distinct phases: emergency, recovery, reconstruction, development, and institutionalization. This article analyzes the response of curriculum to an unpredictable, chaotic, and recursive crisis situation. The article also highlights the role of important, but often forgotten, actors in a formal education system—parents—and examines the stresses the pandemic has placed on them. Finally, in the light of the continuum of the educational crisis and the impacts of Covid-19 on certain curricular dimensions, the article concludes with reflections on the need to rethink curricula, even in education systems that considered themselves robust in their institutionalization.

Modelling a High Quality Education for International Students

Introduction.The strive for high quality of Russian higher education, puts an emphasis on seeking the ways to improve it in the line with the topical Global educational agenda. In the context of this study provision of high quality education is defined as managing students experience in and out of the classroom as an integrative whole which is indispensable for maximising educational outcomes. Though Russian universities have a steady intake of international students on mobility programmes, there are not enough studies modelling the application of these dimensions in Russian academic setting. The current study seeks for the pathways to overcome this gap.Aim.The article is targeted to rethink the strategy of managing high quality education for international students and to work out and test an integrated model for the educational quality enhancement regarding two critical dimensions of their university training in curricular-related and co-curricular areas.Methodology and research methods.Mixed research methods were utilised. Individual interviews and a survey with close-ended and open-ended items were used to find out challenging issues impeding the development of high quality education offered in curricular and co-curricular related dimensions. Classroom observation, peer experts opinions and content analysis of the courses taught and their outcomes evaluation were applied at the University of Tyumen, being 5-100 project participant, to indicate the components, pedagogical toolkit and competencies for high educational quality of international students.Results and scientific novelty.The developed integrated model for high educational quality provision included the main interrelated curricular and co-curricular components of quality enhancement. They involved the designed up-to-date academic Russian course; teacher-student interactive support, socio-cultural and intellectual engagement such as “buddy” scheme studentto-student support, discussion workshops on intercultural awareness of students and teaching staff. Teaching methods of reflection, critical analysis, confirmatory feedback, communities, project-based and action oriented learning, group discussions, language tandems were proposed. Major competencies for international students’ curricular-based and co-curricular educational quality were suggested: critical reading and reflection, academic writing, negotiating, argumentation, logical cohesion, intercultural and cross-cultural awareness, conflict avoidance, tolerance to ambiguity.Practical significance.The integrated model can be applied for road-mapping the action plan of international policy at any university in Russia to provide high quality education for international students.

Global Citizenship Education and Scholars for Syria: A Case Study

This article gives a broad sense of existing debate about Global Citizenship Education (GCE) to help situate and contextualize a novel case study. Scholars for Syria originated at a small university in southern Indiana. This grassroots response to the turmoil in Syria bridges the gap between a seemingly distant crisis and a midwestern city in the United States. The unique pedagogical and curricular dimensions of the case study work as a helpful framing device for facilitating exploration of debates about the shape of GCE, as well as providing new ways in which to imagine GCE curriculum, pedagogy, and embedding ethics into wider university initiatives.

Evaluación y metodologías docentes y su incidencia en las competencias genéricas: perspectivas teóricas

El artículo tiene como propósito aproximarse a la construcción de un marco teórico de sustento que permita comprender la interrelación entre las variables identificadas en el estudio. Específicamente, la construcción teórica atiende a cinco perspectivas de análisis, a saber: enseñanza centrada en competencias y el EEES; metodologías activas universitarias hacia una web ubicua 4.0; la dimensión instruccional psicológica y curricular; tecnología de validación de instrumentos y la validación de intervenciones basadas científicamente desde indicadores empíricos (IBE). Este proyecto pretende estudiar las metodologías docentes y las formas de evaluación transversales de las asignaturas, con énfasis en las competencias genéricas de lectura crítica y construcción textual; se prevé el análisis de las prácticas docentes y las necesidades de formación en el estudiante, como referente para la concepción de estrategias eficientes que contribuyan a mejorar el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje. El enfoque metodológico está centrado en procesos de revisión y análisis sistemáticos, que permitan la profundización teórica que den cuentan de los diversos constructos teóricos, con el foco en generar un sistema relacional de categorías y enfoques teóricos que aporten luz tanto para la construcción de instrumentos de evaluación como estrategias de actuación y contribuyan en la mejora docente y en la calidad de la enseñanza y repercutan en mejores resultados académicos en los estudiantes universitarios en las pruebas de competencias genéricas. Se concluye con la necesidad de un marco teórico en torno a cinco ejes que guía y orienta el proceso de investigación, de interpretación de datos y evidencias y el protocolo de actuación y propuestas de mejora de la calidad docente. Se espera aportar luces no solo para la aplicación y mejora docente, sino también para las implicaciones teóricas que se desprenden de los mismos, y permita una adecuada articulación de los diferentes constructos científicos medidos y para dar sentido a las lagunas actuales en el conocimiento científico sobre el tema. “Proyecto de Investigación Competitivo CONV-ÍNDEX Núm. 13-2018, Código Proyecto INV. 150-01-007-13 Universidad de la Costa (Colombia) – Universidad de León (España). Evaluado por la ACAC (MEN Colombia)”

