topic 5b relationship between teacher belief and implementation

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER BELIEFS AND

IMPLEMENTATIONL E C T U R E R : Y E E B E E

C H O OI P G K T H O

Topic 5b TSL 3143

TEACHER AND CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION• With their knowledge, experiences and

competencies, teachers are central to any curriculum improvement effort.

• Better teachers foster better learning. • The key to getting teachers committed

to a curriculum is to enhance their knowledge of the curriculum. This means teachers need to be trained and workshops have to be organised for professional development.

• The extrinsic factors that may impede curriculum change are inadequacy of resources, time, school ethos and professional support.

• The intrinsic factors are: lack of professional knowledge, professional adequacy and professional interest and motivation.

TEACHER AND CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

RESEARCH IN IMPLEMENTATION

Fullan, M.G., & Pomfret, A. (1977). Research on curriculum and instruction implementation. Review of Educational Research, 47(2), 335-397

Fidelity Process/Mutual

Adaptation

Fullan and Pomfret (1977) use of the terms fidelity perspective and process perspective was the greatest influences on researchers.

TEACHER AND CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION• Ariav (1988) used the phrase curriculum

literacy to suggest that many teachers lack understanding of what the curriculum should be and lack skill in how best to teach it.

• The fidelity perspective assumes that because teachers have a low level of curriculum literacy, the planned curriculum must be highly structured and teachers must be given explicit instructions about how to teach it.

Fidelity of Use: Staying very close to the prescribed written document. • The ‘fidelity’ approach suggests

curriculum as ‘a course of study, a textbook series, a guide, a set of teacher plans’ (Snyder et al. 1992: 427), where experts define curriculum knowledge for teachers.

• This means that curriculum change occurs through a central model in systematic stages, which confines the teacher’s role to delivering curriculum materials.


Fidelity of Use• Shawer (2003) indicated that the

fidelity approach leads teachers to become curriculum transmitters who use the student’s book as the only source of instructional content.

• They transmit textbook content as its structure dictates by means of linear unit-by-unit, lesson-by-lesson and page-by-page strategies.

• Moreover, these teachers rarely supplement the missing elements and focus solely on covering content without responding to classroom dynamics.


Mutual-Adaptation: Individual, creative versions of the written curriculum.

• The ‘adaptation’ approach is a ‘process whereby adjustments in a curriculum are made by curriculum developers and those who use it in the school’ (Snyder et al. 1992:410).

• This involves conversations between teachers and external developers to adapt curriculum for local needs.


Mutual-Adaptation• The teacher’s role has also become

more active through teachers’ curriculum adjustments.

• Through curriculum adjustments, teachers become curriculum-developers who use various sources in addition to curriculum materials.

• They adapt existing materials and topics, add new topics, leave out irrelevant elements, use flexible lesson plans, respond to student differences and use various teaching techniques.


TUTORIAL 5B• List your teacher beliefs and do a

Think-Pair-Share• Based on curriculum specifications

/ curriculum standards, plan and provide suitable ways of assessing, learning, providing feedback and reviewing instructions.

Think-Pair-Share(1)think individually about a topic or

answer to a question;(2)pair with a partner and discuss the

topic or question; and (3)share ideas with the rest of the class.