Teachers' role as a developer or a designer of curriculums has been emphasized as seen in both recent study trends which are focusing teachers' role in curriculum development and enforcement of the 7th national education bill standing for 'keep-develo...
Teachers' role as a developer or a designer of curriculums has been emphasized as seen in both recent study trends which are focusing teachers' role in curriculum development and enforcement of the 7th national education bill standing for 'keep-developing curriculum', and it has been known teachers' knowledge and abilities for curriculum design have influence on performances of curriculum. And also instructors who design 'Understanding' focused curriculum have renewed the definition of 'Understanding'. Moreover, their curriculum design presuppose 'Understanding' very significantly. Therefore, it is important that teachers must have clear understanding on what to teach and also have to develop class design based on it. However, there are few studies showing whether teachers who design and perform curriculums systematize 'Understanding' as a target, and plan assessment to collect evidences for ensuring the achievement, and design their classes accordingly.
Therefore, this study is to know how clearly present teachers understand the meaning of curriculum targets, and what processes for class design, especially focusing on targets, assessments, and class planning based on 'backward design', they are taking to achieve the targets, and how they perceive their own knowledge and abilities of the curriculum design, and what differences can be made with teaching experiences.
The substantial research issues of this study are as follows:
1. How do teachers set the class targets?
1-1. How do teachers set the goals for units of Social Studies and individual classes?
1-2. What differences can be made with teachers' career experiences when the teachers set the goals?
2. What assessment do teachers design to get the evidence of achieving the goals for units of Social Studies?
2-1. How do teachers design the assessment for units of Social Studies and individual classes?
2-2. What differences can be made with teachers' career experiences when the teachers design the assessment?
3. How do teachers take concrete shape for the curriculum design of Social Studies Unit?
3-1. What is the priority When teachers design for the units of Social Studies and individual classes?
3-2. What differences can be made with teachers' career experiences when the teachers design the curriculum?
4. Are teachers aware of the level of their own knowledge and abilities of designing class performances for Social Studies unit?
4-1. How do teachers recognize their own knowledge and abilities of curriculum planning for Social Studies unit?
4-2. What differences can be made with teachers' career experiences when the teachers design the curriculum?
For the above research issues, researcher have tried to find out the meaning of 'understanding' as the goal of curriculum through literatures and documents, and then designed questionnaire survey based on literatures and traditional design literatures. First, the questionnaire made up to know teachers understanding about curriculum design and this consist of teachers' knowledge and abilities for curriculum design as secondary factors. Second, in order to find out teachers actual understanding about 'Understanding' backward design, teachers' using of resources and documents for Social Studies, preparation time for classes, understanding the goals of Social Studies set in the 7th curriculum bill, setting up the goals with focus on 'Understanding' backward design, assessment task plan and tools, and learning plan were consisted of as secondary factors.
A survey of 300 teachers, of which 277 responded, working in various elementary schools located in Seoul, Gyeonggi-Do and Daejeon was conducted. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS for windows 12.0 at a significance level p =.05. Frequency analysis and One-way ANOVA were performed for analysis. And also there were interviews of four and all the recoding data were analyzed after having been transcribed.
The following result are derived from the survey.
First, as the survey result of how teachers set the goals for classes, teachers give most serious consideration for 'exploration of basic concept and principles' whereas they give less consideration for 'information application and problem solving ability' when they consider targets intended in the 2007 Education bill. It shows the priority is ’meaningful coherence of main ideas’, and next comes ‘exploration of basic concepts and principles’, and last comes 'transferable main ideas' when teachers consider about setting up curriculum targets focusing 'Understanding' Also teachers with more experience give more consideration on establishing goals so they have tried to design classes with 'Understanding' based design. In conclusion, It is found that teachers have difficulties with setting up curriculum targets focusing 'Understanding' because they perform their classes focusing both content knowledge and evaluation of content knowledge. Also it's due to parents' misunderstanding, that is, 'Understanding' is teachers' giving lectures on contents in textbooks rather than setting up goals of complete 'Understanding' which is transferable.
Second, it is analyzed about evaluation plan for Social Studies unit; teachers give top priority for ‘synthesis focusing assessment task' whereas ‘use of scoring rubric for assessment task' and ‘students self-evaluation' are low priorities. For the questions of test, teachers frequently set up 'find-out answers from textbook content' or 'choose one among given answers' and they give much less consideration for 'giving questions for exploration'. Also as for the result of analyzing evaluation plan according to teaching career, teachers, regardless of their career, prefer 'find-out answers from textbook content' or 'choose one among given answers' rather giving questions for exploration. This result shows teachers consider pretty much on assessment task design and paper examinations but don't consider much on students self-assessment, that is. teachers tend to lecture fragmentary knowledge and check students' knowledge on the lecturing contents rather than designing 'Understanding' focused curriculum.
Third, it shows that teachers consider ‘clear goals for learners’ and ‘triggering interest’ heavily but give less consideration on ‘giving chances of self-evaluation' when they design class performances for Social Studies Unit. It is found that teachers rely on online teaching web site and instruction manual for materials because they are easily accessible and meet for the parents' need. It is presumed that they can find plenty of national standard materials in the instruction manual. In conclusion, for the evaluation and class design, teachers generally give serious consideration for content knowledge focus evaluation but they hardly design 'Understanding' based curriculum, and it means they design curriculum plan to cover the textbook step by step. Also teachers with more experience have tried more to plan their courses with 'Understanding' based design.
Fourth, The result of teachers' awareness of their own knowledge and abilities of designing class performances for Social Studies unit shows that teachers admit they have comparatively enough knowledge about 'content based knowledge' comparing having less knowledge about 'design for assessment task' and 'design for evaluation standard'. Even they have much less knowledge on 'design and application of concept focused exploration'. Also teachers think that their knowledge and abilities of designing class performances get better as teaching career goes on. In conclusion, elementary school teachers have plenty of 'content knowledge' based on textbooks, however, they have less knowledge on class goals, assessment task and curriculum designing which is needed to achieve students' 'Understanding'. It means generally teachers are poor at curriculum design with establishing goals based 'understanding' whereas they are good at textbook focused designing. Also with more teaching career, teachers have confidence to recognize their knowledge and abilities for curriculum design.