Developing conceptual frameworks for effective school

1
Developing 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?

3
SBCD 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.

4
Defining school-based curriculum development
(SBCD) as

• a slogan,
• a democratic philosophy,
• a practical series of steps.

5
Caveats

• 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.

6
What is a conceptual framework?

• It provides a structure for curriculum planning.
• It provides a coherent grouping of terms or
  values.
• It provides ideal goals.

7
Some 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?

8
Some 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

9
How successful are current efforts to do SBCD in
Asian countries ?

• An example from Hong Kong
• An example from Singapore

10
SBCD 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

11
SBCD 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

12
The 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.

13
New 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.

14
General 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).

15
The 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.

16
Likely impacts
OR
17
Curriculum 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).

18
SBCD 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.

19
Major categories of school-based models
20
Models that create typologies of different
variations of SBCD
Figure 1 Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in
practice (Brady, 1987)
21
Figure 1 Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in
practice (Brady, 1987)
22
Models that create typologies of different
variations of SBCD
Figure 2 A three-dimensional model of SBCD
(Marsh, 1990)
23
Figure 2 A three-dimensional model of SBCD
(Marsh, 1990)
24
Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 3 School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme,
Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)
25
Figure 3 School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme,
Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)
26
Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 4 Lees model of SBCD (2008)
27
Figure 4 Lees model of SBCD (2008)
28
Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 5 A model of implementing school-based
curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)
29
Figure 5 A model of implementing school-based
curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)
30
Models that develop interlinked explanatory
factors
Figure 6 A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)
31
Figure 6 A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)
32
Concluding 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.