Transcript Marsh & Willis: Curriculum

Marsh & Willis: Curriculum
Chapter 7: Curriculum
Implementation
Curriculum Implementation
• Definition: The process of enacting the
planned curriculum (or)
• the translation of a written curriculum into
classroom practices
• The Text uses the analogy of a play.
One truth about curriculum
implementation
• There are 1000’s of written curriculum
documents gathering dust on a shelf because
they were never implemented.
A new curriculum is going to be
implemented, so ……….
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A teacher must ask….
How do I do it?
Will I ever get the “hang” of it?
Who can I trust to help me ?
Am I getting it right?
Is it really helping my students?
Know it is going to take time…...
Useful terms to remember for
curriculum implementation
• Fidelity of Use: Staying very close to the
prescribed written document
• Adaptation: Individual, creative versions of
the written curriculum
Four themes in professional
literature on curriculum
implementation (Fullan et al.)
•
•
•
•
Adoption ( 1960’s)
Implementation(1970’s)
Standardization (1950’s - 1990’s)
Restructuring ( 1990’s - present)
Adoption
• A formal decision by the school district was
sufficient to ensure its classroom use.
Implementation
• Focused on single innovations without
taking into account simultaneous
innovations.
Standardization
• Testing of students and teachers
• Criticism: It trivializes the teaching
profession
Restructuring
• Most recent
• Changing characteristics of schools to
include (1) partnerships, (2) career ladders,
(3) coaching, and (4) mentoring
Discovering and Describing what
happens in Implementation
• Very difficult to do
• Do you focus on curriculum materials, what
teachers are doing, or what students are
doing?
• When should data be collected
• How should data be collected?
• How should data be evaluated?
Implementation: Student
Activities and Achievements
• Never forget: New curriculum
implementation is to provide better
opportunities for students to learn
• Walker and Schaffarrick analyzed 26
evaluations of major national innovative
curricula with those using traditional
curricula. Conclusion: No substantial
advantages for innovative curricula
Implementation: Use of
Curriculum Materials
• Surveys suggest that students spend 80% of
their time engaged with particular
curriculum materials.
• In 1980’s checklists were developed for
providing ratings of curriculum materials in
use: Innovations Configuration (IC), the
Practice Profile (from the DESSI study),
and the Internet
Implementation:
Teacher Activities
• Not easy to do: Methodological difficulties
• Best suggestion: Use existing means for
measuring teachers activities or devise one’s
own methods such as checklists and rating
scales.
Research on Implementation
(Fullan & Pomfret):
Fidelity of Implementation
• This perspective assumes that the planned
curriculum must be highly structured and
teachers must be given explicit instructions
about how to teach it. The teacher is the
“curriculum illiterate.”
Research on Implementation:
Adaptation of Implementation
• On-site modifications in the curriculum
• Trade-offs are made between developers
and teachers
• Mutual Adaptation: adjustments made to
both the innovative curriculum and to the
institutional setting/ a two-way street
between the developers and the teachers
Debate: Fidelity of Use versus
Mutual Adaptation
• Which perspective do
you choose? WHY?
4 Most Prominent Approaches
Supporting Curriculum
Implementation
•
•
•
•
Action Research
Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM)
Curriculum Alignment
Comprehensive School Reform Programs
(CSRP)
Action Research
• A particular kind of problem-solving
• Teachers:
• Analyze a problem
•
Plan a program
•
Enact the program
•
Evaluate the program
•
Repeat the process
3 Levels of Subtypes
to Action Research (McKernan)
• Scientific: Group is directed by an expert to
produce efficiency and effectiveness
• Practical-collaborative: Group directs itself
collectively to develop new practices
• Critical: The groups acts to remove
constraints and become emancipatory
Concerns-Based Adoption Model
(CBAM)
• Emphasis is on the teachers
• Purpose: To provide data to help teachers
successfully implement a new curriculum
• 3 sequences:
• Stages of Concern (SoC)
•
Levels of Use (LoU)
•
Innovations Configuration (IC)
CBAM:
• Theoretical model widely used for the
implementation of curriculum innovations.
• Belief: Collective change results from
changes in individuals and how they relate
to each other.
• Change is a highly personal experience
Stages of Concern (SoC)
• Focuses on teachers’ feelings as they become
involved in the implementation
• 7 Developmental Stages from 0-6 with O
being Awareness to 6 being Refocusing on
exploration of universal benefits. See Text
• Information is derived from questionnaires
and rating scales
• This information useful for inservice
activities
Levels of Use (LoU)
• Tracking what teachers actually do during
the implementation of a new curriculum
• 8 Levels ranging from 0 - VI (IVA&IVB)
with O = Non-use to V and VI =Integration
(user combines his/her efforts with the
innovation) and Renewal (user reevaluates
the use of the innovation, seeks major
modifications, and examines new
developments)
• See Text
Innovation Configurations(IC):
Definition:The operational forms (the
configurations) of the innovation
• Inventory of essential characteristics of the
curriculum from the perspectives of the
developers and the teachers
• Helps everyone clearly identify the
differences between the planned and
enacted curriculum
• Provides a basis for debate and discussion
and for possible adjustments to the
curriculum
Curriculum Alignment
• Extensive testing to be sure that there is
alignment between the planned curriculum
and the enacted curriculum
• A strict interpretation of fidelity of use
which permits little or no adaptation
• Adopted in some states more than in others/
California (1980’s)/ Jury still out.
Comprehensive School Reform
Programs (CSRP) (Jury still out)
• A series of approaches begun in the 1990’s
• Made possible by the Comprehensive
School Reform Demonstration (CSRD)
passed by Congress in 1998
• Funding available as long as curriculum
implementation focuses on the “whole
school”
• Can receive awards of at least $50,000
• Must select a reform program from a catalog
of 33 approved research-based models