High-School Biology Today and Tomorrow (1989) / Chapter Skim
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Part VII: Accomplishing Curricular Changes - Implementation
Part VII: Accomplishing Curricular Changes - Implementation
Pages 289-336
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ELI Accomplishing Curricular Changes ~ mplomentabon
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Dr. Hurd, long a leader in science curriculum developed for the schools, is a member of the human biology program under development at Stanford.
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A persistent theme in the l981) s reform movement is that the United States has lost its competitive edge in world markets and therefore should revise the school science curriculum.
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. Bringing about a fundamental change in the science curriculum is a complex process.
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Neither of these reports has as yet stimulated the development of a biology curriculum that recognizes the issues identified by the reformers. And it can be added that none of the other national reports on the improvement of science education published in the 1980s has so far brought about significant change in what is taught in schools.
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School administrators, parents, and students alike were left out of the picture. So were the science educators in colleges and universities, with the result that the next generation of science teachers were never trained to implement the new curricula.
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It has been my purpose here to indicate that there is much more to a viable implementation of a reform in biology education than restructuring institutions and reformulating the curriculum, although both these endeavors are essential. As every ecologist knows, there is never an instance in which only one thing happens at a time.
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1986. Biology education in the United States during the twentieth century.
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His research emphasis is on examination of the change process from the teacher's perspective in schools and colleges.
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Design teams were established that would bring together in curriculumdevelopment projects scientists, science educators, learning theorists, and outstanding teachers. The concept of implementation was not addressed.
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These factors include characteristics of the teacher, phenomena related to the innovation and its implementation, the role of the department head and the principal, and the relationship of external facilitators to implementation at the classroom level. A basic assumption of all the research concepts that are sampled for this paper is that change is a process, not an event.
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The direct implication of this study is that curriculum development needs to be based on the real world, rather than on the commonly held myths and stereotypes. The following myths and stereotypes illustrate the important point that the typical American high school is not like what many folks believe.
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Unfortunately, there appears to be no research on the role and place of cocurricular programs in the high-school setting. In the development of curricula for schools in the 1990s, it would be wise for the curriculum developers to consider the possible contributions and support that can be derived from the cocurricula.
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If these task concerns are not addressed and resolved, the tendency of the teacher is to make changes in the innovation or to abandon use of the innovation. None of us likes to live indefinitely with intense task or self concerns, and we naturally strive to resolve these concerns, even if it means putting the innovation on the shelf.
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In terms of curriculum development and implementation, the stagesof-concern dimension is one way to monitor implementation progress, as well as a framework to guide the development of dissemination strategies and implementation-support strategies. When the concerns of teachers are addressed as they arise, it is clear that implementation success is higher (Hall and Hord, 1987~.
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In such cases as DISTAR and ECRI Reading, the developers have gone to great lengths in describing their materials and required teacher training to ensure that all teachers perform in exactly the same manner. At the other extreme, some curriculum developers, such as those of the earlier Elementary Science Study, encouraged teachers and children to "mess about"; teachers interpreted the message to mean that there was no right way.
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A surprising number of principals and superintendents are adamant that department heads should be overlooked when it comes to the change process. Others advocate that this role is key to successful implementation of new practices.
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In terms of curriculum development, more thought should be given to ways that the department head can be used as a facilitator of implementation. The department head has a support role, even if it is only in communication and the annual allocation of budget.
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Perhaps the next generation of curricula should be developed not with the image of the self-contained specialists, but with an image of multidisciplinary teams of teachers working cooperatively with large groups of students who are also working cooperatively. EXTERNAL FACILITATORS In terms of curriculum change at the high-school level, one of the major successes of the 1960s was the program of National Science Foundation summer institutes and academic-year institutes.
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were not provided. In the next round of curriculum development, thought needs to be given not only to who the external facilitators will be, but to what their roles should be during different phases of the change process.
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The long-term dominance of the textbook market by Modern Biology is a clue that bringing about widespread change in practice will not be easy. Change will require taking into account the contexts of high schools, the role of external facilitators, the characteristics of the innovation, and the needs of teachers and students; the department head may be the key.
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1987. Beyond the principal: Can the department head supply leadership for change in high schools, pp.
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago. Slavin, R
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When a new curriculum is introduced into a school, the components of the system will Deborah Muscella is the implementation specialist for the elementa~y-school science curriculum that the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study is developing. She received her Ph.D.
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THE ECOLOGY OF A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Learning environments are multidimensional. Thus, there is not a simple causal connection between learning and teaching.
