Pg 3

This is similar to curriculum implementation in Hong Kong where teachers were

required to craft and implement new subject curricular ( TQW 2010)

Pg 4

Students can also continue doing assessments until they are deemed competent.
This means that the student can retake the assessment until the tutor/ teacher is
satisfied that they are good at the particular. Another unique feature is that a
student may start the CVQ whilst in a Secondary School but if they have not
completed all the Modules for Certification can pursue the incomplete modules at
other learning institutions outside of secondary school.

Pg 5

Departmental heads are charged with the responsibility for introducing new
curriculum as well as all the planning, implementation and evaluation concerned to
ensure success of the curriculum concerned. Therefore HODs play a critical role in
curriculum implementation ( Hannay, Erband Ross 2001)
This close relationship of the HOD and teachers is an importance as it aids in
fostering collegiality and collaboration within the department. ( Wise T Bush 1999)
This can take several forms however when the HOD develops a system of a
profession learning community support for each team member becomes evident
and this serves to foster change ( Tam 2010).

Pg 6

The role of the departmental head up to this time has not been sufficiently
experienced and therefore the literature on the subject is limited to this end much
of the knowledge, skills and roles of the HOD is still unanswered (Tam 2010). It is
thought though the behaviour of the HOD is dependent upon the prevailing culture.

Change agents or agents of change are individuals who are responsible for
influencing behaviour in the destined direction ( Rogen and Lynne 1969 ) Both

principals and heads of Departments are charged with this job in this context .
( Hansen 2003) lists four types of change agents depending upon the type of
behaviour exhibited. They are firstly the White- Hat change Agent who he
identifies as in the context of school as being experts in curriculum, human
relations, professional development and planning. Secondly, The alachivaellian
change agent who often employ strategies of concentrating efforts; cesailitian
building, effective committee, building and pursuing the decision through in the
Trinidad and Tobago context this may model can be issued as the ministry of
Education or the General Administration of all schools, the Organizational Guerrilla
this represents informal groups of teachers who wait against the General
Administration or Teachers Unions. Fourthly the Hatchet Men Change Agents that
seek to delete ineffective schools. This Model may not apply in the Trinidad and
Tobago context.

Pg 9
Fallan and Miles ( 1992) outline several thought processes and actions that can be
adapted by change managers to minimise resistance to change. These include:

Change can be expressed as a process of learning; difficulties should be

expectant.
There is no set plan of action for change, adjustments are expected.
When difficulties arise they should be as they are a part of the change called
the journey.
One should be prepared to provide: resources, space, materials, support etc.
Embrace the thoughts of all should be embraced as diverse thinking makes
the change easier to manage.
For change to be successful implementation must be systems.
Successful change must be implemented locally i.e in a school at the
department level.

Fullan (2001) also notes that for effective change teachers ( and indeed all involved)
must be able to change their belief systems. Therefore teachers have to be
prepared to change the way they operate in the classroom. This impacts upon
teaching/ learning strategies employed in the classroom.
Clavis and Peterson (1986) This has been the case as studied by Tam (2010) in
Hong Kong in the implementation of a new Curriculum. The HOD was able to effect
change by enabling teachers in the department to change their beliefs and attitudes
which translated into a change in classroom practice.
Marin ( 1975) states that change agents must be held in high regard professionally
be able to stimulate and inspire individuals.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Able to change his point of view

Wise and cautious
Understand social implications
Be able to work with others.
Be able to lead weak and able to influence others.

Lee and Dimmock (1999) go on to note that Curriculum leadership involves on a

wide range of skill sets. These include: setting goals, planning, maintaining
implementations, building school( or departmental) culture, resource allocation,
reviewing and development of the school educational program. Thus increasing the
role of the Departmental head.
Tam (2010) in a Chinese study on curriculum implementation found that the positive
attitudes of the HOD in this case towards curriculum changed several to encourage
teachers. Departmental Heads facilitate leadership and allows teachers to take
ownership of the curriculum to change their belief systems are able to effect
change.

Implementing new curricula can also be viewed as an aspect of educational reform.

