Curriculum Landscapes and Trends

261 Pages·2003·1.83 MB·English

by  Jan van den Akker, Wilmad Kuiper, Uwe Hameyer (auth.)

Curriculum Landscapes and Trends
Curriculum Landscapes and Trends
by
Jan van den Akker
University of Twente, Faculty of Behavioral Sciences,
Enschede, The Netherlands
Wilmad Kuiper
University of Twente, Faculty of Behavioral Sciences,
Enschede, The Netherlands
and
Uwe Hameyer
University of Kiel,
Institute of Education, Germany
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-90-481-6511-7 ISBN 978-94-017-1205-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-1205-7
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
©2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
1. CURRICULUM PERSPECTIVES: AN INTRODUCTION 1
Jan van den Akker
2. CONTRASTING TRADITIONS: THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE OF CURRICULUM
CHANGE 1960-2000 11
Bob Moon
3. IMAGES OF THE INQUIRY CURRICULUM:INNOVATIVE PROFILES OF PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN GERMANY 29
Uwe Hameyer
4. CURRICULUM REFORM IN ISRAEL:THE POWER OF INDIVIDUALS AND OTHER
FORCES 45
Miriam Ben-Peretz
5. DUTCH SECONDARY CURRICULUM REFORM BETWEEN IDEALS AND
IMPLEMENTATION 61
Jan van den Akker
6. MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS AND THEIR USE BY TEACHERS: A WINDOW INTO
THE EDUCATION WORLD OF PARTICULAR COUNTRIES 73
Birgit Pepin & Linda Haggerty
7. IMPLICATIONS OF THE MODULAR CURRICULUM IN THE SENIOR SECONDARY
SCHOOL IN FINLAND 101
Jouni Välijärvi
8. EFFORTS TO IMPLEMENT AN OPEN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
CURRICULUM 117
Karel Stokking
vi Table of contents
9. SUBSTANTIVE TRENDS IN CURRICULUM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION:
AN ANALYSIS OF INNOVATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS 137
Jan Terwel, Monique Volman & Wim Wardekker
10. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FACTORS IN THE PROCESS OF CURRICULUM CHANGE 157
Jos Letschert & Joseph Kessels
11. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FROM A TECHNICAL-PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVE 177
Wilmad Kuiper, Nienke Nieveen & Irene Visscher-Voerman
12. ICT TOOLS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 199
Susan McKenney & Nienke Nieveen
13. CONSEQUENCES OF ICT FOR AIMS, CONTENTS, PROCESSES, AND
ENVIRONMENTS OF LEARNING 217
Joke Voogt
14. DIGITAL LEARNING MATERIALS: CLASSIFICATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR
THE CURRICULUM 237
Ellen van den Berg, Peter Blijleven & Leanne Jansen
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 255
PREFACE
Curriculum problems are everywhere. That is, for the trained eye and educated mind
of alert observers. For them it is hardly possible to read a newspaper without
discovering curricular elements. The media often report about educational reforms
(mostly in critical terms: another failure…) or even about curriculum wars where
opposing parties fiercely debate about the aims, content and organization of learning.
Few people tend to analyze these trends and discussions from a curricular conceptual
framework. That might be caused by the elusive nature of the concept of curriculum,
since there is little agreement about the definition and components of a curriculum,
perhaps besides the basic notion that curriculum refers to a plan of learning. It is not
our intention to tackle, let alone to solve, all those conceptual issues in this book.
However, we do feel that a more conscious and systemic curriculum perspective is
helpful in coming to grips with many problematic issues in education. Therefore, it is
the general purpose of this book to sharpen the eyes and minds of a broader audience
in identifying, understanding, addressing and reflecting upon curriculum problems.
The book starts with an introductory chapter that outlines a number of central
curriculum concepts and analytical perspectives on curriculum problems. Afterwards,
four chapters (2-5) offer reflective accounts of recent nation-wide curriculum reform
efforts in four different countries. Together, they constitute an illustrative variety of
curricular landscapes. The remaining part of the book consists of chapters (6-14) that
address various curriculum trends and innovations of a more specific nature.
Altogether, the chapters illustrate an interesting combination of three well-known
perspectives on curriculum problems: focusing on substantive matters (what to learn
and why?), technical-professional issues (how to develop?), and/or socio-political
aspects of curriculum decision-making. Moreover, they represent in varying degrees
the helicopter view that is characteristic for comprehensive curriculum analysis, paying
attention to both the 'roots' (origins, basic motives, initiative, foundational tenets) as
well as the 'fruits' (results, outcomes, impact) of the curriculum in various contexts. A
related common distinction, often made in curriculum studies, refers to the intended,
implemented and attained curriculum. Traces of these different concepts (introduced
in the first chapter) can be found throughout the book.
vii
J.vandenAkkeretal.(eds.),CurriculumLandscapesandTrends,vii–viii.
©2004KluwerAcademicPublishers.
viii Preface
The origin of the chapters varies. Many of them were initially contributions to
various conferences, especially for ECUNET, the European Curriculum Research
Network. Originally founded as an independent researchers’ network about a decade
ago, it has been incorporated as one of the very of first networks within EERA, the
European Educational Research Association. All three editors have made active
contributions to the start and continuation of that network. This ECUNET roots also
imply that the book has a strong European flavor, although not all chapters originate
from that network. After selection and adaptation of previous ECUNET papers for
this book, also some authors have been invited to adapt recent curriculum papers
presented at other conferences (like AERA, the American Educational Research
Association) or the Dutch Educational Research Association (VOR) for inclusion in
this volume.
Although people sometimes think that their curriculum approaches and problems
are rather unique and context-specific, numerous international experiences (via
conferences and international collaborative research projects) have convinced us that
we can learn a lot from curriculum issues elsewhere. We do hope that this book will
contribute to more exchange, discussion and reflection on all those curriculum
problems that are so central to learning worldwide.
Last but not least, we like to thank Sandra Schele for her much appreciated
