Involving all stakeholders
in the implementation of
a science curriculum
Florine Meijer (f.j.meijer@uu.nl), Ton van der Valk
Junior College Utrecht, Utrecht University. http://uu.nl/jcu
Junior College
Utrecht
Research Question
How can a development and implementation programme effectively involve all stakeholders in supporting teachers to implement the science curriculum innovation?
Context Theoretical framework
Nature, Life and Technology (NLT) Teachers play a central part in the implementation of any curriculum innovation.
• Advanced Science for upper secondary school (grades 10 - 12) JCU created a programme for development and implementation that aims to create the conditions
• Introduced in schools in 2007 for successful professional development of teachers.
• Modular structure
• Modules developed at schools, universities; certification by national committee I interaction with each other and with other stakeholders
II a strong community, collaboration with high interdependence
Junior College Utrecht (JCU) III a clear connection with classroom practice
• Collaboration between Utrecht University and 26 secondary schools IV possibility to contribute to development of teaching materials
• Provides challenging science programme for excelling students (grades 11 – 12) V organised reflection on the experiences
• Workplace for developing science curriculum innovations, including NLT (Borko, H. (2004), Deketelaere, A. et al (1996), Imants, J. (2003), Stolk, M.J., et al (2009a,b))
The intervention Measurements
Stakeholders Activities in the programme
Questions Methods
JCU o developing modules
 Students o testing at JCU + revisions Are all stakeholders observations
 Lecturers o experiment groups involved? interviews
 Developers o testing at partner schools + revisions questionnaires
 School board o financial support for teachers developing & testing material Is the programme
Analysis
Partner schools o conference effective?
Criteria: operationalised conditions I-V
 Students o certification of modules
Are the teachers 1. teachers interact with other stakeholders
 Teachers o dissemination of certified modules
supported? 2. teachers collaborate closely with colleagues
 School boards o training of teachers nation-wide
3. teachers (intend to) use the module in class
External parties
4. teachers contribute to the development of the module
 Policy makers
5. teachers reflect on their experiences with the module
 Schools nation-wide
Stakeholders Activity Effects
100 teachers conference All groups of stakeholders exchange ideas, experiences, plans, etc. (crit. 1)
+ all groups except Q: The conference gave me new ideas for improving science education in the long run (crit. 3)
non-partner schools (workshops about students’ and teachers’ Q: The conference gave me new ideas that I can use right away (crit. 3)
 experiences with modules at JCU and at
partner schools)
strongly disagree agree strongly
disagree agree
“It’s good that JCU students are involved in the conference: very useful to hear their perspective.” (crit. 1)
50 teachers experiment groups Exchange of plans, ideas, problems with the material, tips and tricks…
+ developers, lecturers - helps other group members with their preparation (crit. 2)
 (teachers and developers meet four times - leads to changes / additions to the module, by developer and/or teachers (crit. 4)
a year to exchange their plans, ideas and - encourages teachers to reflect on their experiences with the module (crit. 5)
experiences with the module) Q: The contribution of the lecturer was valuable (crit. 1)
Q: The experiment group helped me prepare and teach the module (crit. 3)
strongly disagree agree strongly
disagree agree
40 teachers testing at partner schools Modules are (usually) taught by two teachers in close collaboration (crit. 2)
+ developers, students The teachers test the module in their own class (crit. 3)
 Experiences in class lead to revisions of the module (crit. 4)
Teachers’ experiences with the modules are used in certification procedure (crit. 5)
external teachers, developers, certification and dissemination 6 modules are certified for NLT; they can be used throughout the country (crit. 3)
school board JCU, policy makers 60 schools (~15% of total) nation-wide will use one or more JCU modules (crit. 3)

Conclusion
In the JCU development and implementation programme all stakeholders are involved in the implementation process. The interaction with colleagues, lecturers and
students during the programme activities helps the teachers with implementing the curriculum innovations.
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