Yu and Lau (2006) suggest three key considerations when viewing reform in
education. The reform leader, change agent or manager principal or HOD in this
ease should be not only aware but convey into practice when leading change. These
are: the school or department ( in this case) must acknowledge reform purpose and
priority daily. Student learning must be the focus and timetabling considerations
must be priority in order to facilitate the change . The principal/ HOD must also
appreciate staffs strengths and weaknesses. Thus will enable a smoother transition
can have assistance they require to facilitate change. This will also allow the
principal/HOD to make necessary improvements by using strategies such as peer
classroom obscuration and team teaching. Teachers involved in the change also
need to be given just consideration in their whole life as change often brings new
stresses and a teachers personal/family life may also be impacted as during this
time workloads and stress levels may increase change agents need to be wise in
helping teachers to find a balance in their work and personal lives.
With this in mind there are several reasons why reform ( and indeed any change)
fail in schools.
This obvious reason for change/ reforms failing is that the change agent is deficient
in his/ her ability to start, sustain and manage the change initiative. Spillane,
Reeiser and Reiner (2002)
This requires knowledge and skills especially the skill of relationship building
relations, a skill for HODs.
Another reason why the change may fail is that all stakeholders- teachers, parents,
students and school administrations do not understand the change, do not see the
big practice or are unable to process all the implications of the reform/change. This
of course affects the stakeholders commitment to the new innovation and in this
case the new curriculum ( Fallan 1999, Spillan et al 2002). This means that not only
the principal and teachers must bug in to the change but all individuals as well.
Fullan (1991) laso contends that an inability to implement the change can cause
failure. Successful implementation requires putting an idea into practice; when the
implementation process is not clearly thought it can seriously affect the reform. This
can include reason such as a lack of forethought in the process.
Poor leadership can also lead reform/ change failure. School leaders who are
ineffective at capacity building and sustaining reform cause the change to fail. This
leadership ( Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris and Hopkins 2206). A key reason
school leaders are ineffective is due to improper or little training is managing

change and basic leadership practice such may be be the case especially relatively
new school leaders.
Another key reason school reform fails is that the centre control of the change is
external to the school. The leadership of the change does not reside within the
school and the change initiative is carried out by and controlled by an external
agency (Fullan 1991). This is especially true if the new curriculum ( change) is not
owned and managed by teachers and therefore the curriculum can be better suited
to the school. This allows change to come from the school rather than an imposed
external change.
It should also be recognised that each school is unique with a rather unique set of
factors coming into play when there is any kind of change. Depending upon the
prevailing culture of the school what works in one school may not work in another
and adoption of any new curriculum may come against different factors ( Dimmock
2000; Fullan 1991)
James( 2010) makes a case for strengthening the leadership capacity of school
leaders through professional development as a means of providing additional
support during the period of change as such support allows programs allow greater
autonomy. School leaders are then free to implement change in a fashion that is
tailored to each schools individual situation.
In Trinidad and Tobago it is necessary for the Ministry of Education to put greater
thought into planning change in schools as this would ensure that adequate
resources would be available to schools ( James 2010)

Analysis
Presentation of Findings
Students.
A total of 128 students were sampled in this study. To maintain anonymity all
reasons have been generalized.
Questions one to four on the questionnaire attempts to gage overall student
satisfaction with the program as most participants agreed with the statements put
forward. With regards to question one which asked whether the student was pleased
doing a CVQ subject, 88% agreed, 5% disagreed and 7% answered unsure. Question
two sought insight into student satisfaction in the way the subject is being taught to
which 69% were pleased, 18% were not and 13% were unsure. Both questions three
and four looked at student preference for the way the subject is taught both times
the response was over ninety percent students liked and were pleased with the
types of evaluations and the type of work they did in the CVQ.
Questions five through eight looked at student bay in and hence choice of of
the CVQ program. Item five sought student understanding into the benefits of the
CVQ program with ninety two percent of respondents agreeing that they understand
the benefits and only seven percent disagreeing. Item eight also saw ninety percent

