the factors needed to form a scientifically appropriate and successful curriculum for a collaborated project between Topscore Educational Consultancy Company and Doan Thi Diem Primary School

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Research Background There is no doubt in considering education as an essential part of our life One believes that educating and being educated is not only a great source to equip oneself with sufficient knowledge and skills, but also a necessary tool to thrive on later in life However, for the past few decades, we no longer just encounter with the question of whether a child is deprived of education or not We are confronting with how to best improve our existing educational system Lately, a good deal of attention has been paid to how to evaluate existing and upcoming curriculum and educational projects so that they could benefit students decently As a result, a number of theories in the domain of education and teaching have become increasingly refined to evaluate and assess a curriculum is beneficial for students or should it be modified and improved Curriculum, as being defined in Oxford Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2006), is first and foremost the courses that are taught by a school, college, et cetera In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process The term frequently alludes particularly to an arranged grouping of guidelines, or to a perspective of the understudy's experiences in accordance with the educator's or schools instructional objectives Curriculum may fuse the arranged association of students with instructional substance, materials, assets, and courses of action for assessing the accomplishment of instructive objectives Additionally, curriculum split into several categories, such as the implicit and explicit, as well as the official curriculum and extra-curricular activities There have been several notable works by Western educators and researchers in this particular field of education since 1940s and each one of them provide different outlook on how to conduct the best curriculum for primary pupil students Interestingly, mentioning evaluation and assessment, it is immediate to draw a connection to managing and controlling, which is an important part of management knowledge and practices Managerial evaluation theories have proved to serve the utmost course- how to best utilize existing resources to bring out the most effective and efficient results An issue emerging among the educators and managers is that whether one should enable school systems to examine and critique their curriculum development procedures with managerial tools Those in charge for curriculum planning surely need help to employ a good enough process for establishing goals and determining the appropriateness for their particular situation they are facing with, to apply managerial philosophies in creating what is best for their students, in other words, their clients Among the tremendous variety of existing managerial theories in controlling and evaluating for projects, one could easily note that Logical Framework Approach (developed by U.S Agency for International Development, 1969), which is a management tool commonly used for designing, monitoring, and evaluating development projects, has gained popularity in both private business sector as well as educational institutes The Logical Framework Approach continues to gain adherents, though it is a management tool invented more than 40 years ago This thesis reports the findings of a thorough study to establish the factors needed to form a scientifically appropriate and successful curriculum for a collaborated project between Topscore Educational Consultancy Company and Doan Thi Diem Primary School Subsequently, these factors are in hope to be applied in other educational institutions and establishments in Hanoi and in Vietnam Emphasis is placed on the establishment of an evaluation system created by the combination of existing educational and managerial tools, as well as the requirements of sufficient quality control during the development process In that sense, central to the research study is exploration of the sharing role and responsibility of participating members and experts, which take up a crucially important part in this educational and training project So often that the educational management, or management in general, has been brought down to too simple factors such as lack of funding to facilitate activities, however, it is not the case being examined in this research It is observable that the central factor in the failed progress of State-own or semi Stateown projects lies in the lack of dedicated research and cooperation among participating members In Vietnam, funding has never been enough due to continuous demands from education reformation and to the fact that Vietnam still stands in the rank of low-income countries Despite that, one can notice the role of good management here, that being said, management refers to maximize or proper utilization and make best use of limited and a scarce resource In that sense, good research and cooperation among membership that enables the working consistently and discretely towards the betterment of curriculum plays a great role in the success of the project To assist in the possible improvement of this project, it is required the understanding of the essence of the work, including responsibility, staffing, collection, policies and procedures, funding and structure of academic curriculum My research, therefore, has incorporated interviews with Cambridge International Education program staff and a questionnaire survey to all the participating students and their parents Research Question Great interest has been shown in the past decade in the curriculum field Most of the emphasis has appeared to centre around multi-ethnic approaches, new academic programs, building autonomy, new school organizational patterns, and media