Curriculum Resources Research Articles

A Passport for a New Era of Learning.

Over the last several years, there has been a surge of readily available curricular resources for global health (GH) educators that theoretically has enabled them to overcome the barrier of needing to create new content for their programs. Despite this increase in available resources, integrating GH education into the already busy schedule of residency is a common challenge to the growing number of GH track directors. In this perspectives piece, GH educators from multiple institutions will share a novel model for packaging, administering, and monitoring GH educational curricula. This model transposes traditional GH learning objectives into self-paced, longitudinal maps of opportunities suitable for the time-intensive demands of residency, with flexibility for individual learning preferences and built-in tracking mechanisms.

Teacher Changing the Discipline: A Case Study of Participatory Professional Development

In this case study, we explored an innovative Professional Development (PD) approach where teachers were positioned as experts and drivers of change. Simplified as Participatory PD, Michigan State University Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Education faculty constructed an experience for Michigan AFNR Educators following the characteristics of effective PD. We then employed a case study design to explore AFNR Educators’ perceptions of the Participatory PD experience. Seventeen AFNR Educators engaged in the participatory PD. During the PD, educators were tasked with creating a state-wide AFNR Education curriculum resource. Data collection included focus group interviews with teacher-participants, a facilitator interview, researcher observations, and researcher reflections. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a multi-stage process based on the constant comparative method of analysis. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) Professional Development, (b) Learning, (c) Perspective, and (d) SBAE Change. Conclusions from the case study include a discussion of the outcomes reached by teacher-participants who engaged in the participatory PD, the essential role of collective teacher expertise in achieving those outcomes, and teacher preference for the participator PD approach. Recommendations include the need for additional research on participatory PD alongside recommendations for leaders in AFNR Education to implement participatory PD.

Research on Curriculum Construction Path Based on "DCOI" Concept -Taking Finance Major as an Example

Curriculum construction is the key field of higher education in China at present and in the future, and also the important focus of connotative development of colleges and universities. Starting from the problems existing in the current curriculum construction and drawing lessons from the educational concept of higher engineering certification, this paper puts forward the DCOI curriculum construction concept, creates the "12345" curriculum construction mode with four dimensions of "system construction - resource construction - teaching implementation - evaluation and improvement", and realizes it through the practice in the major of finance. The construction goal of "curriculum system integration, curriculum resource informatization, efficient classroom teaching and scientific curriculum evaluation" has achieved remarkable construction results and formed a relatively complete curriculum construction paradigm.

Beyond Fake News: Culturally Relevant Media Literacies for a Fractured Civic Landscape

A confluence of circumstances in US public life, including the proliferation of digital media outlets, the diminished role of information gatekeepers, and entrenched ideological polarization, have made one of the core competencies of political engagement – staying informed about current events – an increasingly fraught endeavor. Fears about misinformation, bias, and “fake news” have spawned an array of curricular resources aimed at helping educators teach students how to analyze information sources in hopes that a common foundation of knowledge will contribute to reasoned and productive civic debate. In this article, we argue that analyzing news sources is a necessary but insufficient skill for fostering dialogue in public life. We suggest that the development of authentic connections across partisan divides require more expansive literacies grounded in civic storytelling, inquiry, and collaborative social dreaming. We draw upon the practices of 2 learning communities to offer principles and strategies for fostering such culturally relevant media literacies.

Approaches and Framework of College General Education Curriculum Reform from the Perspective of Core Literacy

Core literacy is the embodiment of the basic task of “establishing morality and cultivating people”, and general education helps universities to carry out the basic task of “establishing morality and cultivating people”. The core literacy puts forward some new approaches for the reform of general education curriculum, which include: the combination of general education curriculum and professional curriculum; The value orientation of general education curriculum is “general knowledge spirit”; The core curriculum is taken as the module as the teaching organization form of general education course; In the general course teaching, we should pay attention to the construction of “curriculum thinking and politics”. At the same time, in the perspective of core literacy, the reform framework of general education curriculum also puts forward some enlightenment: in the goal setting of general education curriculum, we should pay attention to the core literacy as the starting point and destination; In the general curriculum teaching concept, we should pay attention to the establishment of the people-oriented education concept; In the course design of general education curriculum, we should pay attention to optimizing and integrating curriculum resources; In the process of general education, we should pay attention to the combination of various teaching methods.

