TSLB3163

CURRICULUM
STUDIES

TOPIC 9:
CURRICULUM CHANGE AND
INNOVATION
Curriculum Change and Innovation

Contexts of curriculum change

Strategies of evaluation

Planning and implementation

Factors affecting change in ELT in Malaysia

Teacher as agent of change

Curriculum Change and Innovation : Definition

What is change?
What is curriculum change?

• Hoyle (1995) defines change as embracing the concepts of innovation, development, renewal and
improvement of a curriculum.
• Change has magnitude and direction and takes place within a definite time frame.
• In the context of curriculum, curriculum change is dictated by the changes in the economic, social and
technological aspects of a society. ***
• Change is a process not an event; it requires time, energy and resources.
• It is achieved incrementally and entails development in feelings and skills in using new programmes.
• Change should lead to improvement.
Curriculum Change : Definition

Making the difference in some way, to give it a new position

or direction.
Often means :
• alteration to its philosophy by -way of its aims and
objectives,
• reviewing the content included,
• revising its methods
• re-thinking its evaluator procedures.
Curriculum Innovation : Definition

• Harris et al. (1995) describes innovation as “an intentional and deliberate process to bring out
desired effects and change”.
• As such, curriculum innovation refers to ideas or practices that are new and different from
those that exist in the formal prescribed curriculum.
• Westerly (1969) and Richard (1965), state that curriculum innovation is any improvement that
is deliberate, measurable, durable and unlikely to occur frequently.
• Curriculum innovations occurs when human and material resources are created, selected,
organised and used in ways where the outcomes are higher achievement of curriculum goals
and objectives.
Curriculum Change and Innovation : Definition

Curriculum innovation is defined as

Changes in curriculum may involve
deliberate actions to improve a
innovation, but in general, change in
learning environment by adapting a
terms of curriculum involves
method of presenting material to
adapting a new educational method
students that involves human
and not necessarily a method with
interaction, hands-on activities and
human interaction.
student feedback
 Curriculum Change and Innovation-simplified
Curriculum Change Curriculum Innovation

Dictated by the changes in the economic, social and Ideas or practices that are new and different from those that
technological aspects of a society. exist in the formal prescribed curriculum.

Has magnitude and direction and takes place within a definite Occurs when human and material resources are created,
time frame. selected, organised and used in ways where the outcomes are
higher achievement of curriculum goals and objectives.

May occur in response to external events Always planned. Become meaningful and effective if they
are planned and organised.
Sources of Change and Innovation

National Societal
imposition needs

Stakeholder
Technology
views
National Imposition

• Curriculum Standards: A standardised national curriculum is established to ensure

that all students receive an equal and high-quality education. These standards can drive
the need for new curriculum materials and approaches.
• Assessment Requirements: Changes in assessment methods, such as standardized
testing or competency-based assessments, can influence curriculum design. Schools and
educators may need to adapt their teaching methods and content to align with these
assessments.
• Legislation and Reforms: Educational legislation and reforms at the national level can
mandate changes in curriculum content, such as the inclusion of specific subjects or the
incorporation of digital literacy.
Societal Needs

• Relevant Skills for the Workplace: As the job market evolves, the curriculum may
need to include training of new technologies, soft skills, and critical thinking to prepare
students for the modern workforce.
• Global Competence: In an increasingly interconnected world, there is a growing need
for the curriculum to change and emphasize on aspects such as global perspectives,
cultural awareness, and language skills to foster global competence.
• Social and Environmental Issues: Societal concerns about issues like climate change,
social justice, and health may drive the inclusion of related topics in curricula to raise
awareness and empower students to address these challenges.
Technology

• Digital Learning Tools: The rise of digital platforms, e-learning, and

educational software has encouraged the integration of technology into the
curriculum.
• Adaptive Learning: Technology allows for personalized and adaptive learning
experiences, tailoring the curriculum to individual students' needs and abilities.
• STEM and STEAM Education: Advances in technology and the emphasis on
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the arts
(STEAM) have led to innovative curriculum designs that focus on these
subjects.
Stakeholder Views

▪ Student-Centred Approaches: Students’ feedback on their learning experiences can influence curriculum
changes. It may lead to more student-centred approaches, such as project-based learning, that cater to
individual needs and interests.
• Teacher Insights/Expertise: Teachers' insights and expertise are invaluable in curriculum development.
Their feedback can lead to innovations in pedagogy and content, ensuring that the curriculum aligns with
effective teaching methods.
• Parental Expectations: Parents often play a role in advocating for certain curriculum changes, such as
increased focus on multilingualism, health education, moral and ethical education, or other areas they believe
are essential for their children.
• Education Experts and Researchers: Collaborations with educational experts and researchers can lead to
curriculum innovations informed by the latest pedagogical research and best practices.
Context of Curriculum Change

Curriculum change and curriculum innovation are made necessary due to a country’s
political, social, economic, cultural and technological environments.