technology rather than around curriculum development procedures itself Consequently, school systems have found ample help in determining which new programs to adopt, often these programs have been package proposals complete from goals to evaluation New patterns of school organization also have been recommended, beginning with such changes as adding classes for prekindergarten on through un-grading the elementary and secondary schools and the making of suggestions for a middle school which would change the more traditional junior high structure By the same token, nowadays, Vietnam’s society has shown its great concern of educational system and curriculum reformation It is observable that the number of international programs conducted in metropolitan cities such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City has been increasing relentlessly The involvement of English-taught programs demonstrates a great deal of parents’ concern for advanced educational path for their children, especially in order to aid them in the context of globalization Among the leading schools for primary education, Doan Thi Diem primary school stands as a prestigious education establishment The school integrates several international programs with A from England, B from USA and C from Singapore, with hope to provide students with a wide range of choices that matches their parent’s satisfaction and requirements The international program in collaboration with Top Score Vietnam, an educational consultancy company, using curriculum adoption and teaching materials from Cambridge University and its teaching consultancy department, is called Cambridge International Education program (hereby is abbreviated as CIE at times) During the last few years, the CIE program is incorporated into some selective schools in Hanoi, including primary schools Doan Thi Diem By 2010, the program was put into some schools in the city on the basis of voluntary registration of parents and students To meet the high quality of training, CIE program focused on recruiting teachers, in which the criteria of expertise and teaching experience are highly competitive Initially, the program used to be a collaborative project between Doan Thi Diem Primary School and EMG educational consultancy company However, due to the lack of due responsibilities provided from EMG, the company itself has been excluded from the program and then the control was taken over by Top Score educational consultancy The CIE program, hence, is now expected to learn from the experienced of the past failing incidence and hopes to advance the program’s quality to the next level, especially in terms of curriculum After two weeks of adapting and observing, it occurred to me that most of the problems this program has faced with lies in its internal process of assessing and controlling the quality of its curriculum development progress Curriculum, as being understood in this research, is an organizational pattern for structuring leaning, which is the pre-planned dimension of the instructional program The purposes of the study reported here, therefore, are to identify criteria for curriculum development that are crucial, functional and observable so that it could align with the educational goals of the school itself as well as the individual goals of each students; and to test these criteria in existing school system Through initial analysis, it is uncovered that there are three basic problems that were seriously hindering not only meaningful evaluation of this project, but also their implementation Firstly, the planning was too vague where the objectives were multiple and not clearly related to project activities There has not existed yet the clear picture of what the project would look like if it were successful Thus, evaluators could not compare – in an objective manner – what was planned with what actually happened Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the evaluation was an adversary process: with the absence of clear targets and frequent disagreements (even among project team members) as to just what the project was about, evaluators ended up using their own judgment as to what they thought were “good things” and “bad things” The subsequent evaluation results would then frequently become a basis for further argument about what was good or bad, rather than resulting in constructive actions for project improvement Educational curriculum, on the other hand, requires a group of experts to examine scientifically and thoroughly its quality The CIE program needs a council of experienced educational experts that could help it to toss light on two questions: one, planned courses, programs, activities, and learning opportunities as developed and organized actually produce desired results; and two, how can the curriculum offerings best be improved Through that understanding and observation being made at CIE project, this research hopes to provide a tool for curriculum evaluation by examining and testing a combined tool between education and contemporary management Research Objectives Having a keen interest in education as a tool for sustainable development, the researcher has come to realize having an academic background of economics and management as well as a concern in primary education itself is not a conflict On the other hand, this crossing gives interesting perspectives and outlooks on problem identification and problem solving The two main objectives of this thesis is firstly, to identify existing problems related to CIE Program at Doan Thi Diem Primary School- a program to integrate international standard curriculum developed by Cambridge University into Vietnamese educational system Secondly, through the examination of these problems and pitfalls, the researcher hopes to give out solutions to two issues: to what extent the current developed curriculum has fulfilled the educational goals of Doan Thi Diem Primary School; and the initiatives to improve the current quality of curriculum using neat tools from managerial science, with help of a comprehensive evaluation system In the context of constantly changing competition, even an educational institution now must strive to find out its prevailing points to satisfying its customers, while staying true to the nature and significant of true and righteous education In that sense, this report is as well hoped to contribute as an insightful paperwork to this important project of Doan Thi Diem Primary School The research’s mere ambition is not to provide a thorough inspection of all aspects covered by these abovementioned theories; but to put some more perspectives into the case of this CIE Program with hope to enhance its operational activities Even though the time of researching at Doan Thi Diem Primary School was tentatively short and future research is indeed needed to consult the program in much greater details, this research is still expected to stand as a suggestion from the view of a business student to the program to perform in its most effective and successful way Research Process To fulfil the research objectives, the following session dwells on the background that forms the academic side of this report There are two schools of theories, namely Curriculum Development tools and Logical Framework as a management tool that are explained and described in an adequate brief After examining these theories, the author spends the rest and major magnitude of this report to analyse the situation and context of CIE Project in accordance with the preceding theories The analysis is solely established in the basis of the internship I have conducted at Doan Thi Diem Primary School from December 2014 to April 2015 At the end of the report, solutions and suggestions were generated in the form of a comprehensive evaluation system There stood three major steps in this research, including identifying problems (determining research questions), interviewing and questioning (determining research objectives and research process) and giving out solutions (determining research conclusion) Throughout these three major steps, a host of surveys, questionnaires and interviews would take place with the participation of all different stakeholders of Cambridge International Educational program, which shall be listed in the next session of this report The inquiry documents and the overall process aimed to be short and concise in order to gain the information needed without having to overanalyse pages of data, which could help to prevent an extended period of time Figure 1.1: Research process at Cambridge International Education program Interview and give Identify problems questionnaires to other Give solutions stakeholders • • Quick survey sent to teachers • • Interview School Board Members and Project managers to identify Examine the received results Project's objectives • Establish an evaluation system combining stakeholders' opinions • Give out some initatives to obtain Interview parents and students to identify their expectations and levels of satisfaction Source: author All of the inquiries shall be found fully in the Appendix section best results CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 History and Evolution of Curriculum Development for Primary Level Curriculum assessment in general has a long history As Guba and Lincoln (1981) pointed out, a Chinese head in 2200 B.C obliged that his open authorities exhibit their capability in formal competency tests In the United States, the sympathy toward assessing schools can be followed at any rate as far back as the proposals of the Committee of Ten, which toward the end of the nineteenth century set maybe the first illustration of "evaluative gauges" for a country's auxiliary schools (United States’ National Education Association, 1969) As of late, then again, the enthusiasm for educational module assessment specifically has appeared to increment especially Society's emphasis on instructive responsibility, the specialists' requests for instructive change, and the instructor's attendant requirement for confirmation of results have all added to the current enthusiasm for speculations and systems for educational module assessment Unfortunately, much of this interest seems to have resulted in an ill- conceived obsession with test results and test results only Therefore, a more extensive viewpoint and more expanded methodologies appear essential Initially, primary school was synonymous with essential instruction, taking youngsters from kindergarten through evaluation As the populace developed and got to be progressively urban and rural rather than country, the one-room school building offered path to the multi-room school building, which got to be various schools The change of rudimentary training is clear With a consistent, unfaltering climb in differing qualities in a huge number of nationwide grade schools, the instructive methodology of educators must adjust While school understudies of the twenty first century took the fundamental classes in primary school (Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Math, and so on.), numerous schools today are changing their curricula and joining classes, for example, Mandarin Chinese training Despite the fact that the ordinary instructive classes are still by and by, an alternate method is being met by directors and 10 One important feature of Cambridge International Education program that has been mentioned previously in this research is that, there is a suggested curriculum framework for standardized subjects such as mathematics and science, which provides a pretty clear teaching structure Along with that suggested curriculum framework, many schools use the integrated assessments to monitor learners’ progress However, there is no Cambridge Checkpoint for English as a second language Schools teaching the Cambridge Secondary English as a Second Language curriculum, must autonomously create their own