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2020/2021

Teaching and Curricular Development

Code: 102068 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500798 Primary Education FB 2 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Carme Ruíz Bueno
Email:
Carmen.Ruiz.Bueno@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Sara Colorado Ramirez
Katia Veronica Pozos Perez
Patricia Olmos Rueda

Prerequisites

Education and Curriculum Development is a second-year subject of the degree in Primary Education. As it follows on from the first-year subjects Education and Educational Contexts and Contemporary Theories and Practices in Education, a minimum proficiency level is required in these latter subjects in order to take full advantage of it. Competencies in education and educational contexts are closely related to those required in education and curriculum development. Similarly, educational contexts and contemporary theories and practices are part of the foundations of education and curriculum development.

Objectives and Contextualisation

During this year, student teachers will learn about teaching and learning processes and they will analyse, on the one hand, curricular approaches within learning and teaching methods and, on the other, the curriculum perspective in primary education.

Education and Curriculum Development will continue in the 3rd year with the subject Planning, Research and Innovation. This latter will go into detail about teaching and curriculum approaches, with specific reference to planning, research and innovation.

In this way, this subject aims to establish theoretical and practical benchmarks for working in primary education.

This year prepares student teachers to:

  1. Understand curriculum conceptions and how these are related to didactics.
  2. Analyse the structure of the current primary education curriculum.
  3. Analyse the components of didatics and curriculum development by competencies.
  4. Design teaching and learning processes according to learning groups’ needs.
  5. Think about the teacher’s role in relation to tutorial intervention and management and dynamics of learning groups.

Competences

  • Adopt an ethical attitude and behaviour and act in accordance with the deontological principles of the profession.
  • Critically analyse personal work and use resources for professional development.
  • Design and regulate learning spaces in contexts of diversity that take into account gender equality, equity and respect for human rights and observe the values of public education.
  • Design, plan and evaluate teaching and learning activity in the classroom.
  • Develop the functions of tutoring and guidance of pupils and their families, attending to the pupils’ own needs. Understand that a teacher’s functions must be perfected and adapted in a lifelong manner to scientific, pedagogical and social changes.
  • Know and apply basic methodologies and techniques of educational research and be able to design innovative projects while identifying evaluation indicators.
  • Know and apply innovative experiences in primary education.
  • Know how primary schools are organised and about the diversity of actions involved in running them.
  • Know the curricular areas of Primary Education, the interdisciplinary relation between them, the evaluation criteria and the body of didactic knowledge regarding the respective procedures of education and learning.
  • Recognise and evaluate the social reality and the interrelation of factors involved as a necessary anticipation of action.
  • Respect the diversity and the plurality of ideas, people and situations.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse the characteristics of a quality tutorial.
  2. Analyse the learning processes in the classroom and outside the classroom.
  3. Critically analyse, discerning the accessorial fundamentals, innovations in the field of primary education.
  4. Design and develop learner assessments.
  5. Design teaching strategies according to the varying needs and characteristics of groups.
  6. Design tutorial processes in accordance with an analysis of pupils’ needs.
  7. Develop innovation projects by applying the appropriate programming sequence in accordance with the paradigm or focus of reference.
  8. Exchanging experiences, ideas, know-how and values with the work group, while respecting the opinions and insights of the different individuals in the group.
  9. Identifying the curricular areas in the primary stage.
  10. Know about international experiences and examples of innovative practices in education to analyse the practice of teaching and the institutional conditions that frame it.
  11. Linking innovation as an element of professional development.
  12. Planning teaching/learning initiatives which address diversity in the classroom.
  13. Proposing specific innovation projects for primary education classes taking into account the possibilities of the context.
  14. Understand the evaluative approach, specifically evaluation criteria in primary education.
  15. Understand the processes that occur in educational activities and their impact on training while accepting that the exercise of the educational function must be refined and adapted lifelong to scientific, educational and social changes.
  16. Understand the theoretical and legal references of educational institutions and demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of actions involved in their operations.
  17. Using methodologies and techniques suitable for planning innovative projects.