Mathematics textbooks and curriculum resources as instruments for change

In this survey paper we aim to provide an overview of research on mathematics textbooks and, more broadly, curriculum resources as instruments for change related to mathematical content, instructional goals and practices, and student learning of mathematics. In particular, we elaborate on the following themes: (1) The role of curriculum resources as instruments for change from a theoretical perspective; (2) The design of curriculum resources to mediate the implementation of reform ideas and innovative practice; (3) Teachers’ influence on the implementation of change through curriculum resources; (4) Students’ influence on the implementation of change through curriculum resources; and (5) Evidence of curriculum resources yielding changes in student-related factors or variables. We claim that, whilst textbooks and curriculum resources are influential, they alone cannot change teachers’ teaching nor students’ learning practices in times of curricular change. Moreover, more knowledge is needed about features of curriculum resources that support the implementation of change. We contend that curriculum innovations are likely to be successful, if teachers and students are supported to co- and re-design the relevant curriculum trajectories and materials in line with the reform efforts and their own individual needs.

CLARK: A Design Science Research Project for Building and Sharing High-Quality Cybersecurity Curricula

The Cybersecurity Labs and Resource Knowledge-base cybersecurity curriculum resource library is a large-scale design science research project developed to address critical demands in teaching cybersecurity and help faculty prepare cybersecurity graduates for the workforce. This article includes a description of the CLARK curriculum model, system, and collections, our experiences in its evolution, and the lessons learned that might benefit similar DSR projects to rapidly disseminate high-value curricular resources to the education community.

Connectivity in support of student co-design of innovative mathematics curriculum trajectories

The argument of this theoretical paper is that the existence and availability of suitable digital curriculum resources, accelerated by the recent pandemic, have required a revision of the pedagogical landscape in terms of ways in which students can be empowered to (co-)design their own curriculum trajectories. For this purpose, I argue, students need to be supported in considering many connections, to arrive at coherent trajectories. Based on complexity thinking and curriculum design with digital resources, I propose the concept of connectivity as a crucial principle for creating coherent curriculum trajectories. If students are to become the co-designers of their own curriculum, they need a frame that raises their awareness about the many connections to be made and that supports their capability for actually realizing them. Drawing strongly on my own work and related work by others, I analyse and illustrate the connections made by students, teachers and curriculum designers in their design of mathematics tasks, lessons and learning trajectories with digital resources. Results show that connections can be made at several levels, namely, at a social level, at a material level, at programme level, and at a didactical level. Leaning on systems thinking, connections can be systematically considered, which is likely to help students to enhance the coherence of their designs. I contend that a student-designed ‘connected curriculum trajectory’ is likely to become the focus of future research activities in innovative learning environments: this endeavor would connect aspects of curriculum, mathematical content, learning strategies of students, and the use of new technologies.

Developing Team Skills in Accounting Students: A Complete Curriculum

Employers continue to demand increased levels of team and interpersonal skills in graduating accountants. Scholarly and professional works continue to reinforce this demand. Despite this, there remains a dearth of resources available to universities to integrate team skills education into accounting curriculum. This paper directly addresses this issue by providing a specific teamwork curriculum for implementation in accounting programs. In this paper, we detail the team skills required of accounting graduates, provide implementation recommendations, supply a complete set of curriculum resources, and provide assessment templates. This paper reduces the barrier for universities to implement team-skills content within their accounting programs.

Investigating the alignment to mathematical modelling of teacher-created mathematical modelling activities available online

Mathematical modelling has garnered national and international interest due to its importance. Mathematical modelling can develop students’ mathematical understandings, teamwork and communication practices. The ability for teachers to select appropriate mathematical modelling tasks is important to ensure the benefits listed for students are realized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the alignment to mathematical modelling of teacher-created curricular resources available through the Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) website. The TPT website, where teachers can buy and sell resources, is used by millions of teachers each year. Through this research, we sought to investigate if the curricula that resulted in searches for mathematical modelling are aligned to mathematical modelling. We found that about 6% of the curricula resources in our searches could be considered mathematical modelling. These curricular resources are described. We also categorized the curricular resources from the searches, that were not coded as mathematical modelling. This provides insights into teachers’ misconceptions of mathematical modelling. Implications for teachers and researchers for issues to be considered as the prevalence of online resources increases are discussed.

Preservice mathematics teachers’ selection of curriculum resources in individual and group lesson planning processes

This study aims to identify what curriculum resources preservice teachers are using when planning a lesson individually and with a group. Moreover, it is interested in understanding the criteria they use when selecting curriculum resources in their lesson plans. The data were obtained from 28 preservice mathematics teachers through a written questionnaire, individual lesson plans, group lesson plans, and focus group interviews in a period of nine weeks. In the individual lesson planning process, most of the preservice teachers used both the activities from the prescribed textbook and ready-to-use internet-based resources. They included one type of curriculum resource in a phase of individual lesson plans. However, some groups used multiple curriculum resources in a phase of the group lesson plans. The groups produced a shared understanding of the selection of curriculum resources and produced a joint lesson plan by reviewing their choices in individual lesson plans. In both individual and group lesson planning, the frequency and types of curriculum resources used in the lesson plans notably varied according to the mathematics contents and the phases of the 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) lesson plans. When selecting curriculum resources, preservice teachers considered learner-related, teaching-related, mathematics-related, and constraints-related criteria.