curriculum The importance of a good evaluation system for these curriculum development processes therefore, once again is stressed (in the interview with Ms Nguyen Ha My, project manager in charge of English curriculum development) As can be seen from the above presented evaluation system, the tangible objective of English teaching in the Cambridge International Education program is to assure that students when graduating from the program, shall achieve the level of English as A2, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (abbreviated hereby as CEFR) CEFR is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasingly, in other countries (for example, Colombia, the Philippines and Vietnam) The level A2 according to CEFR system, is specifically understood as the crossing level between the beginning and elementary phrases, when students can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment); can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters and can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need It is easily discerned that this is not an easy task to fulfil, especially when there are multiples obstacles in teaching and managing the project of English alone In one of the interviews conducted by the researcher, Ms Nguyen Ha My, project manager of English teaching at CIE program, informed some of the most striking disadvantages in several aspects, with regard that they could significantly affect the establishment process of an evaluation system Firstly, the facilitations of Doan Thi Diem Primary school is not good enough to execute fully the potentials and ideas of Cambridge International Education program, in accordance with the international standards The classrooms are basic, relatively small and seriously lack of sufficient educational equipment Subsequently, the technologies which are attached with the book have not been generated up to their potentials Also, there is a serious deficiency in the amount of time spent for trainings specialists and teachers of the program, which leads to the fact that some of the instructors fail to perform the advanced technologies and techniques that the curriculum requires Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the quantity of students are too big According to Diane Schanzenbach (2014), an international standardized number of students in a class should limit within 12- 16 students However, at Doan Thi Diem Primary School’s CIE program, this number goes up to 20-26 students per class This not only hardens the job of teachers in delivering lessons and organizing the class, but also deprives children with due care from their teacher Moreover, the arrangement of time for students to participate in CIE program is not properly done by the school board members of Doan Thi Diem Primary School, when there is too little time in total spent to follow the curriculum In standardized curriculum framework, to acquire the expected final result (the level A2 of CEFR in English and primary level in Math and Science), the authors confirmed there should be at least 10 hours per week spent in each grade However, in CIE program at Doan Thi Diem Primary School, the number stands at hours per week only This places a huge directly pressure on project managers as well as teachers Therefore, the curriculum must be readjusted according to current situation of the CIE program executed at Doan Thi Diem Primary School, as well as translated according to Vietnamese context This problem alone brings out a host of difficulties in developing the curriculum, yet even makes the process of evaluating those curriculum harder As mentioned in the previous sections, still there is no evaluation system established for the CIE Program at Doan Thi Diem Primary School to assess whether those adjustments are rightful or not As for the parents of these 235 students participating the program, having to pay more than 500 000 VND per month for tuition fee, which is double than the other programs in Doan Thi Diem Primary School, they have also placed great pressure onto the need of having a good educational curriculum Yet again, most of Vietnamese parents are, firstly, valuing different merits than Cambridge International Education program offers For example, for the subject English, 87% of the parents consider grammar, vocabulary in this program as “too easy”; while the program focuses more on communicative skills (speaking and listening) and problem solving skills (working in projects) All of these existing drawbacks shall be integrated into suggested evaluation system presented in the next section 4.1.2 The second-level evaluation system After carefully examining current situation at Cambridge International Education program along with existing problems, the researcher believes that another tool for curriculum assessment could be of help along with the above-stated evaluation system based on Logical Framework Approach Therefore, a detailed curriculum assessment model (Appendix C, p.15) has been designed, as modified and combined several valuable data from previous studies, as well as learned from past successful theories and models around the world, which hopes to serve as a sophisticated yet simple to use tool at Cambridge International Education program There are main categories (marked as section A, B, C etc.) The first one of them is related to overall assessment of the program, the next three of sections are concerned with three subjects individually and last but not least, the researcher integrated leadership quality, facilitation quality and teacher quality as well, since these indicators are extremely important that contribute to the success of an educational program Feedback givers are asked two types and levels of responses: Yes/No and To what extent, and the crossed-out sections are not to be filled If their answer is No, they are not obliged to answer the column of “To what extent” As for the comment section, assessors are required to