Content

THE CONTENTS OF THE SUBJECT ARE:

First block: Didactics and curricular theory

1. Didactics and Curriculum: conceptual approach.
2. Curriculum theories.
3. Curriculum foundations.

Second block: Curriculum design and development

4. Structure of the Curriculum of Primary education.
5. Key competencies as a cross-curricular topic within curriculum design and development.
6. Classroom planning: from competencies to objectives, selection and sequencing of topics, methodology strategies for developing competencies, and learning assessment.
 
Third block: Teacher’s role and group management

7.Teacher’s role: from planning to assessment, the tutoring role.
8. Management and dynamics of a learning group.

Methodology

The methodological proposal is designed within the principle of multivariate methodological strategies in order to facilitate active participation and the construction of the learning process by students.

Thus, we propose on-line whole-group lectures and also face-to-face seminars that allow work to be done in small groups with a focus on cooperative learning.

Autonomous work is going to be intensified. Within this framework, the teacher has to support the students frequently and has to provide them with resources in order to guide their learning process.

Tutorial interventions will be an important part of the working methodology. 

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Seminars. Cooperative learning activities in which the students work in groups. These activities will be structured in a specific way and will be known at the beginning of the subject. Likewise, these activities will further develop and apply the contents 15 0.6 3, 2, 1, 15, 14, 5, 4, 6, 7, 17, 9, 8, 12, 13, 11
Whole group. Lectures in which the teacher takes an active role and gets the students involved in the teaching process. Its aim is to present contents, give instructions, carry out individual and group activities, and make other propositions 30 1.2 2, 1, 15, 16, 14, 10, 5, 4, 6, 9, 8, 12, 11
Type: Supervised      
Supervisory. Group work, tutorial interventions and delivery of work. Face-to-face and on-line activities 16 0.64 3, 4, 7, 17, 8, 13
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous, on-line 75 3 16, 10, 4, 8

Assessment

The evaluation is according to the “Criteris i pautes generals d’avaluació de la Facultat de Ciències de l’Educació” aprovat per la COA a 28 de maig de 2015 i modificat a la Junta de Facultat del 6 d’abril del 2017 (http://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/graus/informacio-academica/avaluacio/normativa-1345725436339.html).

The evaluation of this subject is carried out by monitoring the student teacher’s learning process in the seminars and the tutorial interventions. This monitoring process will allow us to take decisions about the development of the subject. At the end, we are going to verify if learning results agree with competencies and goals.

There are three assessment components: 

  1. Work seminar and all the practice activities/exercises/tests that will be done (5 is the minimum mark needed to pass each one). Student teachers should do 3 practice activities (in cooperative groups). One of these is to design a unit plan (it is possible to design a globalize and interdisciplinar project). The due data of each one of the practices will be: Practice 1 (Setember 2020), Practice 2 (October 2020), Practice 3 (Desember 2020).
  2. Group presentation of the unit plan (5 is the minimum needed to pass this). Presentation will take place between Desember 2020 and January 2021.
  3. Test/Exam (written, individual and in-class) based on the content and readings (5 is the minimum needed to pass). This exam will take place in January 2021. If the exam is failed, the student teacher can retake it (retaken exam will take place two weeks latter). The retaken exam/test will also be written, individual and in-class (5 will be the maximum mark). To retake the exam is mandatory to do the official exam previously, in the established data.
  4. At least 80% of the seminars must be attended. Otherwise, this part of the subject will be failed. Consequently, the entire subject is also going to be failed.

To pass the subject, the student teacher has to do all the practice activities/exercises/tests and the exam, and deliver (and when necessary, defend,) them on time. Likewise, the student teacher must pass each one separately (5 is the minimum pass mark for each one). 

Another aspect to consider is the weight of each one of these components (see the next table for this).

Likewise, all activities (individual and group) will consider the proofreading, writing and formal presentation. Students should be able to express themselves with fluency and accuracy and should show a high degree of understanding of academic texts. An activity can be returned (not rated) or suspended if the teacher believes that does not meet these requirements. To pass this subject, the student should have good general communicative competence, both orally and in writing, and a good command of the language or the vehicular languages that appear in the teaching guide.

