Title: Developing conceptual frameworks for effective school
1Developing conceptual frameworks for effective
school based planning and curriculum development
- Jia Xu and Colin Marsh
- Curtin University
2- Is it necessary and possible to have SBCD at
schools in Australia? - Is it necessary and possible to use conceptual
frameworks to help us understand and develop more
effective SBCD?
3SBCD in China
- SBCD has been a highlight of Chinas new
curriculum reform since 1999. - A curriculum policy change towards devolving
partial power in curriculum decision-making to
teachers. - 10 of curriculum is decided by local regions and
individual schools. - Transforming teachers role from book-knowledge
transmitters to curriculum developers.
4Defining school-based curriculum development
(SBCD) as
- a slogan,
- a democratic philosophy,
- a practical series of steps.
5Caveats
- SBCD is a constantly evolving term. It is very
difficult to come up with a perfect form of SBCD. - Although it is a desirable process for teachers
to become involved in SBCD yet the hard realities
of systems and governments necessitate
limitations.
6What is a conceptual framework?
- It provides a structure for curriculum planning.
- It provides a coherent grouping of terms or
values. - It provides ideal goals.
7Some preliminary questions
- Is school-based curriculum development alive and
well in 2011 in Australia? - Is there a perfect type of school-based
curriculum development and has it ever existed in
a pure form? - Do ideas about school-based planning change over
the decades, for better or worse?
8Some different priorities of SBCD
- A democratic vision to have more teacher
involvement - A way of supplementing student resource materials
- A way of addressing critical problems in an
education system - A way to support systemic reforms and to enhance
the professional skills of teachers
9How successful are current efforts to do SBCD in
Asian countries ?
- An example from Hong Kong
- An example from Singapore
10SBCD in action in Hong Kong
- Innovative teachers are selected to be seed
teachers and given special training at head
office. - Creation of new promotional positions of
curriculum leader in each primary school - Setting up of school-based support team in each
education district - Celebration of exemplary efforts
11SBCD in Singapore
- Intensive workshops on SBCD provided for all
primary schools - Research activists appointed for each school to
support a specific SBCD project - Learning journeys to other schools locally
overseas - Celebration of successes through public
presentations/workshops
12The Australian scene in 2011
- Teaching has always been a complicated process.
- Teachers need to be able to do a number of things
almost simultaneously, including - unpacking knowledge and ideas,
- making this accessible to others within a caring
productive environment.
13New pressures for teachers
- New external pressures ongoing internal,
school level pressures. - New external pressures
- Australian Curriculum,
- NAPLAN,
- MY SCHOOL website,
- Professional standards for teachers.
- School-based planning and central planning
working towards educational reform.
14General problems for doing SBCD
- Lack of time
- Lack of expertise
- Lack of finance
- Externally imposed restrictions
- Threatening school climate (resistors or lack of
effective leadership) (Marsh,1992).
15The arrival of the National Curriculum
- Materials produced so far for the first four
subjects indicate that what ACARA is requiring is
more than just general principles and outcomes
for each subject area. - There will be a major emphasis upon content and
specifying of what is taught at each grade level. - This will be reinforced through NAPLAN results in
terms of literacy and numeracy. This will flow
over into other subjects.
16Likely impacts
OR
17Curriculum planning models
- These models are typically general and apply
across various subjects and teaching levels. - Models provide simple procedures for teachers to
go about planning of lessons. - prescriptive models (Tyler, 1949 Taba, 1962).
- Naturalistic Model (Walker, 1970).
- Understanding by Design model (Wiggins McTighe,
1998).
18SBCD planning models
- In situations where teachers want to get involved
in school-based planning SBCD models need to be
considered. - It is important to remember that each school
situation is very different and so it makes the
task of developing SBCD planning models all the
more difficult.
19Major categories of school-based models
20Models that create typologies of different
variations of SBCD
Figure 1 Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in
practice (Brady, 1987)
21Figure 1 Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in
practice (Brady, 1987)
22Models that create typologies of different
variations of SBCD
Figure 2 A three-dimensional model of SBCD
(Marsh, 1990)
23Figure 2 A three-dimensional model of SBCD
(Marsh, 1990)
24Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 3 School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme,
Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)
25Figure 3 School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme,
Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)
26Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 4 Lees model of SBCD (2008)
27Figure 4 Lees model of SBCD (2008)
28Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 5 A model of implementing school-based
curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)
29Figure 5 A model of implementing school-based
curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)
30Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 6 A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)
31Figure 6 A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)
32Concluding comment
- Making curriculum space available for SBCD is a
major issue and it depends upon levels of
cooperation between centralised and decentralised
forms of curriculum development. - There are a variety of SBCD approaches. The
conceptual models outlined here provide just some
of the possibilities. - Because SBCD is closely related to local needs
and priorities it is not possible to come up with
one conceptual model which fits all.