Curriculum augmentation: An application and evaluation of the process

This study was designed to test the feasibility and appropriateness of curriculum augmentation, the process of further developing and strengthening available curricular materials along specified dimensions. The curriculum selected for augmentation in this study was an elementary school social studies unit entitled A House of Ancient Greece, developed in the MATCH Project of the Boston Children's Museum. Following a preliminary analysis, it was decided to augment A House of Ancient Greece by producing a modified Teacher's Guide (containing affective and cognitive learning objectives stated in terms of pupil performance expectations and suggested pupil assessment procedures), an audio tape to supplement the kit materials, and a teacher education component.In addition to briefly outlining how the augmentation of this curriculum was accomplished, the paper describes a field study which was conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of the augmentation. The data of the field study, conducted in schools in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, support the following conclusions: (1) contrasting versions of the Guide appeared to produce no significant differences in classroom behavior, (2) the classroom performance of workshop-trained teachers appears to have been superior to those not so trained, (3) a high proportion of teachers preferred the augmented Guide over the commercial version, (4) A House of Ancient Greece showed itself to be an exceptionally fine curriculum, apparently eliciting classroom performance well above the norm, as well as great enthusiasm on the part of teachers, pupils, and parents.The research reported in this paper was conducted while the author was affiliated with the Eastern Regional Institute for Education (ERIE), located in Syracuse, N.Y., and the assistance of former ERIE Staff Associates Richard Andrulis and Charles W. Wallace in conducting the field study described herein is gratefully acknowledged.