El DESARROLLO DE LA CULTURA ECONÓMICA: UN RETO EN LA FORMACIÓN INICIAL DEL LICENCIADO EN EDUCACIÓN, CONSTRUCCIÓN

In the present article it deals with how to develop the economic culture. It exposes the theoretical foundation, shows an example from the subject Materials of Construction for the formation of economic culture in the students of the career. Methodological actions are proposed based on the educational work to be developed by the group of teachers from the curricular dimension of the teaching process. The methods were applied: document analysis and systematization. The students were able to argue, from the economic point of view, the elements of the content of the subject that were treated.

Challenges in English Teaching and Learning in Colombia

This article presents a reflection on the educational scenario that permeates the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in its political, methodological, didactic, curricular and investigative dimensions. A description of the current English reading comprehension level in the national context is presented. On the other hand, from a transformative conception in which educational practices must be developed, different elements aiming to the development of formative practices are explored. This is achieved, with the active participation of all the subjects that participate in the educational process by conducting research, which plays a fundamental role that contributes to achieve the emancipation of human beings and the transformation of the environment where they live.
 
 Furthermore, this article invites readers to think about and transform the pedagogical practices that are around the teaching of English as a foreign language in Colombia, Latin America and the whole world. This is possible to be achieved, from a resignification of the curriculum and emerging didactics, focused on research and the multidimensionality of human beings.

Characterising lesson planning: a case study with mathematics teachers

ABSTRACT The quality of students’ learning experience depends on the learning activities that their teachers plan prior to classroom delivery. This article characterises the lesson planning practices of a group of 27 mathematics teachers. The questionnaire and the associated information coding and analysis procedures designed for that purpose may be applicable to lesson planning characterisation involving larger groups of teachers and of other disciplines. Some of the study group’s needs and difficulties are established. One of the observations discussed is that planning procedures and criteria tend to be generic rather than specific to the lesson at issue. Another is that these teachers’ vision of planning does not necessarily ensure a coordinated approach to all curricular dimensions.

Consideraciones para la intervención de los apoyos de la comunicación y el lenguaje en la escuela inclusiva

The evolution of educational integration towards a paradigm of inclusiveness represents a radical change in the perspective of analysing school reality with regard to student diversity and intervention proposals, focused now not on individual shortcomings and limitations, but on the opportunities and alternatives offered to them in this context. Putting an inclusive model into practice requires setting up teaching teams, including support for teachers as a key element to implement the project. Members of this support team are specialists in communication and language which they suggest, in an inclusive education model, an intervention without a clinical, therapeutic or isolated nature, but rather as an integral part that takes into account the natural setting of the classroom as key for the process of acquiring and developing linguistic and communication skills amongst all students. Teamwork and collaboration are the key elements of this intervention model to ensure the inclusive education model is successfully implemented and rolled out. It includes the need to offer coordinated proposals between the support and tutor staff based on curricular dimensions and areas to work on student diversity regarding communication and language, which strengthen and work on elements that are valid for all students and which are essential for some.

Canadian Preservice Teacher Views of Inclusive Physical Education

In this paper, we explored various aspects of Canadian preservice elementary school teacher views about inclusive physical education. Based on prior work by Loreman (2014) that broadly examined preservice teacher views on inclusive education, in this study we looked specifically at inclusive physical education using a different sample of participants in the same program. Preservice teachers were asked a series of open-ended questions relating to their understandings, feelings of teaching self-efficacy, attitudes, and concerns relating to inclusive physical education in elementary school. Their responses reflected a strong focus on ability diversity (e.g., disability) and indicated that inclusive physical education means that all students should be part of the learning environment or that some should be excluded in roughly equal proportion. Depending on the curricular dimension, their self-perceived levels of preparedness ranged from low to high. The participants also presented a strong case for the necessity of resources available for the teaching of inclusive physical education.

