Effective Curriculum Implementation for Optimal Teaching and Learning Experience A study conducted in a private school in Dubai

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Date
2022-01
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Curriculum reforms are planned to elevate the standard of education to benefit learners and educators. However, if the innovations and changes are not comprehended and internalized correctly, they often remain merely written documents to be implemented with incomplete practices. This calls for effective strategies to mitigate the problems and enhance proficiency in education by exerting prudential solutions. For this reason, the research area of this study is one of the private schools in Dubai, facing the same issue of implementing the reformed curriculum. The study aims to identify the barriers and provide remedies for effective curriculum implementation. While exploring the concept, the researcher came across literature discussing change models and approaches that facilitate curriculum reform. And the opinions of other researchers about the role and responsibilities of different stakeholders to make the process seamless. In order to take benefit from these studies, the researcher has included an overview of their findings. In relation to the structure of the study, the identified barriers from literature are divided into three categories: students, teachers, and management. An online survey was executed with 150 teachers of the same school to gain their insight on the subject. Besides, 15 heads were interviewed to see the similarities and dissimilarities in their opinions from teachers. For this reason, the study has adopted the mixed-method framework to trace the convergence and divergence in the findings. The online survey has helped gather quantitative data, which was further analyzed by statistical methods. In addition, Qualitative data was collected through interviews, and thematic analysis was executed to interpret their responses. Finally, the join display chart format is employed to check the similarity and dissimilarity in their opinions. The findings inform that both stakeholders share the same philosophy for most of the construct except a few. It was identified that heads are giving substantial significance to the teachers' curriculum knowledge and need for professional development. Also, they want higher management to think in this line. In contrast, teachers have shown inconsistency in their responses for both constructs and highlighted the issue of workload. To this end, the study suggests higher-level management develop concrete and meaningful policies to overcome the barriers.
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Keywords
curriculum implementation, teaching and learning, United Arab Emirates (UAE), learners, educators, private schools, reformed curriculum
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