Interoperability of Curricula by using Competencies

1. Interoperability of Curricula by using Competencies Presented by David Massart On behalf of Frans Van Assche

2. CALIBRATE project • One of the objectives: To research machine-readable descriptions of national curricula and investigate mapping approaches that can improve the semantic interoperability between systems in the discovery, evaluation and use of learning resources • Example: If a teacher in Austria tags a resource according to the Austrian national curriculum can a teacher in Flanders find it when browsing the Flemish regional curriculum if it is indeed on the same subject? TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

3. Challenges • Interoperability of Curricula • Linking resources to curricula using the LOM and perhaps other ways TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

4. Curricula at different levels TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

5. Real Curriculum Example 1.1 Number theory 1.1.1 Concept formation/knowledge of facts The pupils 1 can associate natural, whole and rational numbers with realistic and meaningful contexts; 2 know the symbol rules for whole and rational numbers; 3 know that the properties of the operations in the set of natural numbers remain valid and can be expanded in the sets of whole and rational numbers; 4 distinguish and understand the various notations of rational numbers (fractional and decimal notation); 5 use the appropriate terminology in relation to operations: addition, sum, terms of a sum, subtraction, difference, multiplication, product, factors of a product, division, quotient, dividend, divisor, remainder, percent, square, square root, power, base, exponent, opposite, reciprocal, absolute value, average. TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

6. Tagging the curriculum • A curriculum item can be expressed as a set of targeted competences (see bullets) 1 The pupils can associate natural, whole and rational numbers with realistic and meaningful contexts; • Associate natural numbers with realistic and meaningful context • Associate integers with realistic and meaningful context • Associate rational numbers with realistic and meaningful context • A competence is defined in terms of <Action expression, Topic> • Example: • Topic: integers • Action expression: Associate with realistic context TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

7. Topic Taxonomy TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

8. Action Expression Taxonomy Anderson and Kratwohl (2001) Kratwohl, Bloom, and Masia (1964) Dave (1975) TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

9. Taxonomies Associate with realistic context The pupils can associate natural, whole and rational numbers with realistic and meaningful contexts Integer Associate integers with realistic and meaningful contexts TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

10. Linking resources and curricula By Intension By Extension Linking a particular curriculum item (or competency) to one or more resources CI-046 could make use of LOs with age 8-9 and Language nl and Competency C-067 CI-046 could make use of LO-007 , LO-876, Or LO-432 LO-432 could be used in support of CI-046, CI-321, Or CI-642 Linking a particular resource to one or more curriculum items (or competencies) LO-432 could be used in Support of curriculum Items with competencies C-067 or C-531 TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

11. Intensional description of resources • Possible LOM elements: Keyword, Coverage, Structure, Aggregation Level, Interactivity Type, Learning Resource Type, Interactivity Level, Semantic Density, Intended End User Role, Context, Typical Age Range, Difficulty, Typical Learning Time, Language, Classification (discipline, purpose). TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

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13. Finding resources to the curriculum 1.1 Number theory 1.1.1 Concept formation/knowledge of facts 1 The pupils can associate natural, whole and rational numbers with realistic and meaningful contexts; 2 The pupils know the symbol rules for whole and rational numbers; Recall symbol rules for integers Recall symbol rules for rational numbers 12 Resources 8 Resources TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

14. Relating resources to the curriculum 1.1 Number theory 1.1.1 Concept formation/knowledge of facts 1 The pupils can associate natural, whole and rational numbers with realistic and meaningful contexts; 2 The pupils know the symbol rules for whole and rational numbers; Recall symbol rules for integers Recall symbol rules for rational numbers Relate Relate TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

15. Other ways of finding resources • Interviews of teachers • Browsing the Topic taxonomy possibly up to competencies • Browsing the Action expression taxonomy possibly up to competencies • Relaxing the search TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

16. Taxonomies Associate as BT of Associate with realistic context Number as BT of Integer TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

17. Preliminary Evaluation • Teachers • Focusgroup confirms usefulness • Scientific • Grounded into a long tradition • Some Ministries confirm usefulness • Try it yourself • Try to find resources suitable for developing the competency “Associate integers with realistic and meaningful context” with Google TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

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20. Discussing The Approach • Makes interoperability possible by making use of two smaller controlled vocabularies • Builds on proven technologies, i.e. thesauri, and well-known vocabularies for the action expressions • Allows for relaxing the search criteria building upon the hierarchical structure of the two vocabularies • Is resilient to change in curricula and to the addition of new curricula • Fits very well with the current practice of describing learning objects (section 9 of the IEEE LOM standard can be used without alteration) TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007

21. Contact / Information • Frans Van Assche <frans.van.assche@eun.org> TenCompetence Workshop - 11 January 2007