Journal ArticleDOI
Reform by the Book: What Is—or Might Be—the Role of Curriculum Materials in Teacher Learning and Instructional Reform?
TLDR
In the United States, curriculum materials dominate teaching practice as mentioned in this paper and are the stuff of lessons and units, of what teachers and students do, and that centrality affords curriculum materials a uniquely intimate connection to teaching.Abstract:
Commercially published curriculum materials dominate teaching practice in the United States (Goodlad, 1984).' Unlike frameworks, objectives, assessments, and other mechanisms that seek to guide curriculum, instructional materials are concrete and daily. They are the stuff of lessons and units, of what teachers and students do. That centrality affords curricular materials a uniquely intimate connection to teaching. Not only are curriculum materials well-positioned to influence individual teachers' work but, unlike many other innovations, textbooks are already \"scaled up\" and part of the routine of schools. They have \"reach\" in the system. At the local level, text adoptions are the primary routine in most districts for updating the curriculum every five to seven years (Carus, 1990). In our fragmented school system, textbooks are also one way that educators strive for a common curriculum across diverse settings. Despite their central role in the instructional system, however, curriculum materials have played an uneven role in practice.read more
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Book
Preventing reading difficulties in young children
TL;DR: This chapter discusses strategies for helping children with Reading Difficulties in Grades 1 to 3, as well as recommendations for practice and research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Improving Impact Studies of Teachers’ Professional Development: Toward Better Conceptualizations and Measures
TL;DR: The authors argue that the use of a common conceptual framework would elevate the quality of professional development studies and subsequently the general understanding of how best to shape and implement teacher learning opportunities for the maximum benefit of both teachers and students.
Journal ArticleDOI
Policy Implementation and Cognition: Reframing and Refocusing Implementation Research
TL;DR: This article developed a cognitive framework to characterize sense-making in the implementation process that is especially relevant for recent education policy initiatives, such as standards-based reforms that press for tremendous changes in classroom instruction.
Journal ArticleDOI
What Makes Professional Development Effective? Strategies That Foster Curriculum Implementation:
TL;DR: This article used a sample of 454 teachers engaged in an inquiry science program to examine the effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers' knowledge and their ability to implement the program.
Journal ArticleDOI
Examining Key Concepts in Research on Teachers’ Use of Mathematics Curricula
TL;DR: A review of the literature on curriculum use over the last 25 years reveals significant variation in findings and in theoretical foundations as discussed by the authors, and a framework for characterizing and studying teachers' interactions with curriculum materials is proposed.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Process of Education
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors advocate and illustrate the efficacy of informal education and show that children and older students can and do learn within the contexts of tasks and questions that are meaningful to them.
Book
A place called school
TL;DR: This is the revolutionary account of the largest on-scene study of U.S. schools ever conducted, which provides compelling evidence that what the authors have will not do, and that only a thorough revolution can bring the reality of the school closer to its ideal.
Book
A Place Called School. Prospects for the Future.
TL;DR: A study of U.S. schools was carried out over four years as discussed by the authors, where trained investigators went into more than 1,000 classrooms in 38 elementary and secondary schools in seven different sections of the United States.