The education system changes in order to address the needs and demands brought about
by these factors.

At the national level, curriculum change and innovation arise from deliberate policy
decisions.
 • Changes in the education system in Malaysia occur when the
Context of central authority decides to adopt a new idea.

Curriculum • This change is usually made known through a circular.

• One such example is the introduction of the Kurikulum
Change Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) or the Primary School
Standard Curriculum.
Context of Curriculum Change

• Another reason for curriculum change and innovation is the desire

of authorities at various levels to deliberately change established
practices to;
• tackle existing problems

• identify new problems and

• seek ways of dealing with these problems.
Context of Curriculum Change

• Curriculum change and innovation can also be a due to

development in technology.
• For example, computers are being used in almost every aspects
of our society.
• Thus, the education system and its curriculum must adapt to this
new development.
• Computers must not be seen as merely a tool for administrative
purposes, but also to make the computer and related technological
advancements part and parcel of the curriculum.
 Context of Curriculum
Change
• Change can be classified as hardware and software types.
• Hardware types of changes involve ;
• the additions to existing facilities such as new classrooms, equipment, books and
playgrounds.
• On the other hand, software types affect the content and range of the curriculum.
• These may be related to the methods of delivery suggested by curriculum designers and
developers.
Context of Curriculum Change

Change can occur in various forms such as;

• Substitution
• Alteration
• Addition
• Restructuring
Context of Curriculum Change

In substitution, one element replaces another previously in use.

• E.g. new textbooks, new equipment or the replacement of
teachers and administrators.
Alteration on the other hand involves change in existing structures
rather than a complete replacement of the whole curriculum, syllabus
or course of study.
Context of Curriculum Change

Addition is the introduction of a new component without changing old elements or

patterns.
• New elements are added to the existing programme without seriously disturbing the
main structure and content of the prescribed curriculum.
• These could be support inputs such as audio-visual aids, workshops and equipment.
Restructuring involves the rearrangement of the curriculum in order to implement
desired changes.
• It may also involve the sharing of resources among a group of schools or institutions.
Strategies of Evaluation
• The strategies for implementing the curriculum must be
considered carefully for change and innovation to succeed.
• A strategy of innovation refers to the planned procedures and
techniques used in the desire for change.
• Harris et al. (1978), developed some models to explain how the
strategies work.
• The strategies include are as mentioned below.
✔ Participative Problem-Solving
✔ Planned Linkage
✔ Coercive Strategies
Planned Linkage

• The intermediate agencies, such as schools, bring together the users of the
innovation in this model.
• Hoyle (1993), linkage process is based on the link between the school and the
various specialized/ centralized agencies linkage centres may be in form of
Professional Centres, Resource Centres, ICT Centres, ect.
• These agencies are the linkage point between the national agencies of curriculum
development, change and innovating schools, to provide consultancy services
and to offer in- service training for teachers and users.
Participative
Problem-Solving
• This strategy focuses on the users, their needs and how they
satisfy these needs.
• The system identifies and diagnoses its own needs, finds its own
solution, tries out and evaluates the solution and implements the
solution if it is satisfactory.
• Here the emphasis is on local initiative.
Coercive Strategies

• These strategies work on the basis of power and coercion by those in authority,
using laws, directories, circulars and others.

• Change is accomplished through application of power with those holding greater

power enforcing compliance by those with less power.
• An already- prepared curriculum, developed by government educational
sectors such as National Curriculum Development Centre in the form of a
syllabus document, is given to teachers to implement.
• Ministries of Education generally use these strategies.
Models of Curriculum Change and Innovation

Tanner and Tanner (1980), suggest three principal models which

demonstrate how change takes place.

• The Research, Development and Diffusion Model

• Problem-Solving Model
• Social Interaction Model
1. The Research, Development and Diffusion Model

• In this model, an innovation is thought out at the head or center and

then fed into the system.
• This views the processes of change as a logical sequence of phases
in which an innovation is:
1. invented or discovered,
2. developed,
3. Diffused/produced, and
4. disseminated to the user.
[Link]-Solving Model

• Also hailed as Problem Reduction Model

• This model is built with the user of the innovation in mind.
• The user of the innovation would follow the steps below.
1. Determine the problem.
2. Search for an innovation.
3. Evaluate the trials.
4. Implement the innovation
 • Involves the transmission of knowledge by social group of school.
• In this model, change proceeds or diffuses of new ideas, practices or
products through formal or informal contacts between interacting social
groups.
[Link] • The model stresses the importance of interpersonal networks of
Interaction information, opinion, leadership and personal contact.
• The spread of new ideas or practices through contacts between and
Model among teachers within a school, among schools, between teachers and
supervisors, among all others (education bodies) –(eg:sharing of best
pratices)
3. Social Interaction
Model

This model is based on the following:

• awareness of innovation
• interest in the innovation
• trial
• adoption for permanent use.
 Planning and Implementation
• For change to be implemented in the curriculum, a process has to take place. This
process involves four major factors.
• According to Bishop (1986), these factors include:

✔ The change agent ✔ The system users

• Change agents include teachers, school heads, local • This relates to the person or group of
authorities or the Ministry of Education. The agent people at which the innovation is directed.
initiates the innovation or curriculum change in general.
✔ Time
✔ The innovation • Innovation is a social process, which takes
• This involves executing the change itself; in other place over a period of time.
words putting it into use or operation.

