A research poster about a study into curriculum development practices

1. 3 Methodology
1 Rationale / Context
2 Framework
Work mostly alone
Use informal processes
for checking quality
Openness to project
adaptation is low
Have access to
development and
prototyping tools
Casual
Singleton
Conclusion / Reflections
5
Findings
4
The framework of key indicators offers a robust research
base for future study of curriculum design and
development practices.
Designer access to assessment expertise was lower than
one might expect and could raise questions about
curriculum-assessment coherence.
Curriculum Design at Scale:
How designers actually work
Few empirical studies into designer expertise and
organizational routines for curriculum intended for
large-scale implementation.
This study sought knowledge about characteristics of
successful strategies and sharper articulation of how
designers, and the organizations in which they work,
actually tackle the task of curriculum development.
.
Authors
Susan McKenney
Jan van den Akker
Ryan Wakamiya
Andreas Beer
Yvonne Zijlstra
Edlyn Chao
Affiliations
References:
Goodlad, J. (1994). Curriculum as a field of study. In T. Husén & T. Postlethwaite (Eds.),The international
encyclopedia of education (pp. 1262-1267). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
High quality curriculum development attends
to three perspectives. (Goodlad, 1994)
The study was part of a larger project sponsored by the
International Baccalaureate (IB), an international,
comprehensive, primary and secondary education provider.
The larger project aimed to: 1) inventory existing curriculum
development practices, 2) review literature and validate
findings in practice, and 3) benchmark practices. This paper
focuses on the second phase, the literature review and
validation of findings in practice.
ESTABLISH the key components of curriculum
INFORM key components with relevant expertise
ALIGN key components and vision for enactment
CHECK assumptions
ITERATE curriculum elements
USE good tools
COLLABORATE with fellow designers
SYNTHESIZE all insights
EMPATHIZE with stakeholders and especially users
ANTICIPATE needs of teachers and/or learners
ATTUNE to changes in the educational landscape
DEFINE aspects of quality
MEASURE each aspect of quality
Substantive perspective:
Technical-professional perspective:
Socio-political perspective:
Quality perspective:
Systematic
Teammate
Work mostly in a team
Use formal processes
for checking quality
Openness to project
adaptation is high
Have access to
supportive and guiding
tools
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69% of designers
worked on design teams
RQ1: The literature review yielded a
unified framework of 13 key indicators.
RQ3: The cluster analysis resulted in
two main groups of respondents.
RQ2: The survey examined if and how
designers attend to the key indicators.
Substantive perspective—establishing key
components of the curriculum such as goals,
subject matter, learner activities, and
resources for classroom use.
Technical-professional perspective—the
methods of the development process,
including needs and context analysis,
design, evaluation, and implementation.
Socio-political perspective—the influences
of key stakeholders such as teachers,
school leaders, policy makers, inspectorate,
textbook publishers, students, etc.
Key Indicators of Curriculum
Development Practices
Designers tended to work in teams, but 31% of designers
may not feel connected to a collaborative team effort.
The casual singleton and systematic teammate personas
highlight two kinds of designers which may have implications
for how organizations attend to processes and standards for
curriculum design.
Explicitly attended to most of the areas of
quality outlined in the key indicators
Tended to use expert or practitioner appraisal
over learner outcomes
Had access to most types of expertise with the
exception of assessment expertise (58%)
The majority of respondents: