The implementation of the new general secondary education curriculum in East Timor: The perspective of the Timorese students on curricular restructuring, learning and study habits

• Autor(a) principal: Morgado, Margarida
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Breda, Zélia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v7i2.2794

This article aims to present the perceptions of the Timorese students about the implementation of the new general secondary education curriculum in East Timor, as well as to identify and discuss the impact of its implementation on their conceptions of learning and their study habits. It presents a brief theoretical framework that supports the importance of the learning environment and curriculum reforms to improve students’ learning, trying to frame the project “Evaluating the impact of restructuring secondary education in East Timor: A study in the context of international cooperation” (2013-2015) and to identify some of the dynamics that occurred during its development. In order to fulfil the aim of this article, it was performed the analysis of data collected by two questionnaires applied to Timorese students in different occasions and with different objectives during the development of the project. Overall, students are aware of the changes being implemented, they consider that the implementation of the new curriculum led teachers to diversify and use more often the educational resources, to develop more interesting and diversified classes, as well as to change the modes of evaluation. The meaning that most of the students attach to learning seems to be influenced by the practices that teachers advocate, and their study habits are dependent upon various aspects, such as access to educational and curricular materials, the existing conditions in school and at home.