In-the-Moment Design Decisions and Curriculum Resources: An Analysis of How Teachers Design Curriculum During Enactment

• In Event: 63.078 - Mathematics Curriculum Contingencies: From Authoring to Enactment via Curriculum Resources

Abstract

Objective
This paper presents an analysis of the design decisions teachers make when enacting their curricular plans. An underlying assumption is that teaching involves design (Brown, 2009). Every lesson is replete with design opportunities, where teachers need to act in an improvisational manner with a particular goal in mind. We represent these opportunities as “design arcs.” We refer to the decisions teachers make within design arcs as in-the-moment-design decisions (IMDDs).

The analysis presented in this paper characterizes how design arcs emerge in the enacted curriculum and the design decisions teachers make in response. Using the construct of “design arc” as a unit of analysis, we examine the relationship between the textbook resource and teachers’ design decisions.

Theoretical Perspectives and Questions
This study builds on an adaptive view of curriculum (Authors, 2007) and a participatory view of teachers’ use of curriculum materials (Author, 2005). An adaptive perspective asserts that the meaning of curriculum resources unfolds over several temporal phases, from the written, to the teacher intended, to the enacted. Research examines how curriculum is transformed by teachers and students from one phase to the next and considers factors that influence these transformations. A participatory perspective frames curriculum use as an interaction between the teacher and the curriculum resource, considering both teachers’ decisions and the role that curriculum features play.

The analysis considers the following questions:

1. How do design arcs emerge during the enacted curriculum?
2. How do teachers navigate through design arcs?
a. What moves (IMDDs) do they make?
b. What is the relationship between IMDDs and the curriculum represented in the text?

Methods
Analysis was based on video recordings of math lessons from 10 elementary teachers, curriculum-reading logs, and interviews. Across the sample, 5 different curriculum programs were represented and 30 lessons were coded. Qualitative methods were used to chunk each lesson into design arcs. Teachers’ IMDDs were identified and coded along with the relationship between the decision and the written curriculum.

Results
We identified three commonly occurring types of design arcs. Corrective arcs occurred most commonly in the sample. They were initiated when students produced incorrect responses to teacher prompts and the teacher redirected students to produce a correct response. Assessment arcs were where teachers tried to assess student understanding of a mathematical concept. Didactic arcs occurred when teachers used instructional interactions to emphasize a point or make a concept explicit.

We used the term “tethers” to indicate connections between IMDDs and the curriculum resource. Assessment and didactic arcs were more likely to be tethered to suggestions in the teacher’s guide than corrective arcs. Curriculum guides that discussed the mathematical goals of the lesson and provided rationales for lesson features were more likely to be tethered to IMDDs.

Significance
This approach contributes to the field conceptually, methodologically, and empirically. The constructs of design arcs, IMDDs, and curriculum tethers provide a language and method for characterizing the texture of enacted lessons. Findings reveal patterns in design decisions and have implications for teacher and curriculum development.

Authors

• Janine Remillard, University of Pennsylvania

• Gina Cappelletti, University of Pennsylvania

• Elena A. Dominguez, University of Pennsylvania