Implementing Curriculum Reform Research Articles

The Pre-Service Teachers’ Intentions to Implement STEM Activities

Teachers’ intention to adopt and implement curriculum reform is an important matter for success in achieving standards for education. Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics practices advocated in the current curriculum. In this research pre-service math and science teachers’ intentions to implement STEM activities are investigated through the general framework of Theory of Reasoned Action. The questionnaires are formed by the researchers with the interviews and literature related to the theory. 260 pre-service math and science teachers from a state university in Turkey engaged in the research. The reliability and validity indexes of the questionnaires had evidence for the usability of the instruments. According to the results of the study, pre-service math and science teachers’ attitudes towards STEM activities, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms had significant contribution to their intentions to practice STEM in their classrooms. Behavioral beliefs including perceived behavioral expectancy and perceived behavioral values were effective for explaining pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward STEM. Subjective norms were significantly predicted by descriptive norms while injunctive norms did not significantly contribute to their formation. Perceived behavioral control is shaped by perceived difficulties rather than perceived behavioral convenience for STEM. Overall, the theory is effective and suitable in explaining pre-service teachers’ STEM intentions and pre-service teachers had high intention scores for implementing STEM in their classrooms. Further research may concentrate on improving in-service and pre-service teachers’ perceptions via effective implementations related to STEM both for their professional development and their students’ development.

Redesign and process of reforming an existing undergraduate Nutritional Sciences program

Due to current and upcoming needs in the discipline and accreditation, the Nutritional Sciences faculty at a major university reformed their curriculum using backward design. As part of this process, they developed new learning outcomes that aligned to the institutional learning outcomes and mapped these new outcomes across the major's required courses. Also, they reorganized the existing major's single focus on biomedical nutrition into an academic program with a core curriculum and three concentrations (biomedical and molecular nutrition, global health and nutrition, and public health nutrition). The faculty designed new core and concentration courses and modified existing courses to distribute the essential learning across the major curriculum. Additionally, the committee created two service courses to fill voids in nutrition education for nonmajors. Despite abundant literature on backward and curriculum design, this process produced important learning about how to conduct and implement curriculum reform in a science-based discipline.

Measuring teacher cognition: Comparing Chinese EFL teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward English language teaching methods

Within the context of an ongoing reform of the curriculum for English as a foreign language (EFL) in China, we present the implicit association test (IAT) as a new way to measure Chinese EFL teachers’ implicit attitudes to a communicative language teaching (CLT) curriculum and to compare their attitudes to traditional language teaching (TLT) approaches. Our study is framed within the theory of teacher cognition – what teachers know, think, and believe as active decision makers (Borg, 2003) – and we propose the IAT as a new instrument for education researchers and policy makers. The IAT was used to discover the implicit attitudes of 24 Chinese EFL teachers, all graduates of the same teacher training institution in China, currently teaching at middle, high school, or college level in the same Chinese city. Results showed different degrees of implicit preference for CLT over TLT of the 24 teacher participants. We also found differences between implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes expressed by three teachers in interviews and we attributed those differences to the personal, institutional, and social contexts in which they were teaching. Results revealed that what teachers say is not necessarily what they think. By using the IAT, we have been able to measure implicit attitudes in a way that has never been done in teacher education study. We argue that such measures of teacher cognition are important for successfully implementing curriculum reform.

Exploring intentions to teach mathematical problem solving: An application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study examined the beliefs underlying teachers’ decision-making regarding teaching Mathematical Problem Solving (MPS), from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). 375 primary teachers drawn from 50 schools in a large, mainly urban local authority in Ghana, completed a questionnaire assessing the direct TPB measures of attitudinal beliefs (positive/negative consequences), normative beliefs (approving/disapproving significant others), control beliefs (easy/difficult circumstances) and intentions in relation to teaching MPS. In the follow up qualitative phase, six semi-structured teacher interviews were conducted to further explore the quantitative findings. The merged results revealed that teachers’ intentions to teach MPS were influenced by their attitudinal beliefs towards teaching MPS (e.g. stimulate critical thinking, apply mathematics to everyday contexts), their perceptions and actions of important others (e.g. education authorities, pupils and parents), and some perceived control difficulties (e.g. lack of instructional resources and time availability). The results identified both attitudinal and control beliefs as the main determinants of teacher intentions to teach MPS. These findings highlight the key beliefs to target in developing the capacity of schools to support mathematics teachers’ willingness to implement curriculum reform imperatives.