La Administración Pública como objeto de formación: su dimensión curricular

<p>El trabajo puede considerarse un ensayo respecto de examinar la dimensión curricular involucrada en las propuestas de formación en Administración Pública. El componente curricular se considera desde distintos órdenes, que por la diferencia de temáticas o puntos de partida que suponen, permiten desplegarlo en distintos planos:</p><p>En primer lugar, lo curricular se examina respecto de las transformaciones que en las últimas décadas se producen en la configuración del campo de la educación superior (la centralidad que adquiere la dimensión curricular, de la mano de un progresivo protagonismo de lo educativo en el campo universitario).</p><p>Luego, el trabajo avanza sobre una defnición más conceptual de lo curricular que conlleva realizar algunos análisis más detenidos dando cuenta de los distintos aspectos sociales, políticos, pedagógicos e institucionales que involucra. En este marco, se hacen presentes cuestiones significativas respecto de la relación entre producción y reproducción del conocimiento y se consideran algunas de sus implicancias de orden más operativo, en el diseño o la actualización de programas de formación.</p><p>Una vez considerado el curriculum en estos términos conceptuales más amplios, el trabajo se focaliza en dos cuestiones, propias de la especialidad de la Administración Pública, que el tratamiento más teórico de lo curricular abre:</p><p>la tensión entre lo profesional y lo académico, en tanto sesgo formativo, pero también de la propia configuración del campo de esta especialidad y, las controversias que involucra establecer cualquier tipo de ordenación entre distintas bases disciplinarias, dada una configuración multidisciplinaria, como la de la Administración Pública.</p><p>En relación con ambos aspectos, se presentan también alguna toma de posición a manera de «orientaciones deseables», de forma tal que este tipo de tensiones, entre sesgos y entre disciplinas o áreas de conocimiento, se pueda articular productivamente en una propuesta formativa fortalecida o, en correspondencia, en una conformación más amplia de la especialidad.</p><p>Conocimiento Educactivo, Vol. 3, 2016: 11-32</p>

The Plan by Alison Paul (review)

Reviewed by: The Plan by Alison Paul Deborah Stevenson, Editor Paul, Alison The Plan; illus. by Barbara Lehman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015 32p ISBN 978-0-544-28333-6 $17.99 R Gr. 1-3 In this cleverly crafted story, a single word changes by a single letter (added, subtracted, or changed) to move the story along in the next frame or page. That device tells the tale of a young girl with a plan, to fly to Saturn in the small plane that sits unused on her farm; as her dad is busy at the sink with pans, she and her beloved pup sneak into Pa’s room and read the album that documents his barnstorming career in partnership with the girl’s late mother. Inspired by memories and his daughter, Dad preps for a new show with the plane, flying over the plain with daughter and dog along, pleasing a cheering audience below, and bringing to fruition at least one part of his daughter’s plan. The story is a quiet one, but the changing words are cunningly developed, and audiences will enjoy guessing what might come next. Lehmann’s clean and orderly line, watercolor, and gouache art carries the bulk of the plot, with the changing word pattern punctuating rather than narrating, and the simple, streamlined linework, with scenes contained within a further frame, makes the necessary components easy for audiences to decode. Period details (such as the pump next to the sink) add atmospheric framing, and elements such as the dog’s resolutely biped approach to life provide gentle comedy. Though gentle where Escoffier’s Take Away the A (BCCB 1/15) is raucous, this offers similar potential for an interesting curricular dimension in reading or language arts. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Experiences of Design-and-Make Interventions with Indian Middle School Students

Enabling learning through meaningful classroom experiences has always been a challenge for teachers. Bringing about a balance of the ‘conceptual’ and the ‘hands-on’, along with contextual embeddedness in problem-solving situations, broadly characterises the experience of development and trials of three Design and Technology (D&T) education units reported here. D&T education is a novel contribution to the curriculum and is in alignment with the values and ideas put forward in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 (NCERT, 2005), particularly the need for making appropriate connections across disciplines and fostering meaningful learning. The article describes the outcomes of a systematic effort to develop, implement and theorise D&T education pedagogy along with an emphasis on cognitive and curricular dimensions.

Escolarização formal e dimensões curriculares para alunos com autismo: o estado da arte da produção acadêmica brasileira

A mediação do conhecimento é um dos deveres da educação, independentemente dos atributos físicos e mentais do alunado. Dado que o currículo pode configurar-se como uma barreira pedagógica para a escolarização formal de indivíduos com autismo, este estudo objetivou mapear a produção acadêmica nacional, disponível no Banco de Teses e Dissertações da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal do Ensino Superior (BTD-CAPES) sobre o processo de escolarização formal e as dimensões curriculares para alunos com essa característica. Organizou-se um banco de dados com 157 teses e dissertações, as quais foram submetidas à categorização, análise estatística e temática. Os resultados indicam restrita produção acadêmica pelos programas de mestrado e doutorado do país. Conclui-se que há necessidade de pesquisas que amparem e propiciem estratégias pedagógicas para permitir ao aluno com autismo apropriar-se dos conteúdos curriculares da educação formal.

