Co-Designing Adaptive Curriculum: Lessons From Implementing Infographics in Diverse Contexts

• In Event: 54.042 - Co-Design in Practice: Seven Case Studies

Abstract

Purpose
Contextual factors influence the ways in which curriculum is adopted and implemented in classrooms. Co-designing curriculum to be adaptive under many types of conditions benefits the researchers developing curriculum and the teachers implementing curriculum (Penuel, Roschelle, & Shechtman, 2007). The purpose of this study is to identify both opportunities and challenges to the process of co-designing adaptive curriculum. A team of researchers interested in fostering quantitative reasoning and STEM literacy skills in high school students engaged in co-design with nine teachers in five different schools. Comparing and contrasting these unique contexts help us to understand the generalizability and transferability of the intended curriculum.

Perspective
We argue that the development and implementation of an infographics curriculum is part of a socio-technical system. Sociotechnical systems are not autonomous in their function, but are the product of the activities of human participants embedded in social groups with certain norms, roles, and responsibilities (Geels, 2004). Fischer (2013) noted that “changes in complex learning environments are not only dictated by technology; rather, they are the result of an incremental shift in human behavior and social organization and as such require the co-design of social and technical systems” (p. 135, emphasis added). Our co-design process, therefore, considered not only the interplay of teachers and researchers, but also the unique role of technology in our design.

Methods
We used ethnographic methods to examine the STEM Literacy through Infographics (SLI) project goals and the teachers’ implementation of the infographics curriculum. The data for this study comes from multiple sources collected over an academic school year, including: teacher professional development for (SLI), classroom observations of the teachers implementing the curriculum, and individual interviews with the teachers. Professional development included a weeklong summer intensive workshop learning about SLI. Classroom observations were accompanied with fieldnotes as well as audio and video recordings. Teacher interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. The goal of the data collected was to capture teacher experiences and how these experiences aligned with the goals and intentions of the curriculum.

Findings
Our findings suggest that implementing a set curriculum in diverse contexts accentuates the roles teachers have in the co-design process. As expected, teachers modified or wanted to modify the curriculum to meet the unique needs of their students. Examples of modifications included: the organization of student work related to the curriculum such as timing, group, pair, and individual engagement with the curriculum; the role and purpose of the final infographic product created by students; and alternative forms of assessment to measure quantitative and STEM literacy.

Significance
Understanding the ways in which co-design is important to developing socio-technical systems contributes to the body of literature that values research-practice partnerships. This work shows how teacher expertise in their local classrooms can influence the adaptation and re-design of curriculum distally. Specifically, the co-design by teachers and researchers of the SLI project supported the goals of developing materials to foster STEM literacy and quantitative reasoning skills of students.

Authors

• Joanna R. Weidler-Lewis, The Pennsylvania State University

• Leighanna Hinojosa, University of Colorado - Boulder