Yael Nevo
CONSTRUCTIVE-BASED TRANSDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM PLANNING IN RELATION
TO DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING PROCESS
STUDENTS IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The present research is a
pioneering work that explores the development of a Constructive- based
Transdisciplinary curriculum by teachers and their students, at the elementary
school level. The study examined changes
in teachers' exposed and hidden perceptions regarding learning and teaching
processes, student-teacher relationship, and Constructive-based Transdisciplinary
curriculum planning. It also explored
system-based changes that occurred while experiencing the process of developing
Constructive-based Transdisciplinary curriculum at the classroom level.
Research Aims
The research aimed to study the development
of learning and thinking processes of teachers and students who are exposed to
developing Constructive-based Transdisciplinary curriculum in their
classes. More specifically, the study
aimed to:
(a)
explore the changes occurring in teachers'
perceptions regarding the concepts of learning and instruction in the course of
their experiences in implementing Constructive-based Transdisciplinary
curriculum;
(b)
study the relationship between the change processes
that characterize the teachers and the learning and thinking processes of their
students;
(c)
examine the relationships between
teachers' personal experiences with Constructive-based Transdisciplinary
curriculum and system-based changes in the school.
An academic consulting team
operated with the teachers in the school during the study, for a period of
three years. During these years many
data were collected. This allowed us to monitor changes that occurred both at
the people level (teachers and students) and at the system level (school).
Methodology
The study was an action
research, during which an external academic team, used as a consulting team for
teachers in the school, explored the change processes at the school and
developed specific research instruments throughout the study. The research
combines case studies that describe and analyze three teachers, each of which
manifested a different learning and change pattern during the years. The three teachers are representative of
other teachers who participated in the study.
In addition, the case studies describe the story of three classes in order
to examine the relationships among change processes that occur in teachers
relative to those occurring to their students.
Instruments of the Study
1. Open questionnaires, addressing teachers and
students, which consist of both direct questions regarding perceptions of
specific concepts and metaphors with respect to similar concepts in order also
to examine their implicit conceptions.
2.
A personal-reflection, closed
questionnaire that monitors teachers' perception concerning the change process
they went through in the three-year period.
3. Open
observations in the classrooms, in teachers' common room and at the school.
4. Open and
semi-open interviews with the teachers and a representative
groups of students.
All meetings that were held
in the school were recorded and used for data analysis. Data analysis was
mainly done through internal categories, although external ones were also
occasionally used.
Findings
The results demonstrated
that:
(a)
Processes of change in teachers, in the sense of
knowledge restructuring, are highly personal and differ between one teacher and
another.
(b)
Following three years of experience in
Constructive-based Transdisciplinary curriculum, most teachers expressed change
in their perceptions regarding the concepts of learning and instruction as well
as in their behaviors.
(c)
Differences between manifest and implicit
perceptions were found among 50% of the teachers.
(d)
Three prototypes of teachers were identified:
teachers who radically restructured their knowledge, teachers whose knowledge
was restructured peripherally; and teachers whose knowledge restructuring
process was slow and hesitant. The last group includes about 50% of the
teachers.
(e)
There is a set of definable characteristics that
differentiate between teachers who radically structured their knowledge and the
other two groups.
(f)
Relationships exist between knowledge restructuring
processes of teachers and the thinking and learning processes of students in
their classrooms. In classes of teachers
who radically restructured their knowledge a meaningful change occurred in the
way students function as involved and thoughtful learners who take part in
developing Transdisciplinary curriculum. For teachers whose knowledge
restructuring is peripheral, almost no change occurred in the functioning
habits of students as learners who are involved in curriculum development.
(g)
A relationship exists among teachers' experiences in
Constructive-based Transdisciplinary Curriculum in their classrooms and
school-wide system changes, manifested mainly in organizational and curricular
changes.
(h)
Effective and meaningful systemic change in the
school depends also on the support of external educational agents and forces.
(i)
For school change to be ongoing there is a need for
strong support from leaders in the educational system or at least for tolerance
toward pluralism in school policies and respect for the school's choice of its
educational vision.
(a)
With the guidance of an external academic team, it
is feasible for teachers and students collaboratively to develop a
Constructive-based Transdisciplinary curriculum in elementary school: a
curriculum that is unique and relevant for the particular school. This implies that it is possible to implement
in schools a curriculum that is not externally dictated, but rather based on a
curriculum planning process that stems from of particular intellectual,
academic and social needs and interests of students in their classrooms. This implication is of major significance in
a pluralistic society like
(b)
The study provides an optimistic view regarding the
possibility of affecting and changing the perceptions and actual behaviors of
most teachers in school. Only a small percentage of teachers was reluctant to
change and kept their original perceptions and behaviors. Although only some of the teachers
restructured their knowledge relatively quickly, for most of them it was a slow,
complex, and a non-linear process. It is therefore absolutely necessary for
policy makers and researchers alike to realize the length of time required to
promote meaningful and systemic change as well as the need to do it through
academic guidance. If a change in the
perceptions of all teachers in a school is desired, one needs to think in terms
of several years of professional development through guided experience.
(c)
The study provides an optimistic view regarding the
possibility of creating a significant and a dynamic change in the school, in a
direction that conceptualizes curriculum planning as a unique, autonomous, and
constructivist-based process. For such a
change to be effective requires interaction among the teachers and between
teachers and their students, accompanied by professional guidance. While student involvement in curriculum
planning has been quite rare so far, it appears to be a powerful basis for
developing their own learning processes and their teachers as well. Such a curriculum planning process will
survive in the school if and only if the school principal and external agents
will be supportive.
(d)
Constructive-based Transdisciplinary curriculum
planning, which by definition is sensitive to the interests and capabilities of
real learners, constitutes the basis for developing higher level thinking
skills among young students in elementary school, such as: to conceptualize, to
deal with dilemmas, to reflect, to use meta-cognitive skills, etc. This strongly implies that there is no
justification to teach young students simple and concrete materials organized
in a predetermined and fixed order. Students' involvement in planning a
curriculum that is appropriate to their own unique circumstances appears to
affect their personal knowledge, their ability to cope with complex issues and
problems that they face in daily life, and to develop themselves in various
ways and areas.
(e)
From a methodological viewpoint this research
suggests that in order to create and study conceptual change in teachers and to
foster a change in a school system, there is a need to combine: professional
involvement of experts, which is responsive to the school's needs; a variety of
research tools, which are sensitive to identify both exposed and implicit
perceptions; and a long period of time allowing researchers to observe
developments and to act upon them. This
research provides further justification to the use of a longitudinal study in
the form of an action research using qualitative research tools. Such a combination
of designs provides researchers with the opportunity to empower themselves: to
sensitively examine the processes and the meaningful patterns that emerge
during the study so as to guide further actions and to calibrate their research
tools according to emerging needs of the study.
(f)
From the standpoint of formulating educational
policy this study demonstrates the importance and the need of collaboration
between schools, universities and the Ministry of Education. Such dialogues
could enrich each of the partners involved, and moreover has a great potential
to facilitate advanced, updated and feasible educational policy, which will
improve our readiness to face the unexpected developments of the 21st century.
It is my hope that this experiential research will enrich the educational database and will contribute to the facilitation of a new line of educational thinking that fits our dynamic era.