Teachers' sense-making and adapting of the national curriculum : a multiple case study in Turkish and Swedish contexts

Despite the increasing popularity of studies on teachers' national curriculum adaptations, there is no comparative study elucidating teachers' adaptations in centralized and decentralized educational contexts through sense-making theory lenses. This paper presents a comparative case study of Turkish and Swedish senior classroom teachers' curricular adaptations concerning sense-making theory. We get data through non-participatory lesson observations, interviews, and document analysis from two teachers teaching third-grade mathematics in each country (Izmir and Malmo). Findings reveal that both Turkish and Swedish senior teachers frequently extend, replace/revise and omit the mathematics curriculum. Turkish teachers provided extensive evidence about their adaptations and even tried explaining their reasons whereas Swedish teachers perceived the changes they made in the classroom as teaching rather than adaptations, due to different levels of centralization. Additionally, Turkish teachers responded with parallel structures and assimilation to the national curriculum, and Swedish teachers responded only with assimilation. However, a Turkish teacher's assimilation mediated fewer adaptations while both Swedish teachers' assimilation mediated more adaptations (extension and replacing/revising). We conclude by drawing implications for research on teachers' adaptations and sense-making

Turkish teachers' autonomy in using and adapting curriculum: A mixed methods study

Despite the increasing popularity of teacher autonomy studies, there is still a need to explore what kind of mechanism or context is created by autonomy in the background while teachers are using or adapting the curriculum. This study aims to investigate teachers' perceived autonomy at the classroom level as well as their preferences for curricular use and adaptations. Drawing on a sequential explanatory design, after analysing quantitative data from 422 teachers through the teacher autonomy scale Turkish and the questionnaire of teachers' preferences for oppositional curricular solutions, interviews were conducted with a selected small group. Findings reveal that Turkish teachers think they have no say in the objectives-content of the curriculum and need more autonomy, despite high scores in instructional planning and implementation. Teachers ideally expect a curriculum to both present all the steps of teaching in detail and provide adaptation opportunities with flexibility. We reveal that no matter how centralised the country they live in, no matter how limited their autonomy, teachers make adaptations with the expectation of a flexible curriculum. Moreover, we found that there are links between teachers' autonomy scores and adaptation patterns. Teachers with low autonomy scores made adaptations for replacing/ revising rather than extending and omitting

The Effectiveness of a Secondary Teacher Education Graduate Program According to Administrators, Faculty Members and Students

WOS: 000281111900014The purpose of this case study is to examine the effectiveness of a Secondary Teacher Education Graduate Program. We collected qualitative data through interviews with two graduate school directors, five department heads, 58 faculty members and five students at Ege University. We conducted a descriptive analysis technique on the data. According to the results, there are many problems concerning the program such as high quotas of students, unsatisfactory selection of students, lack of motivation for the program and the courses both among the students and the faculty members, insufficiency of the faculty members in the areas of knowledge and pedagogy, inefficiencies in the management oldie courses (especially of the practical courses), lack of specific institutions and persons responsible for the program. Furthermore, the program does not reflect the innovations in teaching and the changes in secondary, education. The participants mainly suggested administrative solutions for the program

Flipping the Writing Classroom: Using Grammar Videos to Enhance Writing

###EgeUn###An action research study was carried out in the preparatory programme of a foundation university to examine student performance in terms of grammar taught in the writing lessons, and as an alternative method, the flipped classroom model was applied to a group of participants who learned theoretical knowledge through videos on the learning management system. The study lasted seven weeks and during the process, students' performance was noted with the help of a checklist. The experimental design with the pre-test - post-test control group and the semi-structured interview technique was applied. The students (n = 30) were asked to write an essay during the pre-test and post-test. These essays were assessed by three different teachers (the G-coefficient was found as .841) who used a pre-prepared rubric by the researchers. Findings indicate that the achievement of the experimental group, where the flipped classroom method was applied, was significantly higher than the control group. Students expressed positive views about the flipped classroom model during the interviews. Education performed using the flipped classroom model was considered time-saving, provided an opportunity for practice, was easily accessible; and distance education through videos was well-received by students

Articulation in English Language Curricula: A Systematic Analysis from Basic Education to Secondary Education

Despite many studies on English language curricula over the last two decades in Turkey, any analysis of articulation in the curricula has not been found. Articulation, which addresses the inter-relatedness of a curriculum in many ways, both vertically and horizontally, ensures planning of student's development holistically and the transfer of learning from one education level to another. In this study, basic education and secondary education English language curricula published in 2018 were systematically examined in terms of articulation by looking for an answer to the question To what extent do the English curricula attain the horizontal and vertical across the school levels? specifically. Guideline Questions for Determining Articulation which were developed through the literature review and expert opinions, were used in the study adopting a document analysis. The data were analyzed according to descriptive analysis. The findings display that the English language curricula from basic education to secondary education reflect the culture of the target language in a very limited way and that the interdisciplinarity of the curricula is weak. Therefore, it is concluded that the curricula have attained horizontal articulation partially. In terms of vertical articulation, although continuity and sequence across the grades are mostly achieved, the study uncovered the problems about the assessment of four skills in an integrated way, the progress of learning outcomes from lower-to higher-order thinking skills, the coordination of the language proficiency aimed as the final outcome at the school levels as well as the assessment of them. Consequently, the study revealed that both the horizontal and vertical (especially across the school levels) articulation of the curricula are not fully ensured. Various implications have been made to strengthen the articulation of English language curricula

Teachers' curriculum adaptation patterns: a scale development study

Curriculum adaptation portrays the way teachers 'tweak' the curriculum. The findings of related studies are based solely on qualitative data, and there is no instrument that can determine curriculum adaptation patterns. Based on this gap, the aim of this study is to develop the Curriculum Adaptation Patterns Scale (CAPS). After examining the qualitative studies, 113 draft items were created in eight adaptation patterns. Drawing on the experts and discussions, the dimensions and number of items were reduced. In the first pilot study (n = 322), a three-dimensional structure explaining 52% of the total variance was obtained. CAPS was re-applied on 361 teachers for confirmatory factor analysis and the fit indices corresponded to sufficient. The three emerging factors are named as 'omitting', 'extending' and 'replacing or revising'. The reliability coefficients for these factors are also adequate (0.87, 0.72 and 0.85, respectively). The analyses indicate that the CAPS can be used for examining teachers' curriculum adaptation patterns