| dc.description.abstract | Investigating Pre-Service Teachers’ Competence-based Curriculum Design Ability
and Transformation
Abstract
21st century demands various competencies, such as communication, collaboration, and argumentation skills. This so-called ‘‘21st century competencies (literacies)’’ has become the educational aims of many developed countries. In 2019, the education in Taiwan also shifted its aim towards a competence-based education. However, the success of every educational reform depends heavily on the teachers’ ability. In this research, the researcher seeks to understand pre-service teachers’ competence-based curriculum design ability. Once we learn how pre-service teachers design such curriculum, we know how to train pre-service teachers’ into qualified teachers.
This qualitative case study investigates pre-service teachers’ competence-based curriculum design ability, the researcher chooses 67 pre-service teachers from two semesters of a pre-service class（‘‘Introduction to Principles of Teaching and Learning’’）as research participants. The participants are novice curriculum designers, they would design a competence-based curriculum plan early in the semester, and after weeks of training, they would read their curriculum plan again, and proposes adjustments later in the semester. The researcher specifically seeks to answer three research questions: (1) How would the pre-service teachers design the competence-based curriculum plan early in the semester? (2) How would the pre-service teachers adjust the curriculum plan later in the semester? (3) What are the reasons behind the design differences?
The results show that the pre-service teachers are unfamiliar with competence-based curriculum, and they design competence-based curriculum mostly from teacher’s perspective without considering learners’ learning experiences. Also, they don’t know how to assess competence-based learning. After a semester of training in ‘‘Introduction to Principles of Teaching and Learning’’, the pre-service teachers can do better at designing competence-based curriculum. The reasons behind their change are highly related to design of the class, the reasons include (1) authentic learning, (2) the role-playing practice, (3) the professor’s modeling and guidance, and (4) social interaction and narratives.
The results suggest that pre-service teachers need to have authentic understanding of competence-based learning, and that their competence-based curriculum design ability can be fostered in authentic learning pre-service courses. The researcher concludes with suggestions for future investigations.
Keywords:
Competence-based curriculum, Curriculum design ability, Pre-service teacher education, Qualitative case study | en_US |