Investigating the Relationship between Washback and Curriculum Alignment: A Literature Review

Abstract

Abstract: “Washback” and “curriculum alignment,” two dominant fields in education, are well researched individually but rarely are studied together. The purpose of this article is to understand the connection between these two areas and to search for an existing link between them. Scoping review has been used as a method to synthesize the existing washback and curriculum alignment studies to conduct a systematic review. This literature review illustrates that both curriculum alignment and washback studies look at classroom instruction; thus, alignment studies could be a new avenue for washback research if curriculum alignment produces the washback effect on classroom teaching and learning. This paper contributes to the existing literature of both the fields under discussion by mapping out the evidential links between them. The study concludes that by looking at the curriculum alignment and washback together we can expect richer insight of how an aligned educational system can reduce negative exam influence on classroom instruction.

Keywords

• washback
• curriculum alignment
• classroom instruction
• scoping review