Affordances and Constraints of a Minimalist Approach to Teacher Curricular Adaptations

• In Event: 70.057 - Prospects and Challenges in Teacher Curricular Adaptation Across Disciplines

Abstract

Purpose
This case study aims to contribute to the formalization of teacher adaptation of curricular materials. Despite its potential for enhancing student learning, there is little guidance on how to adapt curricula, and little formal recognition of adaptation as an aspect of teaching or of professional development. We hope to contribute to this formalization by analyzing a unique (Yin, 2002; Mitchell, 1984) case of teacher curricular adaptation, and distilling broader principles from teachers’ situated purposes and rationale.

Perspectives
We draw on participatory design principles (Carlgren, 1999; Konings, van Zundert, Brand-Gruwel, & van Merrienboer, 2007) to understand the pedagogical and ideological commitments that underlie teacher curricular adaptation. We examine the process of cross-adaptation of two online inquiry-based learning environments (GMOs, Neuroscience) for high school student investigations of socio-scientific issues. As part of the CoReflect project (Redfors et al., 2014), teacher-researcher teams, from Cyprus (CUT) and from Israel (BGU), worked in close contact as each team adapted the environment originally developed by the other. The teachers drove the curricular changes. This enabled a focus on teachers’ considerations, alongside documentation that rarely occurs in classroom practice.

Methods
Data collected included written negotiations between the original designers and adapters, which provided insight into the rationale for the modifications, as well as into the types of questions, issues and obstacles involved in adapting curriculum materials from a repository to local contexts. Pre/post-test data of student learning, and interviews with the teacher collaborators before and after they enacted the adapted curriculum, were also collected. The case is unique, because adapters had access to the design rationale of the original design team, and because the commitment to minimal change made the most critical issues for each teacher salient.

Results
Juxtaposing the adaptation processes revealed two types of motivation for change: pedagogical commitments and socio-scientific positions. Both teachers were motivated by multiple (some shared) concerns. However, the minimal change requirement pinpointed the most salient concerns, which were different for each teacher in light of the differences in topics. For CUT, the overriding concern was to not miss an opportunity for deeper learning of neuroscience, which was marginalized in the original design. For BGU, the overriding concern was to extend the evidence supporting genetically modified organisms (GMOs), perhaps prompted by greater acceptance of GMOs in Israel than in Cyprus. The empirical studies of the enactments suggest that these minimal changes did not limit student learning. Moreover, teachers were able to move closer to their envisioned changes, by making real-time adjustments, and augmenting the materials with in-class additions.

Significance
Extensive adaptation may maximize localization and fit to teacher ideology, but is resource-intensive, and risks too great a departure from the original pedagogical intent. In contrast, the minimalist approach taken in this case study did not constrain teacher practice or student learning. We argue that a minimalist approach to change can balance local needs, cost and fidelity. We propose this as a component of principled curricular adaptation, and hope it contributes to ongoing efforts to formalizing adaptation as a teaching practice.

Authors

• Eleni A. Kyza, Cyprus University of Technology

• Iris Tabak, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Itay Asher, Israeli Ministry of Education

• Christothea Herodotou, The Open University (UK)

• Samira Nasser, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Beit Berl Academic College

• Iolie Nicolaidou, Cyprus University of Technology