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Equally important, the principal, science supervisor, and department head must provide leadership, if the curriculum is to become integral to the school's science program. The leadership team also gives attention to adapting and modifying structures in the environment that are necessary to support the curriculum.
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At Southside High School, who are the change agents, and how does the leadership team facilitate change? Five years ago, the biology department at the local university developed a training program for preparing teachers and administrators to use an interdisciplinary science curriculum.
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Each school team then attended the training institute; and when they returned to their school district, the district and state supervisors consulted with each team and assisted them in developing a plan to- implement the program in their school. The supervisors convinced the school teams that staff development would be the cornerstone of their plan for change and that such development was essential during the 3-year implementation phase.
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Many actions were required on the part of each member of the leadership team. At a faculty meeting, the biology-department head set up an experiment that measured pulse rate with a microcomputer-based laboratory.
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Rather, the principal and the department head must take specific actions to support teachers in their change efforts (Hall and Hord, 1986~. These actions include training in the new pedagogy, enabling teachers to work together, and continuing consultation that is directed at the innovation (Joyce and Showers, 1988~.
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When teachers began to implement the curriculum, each teaching team met once a week with a member of the leadership team to discuss problems. The department head and the principal arranged staff development as the particular needs of teachers dictated.
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Three aspects are central to their interventions: staff development was a continuing part of the change process; teachers worked in teams to plan and learn about aspects of the new curriculum; the district, school, and community were involved in the process of change. Change was considered important, because the school leaders gave much attention to its implementation and invervened in the four major parts of the system.
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The teachers will present new concepts and skills through laboratory experiments, lectures, discussion, and consultations. Implicit in an interdisciplinary science curriculum is the responsibility of leadership teams to monitor and support implementation strategies, of teachers to develop new pedagogical skills and to work closely with their colleagues, and of students to assume an active role in their own learning.
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Washington, D.C. Novak, J
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project for grades K-6 and has directed development of Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching (FAST) , the Hawaii Marine Science Studies (HMSS)
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CURRICULAR CHANGE 1b this point in history, possibly the greatest strengths in American precollege education are its diversity and diffused control. These have given us the flexibility we have needed to provide the laborers, farmers, merchants, engineers, inventors, and statesmen for a vast and growing nation.
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Quality curriculum delivery is produced out of long refinement. It is much easier and less expensive to build a school program around a stable curriculum than around a curriculum in a state of flux.
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What are the forces resisting change? Teachers and Cumcular Change Although the actions of government, boards of education, and administrators are essential in the process of curricular change, it is what happens in the classroom that determines the success of curricular change.
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It takes long study to gain a sense of security about new content, and still greater stress is placed on teachers when new content is quantitative, rather than descriptive. Gaining and Its Problems The literature on educational change is clear.
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Political Forces Frustrating Change In their public zeal to establish curricular requirements to reflect some vision of curricular adequacy and currency and to ensure that those requirements are met, state legislatures nationwide have been erecting structures that work against their own intent to effect change. Such structures include rigid subject-matter and grade-level syllabi, mandated requirements, and testing.
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Its charge is to engage in curriculum research, development, dissemination, and evaluation. Resources Resources of the group include the following: · The University Laboratory School, which acts as the primary test site for new programs.
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There is continuing research accompanying curricula already in dissemination and those in development. This includes formative evaluation during the early stages of laboratory school and pilottesting and more classical summative evaluation during field-testing.
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Substantive change requires a free atmosphere to think, tinker, and test the atmosphere of the universi~and few school systems can provide such an opportunity. Situated outside the schools of the state, CRDG has been able to take on a range of topics with broad innovative content that could not be undertaken within the normal structure of the public or private schools.
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Where originally instructors were developers, they are now practicing teachers selected for their exemplary teaching of FAST and their capacity to communicate with their fellow teachers. Recent estimates indicate that, of the more than 500 Hawaii teachers trained in FAST who are still teaching middle-school science, some 9055 are still using the materials.
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First, a great strength of our educational system is its diversity and responsiveness to local need. Second, there is a plethora of institutions and agencies involved in curricular change, and often their methods and motivations for change run at cross purposes and may conflict with the needs of teachers, who are the ultimate institutors of change.
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In sum, one is forced to the conclusion that a huge task of localizing curriculum and training teachers faces us, if we are to resolve the crisis of the eighties and provide the next great leap in biology education. Out of the CRDG model comes a possible way of building on the strength of diversity and providing consultation, research, planning, localized curricular materials, and teacher training and coaching.
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