НАСОКИ, ИДЕИ И ПОДХОДИ ЗА ОБУЧЕНИЕТО ПО ИИ В УЧИЛИЩЕ. СТРУКТУРИРАНЕ НА ЗНАНИЯ И СЕМАНТИЧНО МОДЕЛИРАНЕ

The strategic documents at European and national level set as a main goal for education the introduction of elements of artificial intelligence in the various educational levels and forms of training in a way appropriate for the learners. In the last two years, experimental training in artificial intelligence in high school has been implemented in Bulgaria. The report examines some problems and challenges in organizing and conducting this training in different types of schools, specialties and classes. Some guidelines are outlined and ideas for creating an appropriate curriculum and learning resources in the field of knowledge structuring and semantic modelling are shared. An approach to teacher and student training is proposed. The authors share their experience in teaching teachers and students and analyse the results of surveys and tests.

SWOT Analysis of National Traditional Sports Curriculum Resource Sharing Based on Internet “MO Class”

National traditional sports is an important carrier of my country’s traditional culture. Sharing limited educational resources has become an important direction and trend of educational development, and it is also a common opportunity to narrow the educational gap between the east and the west. Relying on the Internet MOOC, this article conducts SWOT analysis on the resource sharing of national traditional sports curriculum, analyzes from four perspectives of advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and threats, and proposes suggestions and countermeasures for the entry of traditional national sports into campus, aiming to protect traditional national sports.

Contemporary science practice in the classroom: a phenomenological exploration into how online curriculum resources can facilitate learning

ABSTRACT Using a phenomenological lens, we investigated how online curriculum resources can support secondary science teachers to explore contemporary science practices with their students. The research used a social constructivist theoretical and a hermeneutic phenomenology methodological framework to describe and interpret the teacher/participants’ experience. Seven participants teaching science to Year 7–10 students (12–15 years old) engaged in the research project, trialling selected contemporary science resources in their class. Pre and post intervention interviews were conducted with each participant along with classroom observations of one lesson to view aspects of the effectiveness of the resource, the teachers’ approach and their perceptions of student learning and engagement. Discussion focuses on how the online curriculum resources presented alternative views about science in practice to what students expect, providing an in-depth view of scientists and their research practices in varied settings. Affordances of this approach for bringing real science into the classroom and for improving student engagement and learning are considered. The findings point to the approach being potentially a productive, scalable way forward for introducing contemporary science practice into classrooms. We advocate further research investigating the potential of this type of online curriculum resource to connect students more powerfully with scientists and their practices.

Research on Recommendation of Online Materials Course Resources Based on Text Similarity

In order to solve the problem that it is difficult for college students to find learning resources related to thecourses they are learning quickly and accurately in blended learning. This paper proposes an online materials course resources recommendation method based on text similarity. Firstly, collecting the data of course resources on the online learning platform through web crawler technology. Secondly, preprocessing the data which contend deleting noise data, the Chinese word segmentation and calculating the course similarity based on cosine similarity then getting the course recommendation results according to the similarity ranking. Thirdly, evaluating the recommendation results and optimizing the similarity calculation method according to the evaluation results. Finally, the learners are recommended curriculum resources according to the similarity ranking results. According to the courses learned on the Superstar platform, the experiment recommends similar course resources on the XueYin Online platform. The results show that the online materials course resources recommendation method based on text similarity can recommend relevant online materials course resources for learners quickly and accurately, which has certain reference significance and application value for online course resources recommendation.

Students Lead the Charge! Using Project-Based Learning with Pre-service Teachers to Redesign a Curriculum Resource Center

Project-based learning (PBL) allows students to identify and find solutions to real-world problems using inquiry-based learning. With the exception of Correll and Bornstein (2018), very little has been written about using PBL to redesign college and university Curriculum Resource Centers. The authors of this article used PBL in conjunction with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers (CMCs) and the three themes for PBL success in higher education identified by Lee et al. (2014) to work with a small class of upper-level elementary education pre-service teachers to redesign an academic library Curriculum Resource Center.

