Teachers and Decision made in the Process of Developing a Formal Curriculum

Abstract

In this study, the primary objective was to gain insight into the curriculum decisions made in the process of developing a formal curriculum for science and mathematics excellence. Therefore, three case-studies were conducted in schools who take part in a regional initiative for a school-university programme for talented students in science and mathematics. At the time, participating schools had started developing the school programme. The workshops provided by the university to the teachers developing the programme and a subsequent meeting of the teacher team were observed. Together with follow-up interviews with a teacher from each school, these provided information on the decisions being made and the motivations for these decisions. Most decisions were made about organization of the school projects (i.e. time, place, and grouping on the school-level): local context formed the basis of many of those decisions. It was found that teachers needed clarity on organizational conditions before becoming concerned with the content of the programme. This was especially the case when the programme development coincided with the design of another school-wide programme. In general a lot of construction activities (i.e. on selecting and adapting learning materials) needed to be done at the end of the school year. It can be concluded that attention paid to distinct aspects of the curriculum depends on the larger framework into which this programme is to be fitted, and that therein decisions on time and place or often directive for decisions on didactics of the school projects.