10-01-2011
09-07-2013
Curricular contextualisation is progressively becoming a central theme in debates on teaching and learning. Seen as a way of bringing teaching and learning processes closer to the concrete reality of students, it is a necessary condition when approaching content and organising classroom activities. By helping students to relate educational tasks to their everyday knowledge and experiences, contextualising the curriculum facilitates the interconnection between theory and practice and allows students to give meaning and usefulness to what they learn at school. Contextualising the curriculum is therefore an endeavor aimed at producing a curriculum that is meaningful to students, identified with what James Beane (1997) calls a coherent curriculum. Hence the topicality and relevance of both the subject under analysis and the research project we intend to carry out, whose central object is to study the ways in which school subjects have contextualised their knowledge, particularly their core knowledge, without which they lose their identity, and the ways/reasons how/why they have done so. On the other hand, since curricular contextualisation is the result of a continuum of decisions taken in different contexts and by different actors throughout the curriculum development process, a study of this kind is relevant both because of the recognition of this issue in terms of improving the quality of the education system and because of the contributions it can make to schools and the community. This relevance is evident when we adopt an idea of teaching and learning that emphasises the construction of knowledge by the players involved. It also requires permanent reflection on the curricular practices that underpin it and enables the data collected to be used to support political decision-making. This is why this project is considered to be an opportunity in Portugal, given that the formal curriculum has evolved from a conception that was very much focused on scientific truth and/or universal values (of which the various disciplines were the repository), to new conceptions that converge with the idea of providing meaningful learning for students and the production of their personal and social identities. Analysing the broader theoretical framework that has already been developed at national and international level will underpin the theoretical discussion that forms the basis of the research project we intend to carry out. In this context, the central object of the study, which serves as a reference for the research design, compels us to opt for quantitative and qualitative methodologies, materialised in a mixed model of data collection and analysis. An important dimension of the research lies in case studies in various schools, designed to collect data on a number of specific subjects - Portuguese, Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Natural Sciences/Biology and History. However, the centrality of the study lies, on a broader level, in an analysis of assessment instruments produced by teachers of those subjects, and of the wording of the national exams for those subjects, as well as the respective results obtained by the students. Although case studies, by providing focused perspectives on more concrete realities, are not susceptible to generalisation, this allows for complementary readings and cross-referencing with quantitatively collected data. What's more, case studies make it possible to illustrate local curricular practices that an analysis centred on results alone would not reveal. In summary, the project aims to contribute, on the one hand, to clarifying the place occupied by curricular contextualisation in reference policies and, on the other, to understanding the ways in which these policies are interpreted and materialised in curricular practices. Underlying this intention is the applicability of the project, which we believe could have an effect on policy-making, particularly teacher training and the configuration of new guidelines and assessment processes.
CAFTe – Curriculum, Assessment, Training and Technologies in Education
FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Contextualização do saber
Cultura escolar
Desenvolvimento curricular
Resultados escolares
CIIE / Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto -FPCEUP
Universidade de Aveiro
Universidade de Lisboa
Universidade do Minho