미국 초등학교 환경교육과정 개발 및 평가체제 분석 = Analysis of Curriculum Development and Evaluation System in Environmental Education of an Elementary School in the U.S.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purpose of this study is to give an analysis of public elementary school environmental education curriculum development, and also to give an analysis of elementary curriculum evaluation from an environmental educational view compiled by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction(WDPI). For this study various documents and literature related to the subject were reviewed and analyzed. Also, in-depth dialogues were conducted with professionals, curriculum directors, administrators, principals and teachers by interviews, phone-calls and e-mails. In the United States, local communities and states historically have the right to decide what is taught in schools. In each district and school, teachers have the right to decide what is taught and how it is taught. However, they must take into consideration state law, policies, and guidelines. State law specifies all subjects at all grade levels that must be taught in public elementary school. The WDPI publishes guidelines for teachers of all subjects to guide their new curriculum frameworks. These guides are generally much less specific and are intended to allow districts, schools and teachers to make their own decisions in creating a balance between depth and breadth of each subject`s content. Thus, teachers, schools, and districts can design their own set of course offerings and course syllabi within state guidelines. Curriculum development and implementation require this network of sample organizational structure for orderly development, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum change. Wisconsin`s historical commitment to environmental education is well-known. WDPI has developed A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Environmental Education. The guide has been widely used in the United States and in more than 40 other countries(WDPI, 1994: V). This guide includes procedures for developing an environmental education curriculum plan and for assessing the plan. These procedures for assessing the plan should be a continuous activity. The evaluation model of an environmental education is a hybrid model adapted by Thomas Marcinkowski from several sources in environmental education literature. It portrays the important elements of evaluation, planning, and implementation. Finally, from this study`s results I drew the following conclusions for the application of the 7th curriculum development and evaluation of our country. First of all, we should present the direct of curriculum development and evaluation in the post modernism, constructionism and critical pedagogy`s point of view. Second, government, school districts and schools must be closely related organically. Third, revisions and evaluations of curriculum should be made with a long interval and with sufficient time according to subjects. Fourth, curriculum development teams should cooperate and collaborate when subjects overlap. Fifth, we also should establish diverse evaluation institutes to develop and evaluate school based curriculum to help classroom teachers. Each elementary school should set up environmental education subject and develop each subject curriculum model include an environmental curriculum model. Finally, we should establish the system cooperation of the agencies concerned in environmental education.