Collaborative Curriculum Development: New CoDesign Methods

ABSTRACT

Teachers take part in the formal process of curriculum planning through codesign activities to develop dynamic and innovative curricula. Since toolkits and best practices for facilitating curriculum codesign are not well understood and documented in the literature, the presented case study fills this gap by bringing together eight teachers with the aim of developing a nature-inspired curriculum for middle school students centred on the novel concept of fractal patterns. In this article, we discuss the creation of an online toolkit to facilitate curriculum codesign. The toolkit includes a verb bank, state learning standards, images of fractals, and ‘What-If’ Cards, allowing teachers to engage in an open-ended, collaborative exploration to draft a range of classroom activities and lessons. We describe a case study, with two sessions, where teachers codesigned drafts of nature-inspired fractal patterns curricula for middle school students. Qualitative analysis of these drafts suggests that various curricular possibilities can be developed within a novel theme when the toolkit is used in an open-ended format with experienced educators. The article ends on key lessons for the design and use of toolkits in future curricular codesign efforts.