ABSTRACT

The Korean Ministry of Education intends to guarantee students’ right to learn by introducing the 2015 National Curriculum, process-centered evaluation, greater school autonomy, and simplified curriculum and ultimately to strengthen accountability in public education. Teachers need to equipped with curriculum literacy, the skill to understand, restructure, and implement curriculum according to the characteristics and levels of students.
Curriculum literacy is essential for teachers to ensure students’ right to learn by providing student-centered education. It is particularly important for technology teachers to be equipped with curriculum literacy because the subject is practical in nature. That is, students can learn better when classroom activities and assignments are integrated with real-life matters. In addition, it is crucial for technology teachers to motivate students at the initial stage of learning since the subject is perceived as a relatively difficult one by students.
Given the importance of curriculum restructuring in the subject of technology, this study intends to restructure and implement a technology curriculum unit and compare the learning outcomes with that of the original curriculum, especially in terms of students’ holistic learning. Theoretically, this study adopts the understanding by design model (“backward design model”) of Wiggins and McTighe(2005). The curriculum unit has been developed according to the achievement criteria on new and renewable energy in the subject of technology and home economics included in the 2015 National Curriculum and implemented in five third grade middle school technology classes in 2016. The curriculum unit including curriculum materials for teachers and students such as lesson plans and worksheets have been revised according to the reviews and comments of content experts. In addition, data have been collected from students survey and students’ reflection papers with 146 students. Interviews with students have been also conducted and comments from teachers have been collected through classroom observations and the following teachers’ meetings.
The result of this study is as following. First, the analysis of the data suggests that the curriculum unit developed adopting the backward design model provides quality learning experiences for students balancing knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Compared to the original curriculum, which is knowledge-oriented and focused on facts or concepts, the curriculum unit adopting backward design model consists of contents that enable students to utilize the knowledge in real world situations. Moreover, the newly developed curriculum unit suggests learning goals and contents in line with evaluation plans. By doing so, it enables process-centered evaluation through which students’ holistic learning can be achieved, whereas the original curriculum suggests learning goals, contents, and evaluation plans, which are improperly corresponding. Second, a curriculum unit adopting backward design model enables students to better acquire transferable knowledge and skills. The analysis of students survey shows positive results from 16 out of 20 questions. Students’ reflection papers, interviews with students, and teachers’ comments and feedback from classroom observations also suggests the newly developed curriculum unit has positive effect on students’ holistic understanding. However, the effect of the implementation of the newly developed curriculum need to be verified by more teachers with various backgrounds and competencies for scaling up the practice.
The findings of this study suggest a few policy implications. First, additional studies and implementations of curriculum development model are needed in technology education given the characteristics of the subject that comprises knowledge as well as practice. Second, the textbook of the subject of technology needs to provide guidance for students’ learning activities instead of simple facts and knowledge. Third, the contents and structure of the subject of technology in the 2015 National Curriculum needs to be improved centered around transferable knowledge. In addition, curriculum needs to include detailed and concrete guidance for teachers so that they can better assist students to draw core concepts from the interdisciplinary perspectives and to reach holistic understanding instead of juxtaposing knowledge.