of respondents agreeing that their teacher explained the benefits of the CVQ
pogram. However when it came to student choice, the results were mixed. Thirty
nine students agreed stated that they choose to do this particular subject while fifty
eight percent disagreed three percent did not know. Of the respondents who wanted
to do a CVQ subject, with five and four percents respectively not knowing whether
they chose the subject or not.
Items nine through eleven looks at the availability of resources for the subject
from a student perspective. Ninety two percent of respondents agreed that
resources were always provided with only two percent disagreeing and six percent
not knowing. While the results on the sufficiency of materials/ resources seem to be
mixed. Item ten stated that resources for the subject are always enough to which
fifty seven percent of students agreed with twenty eight percent disagreeing and
fifteen percent not knowing. Item eleven stated that we often ran out of materials
to do this subject to which only four percent of respondents agreed and eighty nine
percent disagreed and seven percent did not know.
Item twelve sought to gather information on parental satisfaction with the
CVQ program, of the respondents twenty-seven percent agreed and nine percent
disagreed. A rather large percentage of students did not know how their parent s
felt about the program.
Student preference for the CVQ rather than CSEC ( Caribbean Secondary
Examinations Certificate) was explored with item thirteen. Forty three percent of
respondents agreed that they would prefer CSEC, thirty percent disagreed while
forty seven did not know how they felt.
Ninety three percent of students agreed that their teachers held class in the
same room whereas seven percent disagreed.
Item sixteen seeks to find out how students feel about the CVQ utilising such
a large portion of time on the timetable. Most students( eighty six) percent
disagreed that the subject takes up too much time, five percent agreed and nine
percent did not know.
Twenty- one percent of respondents indicated that they would like to continue
with the CVQ subject at a higher level. Forty two percent disagreed that they would
want to, interestingly, thirty seven percent did not know about pursuing the subject
at a higher level.
Most students disagreed with statement statement eighteen concerning the
CVQ subject being a waste of their time. Eighty two percent of students disagreed
with this statement, while only four percent agreed with fourteen percent not
knowing.

Questions nineteen to twenty two were open ended questions and students
were free to express themselves. Item nineteen sought to gather information on the
aspects of teacher behaviour that the students enjoyed. Typical responses included
and demonstrates the work, show us what to do , explains the work, let us use
the computer , uses the projector to show a video and let us work together.
Items twenty explained student preferences in the classroom, students report
preferring that: My teacher did not talk as much, we had more time to do this
subject as we use some lunch times to complete work ,we get to spend more time
on the computer and I had more time to practice.
Students were also asked to state what they wanted to do more. Typical
responses included: practice, demonstrate what I can do. Item twenty two asked
students to state what they would prefer to do less of. Responses included: tests,
hear the teacher talk less, less joking around more demonstration, too many
evaluations and writing in the journal.

Teachers.
Teachers teaching the CVQ in the various schools of this study come from
varying standpoints. There were three males and five females involved in the study
with four being in the twenty six to thirty five age groups two in the forty one to fifty
and two in the over fifty age group. Most(five) had some kind of professional
training. Four of these have been teaching for the past twenty or more years, one
having less than six years and three six to ten years service.
Respondents were asked to either a rating scale to strongly agree, agree,
disagree, strongly disagree or state that they did not know.

Items five to ten explained teacher understanding and appreciation of the

CVQ curriculum. Statement five sought understanding of the goals and aims of the
curriculum, all teachers either agreed or strongly agreed to this statement. When it
came to the role that the CVQ plays in achieving Vision 20/20 or first world states
most were unsure, with three disagreeing, three not knowing and only two teachers
agreeing. Only two teachers agreed that the CVQ helps in providing seamless
education while three did not know and three disagreed. All eight respondents
either agreed or strongly agreed that the CVQ subject will make a difference in the
lives of their students. With regards to increased educational opportunities, five
respondents were unsure of such and three agreed that such opportunities will be
increased. When it came to understanding the importance of the CVQ in schools,
three teachers agreed that it was they did not know and two disagreed.
Items eleven and twelve sought to gage teacher perception on the staying
power of the new curriculum. Three teachers saw the CVQ as an improvement on
former curricula where as five responded as not knowing. Three teachers felt that
the CVQ curriculum will be replaced by another whereas three disagreed and two
did not know.
Statements thirteen to fifteen looked looked at teacher preparation and
accountability. All respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that they did and
gave their HOD a scheme of work. When it came to the submission of the Record of
Work or other form of records, six agreed that they did so regularly and two
disagreed. All that they did so regularly and two disagreed. All respondents agreed
that they gave their HOD lesson plans.
Issues concerning departmental time for the CVQ and therefore HOD
behaviour towards the CVQ were addressed in items sixteen to eighteen. Item
sixteen looks on how often the department met regularly and three disagreed. Four
teachers found that sufficient time is allocated to departmental discussions
concerning the CVQ curriculum.
Two disagreed and two were unsure. On time given for collaborative planning
for the CVQ, five teachers disagreed indicating that insufficient time was given, two
disagreed that the time allocated was sufficient and one person was unsure.
Items nineteen to twenty-three addresses how the teacher perceives the HOD
when it comes to the CVQ, it is also indicative of the HOD behaviour towards the
subject.
Items nineteen addressed how quickly issues concerning the CVQ are
addressed by the HOD , most respondents agreed that issues were dealt with
quickly while one person disagreed. Again most respondents, seven agreed that
their HOD was receptive to their concerns about the CVQ curriculum while one
teacher disagreed. Five teachers responded that they had some kind of input to how
decisions are made concerning the CVQ curriculum at their school, while two

