Jia Xu and Colin Marsh

Curtin University

Is it necessary and possible to have SBCD at schools in Australia?

Is it necessary and possible to use conceptual frameworks to help us understand and develop more effective SBCD?

SBCD in ChinaSBCD has been a highlight of China’s new curriculum

reform since 1999.

A curriculum policy change towards devolving partial power in curriculum decision-making to teachers.

10% of curriculum is decided by local regions and individual schools.

Transforming teachers’ role from “book-knowledge transmitters” to curriculum developers.

Defining school-based curriculum development (SBCD) as:

a slogan,

a democratic philosophy,

a practical series of steps.

CaveatsSBCD is a constantly evolving term. It is very difficult to

come up with a perfect form of SBCD.

Although it is a desirable process for teachers to become involved in SBCD yet the hard realities of systems and governments necessitate limitations.

What is a conceptual framework?

It provides a structure for curriculum planning.

It provides a coherent grouping of terms or values.

It provides ideal goals.

Some preliminary questionsIs school-based curriculum development alive and well

in 2011 in Australia?Is there a perfect type of school-based curriculum

development and has it ever existed in a pure form?

Do ideas about school-based planning change over the decades, for better or worse?

Some different priorities of SBCDA democratic vision to have more teacher involvement

A way of supplementing student resource materials

A way of addressing critical problems in an education system

A way to support systemic reforms and to enhance the professional skills of teachers

How successful are current efforts to do SBCD in Asian countries ?

An example from Hong KongAn example from Singapore

SBCD in action in Hong KongInnovative teachers are selected to be seed teachers

and given special training at head office.

Creation of new promotional positions of curriculum leader in each primary school

Setting up of school-based support team in each education district

Celebration of exemplary efforts

SBCD in SingaporeIntensive workshops on SBCD provided for all primary

schools

Research activists appointed for each school to support a specific SBCD project

Learning journeys to other schools locally & overseas

Celebration of successes through public presentations/workshops

The Australian scene in 2011Teaching has always been a complicated process.

Teachers need to be able to do a number of things almost simultaneously, including

unpacking knowledge and ideas,

making this accessible to others within a caring productive environment.

New pressures for teachersNew external pressures & ongoing internal, school

level pressures.New external pressures:

Australian Curriculum, NAPLAN, MY SCHOOL website,Professional standards for teachers.

School-based planning and central planning working towards educational reform.

General problems for doing SBCDLack of time

Lack of expertise

Lack of finance

Externally imposed restrictions

Threatening school climate (resistors or lack of effective leadership) (Marsh,1992).

The arrival of the National CurriculumMaterials produced so far for the first four subjects

indicate that what ACARA is requiring is more than just general principles and outcomes for each subject area.

There will be a major emphasis upon content and specifying of what is taught at each grade level.

This will be reinforced through NAPLAN results in terms of literacy and numeracy. This will flow over into other subjects.

Likely impacts

OR

Curriculum planning modelsThese models are typically general and

apply across various subjects and teaching levels.

Models provide simple procedures for teachers to go about planning of lessons.

prescriptive models (Tyler, 1949; Taba, 1962).

Naturalistic Model (Walker, 1970).

Understanding by Design model (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998).

SBCD planning modelsIn situations where teachers want to get involved in

school-based planning SBCD models need to be considered.

It is important to remember that each school situation is very different and so it makes the task of developing SBCD planning models all the more difficult.

Major categories of school-based models

Figure 1: Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in practice (Brady, 1987)

Models that create typologies of different variations of SBCD

Figure 1: Brady's matrix for analysis of SBCD in practice (Brady, 1987)

Figure 2: A three-dimensional model of SBCD (Marsh, 1990)

Models that create typologies of different variations of SBCD

Figure 2: A three-dimensional model of SBCD (Marsh, 1990)

Models

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Figure 3: School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme, Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)

Figure 3: School-Based Curriculum Project Scheme, Hong Kong (Lo, 1999)

Models

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Figure 4: Lee’s model of SBCD (2008)

Figure 4: Lee’s model of SBCD (2008)

Models that develop interlinked explanatory factors

Figure 5: A model of implementing school-based curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)

Figure 5: A model of implementing school-based curriculum in a subject (Wong, 2008)

Models that develop interlinked explanatory factors

Figure 6: A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)

Figure 6: A Conceptual Model of SBCD (Marsh, 2009)

Concluding commentMaking curriculum space available for SBCD is a

major issue and it depends upon levels of cooperation between centralised and decentralised forms of curriculum development.

There are a variety of SBCD approaches. The conceptual models outlined here provide just some of the possibilities.

Because SBCD is closely related to local needs and priorities it is not possible to come up with one conceptual model which fits all.