Understanding the Relation of Policy Discourse and Re-Conceptualising Curriculum: A Kosovo Perspective on a New Meaning of Context

This article is an analysis of the meaning of context in implementing curriculum reform. It uses an analysis of two Kosovo curriculum reforms in the previous two decades to elaborate on how education systems engage in the transfer of transnational ideas as well as how they face challenges in making those ideas succeed. The article uses Discursive Institutionalism and the debate between the Didaktik and Curriculum Theory Traditions as a framework for analysis to understand the form of ideas and types of discourses that are relevant for successful curriculum reform. While the Kosovo curriculum reform has been struggling to find a balance between the Didaktik and Curriculum Theory traditions, it is evident that two reform projects did not provide sufficient possibilities forcoordinative discourse among key actors in the reform implementation. For reform to succeed, education systems need to balance between both background and foreground ideas as well as communicative and coordinative discourses. In education systems whose professional capacities are limited and whose resources are scarce, such a balance gains greater importance, indicating the need for more school-based development activities. Therefore, the context should not be viewed as solely static, but needs to be assigned a new meaning regarding what it is and should be placed at the service of reform implementation by recognising the importance of critical reflection when adopting a particular curriculum policy orientation and tailoring the discourse for promoting reform ideas.

Envisioned and enacted practices: educational policies and the ‘politics of use’ in schools

ABSTRACTIt is widely known that there is a discrepancy between educational policy on the one side, and teaching and learning practices on the other. Most studies have been focusing on the sociocultural and micropolitical frames that shape teachers’ understandings and enactments of teaching, and that cause the vast diversity of classroom practices around the world. This article wants to draw attention to the ‘politics of use’ in teachers’ work: how teachers mobilize larger political narratives when implementing curriculum reform. Arguably, these narratives provide a shortcut between the central government and street-level actors, thus circumventing the logics of these actors’ immediate institutional environments.In order to showcase the politics of use, the article uses the case of education for creativity as it is designed for and practiced at Chinese schools. The case reveals how education for creativity is compromised by requirements emanating from larger political programs when implemented in Chinese classrooms. The article challenges the view that educational policy necessarily moves through a trickle-down process, from higher to medium to lower-level actors. In cases of strong ideological alignment between street-level actors and central state actors, educational policy may in fact sidestep and hence neutralize important institutional actors.

Influence of the Rewards and Recognition Scheme on Higher Vocational Education Curriculum Reform in China

This paper reviews the impact of the rewards and recognition scheme on curriculum reform in higher vocational education (HVE) in China. In this scheme, teachers and students can win rewards and obtain recognition through curriculum competitions and student skill competitions conducted by the government. It has been used to encourage and to support colleges and teachers to implement HVE curriculum reform. The qualitative research project into HVE curriculum reform reported here identified both the facilitative and inhibitory effects of the scheme on curriculum reform. Discipline heads’ perspectives of these influences were investigated through in-depth interviews. The scheme was seen as motivating just a slight majority of discipline heads to implement curriculum reform and as providing financial support in doing so. The discipline heads, though, also indicated that they were discouraged by the scheme’s misleading guidelines, its inappropriate evaluations of their efforts and its contribution to funding inequalities.

Discussion on perfecting the access of public health physicians in China

Currently, China lacks enough public health physicians and the quality of them varies much. In order to solve this problem, proving the access to public health physician is necessary. On the basis of literature research, this essay summarizes the existing problems of the access to public health physicians: improper professional education in university, curriculum setting and provision about physician registration. The essay argues that it is a feasible way to improve the access of public health physicians in China by further piloting and perfecting the unified post-graduation standardized training system, implementing curriculum reform to enhance students' practical ability and building network physician registration. Key words: Public health; Physician; Access; Practical ability

Large‐scale curriculum reform in Finland – exploring the interrelation between implementation strategy, the function of the reform, and curriculum coherence

ABSTRACTThe study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large‐scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown that a central determinant for the effectiveness of curriculum reform is the way in which the reform is implemented. Accordingly, implementing curriculum reform always entails translation of the new ideas into new educational practices, which involves complex sense‐making processes from those involved. Altogether, 117 stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland completed a survey. The results showed that the effect of the implementation strategy for the perceived curriculum coherence was mediated by the perceived educational impact of the reform both for the school and society. The mediated interrelation between the top‐down–bottom‐up implementation strategy in the curriculum process, and the estimated coherence in the written core curriculum implies that the objects of the activities, namely elaborating and focusing on the educational impact of the decisions, is a crucial determinant for achieving curriculum coherence, and further, facilitating sustainable school development at the local level.

