Exploring and Measuring Curriculum Alignment Practices in the Classroom: A Mixed Method Approach

• Author / Creator

  Seitz, Paolina

• The study examined curriculum alignment among the intended, the enacted, and the assessed curricula in Grade 9 mathematics in two domains: content/operations and cognitive processes. The Program of Studies was used to determine the content operations. The Delphi Process was used to identify the cognitive levels for the intended curriculum. Classroom observations were used to capture the enacted curriculum, and End of the Unit tests were used to determine the assessed curriculum. Results indicated that curriculum alignment among the intended, enacted and assessed curricula for the mathematics content/operations was quite high (97% alignment). In contrast, curriculum alignment among the intended, enacted and assessed curricula for the cognitive processes was quite low (7.3% alignment). This study makes a contribution towards understanding the quality of the relationship among the intended, enacted and assessed curricula in mathematics education. The methodological framework provides a model for subsequent research on curriculum alignment among the three components of the education system.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Curriculum alignment
  • Cognitive complexity
  • Intended, enacted, assessed curricula

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R30M36

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.