Responsive curriculum development: which factors support breaking through institutional barriers?

IF 1.4 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of Vocational Education and Training Pub Date : 2023-10-15 DOI:10.1080/13636820.2023.2270470

Joyce Vreuls, Marcel van der Klink, Mieke Koeslag-Kreunen, Slavi Stoyanov, Henny Boshuizen, Loek Nieuwenhuis

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo meet society’s changing demands, the responsive development of curricula is vital, and curriculum developers need to increasingly foresee and incorporate changes into their curricula in a timely manner. However, responsive curriculum development is a complex problem for curriculum developers in vocational and (higher) professional education, and comprehensive research on this theme is scarce. This study focused on responsive curriculum development processes in a Dutch higher professional education institution (N = 77 experts). A group concept mapping study into the supportive factors of this process revealed six factors: (1) a vision of education and learning, (2) a continuous and iterative development process, (3) teamwork, (4) involving stakeholders, (5) a conducive environment and conditions, and (6) agency. Participating experts highlighted the importance of ensuring that equal attention is devoted to each of these factors. However, the results also reveal the challenges that curriculum developers face. To deal with these, a framework of factors is suggested to facilitate curriculum conversations in which developers can negotiate – and give meaning to – the desired change in the curriculum context.KEYWORDS: Responsive curriculum developmentvocational educationprofessional educationgroup concept mapping Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Ethics statementThis study was approved by the Open Universiteit Ethical Committee (cETO): U/2020/01656/MQF.Notes1. Hereafter, ‘vocational and (higher) professional education’ will be abbreviated as ‘vocational education’.2. ‘Wicked problems’ are unstructured, complex problems. These problems have innumerable causes, are divergent and emergent, continuously evolving and associated with multiple social environments and actors, and have no single solution path. Wicked problems also have unpredictable side effects, which are, in turn, influenced by many dynamic social, cultural, and political factors. A characteristic of these problems is that they seem unsolvable (Hawick, Cleland, and Kitto Citation2017).Additional informationFundingThe author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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响应式课程开发:哪些因素支持突破制度障碍?

摘要为了满足社会不断变化的需求，课程的响应性发展至关重要，课程开发者需要越来越多地预见并及时地将变化融入到课程中。然而，响应式课程开发是高职教育课程开发人员面临的一个复杂问题，对这一主题的全面研究很少。本研究的重点是荷兰高等职业教育机构的响应式课程开发过程(N = 77名专家)。一项针对这一过程的支持因素的群体概念映射研究揭示了六个因素:(1)教育和学习的愿景，(2)持续迭代的开发过程，(3)团队合作，(4)利益相关者参与，(5)有利的环境和条件，(6)机构。与会专家强调了确保对每一个因素给予同等重视的重要性。然而，调查结果也揭示了课程开发者所面临的挑战。为了解决这些问题，建议使用一个因素框架来促进课程对话，在这个框架中，开发人员可以对课程环境中的期望变化进行协商并赋予意义。关键词:响应式课程开发职业教育专业教育群体概念图披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。伦理声明本研究已获得开放大学伦理委员会(cETO)批准:U/2020/01656/ mqf .注1。今后，“职业及(高等)专业教育”将简称为“职业教育”。“邪恶的问题”是无结构的、复杂的问题。这些问题有无数的原因，是发散性的和突发性的，不断演变并与多种社会环境和行动者相关联，没有单一的解决途径。恶劣的问题也有不可预测的副作用，而这些副作用又受到许多动态的社会、文化和政治因素的影响。这些问题的一个特点是它们似乎无法解决(Hawick, Cleland, and Kitto Citation2017)。作者在研究、撰写和/或发表这篇文章时没有得到任何经济支持。

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来源期刊

Journal of Vocational Education and Training EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

15.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Vocational Education and Training is a peer-reviewed international journal which welcomes submissions involving a critical discussion of policy and practice, as well as contributions to conceptual and theoretical developments in the field. It includes articles based on empirical research and analysis (quantitative, qualitative and mixed method) and welcomes papers from a wide range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives. The journal embraces the broad range of settings and ways in which vocational and professional learning takes place and, hence, is not restricted by institutional boundaries or structures in relation to national systems of education and training. It is interested in the study of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, as well as economic, cultural and political aspects related to the role of vocational and professional education and training in society. When submitting papers for consideration, the journal encourages authors to consider and engage with debates concerning issues relevant to the focus of their work that have been previously published in the journal. The journal hosts a biennial international conference to provide a forum for researchers to debate and gain feedback on their work, and to encourage comparative analysis and international collaboration. From the first issue of Volume 48, 1996, the journal changed its title from The Vocational Aspect of Education to Journal of Vocational Education and Training.