Curricular and Co-Curricular Dimensions of Environmental Education

The planet Earth is the abode of man, an intelligent creature of nature. It also houses other living beings. Man influences and is influenced by all these living & non-living creations of nature. The totality of all such subjects is usually referred to as his environment. As civilization progressed and science advanced, man started creating his own artificial environment. The consequence of this was the emergence of several serious problems for natural environment. Therefore, there was a need to create awareness in our students. A need was felt for an ‘Education about Environment’, which should form an integral part of curriculum at all levels of schooling. In recent years, Environmental Education has become a necessity for existence of human life. Various educational organizations (UGC, NCERT etc.) are engaged in making provision for the imparting of this education at various educational stages. The present paper attempts to highlight the major curricular and co-curricular dimensions of Environmental Education. It emphasizes the need to make the curriculum transaction more activity oriented, locale specific, problems and issues oriented. The paper explains the various pedagogical approaches, which can be followed for effective teaching-learning of environmental issues. The paper attempts to relate some of the well-known teaching methodologies & techniques with the teaching of environmental education. It is evident that both the curricular & co-curricular activities play major role in imparting quality education. Therefore, the paper presents the importance of some of the co-curricular activities like environmental games, songs, activities, competitions in making environmental education more interesting, effective, and active.

In One Voice

This article examines the views of graduate students who are aspiring or practicing school leaders and faculty from two university degree granting leadership preparation programs. Drawn from a larger mixed methods study, the authors focus here on survey results that show how these groups rated the effectiveness of 14 potential curricular dimensions drawn from traditional leadership content (e.g., budget/finance, legal compliance) and more recent (contemporary) additions to leadership curricula (e.g., reflective practice, adult learning and development, social-emotional capacity). Both traditional and contemporary areas received high ratings for effectiveness and importance to professional growth and development. Implications of this research point to the joint importance and feasibility of a more integrated approach to leadership education that includes contemporary and traditional dimensions. These finding may have important implications for other settings as well.

Rethinking Geography in Romanian Schools: Curricular Changes in Geography Learning in Post-Socialist Romania

Once with the fall of the totalitarian regime from Romania, in 1989, this country has recorded many changes in the social and economic life. One of the most dynamic fields has been represented by the educational system that encountered many turns both in the structural and functional perspective. Of these ones, a particular topic currently finds many intense debates in Romania concerning the quality learning in schools. It is about the curriculum that allows many opportunities for a proper instruction in connection with the contemporary requirements of the communities regardless of the scale we refer on (local, regional or national). Considering the geography, more than a descriptive science as well as an important field in human training, this paper tries to analyze the dynamics of the geographical curriculum focusing on two separate sections: the first one is assuming by the imposed national curriculum and the second one is oriented to the school decision curriculum (as optional subjects). These curricular dimensions are open outcomes of the Romanian reform on educational system and reveal quantitative and qualitative changes in teaching and learning geography after two decades of post-socialism. In order to find some accurate results this paper is basing on a particular methodological flow. It is designing on quantitative and qualitative methods as well as on the personal experience of the author regarding the Romanian geographical curriculum. In this regard, the sat problems of this paper occur from the following questions: Which are the most important changes in the Romanian geographic curriculum after 1990? Is the geographic curriculum really adjusting to the European standards of education? Which is the real impact of the geographical curriculum on the Romanian communities? Is efficient this curriculum in quality learning of geography? The findings of this study show contradictory and conflicting aspects that invite for further open researches, debates and discussions. These last ones are able to provide some fair conclusions, in order to offer new possibilities of action to capitalize the strengths of the Romanian curricular reform and, of course, to cancel the negative features of it.

‘Tuning’ Education for the Market in ‘Europe’? Qualifications, Competences and Learning Outcomes: Reform and Action on the Shop Floor

This article examines issues relating to governance and the reform of public policies in the European Union and suggests that a managerial agenda for change is developing, seeking to amplify the space for marketisation and control in the educational sphere. It is argued that, between the 1990s and 2010, world-ambitious educational models have been fostered in ‘Europe’, proposing curricular organisation and regulation principles, such as competences and learning outcomes, as well as regulatory frameworks based on political-technical instruments (qualification frameworks, credit transfer and accumulation systems, quality assurance systems); that is, an unstable and controversial educational language and universe has developed, populated by entities such as active pedagogy, indicators, targets or benchmarks. In order to substantiate the argument, the author briefly analyses, first, the emergence of the curricular dimension in the agenda for educational change; second, she tries to interpret how and why the category ‘learning outcomes (and competence[s])’ has acquired importance in the confluence of the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes and the Education & Training 2010 Programme in this ‘silent revolution in the field of education’. After considering some of these developments in ‘Europe’ and Portugal, she proposes a few tentative reflections regarding this educational paradigm change and the action of teachers and students.