The purpose of this research is to examine the status and effect of uniquely designed curriculum and the difficulties in operating it in middle schools designated as future innovation school by Incheon-si, and to propose the direction of development r...
The purpose of this research is to examine the status and effect of uniquely designed curriculum and the difficulties in operating it in middle schools designated as future innovation school by Incheon-si, and to propose the direction of development regarding the curriculum operation of future innovation schools. The inquiries for examination include: (1) how the unique curriculum of future innovation schools is operated, (2) what impact the unique curriculum of future innovation schools has on students, and (3) what the issues and improvement measures are for the unique curriculum operation of future innovation schools. In order to achieve the research purpose, a case study was conducted in 4 future innovation middle schools from July to September 2022 by interviewing 7 teachers who are highly experienced with innovation school systems.
The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First of all, future innovation schools were reducing subject groups by taking the situation of the school in into consideration. Here, new subjects were established through the necessity of reduced subjects, or a unique curriculum was being operated by utilizing classes of self-creative experience activity, community service activity, and club activity and each school was making effort to provide a curriculum that was optimized and customized for students. Second, the motivation for learning was enhanced through operating a curriculum that was tailored to the characteristics of students. Particularly, active class participation through a unique curriculum enabled students to grow by independently leading their lives and develop various capabilities. Third, instructors in charge of innovation tasks were aware the need for a democratic culture to be established within the school, tasks to be pruned, support for more human resources and budget from the Office of Education, and autonomy in actual curriculum operation. Also, they considered that in order to operate a unique curriculum that utilizes the autonomy of the curriculum in the unit school, the characteristics of the school must be identified, the philosophy of the school must be established, and even a small sense of accomplishment has to be experienced in order for expansion and development.
Based on such study results, suggestions to support the unique curriculum operation that utilizes the autonomy of curriculum at unit schools were presented. First of all, in order for members of future innovation schools to realize the philosophy and value of schools, the instructors’ analysis of learners and analysis of conditions are necessary. Second, in order to actualize an “education in which the power of student life is developed,” ultimately, the instructors’ well-prepared classes are crucial, and for this, the operation time for a specialized learning community for class research and sharing student information needs to be secured. Third, in order for the future innovation schools to appropriately utilize the autonomy of curriculum operation, the unit schools need to grant more autonomy to the actual curriculum operation.