Introduction to SLO(Netherlands Expertise Center for Curriculum Development)

Harma EversLoes Stadhouders

Presentation for EdReNe, Ljubljana, 4-5 March, 2008

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SLO from 1975 till now

• Founded by the government in 1975:– to co-ordinate fragmented curriculum work by many different

committees and institutes– to stimulate overall quality and coherence of curriculum development– for primary, secondary, special and vocational education– for all subjects

• Current status:– profile as expertise center– increasing emphasis on evidence-based improvements– increasing international orientation– network organisation– core staff of about 150 curriculum experts– not part of Ministry, but close working relation (and major funding)

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Central tasks of SLO

• Designing and validating national curriculum frameworks via examination

programs, core objectives/standards

• Designing and evaluating examples of elaborations, at the levels of

school, subjects, lessons

• Promoting (horizontal and longitudinal) coherence of curricula

• Co-ordination of developments

• Interaction between CD and:– teacher and school development– test and examination development– inspectorate– development of textbooks and other learning resources

• Expertise development on CD

• International orientation

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Levels of Curriculum (Development)

international, comparative

national (system) frameworks

school, programme

classroom, group, teacher

learner, individual

SUPRA

MACRO

MICRO

MESO

NANO

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Curricular spider web

Tim

e

RationaleContent

Tea

cher

ro

le

Mat

eria

ls &

Res

ources

Grouping

Location

Ass

essm

ent

Aims & Objectives

Learning activities

(Van den Akker, 2003)

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SLO Organization

Five Subject Divisions

Languages Mathematics, Science & Technology

Education Social Studies Physical Education & Art Education Vocational Subjects

Five Knowledge Groups

How to determine the core of the content? How to address differences between pupils? Curricular challenges of new learning sources and

environments School-based curriculum development Teachers and curriculum development

Seven Departments

Primary Education Special Education Lower Secondary Education Upper Secondary Education Vocational Education Research & Consultancy Learning Resources

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Learning Resources

• Target: supporting the process of choosing new learning resources and keeping track of the latest developments

• Learning resources: teaching packages, textbooks, thematic materials, educational software and other learning materials

• Data on the internet: www.leermiddelenplein.nl~ overview~ basic information~ extensive information~ comparitive informationnot yet a repository!

• Edurep > national tool for finding learning objects on the internet

• SLO uses national and international standards for metadata (OAI PMH, IEEE LOM, SRU-SRW)

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Edurep

Database DatabaseDatabaseDatabase

Portal PortalPortalPortalPortal

Users

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Towards an Expertise Center for Learning Resources

• 2012

• Research and collaborate

• Rebuilding and extending our website: www.leermiddelenplein.nl~ offering social metadata~ offering ‘tools for schools’~ showing latest developments~ uploads of learning materials

> building a repository?

• New kid on the block: how to deal with rights?