As a result, these teachers believed that their administrators were starting to pay attention to the need for more collaboration time. Furthermore, leaders’ inconsistent messaging about the goals of previous waves of SBR led to unintended consequences: Teachers either found ways to fit new curricula into their traditional teaching paradigms or focused too much on the messaging of the accountability system and narrowed the curriculum to target tested content (Coburn et al., 2016). In our data analysis thus far, we focused on observations of challenges related to curriculum implementation, as well as interpretations of why adaptive challenges persisted. Even though district administrators believed that the messaging was, “Here are our grade level expectations, here are the resources, but if you want to use other resources, make sure those are best for your kids and you,” this messaging had become convoluted across the six schools in the study. Services. We then read through the descriptive codes and applied the framework of the four features of adaptive leadership challenges to understand the adaptive barriers to implementing curricula. What Can You Do With a PhD in Clinical Psychology? However, measures were suggested to limit the challenges towards curriculum implementation in order for the SMTs and teachers Instead, we are showing one example of how to apply adaptive leadership theory, which is widely used in sectors outside of education, to a lingering problem of practice in education—how to effectively support teachers’ practice using externally adopted curricula as their framework for teaching and learning. In response to this dissatisfaction, and with the enhanced flexibility of the Every Student Succeeds Act (Edgerton, 2019), educational leaders, foundations, and researchers have recently returned to focus on curriculum as a major lever for standards implementation (Polikoff, 2018). All rights reserved. An overview of the districts’ curriculum implementation process is outlined in Table 4. Another teacher in Orrington also stated that because “this generation of kids” is more prone to “ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder],” with a lot more “that are a little bit on the spectrum,” they are “not ready” for the rigors of their curriculum. Earn Transferable Credit & Get your Degree. 1 CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION: CHALLENGES FOR NIGERIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM Iboro Ukpong and Nsidibe S. Udoh Abstract Curriculum development is the curriculum planning process that LAURA M. DESIMONE is director of research in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware and a professor in the School of Education in Educational Statistics and Research Methods and in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration. It is therefore common for leaders to make curricular decisions that appear to be conflicting as they navigate these various pressures (Coburn et al., 2016). This product could help you, Accessing resources off campus can be a challenge. (2009). The goals of our case study analysis were to disentangle the adaptive elements of curricular problems of practice that educational leaders typically approach from a mostly technical perspective, and to highlight some promising adaptive curriculum leadership strategies. that was where my standards knowledge was coming from.” When this coach identified curriculum misalignments due to recent revisions to the Ohio state standards, she realized that the staff did not have the skill set to “critique the curriculum and make the appropriate adjustments so that it’s fitting the current standards.” Observations of misaligned curriculum were frequent in Palisades as well, where one principal remarked that even if teachers implement the math curriculum with fidelity, they will still be teaching only 50% of the standards. The first adaptive challenge feature reflects the difficulties that occur when there is a gap between values that are espoused by an organization and values that dictate the realities within that organization. The intervention represents the adaptations to organizational behaviors, norms, or practices based on these interpretations, where stakeholders collaborate with the leaders in taking ownership over these actions, and where leaders maintain a steady focus on prioritizing these adaptations until the original challenge is alleviated (Heifetz et al., 2009). He strives to remain flexible and make adjustments in his map over time. Despite the promises of standards-aligned curriculum, there are a number of barriers that prevent these materials from positively influencing instruction. The code list (see Table 2) included the descriptive categories of SBR that aligned with the interview questions and that emerged from the study. Factor 1: Curriculum implementation must be done the way it was designed to be done (i.e., with fidelity); in a consistent manner; and with challenges to students to … If challenges experienced by educators, such as inadequate resources, financial constraints and lack of training, are not addressed, this Many of these challenges reflect Australia’s federal political system where the states or jurisdictions have constitutional power over education. imaginable degree, area of While the expectation for teachers generally was to implement the curriculum provided to them so that students can benefit from the exposure to common instructional language and pedagogy across classrooms and schools (principal interview, Orrington), educational leaders in Palisades, Maple Town, and to some extent, Orrington struggled with building their teachers’ capacities to