teachers disagreed that they had any input and one person was unsure. When it
came to visits to their room/ workshop, only two respondents agreed that the HOD
visited regularly while six disagreed. Most respondents agreed that their HOD was
interested in what goes one in their classroom/ workshop, with one in what goes on
in their classroom, with one person disagreeing with the statement while one person
was unsure.
How the teacher perceives himself/ herself as well as level of teacher comfort
with the curriculum were addressed by items twenty four and twenty five. All
respondents either strongly agreed or agree that they were knowledgeable on the
CVQ curriculum. Most (six) agreed that they possessed the necessary skills to
implement the curriculum while two teachers disagreed that they did.
Item twenty six seeks to gain insight on how the teacher perceives himself/
herself in terms of their ability to relate to students. Seven respondents agreed they
they related to their students while one was unsure.
Most respondents disagreed( five) that they freely discussed issues/
challenges of the CVQ program with their colleagues. Two teachers were unsure and
only one person discussed issues/challenges freely.
All respondents felt that students were comfortable with the new curriculum,
all eight agreeing to this. However when it came to to parent support for the
curriculum, only one person agreed that parental support was high, six did not know
and one person disagreed.
Five respondents were in agreement that the CVQ is well considered in
schools strategic plan, with three persons not knowing.
Questions thirty one to thirty five were open ended and respondents gave a
variety of responses.
Item thirty one explained the kind of support that the teachers have received
from the schools administration namely the HOD or the schools principal. Most
teachers found that support has been good with a variety of supportive statements
include: I sometimes have one on one meetings with my HOD, she is very
supportive of the program, We(the department) meets regularly, both the HOD
and principal ask how the program is going, my HOD tries to get the resources I
ask for sometimes it may take a little long but I usually get what I need. One person
went on to state in detail an incident where they got a lots of support: I was having
trouble with my planning -this curriculum is tedious to plan for as the NTA requires
that there must be a lesson plan for all lessons. My HOD set with one with me and
we both worked on a few lessons, after that she would check them offering
suggestions, she has been a great help. Other kinds of support stated included the
HOD visiting the classroom/ workshop, frequent checks with the teacher. One
person went on to talk about the fact that despite having a large department to look

after, her HOD agreed to work as the Internet Verifier for the curriculum. Two
respondents appreciated that both principal and HOD always made the time to
listen and attempt to problem solve.
The kind of relationship the teacher has with the HOD was addressed by item
thirty two. Most respondents stated relations were cordial or professional one
person stated we both do our jobs. Other comments were we both do our jobs.
Other comments were I can go to her for help when I need it, we usually discuss
issues freely and she is very approachable.
On the question of what can improve the delivery of the CVQ program for
students, most teachers cited having more time to complete the curriculum. Other
responses included having more space and more resources. One person went on to
ask for a teachers assistant to help monitor the fairly large class while another
cited having help with all the paperwork. Another went on to lament on having to
complete two curricula with the same time as those students were doing both CSEC
Information Technology and CVQ Data Operations.
Teachers were also asked about the additional support required to effectively
deliver the Curriculum to this they responded More resources, More materials
with one person asking for equipment to be replaced.
Respondents were also asked to state the barriers that they have
encountered with regards to implementation of the CVQ Curriculum. Six out of the
eight respondents cited paperwork. Comments included: having to do all those
lesson plans and fill out all hose forms was challenging, even with the help of the
OJT, it was still, you still have have to prepare the work, starting this while you
keep your normal work load was hard, it is additional work for the same pay. One
person spoke of the personal sacrifices made At the start, it was really hard, I had
to give up my weekends to work on this.