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Defining the role of the assisting teacher in implementation

University of British Columbia

The purpose was to outline how the role of an "assisting teacher" in curriculum implementation can be defined. The role of the "assisting teacher" was defined because it is an implementation strategy used within the British Columbia context. Four sources were used to define the role of the assisting teacher in this study. 1. Research literature on implementation roles, 2. Evaluation or needs assessment reports, 3. Current and proposed curricula, and 4. A selected school district context. Because the purpose of this study was to demonstrate how these sources could be used concretely to define a role, the present (1968) and the proposed (1983) secondary social studies curricula in British Columbia, the province-wide social studies assessment (1977), and School District No. 41 (Burnaby) were analyzed selectively. The following questions guided the research: 1. What is the role of the assisting teacher as implied by selected research literature? 2. What is the role of the assisting teacher as implied by the 1977 British Columbia Social Studies Assessment 3. What is the role of the teacher and the assisting teacher as implied by the proposed (1983) social studies curriculum for British Columbia? 4. What is the role of the assisting teacher as perceived in the Burnaby School District? 5. What role description do these four sources help define? Selected research literature, social studies assessment documents, and social studies curricula were analyzed. To determine the actual and/or ideal role of the assisting teacher as perceived in the Burnaby School District, interviews were conducted with five assisting teachers, as well as their supervisor and coordinator, and with eight secondary social studies department heads. The study concluded with generalizations and a process for defining the role of the assisting teacher in curriculum implementation. This process may have generalizability for defining the role of the assisting teacher in curriculum areas other than social studies.

Text

2010-03-29

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/22830

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

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