The context of a curriculum innovation

Abstract

This paper is focused on an evaluation of the context of an implementation of the Smart School Curriculum. It was aimed at defining the conditions of the environment of the school in which the curriculum took place; the preparedness of the teachers, the participants, and the parents involved; as well as the problems and the needs of the school. Two questionnaires were used to collect data from the teachers and students. The data was analysed using Quest (Adams & Khoo,1996). The magnitude of effects (Carver; 1993; Cohen, 1988) was used to explore some of the results of Quest analyses. Data was also collected from interviews with the principal and selected teachers. Content analysis was used in analysing the qualitative data. The study found that with low familiarity of the curriculum documents, the teachers understood the first, second, and fourth objectives of the curriculum; and perceived that these three objectives were relevant to the needs of the school. It was also noted that the students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) had a more positive view of the potentials of the school in achieving the curriculum objectives whereas less ICT-competent students had a higher perception of the ability of the school in achieving the objectives. To a small extent, the parents supported the curriculum implementation. The needs of the school before the curriculum implementation were the quality and quantity of hardware and software that was provided as well as human resources.