Challenges of Curriculum Planning and Achieving Learning Outcomes: A Case Study of Croatian Elementary School Teachers’ Experiences

This paper aims to explore the experiences of first, fifth, and seventh grade teachers (N = 23) in competence-oriented teaching from one elementary school included in the implementation of an experimental curriculum reform program in the Republic of Croatia. Based on the qualitative case study approach, the analysis of teacher evaluation protocols considered teachers’ opinions in the context of achieving learning outcomes with the use of teaching activities and methods. The paper also analyzes teachers’ opinions about the required changes in the planning and implementation of the teaching process as well as their professional development. For the learning success to increase, it is important for teachers to emphasize with their competences the organization of pupil-centered activities in achieving learning outcomes that change the approach to the planning of teaching. The focus of contemporary teaching should be on problem solving, active involvement of pupils in the teaching process while respecting the pupils’ interests, experiences, needs, motivations, prior knowledge, and expression of creative abilities. The teaching process focuses on constructivist teaching and the conceptual approach using collaborative methods and forms of work, technology in teaching, formative evaluation, and innovative approaches, whose intensity and complexity varies in different circumstances. The results indicate that teachers recognize the potential of a contemporary competence-based approach and pupil-centered learning and teaching by achieving learning outcomes. Emphasis is placed on collaborative methods and forms of work, the introduction of digital technology and autonomy in the selection of content activities. They attach importance to the improvement of their professional activities in order to enable the pupils to acquire knowledge and develop skills by taking a modern approach to the teaching process and making them ready and able to respond to the demands of the future and modern society.