Implementing curriculum reform in Wales: the case of the Foundation Phase

The Foundation Phase is a Welsh Government flagship policy of early years education (for 3–7 year-old children) in Wales. Marking a radical departure from the more formal, competency-based approach associated with the previous Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, it advocates a developmental, experiential, play-based approach to teaching and learning. The learning country: A paving document (NAfW, 2001) notes that, following devolution, Wales intended to take its own policy direction in order to ‘get the best for Wales’. Building on a three-year mixed methods independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase we discuss in detail the aims and objectives of the Foundation Phase, including the context to its introduction, the theory, assumptions and evidence underlying its rationale, and its content and key inputs. We then contrast this with how the Foundation Phase was received by practitioners and parents, how it has been implemented in classrooms and non-maintained settings, and what discernible impact it has had on young children’s educational outcomes. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the policy process and identifies a number of contextual issues during the inception of the Foundation Phase that has, it could be argued, constrained its development and subsequent impact. We argue that these constraints are associated with an educational policy landscape that was still in its infancy. In order for future education policy to ‘get the best for Wales’ a number of important lessons must be learnt.

Implementation of Total Quality Management in Higher Pharmaceutical Education: Opportunity and Challenge.

Introduction: Higher pharmaceutical education in China has made a great development in recent years. A few problems, such as unevenness of school-running level, lack of students innovation and deficiency of teaching effect, are also exposed in its rapid development. The reasons for these challenges are also revealed that old teaching mode and increasing enrollment scale in China's university may be the primary causes. Methods: To face these problems, some measures should be taken. Total quality management (TQM), as a novel teaching concept, is proposed in this article to integrate into higher pharmaceutical education in China. Results: To implement TQM, suggestions are given to emphasize on professional ethics, course quality and practice teaching. Firstly, the educators should take phar macy moral as one of the important contents and infiltrate it in all teaching activities so as to realize the cultivation of professional ethics. In addition, in order to improve course quality, it is necessary to implement curriculum reform by broadening curriculum caliber, optimizing curriculum system and removing regional segmentation in professional courses. What's more, practice teaching should be actively adopted to combine itself with higher pharmaceutical education in China due to it being a discipline depending largely on the practice. Conclusion: It is necessary to boost the TQM step by step within a healthy system, which will play an important role in improving the quality of pharmaceutical education. Though implementation of TQM in higher pharmaceutical education faces various opportunity and challenge, the philosophy of TQM will be gradually accepted by more and more universities.

Curriculum reform in China: student participation in classrooms using a reformed instructional model

This study examined how Chinese educators and teachers implement curriculum reform in mathematics classrooms, through an example of the reform in one district in China that is promoting a reformed instructional model called the DJP model. The data used in this study came from a project that followed teachers in this district for two years. By analyzing 64 classroom videos from 16 teachers, this study showed how students participated in classroom activities after using the reformed instructional model. Furthermore, the effect of teachers⿿ attitudes on implementation of the reformed model is discussed. The results show that the DJP model had a positive effect on increasing student participation, while teachers⿿ attitudes played a key role in this process. This study can contribute to a broaden context by suggesting an efficient way to increase student participation and highlighting the important role teachers play in implementing curriculum reform.

Implementing curriculum reform: insights into how Australian early childhood directors view professional development and learning

A range of studies has demonstrated that collaborative professional development and learning (PD&L) is effective in implementing curriculum reform. PD&L that is contextualised within a specific setting enables educators to explore new theoretical perspectives, review existing knowledge and beliefs, and examine their current practice. This article reports on an investigation of how Australian early childhood centre directors understand and lead PD&L during a major reform of curriculum. Qualitative analysis was undertaken drawing on orienting concepts from the literature. Analysis of data collected from two focus groups of early childhood centre directors shows the importance of the director as overall educational leader but suggests that distributing leadership supports PD&L. Although directors articulated belief in the value of collaborative professional learning, individualised, one-off, external professional development events remained a common strategy. Directors’ perceptions about managing curriculum reform, their understanding of leadership and PD&L, together with considerations of broader social and system influences such as organisational culture and structural arrangements are factors that contribute to professional learning. A model for a centre-based professional learning system is proposed.

“I get paid for my American accent”: the story of one Multilingual English Teacher (MET) in Japan

Abstract The flourishing research being published in the Global Englishes paradigm is increasing awareness of how English is used as a global lingua franca in international contexts. Such research has a number of implications for the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry, particularly in Expanding Circle countries, such as Japan where English is no longer being learnt as a mere ‘foreign’ language. However, the Native English Speaker (NES) episteme continues to dominate and, despite increasing calls for curriculum change, including the employment of more Non-native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) or Multilingual English Teachers (METs), NESs continue to fill teaching positions worldwide, perpetuating stereotypes about ‘correct’ and ‘standard’ English. The current study investigates the implementation of curriculum change at the practical level, aiming to investigate the experiences of NNESTs teaching outside of their home context in Japan. Despite calls for the employment of such teachers, who may serve as better role models for students than a monolingual NES, little research has been conducted with NNESTs teaching outside of their home countries. This study aims to fill this gap. It is part of a larger study, which includes longitudinal data collection with several participants in different countries (n=20), including practicing and pre-service teachers, via interviews, diaries and focus groups. This article reports the first interview documenting the experience of one multilingual NNEST in Japan, who has been forced to take on a ‘fake American’ identity. This single narrative provides insights into the experience of this teacher, highlighting the number of obstacles to implementing curriculum reform in the Japanese context. It provides preliminary insights into the identity of METs and the strategies they employ to maintain authority and legitimacy in the classroom.

