Developing Curriculum Leadership in Schools: Hong Kong perspectives

This study is designed to investigate the impact of school‐based curriculum development teams on teacher development within the tradition of school‐based curriculum development in a primary school in Hong Kong. Teacher interviews were used to evaluate the extent that teacher engagement in curriculum decision‐making processes within two school‐based curriculum development teams has led to teacher professional development which were triangulated with the videotaped meetings and tryout lessons. Qualitative evidence has revealed positively that participating teachers have developed themselves professionally through the process of planning, experimenting and reflecting (PER model) upon curriculum practice and innovation under certain conditions. However, the complexity of the structures and processes that were established for involving teachers in curriculum decision‐making processes needs further empirical and theoretical work. This paper only looks at data relating to teacher development in curriculum leadership collected in the second action cycle of the project from January to June 2005.     

Peer teaching: Academic achievement of teacher-led versus student-led discussion groups

Problem-based small-group discussions are the cornerstone of health sciences education at the University of Limburg (The Netherlands). In each of three courses, fifteen discussion groups of about eight students were randomly assigned a staff-tutor (control condition) or student-tutor (experimental condition).In two of the courses no significant differences in cognitive test achievement between the two conditions were found. In one course students tutored by staff-tutors performed significantly better than students tutored by student-tutors. However, no significant differences in test performance were found between students tutored by high-achieving versus average-achieving student-tutors. These findings contradict the congruence hypothesis from information processing theory. Several other explanations are explored.     

Design of an Industrial Management course: Bringing together engineering and educational approaches

This paper describes the process of restructuring a degree course at the Technical University of Sofia in Bulgaria so as to meet the demands of the new market economy and the changing political and educational environment. Achievements included development of a new curriculum, modularization, introduction of a new teaching quality assurance system and accreditation by the Institution of Electrical Engineers. The process of change is shown to require great sensitivity to the context and deployment of influencing strategies and skills designed to establish and maintain good relationships with a fluctuating range of stakeholders. Furthermore, the paper shows that systems engineering provides a useful framework for engaging in curriculum change in dynamic environments. One gap appears to be the need to deal explicitly with underpinning educational values, although, that said, the paper gently questions whether the accepted educational approaches can be applied to other cultures and traditions.     

Teaching portfolios in higher education and their effects: An explorative study

Although many authors claim benefits of teaching portfolios for use in higher education settings, there are few empirical studies that investigate these benefits.This article deals with the question of whether teaching portfolios are used in higher education, and if so, which effects they bring about. Furthermore, the attitude of teachers towards the use of teaching portfolios is examined. The study shows that currently not very many teachers are using teaching portfolios. When used, a teaching portfolio is an instrument that can bring about some important positive effects. Respondents report that, due to the use of portfolios, they were stimulated to reflect on their own teaching, to actualise the learning content, to improve their course materials, to search for alternative educational methods, etc. When teachers are using teaching portfolios it is important that, besides any negative effects, they also experience positive effects. If this is not the case, teachers will see the teaching portfolio only as an extra administrative inconvenience.     

Educating the urban poor

The historical evidence is examined to see how low-income students have fared in the urban public schools. Research shows that some schools have been able to raise low-income student achievement. In Rutter's 7-year study, leadership of the principal, high teacher expectations, and rigorous academic programs helped raise achievement. While some results have shown that a majority of low-income students have failed, some immigrant groups, such as Jews, seem to adapt more readily and perform better. The implication is that there may be hope for a substantial improvement in the urban public schools.     

Overcoming institutional barriers to broad-based curricular change

Most large organizations, including universities, are fraught with institutional barriers to change. Their very structures can be impediments to the horizontal communication and cooperation necessary to effect broad-based innovation. U.S. automobile makers, however, are learning to overcome such structural obstacles to facilitate innovation. Can universities employ similar techniques? The recent experience of one regional university suggests important attributes of a successful model to facilitate curricular change.     

On Simulation and the Teaching of Statistics

The use of simulation as an instructional tool can promote a deep conceptual understanding of statistics and lead to misunderstandings. Teachers need to be aware of the misconceptions that can arise as a result of simulation and carefully structure classroom activities so as to derive the benefits of this powerful instructional tool.