Is curriculum slippage a threat to sustainable learning?

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Critical pedagogy for sustainable education

Proposal

Curriculum slippage refers to the reinterpretation of goals, contents and processes of learning at different phases of the implementation process: curriculum planning, resourcing, dissemination, adoption, teaching, learning and assessment. Slippage can adjust, distort or even subvert the original intentions of curriculum planners, as a variety of contextual factors come into play at each phase. For instance, a comparison of the English Language and Chinese Language curriculum reform in Hong Kong (Tong, Adamson & Che, 2000) showed how each subject was interpreted differently at the curriculum design phases, and reinterpreted by publishers, school leaders and teachers, with the result that the English Language and Chinese Language subjects taught in the classroom had little resemblance to the original curriculum documents, and furthermore, had little in common with each other. Such slippage seems unavoidable unless a comprehensive form of curriculum development involving a wide range of stakeholders can be established—which is a highly complex (and expensive) process.

This presentation reports on a current study of (in)coherence in a very high-stakes curricular phenomenon: the College English Test (CET) in the People’s Republic of China. The CET is taken every year by millions of tertiary students and the results can determine or influence their graduation from university. The study compared the key features and contents of the CET syllabus, popular textbooks and the assessment instruments, and found significant variations across and within these curriculum products.

This slippage might be explained by the comparatively different purposes, nature and constraints of the three products: the syllabus provides an overview of the curriculum’s goals and scope; the textbooks construct pathways of learning towards the intended outcomes; and the assessment is a summative tool to capture the students’ competence at a given point in time. Furthermore, the slippage opens up pedagogical spaces that allow teachers and students to develop their individual approaches to teaching and learning, instead of imposing a rigid lock-step approach.

On the other hand, the slippage might have serious drawbacks. For instance, the pedagogy in the textbooks does not cohere with the views of language and language learning espoused in the syllabus. The test itself does not assess all the contents of the syllabus and the textbook. Here, the slippage creates a number of dilemmas for the teachers and students. Which pedagogy and what learning is most effective for achieving the best assessment outcomes? To what extend should class time be devoted to aspects that are not likely to be assessed but which may be beneficial for the students’ education? Such disconnections in the curriculum could make teachers and students confused, and even create barriers for sustained effective teaching and learning.

This presentation is intended to stimulate discussion on what forms of “loose coherence” is desirable among the various curriculum products. Project findings will eventually be disseminated to curriculum practitioners in CET and other areas.

Authors

• Lina Dong, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Bob Adamson, The Education University of Hong Kong