• These factors interact with change and are changed by each other during the process of innovation.
• The curriculum change agent is involved with the process, the planning and the strategies, and is also frequently the
user of the innovation.
 The Innovation
Process
Innovation and change generally follow several logical steps:

1. Identify a problem, dissatisfaction or need that requires attention.

2. Generate possible solutions to the identified problem or need.
3. Select a particular solution or innovation that has been identified as the most appropriate.
4. Conduct a trial.
5. Evaluate the proposed solution.
6. Review the evaluation.
7. If the innovation has solved the identified problem, implement it on a wide scale.
8. Adopt and institutionalise the innovation or search for another solution.
 Effective planning for innovation cannot take place unless the following
elements are considered in the process:
• the personnel to be employed
• the specification of the actual task
• the strategy or procedure to be used to undertake the task

Innovation • the equipment needed

• the conducive environment
Planning • the costs and time involved
• social contexts
• sequencing of activities
• rationale for undertaking the innovation
• evaluation of the consequences or effects of the innovation.
Conditions for Successful Implementation and
Innovation

Potential users of an innovation are more likely to accept it if the conditions

below are met.
• The innovation must be relevant to them.
• It must be feasible in their organizational context.
• It must be compatible with the practices, values and characteristics of their
system.
Conditions for Successful Implementation and
Innovation

• It must pose little or no threat to the user group’s identity, integrity

and territory. The innovation must be seen to be tolerable and
non-threatening.
• The innovation must yield material or non-material benefits. Gains
in social status or recognition may be some of the non-material
benefits
• It must be flexible and adaptable.
Factors Affecting Change in ELT in Malaysia

• Poor results of the national English exam.

• Malaysia might ‘lose its economic competitiveness and find it hard
to progress in the industrial and technical fields’.
• English education benefited a selected few who were referred to as
the ‘elitist class of Malayan’ and side-lined the others especially the
Malays from the rural areas.
Factors Affecting Change in ELT in Malaysia

• A major agenda on a national unity.

• Old curriculum was thought to be too subject content-biased, too
much emphasis on rote- learning, too exam oriented, and excessive
dependence on textbooks.
Factors Affecting Change in ELT in Malaysia

• Globalization-Major role in determining the educational as well as

curriculum reforms in Malaysia and other countries around the
globe.
• Revolution in information and communication technologies (ICT)
made globalization possible and knowledge became highly portable.
Factors Affecting Change in ELT in Malaysia

• The need for skills like languages, mathematical reasoning,

scientific logic and programming has emerged as the front runners
of a nation’s development and English is the language of
globalization, internet, trade and science
• Education Ministry inline with Malaysia’s aspiration to produce
knowledge workers and to compete with other developing countries.
 Change agents are individuals who can successfully
transform aspects of how organisations operate.
Teacher as
Agent of
Change In education, teachers as agent of change is important to
the successful operation of schools and self-improving
school systems.

Teachers who are actively involved in a joint

achievement of something new, may be mentioned as
'agents of change' when they accomplish a desired effect
(or change) at school.
 Use various pieces of technology by learning to be
constructivist that can incorporates technology into their
curriculum

Develop own professional learning, encompass

Teacher as strategies and interpersonal skill

Agent of
Change Update and improves the culture of the school

Becomes more collaborative, reflective, flexible, and

more responsive to the development of their own
professional learning
Discussion

Watch the following videos and discuss in relation to the role of

teacher as an agent of change;
• [Link]
• [Link]

Inspirasi Hari Guru: Pengalaman Guru Di Sekolah Henry

Gurney | MHI (17 Mei 2023)
 When curriculum innovation or change is made in the
classroom;
• It can enhance the social skills of students and focus on
unique methods for teaching historical, technological,
organizational or political lessons.
• May encourage students to use online tools, multimedia
software applications or hands-on lab experiments and
Conclusion outdoor archaeology adventures.
• Encourages educators to defy the norm and think outside
of the box to reach all types of learners with
individualized styles instead of focusing on lessons that
are effective for just a few average students in a
classroom
Tutorial Task

In groups, choose and read one of the following articles. Present a

summary of the article, identify and discuss the following;
1. What changes were made?
2. The purpose of the changes.
3. Issues/challenges faced when the changes were made and during
the implementation.
4. Relate the findings to what you have learned.
Tutorial Task

Article 1- [Link]

Article 2-
[Link]

Article 3-
[Link]

Article 4-
[Link]
[Link]

Article 5- [Link]

Article 6- [Link]