Educational Framework

What framework governs IAB?

ERC has developed a generic research-based educational framework to govern all its activities, including the IAB. When implemented for curriculum development and deployment, ERC framework includes tenets, pedagogical principles (general standards) and rules (operational standards) that are aligned with modern educational theory, and that regulate the experiential development of a unique student profile. ERC Student Profile is defined so as to promote the development of cross-disciplinary conceptions (concepts, laws, models, etc.) and generic habits of mind, i.e., skills and dispositions (values, attitudes, etc.), that empower students for success in various aspects of modern life.

As a curriculum framework, ERC framework can be deployed to translate the Student Profile, at any grade level, into expected measurable outcomes for any discipline or set of disciplines which the curriculum is about. A number of factors govern the determination of these outcomes, among which are disciplinary paradigm(s) and adopted pedagogical principles and rules. Once outcomes are specified, the appropriate program of study and instructional methodology can be spelled out. The latter includes well-defined methods of learning, instruction and assessment, along with textbooks and other course materials. The framework also governs continuous curriculum evaluation and refinement, partially based on student assessment.   

ERC curriculum framework calls for authentic assessment that is integrated with learning and instruction so as: (a) to foster meaningful learning of course materials and development of the big picture within and across disciplines, and (b) to provide reliable and comprehensive evidence about the state of individual students’ profiles at any point of instruction, and about profile evolution within and across various grades. IAB reifies this call in the manner described next.