Abstract
In 2002, a committee installed by the Ministry of Education concluded that four
main problems regarding the high school chemistry curriculum necessitate a major
curriculum renewal. A year later the following three recommendations for such a
new curriculum were formulated: (a) the chemistry content should appeal to all
students, not just to those who want to pursue a career in chemistry; (b)
contemporary chemistry and societal challenges should be included in the
curriculum; (c) a context-based approach, meaning that students acquire concepts
starting from an appealing context, should form the basis of the curriculum.
Teachers are crucial when it comes to a curriculum renewal as they are the ones to
implement a new curriculum through enactment in their classrooms. Teachers
therefore need to understand the new curriculum, to be professionally prepared
for an adequate use of new subject matter and embedded pedagogical knowledge,
and have to be able to use the new curriculum materials in an adequate manner.
The National Steering Committee responsible for the development of the new
curriculum recognizes this crucial role teachers have in the implementation
process and proposes to involve teachers from the beginning in the renewal, both
through participation in the development process as teacher-developers as well
as through class enactment of materials developed by colleagues. It is supposed
that participation will act as a learning process for the teachers involved, in
which teachers are going to acquire knowledge, beliefs and skills, both in the
field of the subject matter they are teaching as well as in the pedagogy.
The overall research question of this study is fourfold: (a) what are chemistry
teachers’ beliefs about the chemistry curriculum and about their roles, about the
teacher as developer, and about professional development; (b) how do
chemistry teachers professionally change, in other words what changes in
knowledge and beliefs arise, when teachers are involved in the development
and subsequent class enactment of innovative student learning material for the
context-based approach; (c) how do teachers professionally change when they
merely enact this material in their classes; and (d) what model is suitable to
understand and interpret the observed changes in knowledge and beliefs.
Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 26 May 2010 |
Place of Publication | Enschede |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-90-365-3009-5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 26 May 2010 |
Keywords
- IR-71370