deviate from the curriculum to adapt to students’ needs. Curriculum is typically conceptualized in three distinct ways (see Kurz et al., 2010), as it moves closer to the classroom. Find out about Lean Library here, If you have access to journal via a society or associations, read the instructions below. | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} Mr. Simpson is also careful to document, or keep track, of the adjustments he makes, so that he does not have to reinvent the wheel next year. 11 chapters | (2009). In years 2018–2019, the research team undertook an embedded multiple case study (Yin, 2017) in four districts, one district in four of the Center’s partner states—California, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Exacerbating this issue is the second adaptive challenge of competing messaging around the instructional values promoted by the district. The leadership goal is to surface these difficult conversations to move organizations forward, despite the likelihood of such conversations generating conflict (Heifetz et al., 2009). (, Ogawa, R. T., Sandholtz, J. H., Martinez-Flores, M., Scribner, S. P. (, Penuel, W. R., Fishman, B. J., Yamaguchi, R., Gallagher, L. P. (, Penuel, W. R., Gallagher, L. P., Moorthy, S. (, Porter, R. E., Fusarelli, L. D., Fusarelli, B. C. (, Scruggs, T. E., Mastropieri, M. A., McDuffie, K. A. The e-mail addresses that you supply to use this service will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. A distributed leadership analysis of standards-based reform, What makes professional development effective? Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Then, he figures out how much time within each unit he can grant to each lesson in the unit. Challenges. Even though SBR intended to provide more equitable learning opportunities for historically marginalized populations, this has often not been realized in practice (The New Teacher Project, 2018). CHALLENGES TO CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION: REDUCING THE GAP BETWEEN THE ASPIRED AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH CHANGE MANAGEMENT NG SOO BOON, PHD CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIVISION [email protected]-between-the-aspired-and-its-implementation-through-change-management Abstract The development of school curriculum in many countries is still very centralized. In the first year of implementation, which was called a “learning year” (principal interview, Cahill), district leaders, principals, and these new coaches worked with their teachers on building their technical understanding of the adopted curricula. The study is therefore designed to investigate factors which make curriculum implementation a challenge for teachers’ of LH. . However, they can be found in Hefeitz et al. Curriculum culture would more specifically include the beliefs, assumptions, and artifacts associated with curriculum implementation. Challenges in Curriculum Implementation Curriculum is a political agreement; it outlines the government’s national agenda (IBE, 2013). For example, Chingos and Whitehurst (2012) argue that designing high-quality instructional materials is easy, quick, and inexpensive; changing instructional practice, however, requires far more than getting high-quality materials in the hands of teachers. (. (, Bryk, A. S., Sebring, P. B., Allensworth, E., Luppescu, S., Easton, J. Q. Technical challenges are those that can be solved through the application of existing solutions, procedures, tools, and expert guidance. View or download all the content the society has access to. A strong curriculum often offers ideas for modifications. I have read and accept the terms and conditions. One of Mr. Simpson's colleagues points out that it is hard to implement a curriculum properly without knowing the specific students you will be teaching! We believe that much can be learned from evaluations of educational leaders who recognize the adaptive complexities of curriculum reform and proactively seek to alter their leadership behaviors to account for these complexities (Wolfe, 2015). In all four case study districts, the elementary schools were provided with published math and ELA curricular programs, and in two districts, the high schools also received externally developed curriculum. 94 lessons 1. This district also hired part-time curriculum specialists to learn how to provide the instruction that filled these gaps, with one principal calling the teachers the “doctors” while these curriculum specialists collaborated with them as the “nurses.” By revamping the district infrastructure to incorporate new coaching practices that iterated over time based on what they learned to be teachers’ curriculum needs, Cahill leaders demonstrated an adaptive mindset. Some of the facilitators lack the needed skills to function at that capacity hence, they lack the skills of ensuring that school curriculum are implemented effectively or what I may call the most possible way for optimal res… Deep learning takes time and requires very different instructional strategies to those employed for surface understanding. It is a policy and technical agreement with the people as it consists of the expectations of the society (IBE, 2013). For example, our rural district had only three district level administrators involved in standards implementation, with only one elementary school and one high school in the district. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. ERICA SALDÍVAR GARCÍA is a clinical assistant professor of TESOL, bilingual, and foreign language education in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. 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