The Value of the Curriculum Design Coherence Model for Teacher Education Barbara Ormond
BERA Conference - 14 September 2021
Outline
Use of the CDC Model for structuring the episteme and creating coherence in teacher education courses
Examples of the practical use of the CDC Model for secondary
education courses in social sciences
Value of the Model for Teacher Educators
Structuring lectures and courses to combine
– propositional knowledge of educational theories – knowledge-that – practical procedural knowledge - know-how-to
Showing student teachers ways to think about what they teach
(knowledge-that in curricula design), and how they can integrate that
with the necessary skills in their specific subjects (know-how-to)
The New Zealand Context
Broadly-stated curriculum (The New Zealand Curriculum 2007)
High level of teacher autonomy
‘It is an incredibly high trust model that they’ve presented to teachers. I understand how it sits within the philosophy of The New Zealand Curriculum to allow schools to evolve their own local prescriptions and curriculum, and that is admirable in terms of responding to student voice and learners in front of you, but even for a fairly confident reasonably sized department like ours where we can discuss and develop ideas together, it is still a huge challenge to create our own curriculum and justify the choices that we make.’
(Research participant, 2015)
Emphasis on generic competencies Reduction in the knowledge taught
The CDC Model for Design of Teacher Education Courses
Example: Assessment Principles and Practices Element 1
Proposition
Fair and valid assessment is well aligned to learning, assesses important knowledge and skills, and enables sound assessor judgments to be made.
Decide on the topic
Select concepts Key and related
concepts
Write a
proposition
Assessment Concepts
Concepts of Assessment
Fairness
Validity
Transparency Manageability
Consistency
Element 2 - Connecting Subject Concepts to Content
Subject
Concepts Content
Fairness Validity
Fairness relates to both the assessment design and the marking of an assessment.
1. The assessment needs to assess skills or knowledge which have been taught (unless the form the assessment is a pre-test).
2. To be fair, assessment methods also need to be accessible for all participants. It cannot disadvantage individuals or groups by limiting them in ways unrelated to the
evidence sought, such as some students not being able to access resources needed for the assignment, such as a lack of digital devices.
Validity refers to the relationship between what is required to be assessed (for example, adhering to a prescription, or mandated outcomes), and the
matters being assessed in the assessment tasks.
1. Validity should be a fundamental principle when considering what knowledge or skills are suitable and worthwhile to assess.
2. Tasks need to be aligned fully with the requirements embodied in the wording of the Achievement Standards, for example the History standard ‘Analyse different
perspectives of a contested event of
significance to New Zealanders’ (AS91437).
Element 2 – Example - Transparency
In New Zealand national examinations are held at the end of the year and students’ exam papers are returned to them.
This can be explained in relation to the concept ‘transparency’
Transparency
Transparency in assessment is an expectation that students will know, to a reasonable degree, what they need to have learned, or be able to do to be able to tackle the assessment and that they will know in advance what the marker is looking for. The assessment tasks should be accompanied by the marking schedule which has either quantitative indicators (e.g. 5 marks for Question 1; you must reference at least 3 texts) or qualitative indicators (e.g. in–depth analysis, comprehensive discussion), or a mix of both types of indicator.
Element 3 – Connect Knowledge-that to Know-how-to
Know-how-to
Student Teachers need to write a standards-based assessment task and assessment schedule
Is their assessment
Manageable?
Fair?
Valid?
Consistent?
Transparent?
Know -how-
to
Element 3 - Performance and Judgement Competencies
Performance competencies
i. I know-how-to design an assessment which is fair, valid and manageable.
ii. I know-how-to manage assessment in a way which is transparent for the learners.
iii. I know-how-to design a standards–based assessment and schedule suitable for addressing the NCEA Achievement Standards.
iv. I know-how-to assess student work fairly using a standards-based schedule and how to ensure consistency in grades.
Judgement competencies
v. I know-how-to critique assessments to see if they are fair, valid, transparent and manageable for the learner.
vi. I know-how-to analyse assessment tasks to see if they align well with the skills or knowledge that has been taught and with the Achievement Standard they are being assessed against.
Element 4 – Evaluate Knowledge-that and Know-how-to
Intelligent know-how-to Student teachers have:
Shown their conceptual understanding through applying the principles of what fair and
reasonable assessment entails. Their assessment and schedule designs would need to be well aligned to learning, assess important knowledge and skills, and enable sound assessor
judgments to be made.
Embedded Concepts - Justification Statement for a Student Teacher’s Assessment Design
Throughout this process, I had the five principles of assessment design in mind; fairness, consistency, manageability, validity, and transparency.
Fairness, refers to accessibility. This assessment requires a laptop, but if it is not a BYOD school, I would ensure I booked devices for these lessons. I noted that I would provide them with all resources necessary to create an effective poster. While some students make choose to bring extra materials from home, those who don’t will NOT be restricted to any achievement level.
Validity ensures that the assessment instructions align with the marking schedule. Every requirement listed in the assessment schedule is clearly explained in the list of what MUST be included in the poster presentation. etc.
Transparency is important because students need to know what is required of them. The list of MUST do’s, explicitly shows the student what they need to achieve. The requirements for merit and excellence are qualitative so they can see that it is the standard of explanations and discussions that will boost their grade.
Manageability is also considered in this assessment. They have four lessons in class which is enough time considering they have the main website listed for them. They have also learnt the reasons why some countries are more developed than others in the unit they have just completed so all they need to do is refine this explanation.
Consistency is demonstrated through the marking schedule.
When it comes to marking the assessments, I need to ensure all posters are held to the same standard. I think I have found a balance between having enough criteria to support my marking and not overdoing it so I can still take a holistic approach.
Student Answer
2021
Bernstein’s Knowledge Structures
Hierarchical Knowledge Structure
New knowledge integrates with earlier knowledge to produce more advanced understandings.
Horizontal Knowledge Structure
Multiple segments of knowledge sit alongside each other.
(Basil Bernstein, 2000)
Educating Student Teachers about the CDC
Model
Note: Just Element 1 shown here
Student Teachers’ Application of the Model
Black Lives Matter
Groups selected different concepts, and content
Reported thinking deeply about the critical concepts
Felt comfortable using the
model because of the work we
had already done on concepts
Conclusions
The CDC Model offers
a means to address the question - What knowledge should be taught?
a means for organising valuable knowledge beginning with ‘subject concepts’ and processing through to justifying those choices.
the potential for better planning
The possibility of better teaching due to the ‘mind energy’ put into determining the relationships between concepts, knowledge-that and know-how-to
References
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Ormond, B. M. (2017). Curriculum decisions – The challenges of teacher autonomy over knowledge selection for history. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 49 (5), 599-619.
Rata, E & McPhail, G. (2020) Teacher Professional Development, the Knowledge- Rich School Project and the Curriculum Design Coherence Model, in J. Fox et al.
