Teachers’ curriculum adaptation patterns: a scale development study

ABSTRACT

Curriculum adaptation portrays the way teachers ‘tweak’ the curriculum. The findings of related studies are based solely on qualitative data, and there is no instrument that can determine curriculum adaptation patterns. Based on this gap, the aim of this study is to develop the Curriculum Adaptation Patterns Scale (CAPS). After examining the qualitative studies, 113 draft items were created in eight adaptation patterns. Drawing on the experts and discussions, the dimensions and number of items were reduced. In the first pilot study (n = 322), a three-dimensional structure explaining 52% of the total variance was obtained. CAPS was re-applied on 361 teachers for confirmatory factor analysis and the fit indices corresponded to sufficient. The three emerging factors are named as ‘omitting’, ‘extending’ and ‘replacing or revising’. The reliability coefficients for these factors are also adequate (0.87, 0.72 and 0.85, respectively). The analyses indicate that the CAPS can be used for examining teachers’ curriculum adaptation patterns.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum adaptation
• scale development
• Curriculam Adaptation Pattern Scale

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

1. This study was presented as an oral presentation at the 1st International Symposium on Science, Education, Art and Technology, Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Ümran Yazıcılar Nalbantoğlu

Ümran Yazıcılar Nalbantoğlu , PhD, graduated from Curriculum and Instruction at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. She has been working on the topic of curriculum adaptations for seven years. She examined how the teachers develop their curriculum use and adaptation skills thanks to a professional development program in her PhD thesis. Ümran has published her work in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at national and international conferences.

Nilay T. Bümen

Ümran Yazıcılar Nalbantoğlu , PhD, graduated from Curriculum and Instruction at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. She has been working on the topic of curriculum adaptations for seven years. She examined how the teachers develop their curriculum use and adaptation skills thanks to a professional development program in her PhD thesis. Ümran has published her work in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at national and international conferences.

Nilay T. Bümen, PhD, is currently a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Ege University Faculty of Education, Izmir, Turkey. Her research interests include curriculum studies, effective teaching and teacher education (especially teachers’ professional development). She was a visiting professor at Indiana University in 2011 (USA) and at Malmö University (Sweden) in 2020. Dr. Bümen is the author of Multiple Intelligences in the School (2002, Pegem A yayıncılık, Turkish), the translation editor of Contemporary Issues in Curriculum (2016, Pegem Akademi) and also the author of more than 100 published article.

Öner Uslu

Ümran Yazıcılar Nalbantoğlu , PhD, graduated from Curriculum and Instruction at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. She has been working on the topic of curriculum adaptations for seven years. She examined how the teachers develop their curriculum use and adaptation skills thanks to a professional development program in her PhD thesis. Ümran has published her work in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at national and international conferences.

Öner Uslu, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Ege University Faculty of Education, Izmir, Turkey. His research focuses on continuing professional development, program evaluation, technology integration and needs in supportive teaching. He was visiting professor at Technical University of Berlin (Germany) in 2019. He has many book chapter translations, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and presentations in national and international conferences.