Investigating students’ perceptions concerning textbook use in mathematics: a comparative study of secondary schools between Shanghai and England

ABSTRACT This article reports an empirical study aiming to investigate students’ use of mathematics textbooks in Shanghai and England, with a comparative perspective. The study used mixed methods to collect the data through student questionnaire, student focus group interview and classroom observation. 161 Shanghai seventh- and eighth-grade students and 206 England year-seven and -eight students participated in the study. The results indicated that there existed considerable differences between Shanghai and England with respect to the roles that textbooks as curriculum resources play in students’ learning of mathematics. While Shanghai students relied heavily on textbooks and used them in various situations, had a strong sense of self-regulation behind the use, and thought highly of textbooks in their learning of mathematics, English students seldom incorporated textbooks in their learning of mathematics, used them mainly depending on teachers’ instructions, and held a relatively critical view of textbooks. The article also offered explanations and discussed the implications of the results concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Literacy practices as social: relational-keys in literacy events

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to work toward more fully conceptualizing literacy practices as social by theorizing the combined relational and intellectual context for learning. This context is created through students’ and their teachers’ uses of language. In particular, the quality of language that creates this intellectual relational context is relational-keys that are inherent to any talk between people. Building upon Hymes (1974) conceptualization of key, relational-keys can be described as the emotional mood or spirit of a conversation, but they are much more than that per se. They are constitutive of the complex, multi-layered relationships that people have with each other, with themselves and with the material environment through their uses of language.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon a classroom ethnographic study in a first-grade classroom and using discourse analysis of classroom interactions, the author uses data from instructional conversations to illustrate how students and their teachers collaboratively perform relational-keys.FindingsFindings reveal that students and their teacher perform relational and intellectual stances toward reading and toward each other through relational-keys, that frame the act of reading and their experience of doing it together.Originality/valueThe concept of relational-key provides literacy researchers with another tool to analyze what happens in instructional conversations. It also provides teachers with a curricular resource to identify relational-keys that are enacted. Therefore, teachers are able move away from the enaction of relational-keys that contribute to subtractive schooling, and toward relational-keys that nurture empowering stances in students toward reading and their relationships.

Developing psychiatric resources for the new foundation programme curriculum

AimsOur aim was to develop an easily accessible, relevant and deliverable resource to meet the training requirements of the new foundation curriculum for Foundation Trainees in the West Midlands. The virtual resource needed to provide information at the correct knowledge depth, whilst also being flexible enough to allow trainees to access the materials despite the challenges of remote working. The West Midlands currently holds approximately 1,300 places for foundation training with an increase in numbers planned for 2023 and 2024.MethodThe United Kingdom Foundation Programme (FP) is a two-year structured, supervised training programme of learning in the workplace developed to prepare medical graduates for speciality training. The Foundation Curriculum is currently being updated in line with the GMC Standards for Post Graduate Curricula to reflect the developing and contemporaneous training needs of doctors and is expected to go live in August 2021.Though the foundation curriculum is broad and does not usually include specific diseases, it is recognised that mental health disorders are common and are frequently missed. The new curriculum makes a specific statement regarding the importance of mental health and specifies a syllabus covering this important area of medical practiceAround 80% of doctors are expected to have exposure to a community medicine placement, with around 40% expected to have placement within a specific mental health setting. Though other community placements may provide some exposure to the acute challenges of mental health, this is not guaranteed.To assist in meeting the FP requirement for training in mental health we developed an online resource for all West Midlands trainees, with lectures and information available that covers all of the core curriculum requirements for the FP. These resources can be accessed at any time of the day, at any point of foundation training, with each module certificated to show evidence of the attainment of foundation competencies ready for students ARCP (Annual Review of Competency Progression).ResultA programme of evaluation and effectiveness will be undertaken when the new curriculum goes live.ConclusionThere is an expected expansion in the number of training Foundation doctors within the next 5 years; therefore the demand for this training is expected to increase over time. As the understanding and awareness of the interaction between physical health and mental health continues to develop, we expected the use of this resource grow into the future.

Supporting theatre education through resources and policy

Theater educators, like their music, dance, and visual arts counterparts, had to pivot quickly to provide educational opportunities in theater for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article outlines how two national associations, the Educational Theater Association, and the American Alliance for Theater in Education, responded to the crisis and provided support to theater educators in the field during the pandemic. In addition, the article includes information on a brief survey conducted with theater educators in Fall, 2020, speaking to how they were teaching during the pandemic, and what they were teaching, including administrative and resource supports. The online curricular and instructional resources created by EdTA are of particular interest as the organization was just ramping up online professional development at the start of the pandemic. During the pandemic, EdTA came to the forefront in providing resources for all educators on how to create instructional content in a variety of platforms.