Development and validation of a null curriculum questionnaire focusing on 21st century skills using the Rasch model

Abstract

Curriculum development has always been dealt as one of the most important areas of language learning and teaching by educational institutions. Null curriculum has been viewed as one of the significant kinds of curriculum types which is important due to its absence, being left out or overlooked but should not be disregarded. For this reason, a 48-item questionnaire for null curriculum in ELT with a special focus on twenty-first century skills was developed and validated by the application of the Rasch model. The Rasch model was employed to decide whether the scores of an instrument are purposive, meaningful and significant. Rasch analysis using Winsteps software version 3.73 was used to determine the dimensionality, use of response category, sample appropriateness and reliability of the scale. The test was administered to 80 university instructors teaching at BA level in different universities in Iran. The results revealed that the Rasch model fits the test after deleting six items from the ABOUT THE AUTHORS Sara Kazemi is a PhD student in TEFL at the Azad University of Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Iran. She is also teaching English in Azad University of Mashhad, and Tabaran Institute of Higher Education. Her prominent fields of research are curriculum development, teacher education and development, and e-learning.Mitra Zeraatpisheh is an assistant professor at the Islamic Azad University (IAU) of Mashhad. Her research interest include SLA, Linguistics, teaching methodologies and teaching skills.

The Asian Conference on Education 2022: Official Conference Proceedings

“…Residuals are the observed performance of students on the item minus what is expected by the Rasch model. The smaller the residuals, the better the data fits the model (Kazemi, 2020). In this case, the results show five contrasts, and some consist of more than 2 eigenvalue units which indicates the existence of potential dimension (Linacre, 1998;Ee, Yeo, and Kosnin, 2018).…”

Las herramientas digitales como complemento de los aprendizajes del idioma inglés: una revisión de la literatura

“…Generalmente, los investigadores creen que el desarrollo del currículo de idiomas es un tema importante que debería ser reconsiderado por los responsables de la formulación de políticas educativas y las partes interesadas de los sistemas educativos. El plan de estudios nulo debe ser atendido y los cursos descuidados o ausentes deben recibir más atención, ya que podrían ser realmente efectivos y beneficiosos para ayudar a los estudiantes a prosperar en el mundo actual, en la investigación al respecto confirmaron que el cuestionario de currículo nulo tiene un enfoque especial en las habilidades del siglo XXI, debido a que es una representación unidimensional efectiva para evaluar las habilidades a promover, dentro de ellos la adquisición de una segunda lengua es el más importante para fomentar la comunicación tanto oral como escrita y a la cual se debe observar especial atención en él, de este modo se garantizará el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa e interactuar de manera pertinente en diferentes contextos y con diferentes propósitos comunicativos (Kara, 2019;Kazemi et al, 2020).…”

Elementary school teacher perception of curriculum changes in Indonesia

“…Curriculum is expected to be a means to make students more motivated, live confidently, productively, skilled, knowledgeable, and have high moral standards so that they will succeed in living their lives in school and society (Mazabow, 2003). Curriculum greatly determines the process and results of an education system; it is also considered a bridge between a teacher and his students (Kazemi et al, 2020). Indonesia has undergone many curriculum changes, such as 1947, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2006curricula (Mukminin et al, 2019)social, and personal potential to their highest level by providing them with an equitable and equal education irrespective of their characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, social class, language use, religion, and other human differences.…”