assistance with the layout of the book.
June 2003
Jan van den Akker
Wilmad Kuiper
Uwe Hameyer
1
CURRICULUM PERSPECTIVES:
AN INTRODUCTION
JAN VAN DEN AKKER
University of Twente
The Netherlands
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The primary aim of this introductory chapter is to outline some basic notions on curriculum
and curriculum development. It is certainly not my aspiration to offer a comprehensive
overview and analysis of the scholarly field of curriculum theory. For that purpose a
number of thorough, extensive books are available, for example The Handbook of Research
on Curriculum (Jackson, 1992a) or, more recently, Curriculum Books, The First Hundred
Years (Schubert, Lopez Schubert, Thomas & Carroll, 2002). Nor is it my intention to
provide a synoptic guide for the study of curriculum. For that purpose many valuable books
have been published, for example Fundamentals of Curriculum (Walker, 1990, 2003) and
Curriculum: Alternative Approaches and Ongoing Concerns (Marsh & Willis, 2003), to
name two of my favorites.
Both Walker (1980) and Jackson (1992b) have pointed to the confusion that can easily
arise when trying to absorb and interpret the vast literature on curriculum theory. Actual
involvement in practical tasks of curriculum development and change can also be rather
confusing. The increasing attention to international aspects of curriculum development and
debate (see, for example, Pinar, 2003) complicates the domain even more. Although these
various perspectives may be enriching in several respects, they make conceptual clarity and
understanding difficult to obtain.
Within the various possible emphases, my own view on the field of curriculum is
essentially as a practical endeavour "whose central professional task is that of giving
professional advice to practitioners as they try to improve the curriculum" (Jackson, 1992b;
see also Walker, 2003, for a comparable view). Given this orientation, I have learned over
the years that it helps to have a number of basic concepts and analytical perspectives
available that can structure curricular deliberations and reduce the complexity of the
1
J.vandenAkkeretal.(eds.),CurriculumLandscapesandTrends,1–10.
©2004KluwerAcademicPublishers.
Jan van den Akker 2
curriculum tasks at hand. Thus my main focus in this chapter is on summarizing a set of
concepts and perspectives that, in the experience of students, colleagues and myself, has
helped to increase the transparency and balance of curriculum analysis, development and
discourse.
1.2 DEFINITION AND LEVELS OF CURRICULUM
When there is a myriad of definitions of a concept in the literature (as with curriculum), it is
often difficult to keep a clear focus on its essence. In those cases it often helps to search for
the etymological origin of the concept. The Latin word 'curriculum' refers to a 'course' or
'track' to be followed. In the context of education, where learning is the central activity, the
most obvious interpretation of the word curriculum is then to view it as a course or 'plan for
learning' (cf. Taba, 1962). This very short definition (reflected in related terms in many
languages) limits itself to the core of all other definitions, permitting all sorts of
elaborations for specific educational levels, contexts, and representations.
Given this simple definition, a differentiation between various levels of the curriculum
has proven to be very useful when talking about curricular activities (policy-making; design
and development; evaluation and implementation). The next distinction appears to be
helpful:
(cid:131) system/society/nation/state (or macro) level
(cid:131) school/institution (or meso) level
(cid:131) classroom (or micro) level
(cid:131) individual/personal (or nano) level.
(In educational systems with a prominent role for districts that are responsible for a large
number of schools, one might see a mixture of macro and meso aspects.)
Curriculum development at the system level is usually of a 'generic' nature, while 'site-
specific' approaches are more applicable for the remaining levels. Moreover, the process of
curriculum development can be seen as narrow (developing a curricular product) or broad
(comprehensive and ongoing improvement). In order to understand problems of curriculum
decision-making and enactment, a broader description is often most appropriate: usually a
long and cyclic process with many stakeholders and participants; in which motives and
needs for changing the curriculum are formulated; ideas are specified in programs and
materials; and efforts are made to realize the intended changes in practice.
3 Curriculum perspectives: An introduction
1.3 DIFFERENT CURRICULUM REPRESENTATIONS AND ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVES
Curricula can be represented in various forms. Clarification of those forms is especially
useful when trying to understand the problematic efforts to change the curriculum.
A common broad distinction is between the three levels of the 'intended', 'implemented',
and 'attained' curriculum. A more refined typology is outlined in box I.
Box 1. Typology of curriculum representations
INTENDED Ideal Vision (rationale or basic philosophy
underlying a curriculum)
Formal/Written Intentions as specified in curriculum
documents and/or materials
IMPLEMENTED Perceived Curriculum as interpreted by its users
(especially teachers)
Operational Actual process of teaching and learning
(also: curriculum-in-action)
ATTAINED Experiential Learning experiences as perceived by
learners
Learned Resulting learning outcomes of learners
Besides this differentiation in representations, curriculum problems can be approached
from various analytical angles. For example, Goodlad (1994) distinguishes the following
three different perspectives:
(cid:131) substantive, focusing on the classical curriculum question about what knowledge is of
most worth for inclusion in teaching and learning;
(cid:131) technical-professional, referring to how to address tasks of curriculum development;
(cid:131) socio-political, referring to curriculum decision-making processes, where values and
interests of different individual and agencies are at stake.
Some might argue that this list is too limited as it refers especially to curriculum issues
for 'traditional' planning for learning in schools, and does not include the more 'critical'
perspectives that are amply present in curriculum theory literature (e.g. Pinar, Reynolds,
Slattery & Taubman, 1995). However, from a primary interest in curriculum improvement,
the three perspectives seem useful and appropriate.