Curriculum reform in Czech upper-secondary comprehensive Schools: Research findings and recommendations

Curriculum Reform in Upper-Secondary ComprehensiveSchools: Research Findings and RecommendationsAbstract: The paper presents the main research findings and recommendations concerningthe implementation of curricular reform in upper-secondary comprehensiveschools. The authors analyse ten problem areas of curricular reform, as they werecaptured in the Kvalitní kola research project. (1) There is no (shared) understandingof the key ideas and concepts of the reform; (2) Discussing the reform: participants andtheir non-voices; (3) The problem of language, of ’understanding’; (4) Doubts aboutwhat is being reformed; (5) When what-is-being-implemented has been implemented:the problem of coordination; (6) Conditions of implementation; (7) Ambiguous acceptationof the reform on the part of teachers; (8) Two-level curriculum: state-leveland school-level curriculum as the key elements of the reform; (9) Teachers makinga curriculum: doubts and hesitation; (10) Realising curriculum: formalism or a routeto the new culture of teaching and learning. Towards the end of the paper, the authorssummarise recommendations for the participants on different levels of the reform. Theyalso suggest an outlook for future research in this area.