Αξιολόγηση του προγράμματος σπουδών των μαθηματικών της 6ης τάξης στην Παλαιστίνη

Abstract

Overview In the period from 1994, when the Israeli occupation handed over the administration and running of all the public education institutions to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the first priority for the Palestinian Ministry of education and Higher Education (MoEH) was to rehabilitate a system near to collapse, and the second priority was the development of the first Palestine National curriculum. The preparation for this national project started in 1995 through the establishment of the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center (PCDC) with the support of the UNESCO and the Italian government, and the field implementation of the curriculum began in the school year 2000/2001. This study After starting the implementation of the new curriculum in Palestine, the question of its quality and merit has been raised by decision makers, educators, donors, and public sectors. With the shortage of comprehensive and modern evaluation studies for this curriculum (BTC, 2004); (World Bank, 2006); (Yasin, 2006), this study –which considered to be the first of its type in Palestine- comes to evaluate the Palestinian math curriculum for 6th grade after it has been implemented for 5 years in the Palestinian schools. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to implement an evaluation model on a curriculum framework for the Palestinian Math curriculum for 6th grade; for the sake of providing qualitative and quantitative indicators about the quality of this curriculum to the educators and policy makers; that may help in future development and improvement. XII Study Methodology The study used a combination of the curriculum model of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Mullis, et al., 2005), with the Context- Input- Process- Product (CIPP) evaluation model (Stufflebeam, 2003). This combination was used to evaluate the 6th grade math curriculum in three levels: intended; which refers to the curriculum as it exists at the system level and set down in the official curriculum documents, the implemented; as it is applied in schools and classrooms, and the attained; which represents simply the results of the education thus delivered (Tornroos, 2005). For that, the hypothesises and questions of the study were set to test the extent of the gaps between the three curriculum levels, and to provide indicators about the variables that cause and explain these gapes. Study procedures and instruments The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect the related data, and to conduct the data processing and analysis. The data was collected in the scholastic year 2004/2005. A stratified random sample was selected to collect the quantitative data, while random and purposeful samples were selected from the stratified one to collect the qualitative data. Different methods for collecting the data were used depending on the curriculum level (type): • Content analysis of math curriculum documents; to evaluate intended curriculum, where set of national and international norms was used to evaluate the written documents for math curriculum (curriculum plan, math curriculum, and student textbook). • Interviews with curriculum administrators; to provide data related to context and input variables, where un-structured interview form was used for this purpose. XIII • Class observation; to evaluate the implemented curriculum, where semistructured observation form was used on 22 math lessons. • Achievement test; to evaluate the attained curriculum, where 640 students of 21 schools in Best Bank were tested. • Questionnaires for authors, teachers, students, and parents to evaluate the implemented and the attained curriculum, where 11 authors, 42 teachers, 640 students of 21schools, and 305 parents were asked to respond to these questionnaires. These different methods for collecting the data were used as means of triangulation of measurement and data resources. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were used in analysing the data to obtain the results, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Study results The results of the study were presented based on the curriculum type (intended, implemented, and attained) that hade been evaluated, and the corresponding evaluation level (context, input, process and product). The main results related to the intended math curriculum were: • Math goals and objectives were stated similar to regional and international math standards. • The curriculum elements (math specific objectives, math content, math activities, and assessment and evaluation exercises) didn't meet all norms and standards for developing curriculum elements. • PCDC administrators reported that producing new national curriculum in such up-normal conditions considered to be one of the remarkable achievement in the political and educational sectors in Palestine, but this experience needs more improvement based on the lesson learned. • The author teams of math curriculum and math textbooks were highly satisfied with their products, although some of them reported that math curriculum needs comprehensive and intensive revision and evaluation XIV • Big gaps were found between the formal curriculum goals and objectives and the actual math content in the textbook; in terms of meeting the individual differences and developing critical thinking and problem solving skills. • Comparing the Palestinian intended math curriculum with the new Greek Cross-Thematic Curriculum for compulsory educations shows that the Palestinian one needs more additions and development in terms of introducing new methods of teaching, new evaluation strategies, and educational activities to meet the education for all standards. The main results related to the implemented math curriculum were: • Teaching and learning processes in math lessons are not supporting the verification of math goals and objectives for comprehensive development of the learner; with teacher-cantered teaching style and no concentration on active and cooperative approaches of teaching. • Student textbook was the central material used by math teachers and students, with insufficient use of time on task and homework assignments. • School facilities in terms of number of students per class, availability of educational materials affecting badly the scope of math lesson, and minimize the possibility of using the new teaching-learning strategies. The main results related to the attained math curriculum were: • Learning outcomes seems to be good and positive in terms of teachers' and students' attitudes toward the new math curriculum, with no such positive attitudes in parents' side. • In terms of students' achievement, slightly declining in these results were observed comparing with the national results from the study of the Assessment and Evaluation Center (AEC) in 1998 before the use of the new math curriculum. • The factors that hade positive effect -with significant difference- on the achievement level were: teachers’ scientific and educational qualification, teachers’ years of experience in teaching, teachers’ XV attitudes toward math teaching and math curriculum, students’ attitudes toward teaching activities in math lesson, and fathers’ level of education. • UNRWA schools and female schools have the highest achievement with significance differences. • The factors that have negative effect -with significance differences- on students’ achievement were: number of home work assignments, type of teachers’ in-service training. • The factors that have no effect (no significance differences) on students’ achievement were: teacher gender, teachers’ use of educational aids, teacher interaction with his colleagues, evaluation strategies used in math lesson, students’ attitudes toward math, the person(s) who follow the students learning at home, and the fathers’ attitudes toward the new math curriculum. Study recommendations The main recommendation of the study was that math curriculum needs urgent revision in terms of its content, math activities and the assessment and evaluation part; to cope with the individual differences and critical thinking skills. Other general recommendations are listed below: • More focus on teaching and learning strategies must be included in the curriculum documents to meet the international standards. • While revising and developing the national math curriculum, international experiences must be utilized in this process, like the experience of the Realistic Mathematics from Netherlands, the Numeracy Standards from England, and the experience of Math for Life and Nature from Greece; for the sake of improvement and quality. • In-service teacher training programs for math teachers must focus on new theories of teaching mathematics and class management. • Further studies with large coverage in term of sample are recommended to evaluate math curricula for other grades, especially classroom observation studies, at the same time, regression studies are XVI recommended for the sake of exploring the factors that explaining the variance in students’ achievement.