Teachers’ Perceived Expertise in Collaborative Curriculum Design

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Voices and Choices Influencing the Professional Development of Teachers and Teacher Education

Abstract

Teacher collaboration in curriculum design has been advocated in the past years for several reasons: It creates ownership, leads to more context-tailored curricula and brings about professional development of teachers. It does require specific skills, which are described as teachers’ curriculum design expertise. However, this matter has not been sufficiently explored. This study explores changes in teachers’ perceived design expertise and teachers’ experiences of the collaborative design process. Pre-test results show that teachers (n=71) expect to be able to tackle design challenges (M=3.58; SD=.518) in a systematic way (M=3.53; SD=.651). Their expected benefits from the collaboration include sharing knowledge and expertise (M=3.47; SD=.509). The post-test will be completed in January 2012, when the teachers have received one year of support.

Authors

• Tjark Huizinga, University of Twente

• Adam Handelzalts, Universiteit Twente

• Nienke Nieveen, SLO - The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development

• Joke M. Voogt, Universiteit Twente