Curriculum and Educational Change
Course code
KAD8070.HR
old course code
Course title in Estonian
Õppekava ja haridusmuutused
Course title in English
Curriculum and Educational Change
ECTS credits
6.0
Assessment form
assessment
lecturer of 2024/2025 Spring semester
Maria Erss (language of instruction:English)
lecturer of 2025/2026 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The aim of the course is to deepen the understanding of curriculum as a central part of formal education and its intellectual framework and practical issues, and curriculum theory as an interdisciplinary approach to educational research that arose in the 20th century. Curriculum theory helps to understand the historical, political, ideological and social context of educational reforms and movements. By analyzing the educational reforms of different countries and their ideological and theoretical foundations, one learns from the experience of other countries to understand the complexity of curriculum and educational reforms and to compare educational processes with developments in one's own country (Estonia).
Brief description of the course
This is an introductory course to curriculum research (theory), which deals with questions such as what is a curriculum, what knowledge is most valuable, whether a curriculum is a product or a process. By studying the philosophically and culturally different intellectual traditions of schooling, such as Anglo-American curriculum and German/continental European didactics, we try to interpret and understand contemporary educational problems, such as education in the context of globalization and curriculum reforms. We will discuss some classifications of curriculum theories: for example, according to Ellis (2004), curriculum theories are oriented towards the learner, the society, or academic knowledge, to which we can add the behaviorist-managerial orientation. We will also get acquainted with some critical approaches to curriculum research, such as the reconceptualization of curriculum studies which developed in the 1970s as a critical response to the technocratic and managerial approach to the curriculum and its emphasis on learning outcomes, competencies, and continuous testing. Critical approaches highlighted questions such as whose knowledge dominates the curriculum and in whose interest is it? The focus was on examining the different identities of the learner, such as gender, social status, class, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or religion, and how they can, in different combinations, reproduce inequality in education. We will also analyze curriculum reforms in different countries and their intended and unintended consequences.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
- can take part in intellectual conversations about curriculum policy and theory and current curriculum problems;
- can examine the curriculum critically and comparatively and create new knowledge in the field;
- is able to interpret their own educational experiences and observations based on their knowledge of curriculum theory.
- can take part in intellectual conversations about curriculum policy and theory and current curriculum problems;
- can examine the curriculum critically and comparatively and create new knowledge in the field;
- is able to interpret their own educational experiences and observations based on their knowledge of curriculum theory.
Teacher
Maria Erss
Additional information
Evaluation methods:
- Active participation in conversations about the readings for each meeting
- Introducing an article from the list of literature to others
- Group work or individual work: oral presentation of a case study on curriculum reforms in a country of your choice
- An individual essay on a curriculum problem discovered during the course (material prepared for an individual presentation or group work or another problem can be used), which is based on the literature discussed during the course.
- Active participation in conversations about the readings for each meeting
- Introducing an article from the list of literature to others
- Group work or individual work: oral presentation of a case study on curriculum reforms in a country of your choice
- An individual essay on a curriculum problem discovered during the course (material prepared for an individual presentation or group work or another problem can be used), which is based on the literature discussed during the course.
Study programmes containing that course