The copy or plagiarism, both in the case of works and in the case of examinations, constitute an offense and will be punished with a 0 as a mark of the subject losing the possibility of recovering it, whether it is individual work or in group (in this case, all the members of the group will have a 0).

The proposed teaching methodology and assessment may undergo some modification depending on the attendance restrictions imposed by the health authorities.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Presentation and defence of one practice (group assessment) 5% 2 0.08 2, 1, 15, 14, 4, 6, 9, 8
Test/exam (individual assessment) 50% 4 0.16 2, 1, 15, 16, 14, 10, 9, 11
Work done in the seminars, delivery of tests/practice activities (group assessment and individual assessment) 45% 8 0.32 3, 2, 1, 15, 14, 5, 4, 6, 7, 17, 9, 8, 12, 13, 11

Bibliography

Compulsory readings

DACK, H. & TOMLINSON, C.A. (20149. Searching for the Irresistible. Phi Delta Kappan, 95, 43-47. DOI 10.1177/003172171409500810

DARLING-HAMMOND, L. & BRANSFORD, J. (Eds.) (2005). Preparing teaching for a changing world. What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. (Chapters 8, and 9).

FOTHERINGHAM, J., STRICKLAND, K., & AITCHISON, K. (2012). Curriculum: Directions, decisions and debate. Edinburg: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.  Available in: http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/docs/publications/curriculum-directions-decisions-and-debate.pdf

GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA. DEP. EDUCACIÓ. Currículum. Educació Primària. Available in: http://www.xtec.cat/web/curriculum/primaria/curriculum

GUNDEM, B.B. & HOPMANN, S. (2002). Didaktik and/or Curriculum. An International Dialogue. New York: American University Studies. (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 13, and Conclusion chapter).

JOHN, P.D. (2006). Lesson planning and the student teacher: re-thinking the dominant model. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4), 483-498.DOI: 10.1080/00220270500363620

McKENNA, S. (2003). Paradigms of curriculum design: Implications for South African educators. Jnl for Language Teaching, 37 (2), 215-223. Available in:
http://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajol.info%2Findex.php%2Ftvl%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F53842%2F42392&ei=5INNUqOoCsnE7AaZgoHwCQ&usg=AFQjCNF8V34Jlzpfh1eZZcD8KKkLciUwYQ

MONTANERO, M. (2019). Didàctica General. Planificacio y práctica de la enseñanza primaria. Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura. Servicio de Publicaciones

PINAR, W.F. (2004). What is Curriculum Theory?Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. (pp. 192-197).

REID, W.A. (2002). Systems and Structures or Myths and Fables? A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Curriculum Content. In, B.B. GUNDEM & S. HOPMANN, Didaktik and/or Curriculum. An International Dialogue (pp. 11-27). New York: Peter Lang.

TEJADA, J. (2005): Didáctica-Currículum. Diseño, desarrollo y evaluación curricular. Barcelona: Davinci.

TOMOZII, S.E. & TOPALĂ, I. (2014). Why do we need to change the educational paradigms? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 142, 586-591.

VIANA, M. & FREIRE, Z.M. (2014). Deconstruction of Paradigms for Teacher Training: A Transdisciplinary Perspective. Journal of Modern Education Review, 4(5), 349-357.

Workpaper of Tom Reeves (2006). Educational paradigms. Available in: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/ctmu/7520/readings/reeves_paradigms.htm 

ZAIS, R.S. (1976). Curriculum: Principles and foundations. New York: Harper & Row. (Chapters 1, 4, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 20).

ZIERER, K. & SEEL, N.M. (2012). General Didactics and Instructional Design: eyes like twins A transatlantic dialogue about similarities and differences, about the past and the future of two sciences of learning and teaching. SpringerPlus, 1(15), 2-22. Available in: http://www.springerplus.com/content/pdf/2193-1801-1-15.pdf