Curriculum Innovation in Education

Chapter 7: Curriculum Innovation

• This chapter discusses curriculum innovation at various educational levels (preschool to tertiary).
• Key objectives include defining curriculum innovation, analyzing different types, and appreciating their educational contributions.

Curriculum Innovation

• Curriculum innovation involves adopting new ideas, practices, or objects within an educational system to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
• It encompasses new knowledge about curriculum, theories, practices, and designs, emerging from educational and academic research.
• Curriculum innovation is often linked to (but not always necessarily planned) curriculum changes.

Core Changes in Educational Context

• Michael Fullan (1989) highlighted four core changes shaping curriculum innovation:
  • Changes in school structure (grouping/organization).
  • Introduction of new curriculum materials.
  • Modifications in teaching practices (activities, skills, behaviours).
  • Shifting beliefs and understandings about curriculum and learning.

Change Agents

• Educators are the central figures behind these innovations, acting as change agents with expertise and a deep understanding of pedagogy and the school system.

Types of Curriculum Innovation

• A. Standards-Based Curriculum:

  • This framework focuses on content standards established by experts.
  • Defines what students should know and be able to do.
  • Three key aspects include: Knowledge Standards, Skills Standards, and Dispositions.
    • Knowledge Standards: Themes and concepts throughout education.
    • Skills Standards: Thinking and process skills developed.
    • Dispositions: Attitudes and values nurtured.
  • Benefits include ensuring educational quality, a framework for instructional delivery, and creative teaching methods.

• B. Multicultural Curriculum:

  • Aims to promote cultural literacy and understanding among students.
  • Schools use various strategies and approaches to develop cultural literacy and support cultural understanding.
  • Banks (1994) identified five dimensions of multicultural curriculum implementation: Content Integration, Knowledge Construction, Prejudice Reduction, Equity Pedagogy and Empowering School Culture.

• C. Indigenous Curriculum:

  • Developed to make curriculum relevant and responsive to the needs of indigenous peoples.
  • Curriculum is linked to society's culture and history.
  • Emphasis on integrating indigenous knowledge systems into the existing curriculum.

• A framework for Indigenous Curriculum development includes: Constructing knowledge based on personal experiences and cultural context. Using instructional strategies that promote success for diverse cultures. Integrating content that reflects learners' culture, history, traditions. Utilizing community resources in curriculum development. Specific strategies to implement at the school level include: Integrating content and activities that reflect learners' culture, history, and traditions. Using the local language as the medium of instruction for certain subjects. Involving community members and teachers in curriculum development. Utilizing community resources for curriculum development.

• D. Brain-Based Education:

  • Prominent advocates (e.g., Caine & Caine, 1997) use brain-mind learning principles to inform curriculum and instruction.

  • Applying research findings to design learner-centered curriculum.

  • Key principles include the brain as an integrated whole, the environment's role in learning, the integral role of emotions in learning, and focused and peripheral attention in the learning process.

  • Resnick (1987) emphasized that learners learn more by approaching problems through various perspectives and methods; brain learning is most effective with a multifaceted approach, not one fixed way. Caine and Caine (1991) further highlight the brain's function to seek patterns in new learning.

  • Brain-based education influences curriculum development, highlighting that brains are culturally embedded.

• E. Gifted Education Curriculum:

  • Designed to address the needs of gifted learners and develop their potential.

  • Encourages specialized experiences that challenge and engage learners.

  • Common objectives include nurturing potential, providing differentiated learning experiences aligned with diverse abilities.

  • E.1 Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM):

    • A comprehensive approach for providing enrichment opportunities for all learners, focusing on gifted learner needs.

  • E.2 Parallel Curriculum Model:

    • Focuses on offering parallel learning paths aligned with students' varied abilities and interests.
      -E.3 Autonomous Learner Model:
    • Aims to promote growth towards independent and self-directed learning in gifted learners. The model encompasses three levels of instruction: Prescribed, Differentiated and Learner-differentiated options.

  • E.4 Integrated Curriculum Model:

    • Integrates subject matters, encouraging learners to view knowledge interdependently. Key dimensions identified in implementation include an advanced content dimension based on collaborative learning, a process/product dimension that applies learning to real world problems, and the organization of instruction about key themes that integrate subject matter.

  • E.5 Kids Academia Model:

    • Provides advanced science experiences for gifted children, implementing rigorous selection via a specialist checklist.

• F. Differentiated Curriculum:

  • Differentiation is a philosophy for reaching diverse learners' needs in classrooms.
  • A curriculum that emphasizes learning that is learner-centered and dynamic, thereby enabling teachers to adjust curriculum based on the nature and needs of learners.

• G. Technology Integration in the Curriculum:

  • Technology improves teaching and learning in education.
  • Includes distance education, online libraries and portals, computer-assisted instruction, online learning, teleconferencing, webinars, online journals and e-books.
  • Fosters ICT literacy and allows for discovering and sharing information globally.

• H. Outcomes-Based Education (OBE):

  • Focuses on expected competencies and outcomes of students from completion of a course or program, rather than the teaching materials taught.
  • Connects critical elements of the curriculum including the intended lessons and learning experiences, and assessment tools, with clear levels for defining outcomes.
  • OBE has two recognized approaches, traditional/transitional and transformational; the former emphasizing student mastery of individual subjects whereas the latter focuses on long-term, cross-curricular outcomes and future life roles.

• OBE principles: Clarity of Focus, Designing Backwards, High Expectations, Expanded Opportunities. OBE is needs driven and outcomes driven, employing design down models by establishing outcomes first and fitting the curriculum to the outcomes.

This quiz explores the concepts of curriculum innovation, multicultural education, and the role of educators as change agents. It covers various aspects including standards-based curricula and content integration. Test your knowledge on how these elements contribute to enhancing the educational system.