Supporting the implementation of curriculum reform through learning communities and communities of practice

This article looks at the role that teacher training can play in implementing curriculum reform, specifically in studies conducted in French-speaking Africa by researchers at the UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development. After reviewing the effects that reform has on the school as an organization, it establishes a link between the concept of change and the notions of communities of practice and learning communities. As any change in organizations depends on human resources, the article describes how teacher training can enable teachers to develop such communities, as an effective strategy for implementing certain aspects of curriculum reform. It also outlines the importance of training that focuses on class management and the ways that such communities can empower teachers. Finally, it shows how a learning community that developed in one class extended throughout a school.

Relationship between Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Their Willingness to Implement Curriculum Reform

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between classroom teachers’ self-efficacy and their willingness to implement curriculum reform. The sample of this study included 255 classroom teachers. The data in this study were collected using the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale and the Teachers’ Willingness to Implement Curriculum Reform Inventory. The results of Pearson correlation analyses indicated that classroom teachers’ self-efficacy was significantly correlated with teachers’ willingness to implement curriculum reform. The stepwise regression analyses revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy for student engagement and self-efficacy instructional strategies is a significant predictor of teachers’ willingness to implement curriculum reform.

Trust and Extra Effort Implementing Curriculum Reform: The Mediating Effects of Collaboration

This study aims to examine the relationship between trust and extra effort implementing reform, and relationship between trust and extra effort are mediated by collaboration. The study was carried out in elementary schools in Turkey. Faculty trust in schools was measured using the Omnibus T-Scale, collaboration was measured using collaboration scale, and extra effort to implement reform was measured using extra effort inventory. In this study, it was found that the trust in principal had indirectly effect on extra effort implementing reform through collaboration with principal, whereas trust in colleague had both directly and indirectly effect on extra effort via collaboration with colleague.

The culture of education policy making: curriculum reform in Shanghai

This paper explores the culture of education policy making in Shanghai using the conceptual tool of a ‘global assemblage’. A global assemblage is essentially a collection of ideas and practices that arise from the interplay between a global form and situated sociocultural elements. Focusing on the global form of curriculum reform, this paper explains how the Shanghai municipal government justifies the introduction of the ‘Second Curriculum Reform’ using the global imperative while maintaining its socialist ideology and central control on high-stakes exams. This paper highlights the active roles played by the municipal government and other local educational stakeholders in assembling their own logics, tactics and counter-measures in the contested space of the assemblage. It is argued that the success of the curriculum reform is mediated and vitiated by the sociocultural elements of a dominant exam-oriented culture and the traditional approaches of memorisation, repeated practice and didactic teaching. The complex and unpredictable process of implementing curriculum reform in Shanghai illustrates the culture of education policy making against a backdrop of globalisation as a problem space.

Lessons learned? School leadership and curriculum reform in Hong Kong

This paper examines the processes of implementing curriculum reform in schools. Specifically, it investigates how schools learn lessons from previous experiences of reform and apply them when challenged by new reforms. The context for this study is Hong Kong's New Secondary School Curriculum (NSSC), with particular reference to the subject of English Language. Research into the enactment of change over the last decade tells a story of weak leadership and management by policy makers, schools leaders and teachers. Key areas of weakness – poor management of change by school leaders, teachers' lack of understanding of the changes, and weak teacher collaboration – were pinpointed as reasons for the dismal results of curriculum change. This study investigates whether these areas of weakness were also in the implementation of the NSSC. Data collection comprised semi-structured interviews in nine secondary schools. The study reveals that lessons had been learnt from the previous experiences of implementing reform, and suggests that the capacity of schools to learn from a historical perspective should be taken into account in curriculum planning.

Teachers’ responses to curriculum policy implementation: colonial constraints for curriculum reform

A new approach to curriculum and implementation in a new era normally requires schools and teachers to take more responsibility for student learning. This might present a challenge at any time, particularly when teachers have been used to more directives and less professional approaches to curriculum implementation. In order to meet such a challenge, a new approach to curriculum policy, namely “soft” policy, was used by policy-makers to implement curriculum reform. With the provision of substantial resources, it was expected by the policy-makers that schools and teachers would have better opportunities to develop themselves professionally and manage the new changes effectively. However, such a view misread the situation because the historical trend and present situation of teachers’ professional development were overlooked. This paper uses case studies of schools and teachers involved in the current reforms to show how teachers and schools implemented the reform process. The cases demonstrate how reforms were understood at the local level and the extent to which it could be claimed that implementation had taken place.