Experiences of Curriculum Development in the Ministry’s Pilot Schools for Research and Development: Focusing on the Formation of the Teachers’ Professional Capital

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 研究開発学校におけるカリキュラム開発の経験
  • 研究開発学校におけるカリキュラム開発の経験 : 教師の専門職資本形成に注目して
  • ケンキュウ カイハツ ガッコウ ニ オケル カリキュラム カイハツ ノ ケイケン : キョウシ ノ センモンショク シホン ケイセイ ニ チュウモク シテ
  • ―教師の専門職資本形成に注目して―

Search this article

Abstract

<p>This paper deals with case studies of the curriculum development in the pilot school system for research and development. The system not only provides research findings with Ministry of Education for the revision of national course of study but also encourages designated schools to create their new curriculum and their teachers’ culture through the experiences of research and development. Looking back upon the previous studies on the curriculum development in the Ministry’s pilot schools. It proves that little attention is paid to the teachers’ capability of curriculum development.</p><p>The purpose of the paper is to examine how some schools with pilot school experiences have sustained the teachers’ capacities required to develop their curriculum by making the most of the opportunities and resource they have obtained during the designated period of research and development. Three public elementary schools have been selected among those with experiences of becoming a pilot school, in view of their rich history of curriculum development, the regional balance, and their exemplarity in research­-oriented climate. As a framework for analysis of teachers’ activities in curriculum development, the concept of ‘professional capital,’ which was proposed by Hargreaves and Fullan, has been introduced. Professional capital consists of human capital, social capital and decisional capital, and it grows as the three independent capitals function as independent variables. Teachers’ capacities to develop curriculum and its growth can be explained as an interactive and amplifying process of the three capitals.</p><p>In the data collection of curriculum development in the three individual schools, group interviews have been made with key persons of the schools, such as senior teachers in charge of research. The data gathered have been classified according to the three capitals mentioned above.</p><p>One of the overall characteristics witnessed common in the curriculum development of the three schools is the centrality of integrated study in their whole school curriculum. The design and implementation of integrated study is a core of teachers’ activities. Although the three schools are different in their experiences as a pilot school, they have in common made use of their status of pilot school, not as a starting point of curriculum development but as ‘an opportunity.’ They have similar orientations of realizing their educational objectives by exercising their discretionary power which is allowed only to pilot schools.</p><p>The three schools are successful in building a mechanism of forming teachers’ individual and collective professional capacities which includes a high level of teachers’ initiative, motivation, ingenuity, and judgment. They are also successful in sharing their capacities and passing them to their next generations. It is possible to describe the formation of teachers’ capacities in their everyday work as a process of professional capital movement. In conclusion, sustainable curriculum development in a school is a forming process of teachers’ profes­sional development. Professional capital grows in search for teachers’ common understanding of children as learners and of better class instruction through their periodical on-­site learning study.</p>

Journal

Related Projects

See more

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top