Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology
In the age of educational accountability, national and state-wide measures are assumed to secure and improve the educational quality. However, educators often wonder how much a new accountability measure may improve the actual teaching and learning practices when the agents of change (teachers) are...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Social Science Press
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/16359 |
| _version_ | 1848749154246852608 |
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| author | Kruger, Mirko Won, Mihye Treagust, David |
| author_facet | Kruger, Mirko Won, Mihye Treagust, David |
| author_sort | Kruger, Mirko |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In the age of educational accountability, national and state-wide measures are assumed to secure and improve the educational quality. However, educators often wonder how much a new accountability measure may improve the actual teaching and learning practices when the agents of change (teachers) are not active participants of such educational reform. Nevertheless, in Australia, the National Curriculum is rolling in for the first time for K-10 school education in 2012-13. In Western Australia, the new Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) system with new compulsory exit examination requirements has been implemented recently for Years 11-12. In this study, using the contextual curriculum theory (Cornbleth, 1990) and the levels of curriculum (van den Akker, 1998, 2003) as our theoretical framework, we investigated how experienced Biology teachers are making sense of the recent changes in the curriculum and the exit examination requirements: what they perceive as the major changes in the new WACE system; and how they implement the changes in their teaching practice. We discuss how the teachers’ teaching philosophy, their school environments, and the new curriculum interact to create a spectrum of the implemented curriculum. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:16:25Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-16359 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:16:25Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Social Science Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-163592017-09-13T15:04:07Z Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology Kruger, Mirko Won, Mihye Treagust, David In the age of educational accountability, national and state-wide measures are assumed to secure and improve the educational quality. However, educators often wonder how much a new accountability measure may improve the actual teaching and learning practices when the agents of change (teachers) are not active participants of such educational reform. Nevertheless, in Australia, the National Curriculum is rolling in for the first time for K-10 school education in 2012-13. In Western Australia, the new Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) system with new compulsory exit examination requirements has been implemented recently for Years 11-12. In this study, using the contextual curriculum theory (Cornbleth, 1990) and the levels of curriculum (van den Akker, 1998, 2003) as our theoretical framework, we investigated how experienced Biology teachers are making sense of the recent changes in the curriculum and the exit examination requirements: what they perceive as the major changes in the new WACE system; and how they implement the changes in their teaching practice. We discuss how the teachers’ teaching philosophy, their school environments, and the new curriculum interact to create a spectrum of the implemented curriculum. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/16359 10.14221/ajte.2013v38n3.5 Social Science Press fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Kruger, Mirko Won, Mihye Treagust, David Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title | Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title_full | Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title_fullStr | Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title_short | Teachers' Perceptions on the Changes in the Curriculum and Exit Examinations for Biology and Human Biology |
| title_sort | teachers' perceptions on the changes in the curriculum and exit examinations for biology and human biology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/16359 |