Twenty-ninth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

In Turkey, curricula are developed by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) and are aimed to be implemented for the same purposes in both public and private schools. In private schools curriculum development processes are carried out by units established under R&D or various names. These studies are conducted by curriculum developers in private schools. In addition to curriculum development studies in private schools, curriculum developers also perform different tasks such as preparing teaching-learning processes for existing educational programs, supporting measurement and evaluation studies. However, the expectations from curriculum developers in private schools differ from school to school. The aim of this study is to determine the roles of curriculum developers employed in some private schools and their opinions on their roles. The participants of this case study are 14 curriculum developers working in 10 private schools in Ankara. A semi-structured interview form consisting of 12 questions was used. The data were analyzed with the method of content analysis. It was concluded that curriculum developers generally work under school principals, mostly define themselves as teacher educators, and generally support teachers in the implementation of curricula developed by the MoNE, although most of them do not have defined tasks. In this process, curriculum developers encounter different problems in working with teachers. It is recommended that the roles and responsibilities of curriculum developers should be determined in this study. Also, ıt is underlined that professional competencies of curriculum developers should be defined and approved by the Vocational Qualificaitons Authority.