Investigating Curricular Alignment as a Dynamic Process

• In Event: Curriculum Innovation and Enactment

Abstract

Teachers prioritize particular student performances in classroom instruction and assessment and these may or may not correspond to the performances specified in curriculum documents. A comparative case study was conducted of two 9th grade science classrooms in two metropolitan secondary schools in Victoria (Australia). Methods included lesson observations (video), interviews, and a teacher questionnaire. Curriculum documents, teaching materials and student work samples were also collected. The focus of analysis were the similarities and dissimilarities (alignment and misalignment) between the student performances valued in the state curriculum standards, school curriculum documents, and classroom instruction and assessment. The resultant differences between the two classrooms raise questions about teacher curricular decision-making and the performative realization of a standards-based curriculum.

Authors

• Kian Keong Aloysius Ong, University of Melbourne

• David J. Clarke, University of Melbourne