Teachers' Curriculum Decision-Making In School-Based IB

Under the background of curriculum decision-making mechanism transformation and teacher professional development,“teachers as curriculum decision-makers” has been further emphasized.The school-based curriculum provides a platform for teachers to exercise curriculum decision-making power and professional autonomy.However,there are many problems in teachers' curriculum decision-making in the school-based curriculum.It is necessary to analyze how teachers make curriculum decisions in the school-based curriculum and summarize the experiences and lessons.International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme(IBPYP)needs schoolbased implementation,in this process,teachers need to make continuous and effective curriculum decisions based on the situations of the school.The curriculum of “Unit of Inquiry ” is the core of IBPYP.Its thematic,transdisciplinary curriculum framework gives teachers enough room for decision making.This study takes curriculum of Unit of Inquiry of S Primary School's fourth grade as a case to analyze teachers curriculum decision-making in school-based curriculum.Specifically,this study collects research materials through literature analysis,teacher interviews,and field observations,trying to answer the following questions: 1.How does this curriculum become a school-based curriculum,how do teachers make curriculum decisions in this process.2.What are the characteristics of teachers' collective decision making and personal decision making.3.What factors affect teachers' curriculum decision making.This study can be divided into three parts.The first part includes the first chapter and the second chapter.The first chapter explains the research origin,research content,research methods and ethics,and summarizes the related literature.The second chapter deals with the definition of the core concept and the theoretical basis of this research.The second part includes the third chapter to the fifth chapter,mainly discussing research findings.Specifically,this part discusses the content,activities and products of teacher curriculum decision-making from three levels: school,grade and individual teachers.Teachers' participation in school-level curriculum decision making has produced the Programme of Inquiry.At the grade level,the curriculum decision-making is teachers collective decision-making,including teachers collective preparation and informal discussion.It produces the Unit of Inquiry and curriculum materials.Teachers collective decision making responds to Schwab's curriculum review theory.Individual teachers curriculum decision making is based on data and intuition,and responds to Schon's theory of “reflection in action” and “reflection on action”.The sixth chapter is the third part of this study.It mainly summarizes the research and explains the research limitations.1.In this study,“students” is an important factor influencing teachers' curriculum decision-making,and three levels of curriculum decision making helps teachers improve the relevance of the course to students.At the school level,teachers participate in the decision making of Programme of Inquiry and promote the transition of the curriculum from the IB standards to the school situation.At the grade level,teachers produce the Unit of Inquiry through curriculum deliberation,so that the curriculum fits the specific conditions of the grade.The individual teachers make curriculum decisions through reflection to make the curriculum adapt to the learning situation of the students in the class.2.S primary school respects teachers' curriculum decision making.Teachers' professional authority are valued,teachers' curriculum decisions are fully trusted,and teachers take on less risk in decision making process.3.Teachers' curriculum decision making are mainly based on curriculum deliberation and personal reflection.Teachers make collective curriculum decisions through curriculum deliberation.Individual teachers are reflective practitioners,they make curriculum decisions through personal reflection.However,Mandarin teachers and Math teachers don't actively participate in the collective decision making;teachers' individual curriculum decisions are often subject to collective curriculum decisions;and curriculum deliberation and teachers' personal reflection are mainly based on teachers' experience.Schools should create a curriculum decision-making atmosphere that trusts teachers;establish an external supervision mechanism for teachers' curriculum decision-making;build a natural cooperation culture;encourage teachers to reflect on action,and provide professional guidance tools for teachers to participate in curriculum decision-making.