give their opinions on the related matters, with as many details as possible This section helps program evaluators to better sum up different insights on the program execution at the end of the assessment period Also, program evaluators could easily keep track of the change in opinion of one individual involving in the program, which makes the progress visible and could be easily measured One should note that in order to fully take advantage of the assessment model, the assessors must answer each question with (1) high accuracy and (2) much detail To be specific, high accuracy means an honest answer that capturing the real situation of the indicators mentioned while much detail asks assessors to not just answer in general, but to specify their opinions, especially in the comment’s section, with due responsibility Although there always exist the risks that those criteria are absent, the project managers should use their leadership to reduce this risk as low as possible 4.2 Challenges to program evaluation at Cambridge International Education program The single largest barrier to effective curriculum implementation continues to be basic awareness of the measurable benefits Unprecedented assessment of public schools is spurring an investment of billions of Vietnam dong, but the lack of research and quality measurement has led to unclear results The key issues are the establishment of more effective and accurate ways with which we can measure the real benefits of education and measure the true associated costs in money and time spent learning about curriculum and instruction Sociological acceptance and adoption of new communications technologies continue to represent a challenge as well Another concern is the lack of leadership in establishing strong evaluation and assessment agendas and programs In that sense, the criteria for a good curriculum evaluation model should also be cared for An effective curriculum evaluation model must fulfill a host of checkpoints, as it can be implemented without making inordinate demands upon district resources and be applied to all levels of curriculum—programs of study, fields of study, courses of study More importantly, it must make provisions for assessing all significant aspects of curriculum—the written, the taught, the supported, the tested, and the learned curricula and make useful distinctions between merit (intrinsic value) and worth (value for a given context) Some other criteria should also be noted explicitly, whether the evaluation model is responsive to the special concerns of district stakeholders and is able to provide them with the data they need for decision making; is goal oriented, emphasizing objectives and outcomes and is sensitive to and makes appropriate provisions for assessing unintended effects Last but not least, it should also pay due attention to and makes provisions for assessing formative aspects of evaluation as well as be sensitive to and makes provisions for assessing the special context for the curriculum and be sensitive to and makes provisions for assessing the aesthetic or qualitative aspects of the curriculum Whether the curriculum evaluation model could make provisions for assessing opportunity cost—the opportunities lost by those studying this curriculum and use both quantitative and qualitative methods for gathering and analyzing data is also a must check issue when presenting findings in reports responsive to the special needs of several audiences As for other factors affecting the process of evaluation system establishment, during the process of researching, it occurred to the researcher that quality leadership is a key component in the success of this evaluation process while at first this issue appeared as not as significant as other checkpoints It is true that one of the most important aspects of that leadership role is for educational planners to understand the process of evaluation and how it should be administered (Glatter R, 2003) Understanding the evaluation process means leaders will have to convey knowledge of curriculum as well as instructional strategies They will also have to convey their expectations of how teaching and learning can be enhanced via the curriculum There is a special need for leadership and more understanding as to the process of evaluation and how it relates to the development of effective curriculum Moreover, one should not neglect the importance of technology in evaluation, as its rapid changes occurring also pose a challenge to establishing effective evaluation programs Technology capabilities have continued to change faster than educational researchers can sustain For example, initial evidence on the use of computers in the classroom showed that “drill and practice” activities were successful in reinforcing skills Now, with continued advances in software and technology, teachers are using computers in classrooms in entirely different ways It therefore has been difficult for researchers to complete large-scale, controlled studies that lead to solid conclusions because by the time their research is published, new technologies are providing new opportunities for teachers and students As the demand for technology in the classroom increases, the need for evaluation also increases Administrators, teachers, and parents want to know and understand the impact that technology has made on district goals relating to student learning, staff development, and program content However, currently, Vietnam has not established any formal guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of technology in schools and how it could affect overall performance of students Therefore, this specific aspect of curriculum development must be overlooked on purpose and left for further research 4.3 Recommendations As a student majoring in Business Administration, the researcher hopes to bring a managerial perspective into the daily activity at Cambridge International Education program, especially