Facilitating Curricular Reform through Strengthening Curriculum Development and Writing Skills of Teachers
Coordinating institution:
Orava Association for Democratic Education, Slovakia
Contact persons:
Zuzana Srankova - zuzanas@projectorava.sk
Marcela Maslova - marcelam@projectorava.sk
Main Project Partner:
Association of Critical Thinking, Czech Republic
Further Partners:
Education Development Center, Latvia
Center for Democratic Education, Albania
School-Family-Society Association, Georgia
The
following additional countries are expected to participate in the
project:
Kosova: Kosova Education Center
Tajikistan: Tajik Critical Thinking Association
Romania: Romanian RWCT Association
Moldova: "Pro Didactica" Educational Center
Armenia: "Step by Step" Benevolent Foundation
Russia: RWCT-Russia
Main project events: workshop in Slovakia, workshop in Prague
Project Summary:
This project aims at supporting curricular reforms in countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia through building the capacity of a core group of educators from the involved countries. This core group of professionals will continue to cooperate to exchange experience, will consult with international experts, and will be involved in intensive training focused on gaining and training in the skills needed for writing and developing
curriculum. They will work on developing a program that will be offered to other educators in their countries and to other countries upon completion of this project. This should serve as a model of effective training programs focused on supporting the skills of schools and teachers to develop curricula corresponding to the needs of individual learners and their communities.
The project will involve close cooperation of five project partner countries, each of which is in a different stage of curricular reform. These partners will work together with other international consultants from among the former RWCT volunteers to develop a training program that later will be offered and disseminated in other interested countries. The project will build on the capacity created within the RWCT project in the past by enhancing the skills and expertise of certified RWCT teacher trainers to provide effective training to teachers in their countries, focusing on developing curriculum.
In the short term, participants in the courses will act as experts in their own school teams while developing the school curriculum. They will be able to help others in understanding the pros and cons of the two-level curricular policy. They will show the school teams the weak points in their approach to children in respect to equity, and teach them what can be improved in the schools' approach to teaching the different sorts of learners.
In the long term, more schools and teachers will be able to adapt their courses so that fewer children will be annoyed by school, more children from non-stimulating backgrounds will be willing to learn, and more students from all social layers will be able to go on to the next higher step. More communities and parents also will be involved in the school educational programs/curricula.
Curricular reforms have recently started in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and they are in various stages of realization. A main underlying argument by opponents of curricular reform in countries that are still only waiting for such reform is the lack of confidence in the ability of teachers and schools to take the responsibility for developing school curricula best suited to the needs of their students, communities, and societies. Furthermore, it
is often the teachers and schools themselves who are afraid of this potential new responsibility. This is one reason why it is important to provide schools and teachers the support needed for a successful transformation from a centralized education system into a system giving individuals the freedom to choose their educational paths while ensuring equal access to quality education for all children.
Objectives of the Project
1. Strengthening the capacity of schools and teachers to provide quality education for all children
The main task of the project is to strengthen the capacity of schools and teachers and to train them in skills to promote equity, especially equal access to quality education for all children of both genders, of whatever ethnic or cultural background, of whatever learning styles and abilities.
One of the major sources of inequity in countries that have just left the poverty level or have dismissed totalitarian regimes is the old-fashioned, elite-focused and exclusive concept of educational programs. The schools need more responsibility and freedom to choose the most appropriate goals and the most effective strategies for their students, together with the local and wider community. The two-level curriculum (an obligatory state framework plus a school-specific curriculum) demands new ideas, concepts, skills, and attitudes from the teachers, principals, school administrators, and others. A shift from the centrally prescribed curriculum to a decentralized system of curriculum development is a current trend in many post-Communist countries. This change gives more freedom to schools and teachers and at the same time assigns them more responsibility. Supporting the development of skills of teachers and school leaders to take up this responsibility is an important prerequisite of success in this important part of current education reform.
2. Building capacity of schools and teachers to develop effective curriculum for the support of open democratic societies.
One of the main project tasks is to strengthen the capacity of schools and teachers to gain and teach systemic skills necessary for the development of a curriculum that does not suppress but that leads towards teaching and learning outcomes that support open, democratic society. The verbal and elite-focused concept of school subjects based on memorizing facts, as well as the isolation of teaching methods from teaching content, discourages students of different learning styles and cultural backgrounds from pursuing a life-long interest in education.
3. Creating a network of partners across countries
Another task of the project is to establish a long-lasting network of organizations among the countries in order to exchange experience and programs, and to share skills, strategies, and ideas in curriculum development. Cooperation and joint effort is necessary because the home educational situation in some of the countries does not support such changes. The program and the trainers are supposed to bring a new concept and a new methodology into the present habits of mind and of teaching.
Although trends towards a decentralized system of content regulation in various countries are visible, each country faces its specific problems with regard to curricular changes. Learning from the experience of other countries has proven effective in the past and can also serve as a facilitator of these positive changes in the area of curriculum reforms.
Project Activities
Introductory Activities
Preparations and consultations with experts from the involved countries and abroad (U.S., Great Britain, etc.) about developing the plan and strategy of training in curriculum development and writing;
"Action research"
A brief "action research" among the involved organizations and countries to find out specific training needs of the potential participants and to analyze national educational policies that determine understanding and use of the two-level curriculum in the particular school systems;
Development of the program
Developing a training program model serving the needs and aims of the involved countries and organizations, as well as developing handouts and other working materials.
Intensive institute – CLICK HERE
Organizing an intensive four-day institute for teacher trainers from the involved countries who will serve, upon completion of this project, as first-generation in-country trainers. Former RWCT volunteers would be used as international experts. The institute will train the program's first generation of national experts.
Establishing the network
The involved organizations will establish a long-lasting network in order to exchange experience and programs, and to share skills, strategies, and ideas in curriculum development.
Dissemination of the program – CLICK HERE
At this stage of the project national trainers will:
- Collaborate in further development of the program;
- Provide courses for the other participants in each involved country to train other experts, school co-coordinators, and trainers;
- Prepare handouts to help schools in developing their own school curricula.
Evaluation and refinement
Based on feedback from countries where the program has been implemented and disseminated as well as from workshop participants, the content of the program will be refined and materials made final and offered to other interested partners within the RWCT network.
Implementation Plan
January-February, 2005:
Addressing possible experts in-country and abroad, and contacting past RWCT volunteers;
Preparing and planning the analysis of needs in the individual partner countries.
March, 2005:
April-May, 2005:
May-June, 2005:
July-September, 2005:
October-December, 2005:
January-March, 2006:
April, 2006 - December, 2006:
Project Outcomes
National co-coordinators and experts will develop a program for curriculum development that will consider common needs and conditions of the involved countries based on the current analyses and research.
Working materials and handouts will be developed first for a group of trainers from each involved country. In the second stage of the project, national experts and trainers in each respective country will develop the materials, taking into account specific conditions and needs.
One of the main outcomes of the institute will be a group of 25-30 experts and trainers who will be prepared to disseminate the program in each of the involved countries.
Through this project a network of professionals and institutions will be created to improve and build on experiences with dissemination of the new program in different countries.
Curriculum Development (RE:FINE PROJECT)