1. Curriculum Change & Implementation: An overview
  1. Definitions of curriculum
  1. Types of Curriculum
  1. Levels of Curriculum
  1. 4 Curriculum orientations
  1. Curriculum Planning
  1. Curriculum Innovation (Dimensions)
  1. Curriculum Change Theory

Subject (Content)

Plan

Experience

Objectives

Everything that is planned by school personnel

A set of subjects

A syllabus

A set of materials

A document (Goals, Objectives & Contents)

which an individual learner experience as a result of schooling

which is taught both inside and outside of school and directed by the school

A set of performance objectives (Specific skills / knowledge to be attained)

Planned / Intended / Written curriculum

Implemented curriculum

Hidden curriculum

Formal curriculum

Informal curriculum

what organizations develop for the learners in their educational systems and what should be taught by the teachers in that system

examples: KLA curriculum guide, C&A guide

what actually goes on in classrooms and what pupils learn in schools

Social roles, attitudes and values which students learn that are not planned

examples:
ability grouping,
sequential room arrangements,
students getting in and standing in line silently,
student quietly raising their hands to be called on,
endless competition for grades

which is planned and goes on during timetabled periods

those planned school activities which are not part of the subject timetable

example: ECA, sport activities, school trips

National

Regional / State

School

Subject

Classroom

Academic rationalism

Social and economic efficiency

Child-centred

Social reconstructionism

Objectives

Rationale

Content

Characteristics of target audience

Activities

Materials

Sequencing principles

Schedule

Evaluation

Administrative structure, school facilities and financial constraints

Other parts of curriculum

Platform or image

Objectives

Student entry behaviour

Assessment tools and procedures

Instructional materials

Learner experiences

Teaching strategies

Content

Time

Beliefs and assumptions behind

Intended outcomes

Competency requirements for a particular programme

Test items and test forms

Written, visual, audio or other materials

Different learner profile descriptions

Patterns of teacher behaviour

Facts, concepts, principles or generalisations and thought systems

"indicate preferred patterns on emphasis"

e.g. LS curriculum

  1. Curriculum Implementation

Definition

Using new materials

Engaging in new teaching behaviours and practices

Incorporating new beliefs

Failures of educational innovations and reforms

Lack of understanding of what has changed (if anything) without attempting to conceptualize and measure it directly. (Fullan, 1997)
BLACK BOX

Is failure due to implementing poor ideas, or to the inability to implement good ideas?

Is success due to a well0implemented innovation, or to some extraneous factor?

Multi-directional

Change

Why?

Who?

How?

Diffusion of Innovations Theory
(How new ideas, products & social practices spread)

Relative advantage

Compatibility

Complexity

Trialability

Observability

Provides tangible / visible results

Degree of difficulty to be understood or used

Innovation is seen as better than idea, practice, programme or product it replaces

Consistency of the innovation with valves, habits, experience & needs

Can be experimented with before a commitment to adopt

Stages of innovation

  1. Initiation
  1. Implementation
  1. Incorporation

Decision-making activities about the reasons for change

Selecting solutions (new programs and practices)

Implementation planning

Seeking resources

Putting the selected change into practice

Adaptions - changes and modifications in the organizational setting and behaviours

Activities associated with the continuation of what incorporation was originally a change into ongoing organizational routines and work practices

Triple III Phases of Change
(Fullan, 1982)

  1. Initiation (adoption or mobilization)
  1. Implementation
  1. Continuation (incorporation, routinization; institutionalization)

Policy is formulated & resources are allocated

Initial use, implementation, reaction & role changes

Policy, programmes; new goals & values are internalized

Kotter's 8 step change model

  1. Create a climate for change
  1. Engaging & enabling the organisation
  1. Implementing & Sustaining for change

1.1 Create urgency

1.2 Form a powerful coalition

1.3 Create a vision for change

2.1 Communicate the vision

2.2 Empower action

2.3 Create quick wins

3.1 Build on change

3.2 Make it part of the culture

Complexity Theory (Berman, 1972)

Unpredictability of change due to "unique histories, socio-cultural characteristics and relationships, and social structural conditions of the different interacting contexts (Anderson, 2010)

Actions taken in any specific socio-organizational contexts that are interlinked and implicated in adopting, implementing, and sustaining the change have unpredictable effects (including no effects) on organizational conditions and actions in other contexts

  1. Summary

Model of implementation of change (Anderson, 2010)

  1. Deciding to change (adoption)
  1. Doing the change (Implementation)
  1. Sustaining (or abandoning) the changes over time