the curriculum development process The following suggestions are aimed at different stakeholders of Cambridge International Education program, and therefore, shall be implemented homogenously to create a considerable impact First and foremost, an assessment juror is encouraged to be established The member of the juror must be from the third party other than Topscore Educational Consultancy to secure the objectivity of the assessment process This juror could be assembled and work during the assessment period only, which is mostly at the end of the school year, or at the end of a quarter However, the matter of rising expense should be taken into consideration At the moment, the cost for research and development, as well as assessment at Cambridge International Education program is very low The hire of an expert juror from the third party can lead to an occurrence of considerably great cost for the tight budget That being said, in the very long term, to secure the quality and a sustainable development, it is imperative that the project hires a group of experts to periodically evaluate the efficiency and success of the program, with standardized process and methodology as this investment shall pay off very soon Secondly, administrator leadership should encourage individualism on both a building basis and in the classroom A “grass roots” approach is recommended where teachers, teaching assistants and their opinions must be valued the most However, this leads back to the recruitment process, where the quality of this teaching staff must be qualified since the beginning A qualified teacher who meets international requirements of Cambridge International Education program shall have better skills and even knowledge to assess what is happening in class, to better assist students with their studies Last but not least, regarding the long-range planning, Cambridge International Education program expects to be expand its numbers of students in the next five years That means the facilities provided by Doan Thi Diem Primary School must be added tremendously, especially with the technologies embed during the teaching time Also, the number of teachers and teaching assistants would be added to, and along with that stands the concern of standardized recruitment process, as well as the pressure of due training program in the upcoming years Cambridge International Education program will eventually expand its scale, both qualitatively and quantitatively in future Being an educational project, however, the program must first and foremost emphasizes the importance of quality control and quality evaluation, not only in terms of the curriculum itself, but in the development, refinement and assessment as well With the suggestions presented above, the researcher hopes to contribute some initiatives and practice to ensure that success in a sustainable way CONCLUSION Limitations of the research Despite the researcher’s attempts in justifying the methodology of the study as well as collecting and analyzing the data with careful consideration, still this study is subject to at least two limitations First, the time available to investigate the research problem is constrained within several months It prevents the researcher to dig deeper into the topic Secondly, all of the theories, tools and suggestions in this research are used from Western points of view, whose origins are from notable work of American, British or Australian educators, educational experts and researchers Well-refined as they are, there is a significant risk of not applicable for Vietnamese educational system, especially when the Cambridge International Education program is integrated as only half of the official curriculum of students (only taught in the afternoon) Conclusion Further research should be conducted in order to reduce the risk of aforementioned limitations, as well as the drawbacks of in the actual implementation Future researchers could dwell on the balance between the enhancement of a better evaluation system and its cost Moreover, the recruitment as well as training process at Cambridge International Education program might be studied, because of its tremendous significance in the curriculum execution That being said, the very first step must be done is to assure that Cambridge International Education program has a proper evaluation system To make that happen, this study has drawn an evaluation model and examines the impact of this model in curriculum development process of Cambridge International Education program at Doan Thi Diem Primary School From the outcome of this investigation, it is possible to conclude that the objectivity in assessing the quality of the curriculum in particular, and the program in general shall be enhanced In Vietnamese educational context, where there is only a few schools and educational constitution that have established good assessment procedures, this research hopes to stand as a suggestion to better equip schools with its daily activities – teaching and assessing From the perspective of a manager, the researcher believes that the application of management into education shall help schools to better use their limited resources to achieve the greatest outcome possible And the greatest outcome possible for an educational institution is ultimately the growth of its students, both academically and humanly ... of a thorough study to establish the factors needed to form a scientifically appropriate and successful curriculum for a collaborated project between Topscore Educational Consultancy Company and. .. deviations from announced intents (4) The evaluator discovers the stated and real purposes of the project and the concerns that various audiences have about it and the evaluation (5) The evaluator... organizes the information into themes and prepares “portrayals” that communicate in natural ways the thematic reports The portrayals may involve videotapes, artifacts, case studies, or other “faithful