著者

木原 俊行 矢野 裕俊 森 久佳 廣瀬 真琴

出版者

日本カリキュラム学会

雑誌

カリキュラム研究 (ISSN:0918354X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.1-14, 2013-03-31 (Released:2017-10-17)

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The concept of "leadership" is currently regarded as one of the most important ideas for School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD). Based on the prevailing trend of SBCD, the authors have been paying attention to the theories and practices of curriculum leadership. Besides, the authors have tried to clarify the relationships between curriculum leadership and Professional Learning Community, which is a conceptual framework of teacher development. In the research, it revealed that the teachers who play a key role of coordinating SBCD in individual schools, so called "leading teachers," have few opportunities to learn the theories on and practices for curriculum development as professionals engaged in it. In order for the teachers to cope with the problem, the authors developed a self-learning tool with which leading teachers are able to get knowledge about SBCD from a professional's perspective. It was the handbook titled "Handbook for the leading teachers in charge of School-Based Curriculum Development: to learn theories on and practices for it" (The Handbook). In Japan, teacher leaders have a great chance to demonstrate their initiative in SBCD. The Handbook is designed for them to link its contents with the practices at their own schools. The Handbook mentioned above consists of the following 7 chapters; Chapter1: Theories on and models of curriculum development Chapter2: Practical trends of curriculum development Chapter3: Excellent cases of curriculum practices in Japan Chapter4: Exercise for decision-making in the process of curriculum practices Chapter5: Reflection on the curriculum practices of your school Chapter6: Important references for curriculum development Chapter7: Recommendations for further studies on curriculum development These chapters were constructed based on the requirements as follows; 1) Leading teachers can learn both academic theories on and practices for curriculum development in balance. In addition, they can understand the theories in relation to the practices. 2) Leading teachers can learn the practices based on curriculum leadership deeply. 3) Readers (leading teachers) are provided the tool for evaluation with which they can reflect their own curriculum practices. 4) Leading teachers are encouraged to learn more and more on curriculum practices. In order to improve the handbook with the use for curriculum development in view, the authors asked 22 leading teachers for SBCD (including the persons who had the same experiences in the past) as participants to evaluate the validity of the contents and the practical usefulness and so on of The Handbook in April 2012. The authors used two kinds of method for evaluation. One is asking 4-scale rating on 4 items. They are as follows; 1. Good for learning curriculum and curriculum development deeply 2. Suitable for clarifying the actions of leading teachers for SBCD 3. Useful for grasping the state of affairs on curriculum practices in your own school 4. Helpful for understanding how to develop curriculum practices of your own school The other method is asking free comments on 5 questions about the good and bad points of The Handbook, its originalities and so forth. Judging from the respondents' evaluation, The Handbook by and large achieved its aim of providing a tool for leading teachers to learn curriculum development theoretically and practically, indicating that it satisfied the first three of the four requirements; balancing theories and practical cases, devising to deepen learning, functioning as an evaluation tool for reflection, encouraging further learning. However, the fourth requirement proved to be satisfied insufficiently. It is concluded that The Handbook contributed leading teachers' knowledge-based learning and that it did not cover their practical and reflective learning for problem-solving,(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)