Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Curriculum, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

2 Corresponding Author, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum Development & Instruction Methods, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum Development & Instruction Methods, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

4 Associate professor, Division of Research and Assessment, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jiera.2024.420665.3058

Abstract

Objective: Overloaded curriculum is an emerging and complex phenomenon in the field of curriculum, which is considered a necessity for every educational system. Prevention of this issue requires a comprehensive investigation in terms of dimensions and characteristics; Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of identifying the dimensions and features of the Overloaded curriculum in the primary school.
Methods: The approach of qualitative research and its method was a systematic review based on the seven-step strategy of Wright et al (2007). The research community consisted of 71 studies that were collected from valid internal and external databases in the period of (2000-2023) and after quality assessment, 38 articles were selected and analyzed through coding.Results: The findings of the research showed that the overloaded curriculum has three dimensions: individual, organizational and educational. The individual dimension, including hoarding of content by subject experts, threatening the physical and mental health of students, job burnout of teachers, creating a dual status for principals and changing the role of teachers and parents; The educational dimension includes the excessive amount of goals, adding new content without reducing the previous content, multiple assignments and activities, time limit and multiple and time-consuming evaluations, and the organizational dimension including hasty decisions without research support, a tool look at the curriculum to achieve political goals and Social was the volume of curriculum documents and numerous plans and programs.
Conclusion: The results showed that the overloaded curriculum is a multidimensional phenomenon, the prevention of which requires attention to curriculum elements, stakeholders, and organizational decisions.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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