Showing papers on "Curriculum published in 1984"

The Meaning of Educational Change

Abstract: Michael Fullan's complex, thoughtful monograph compelled me in the sense that I am fascinated by John LeCarre's intricate novels. Fullan treats more dimensions of the problem of educational change than anyone has before in a single-author volume, thoroughly outlining the literature and extracting the core meanings from each topic. He deals with the social and psychological problems of meaning and the realities of innovators, researchers, superintendents, curriculum personnel, principles, and teachers. He deals with the sources of change, the processes of adoption, implementation, and continuation, the problems of planning, and the workplace of the school. He discusses the world of the teacher, administrators, students, consultants, and community members. He explores the structure of national and provincial governments in the United States and Canada and the problem of funding change. He analyzes the initial and continued professional development of teachers, administrators and consultants. Finally, he proceeds to discuss the future problems of educational change. Within each topic he has located the central literature.

Educational strategies in curriculum development: the SPICES model

Abstract: Six education strategies have been identified relating to the curriculum in a medical school. Each issue can be represented as a spectrum or continuum: student-centred/teacher-centred, problem-based/information-gathering, integrated/discipline-based, community-based/hospital-based, elective/uniform and systematic/apprenticeship-based. The factors supporting a more towards each end of the continuum are presented for each strategy. Newer schools tend to be more to the left on the continuum, established schools more to the right. Each school, however, has to decide where it stands on each issue and to establish its own profile. This SPICES model of curriculum strategy analysis can be used in curriculum planning or review, in tackling problems relating to the curriculum and in providing guidance relating to teaching methods and assessment.

A Rationale for the Merger of Special and Regular Education

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide a rationale for the merger of special and regular education into one unified system structured to meet the unique needs of all students. The rationale for ...

The Effects of Frequent Curriculum-Based Measurement and Evaluation on Pedagogy, Student Achievement, and Student Awareness of Learning

Abstract: This study examined the educational effects of repeated curriculum-based measurement and evaluation. Thirty-nine special educators, each having three to four pupils in the study, were assigned randomly to a repeated curriculum-based measurement/evaluation (experimental) treatment or a conventional special education evaluation (contrast) treatment. Over the 18-week implementation, pedagogical decisions were surveyed twice; instructional structure was observed and measured three times; students’ knowledge about their learning was assessed during a final interview; reading achievement was tested before and after treatment. Analyses of covariance revealed that experimental teachers effected greater student achievement. Additional analyses indicated that (a) experimental teachers’ decisions reflected greater realism about and responsiveness to student progress, (b) their instructional structure demonstrated greater increases, and (c) their students were more aware of goals and progress.

Writing and Reasoning

Abstract: What contribution, if any, does written language make to intellectual development? Why, if at all, should we be concerned with the role of writing in our culture in general, and in our schools in particular? To what extent should we strive, as a recent report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has urged, to make clear and effective writing a "central objective of the school" (Boyer, 1983, p. 91)? If we do, can we assume that we will also be helping students develop the "higher order" intellectual skills, the "skilled intelligence," demanded by the authors of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983)? Questions such as these provide the context for the present review. At one level, it is widely accepted that good writing and careful thinking go hand in hand. This assumption underlies the concerns of the Council on Basic Education in their critique of the role of writing in American schools (Fadiman & Howard, 1979). The same assumption plays a major role in the agenda for research on writing developed by the National Institute of Education (Whiteman & Hall, 1981) and in the curriculum suggestions offered by advocates of "writing across the curriculum" (Applebee, 1977; Fulwiler & Young, 1982; Martin, D'Arcy, Newton, & Parker, 1976; Marland, 1977; Newkirk & Atwell, 1982). The role of writing in thinking is usually attributed to some combination of four factors: (a) the permanence of the written word, allowing the writer to rethink and revise over an extended period; (b) the explicitness required in writing, if meaning is to remain constant beyond the context in which it was originally written; (c) the resources provided by the conventional forms of discourse for organizing and thinking through new ideas or experiences and for explicating the relationships among them; and (d) the active nature of writing, providing a medium for exploring implications entailed within otherwise unexamined assumptions. If writing is so closely related to thinking, we might expect to begin this review with studies of the contribution of writing to learning and instruction. Yet research on writing has been remarkably slow to examine the ways in which writing about a topic may be related to reasoning. (Braddock, Lloyd-Jones, & Schorer, 1963, provide a good review of the concerns that dominated early studies of writing.) Two different traditions contribute to this reluctance: The first treats the process of writing as the rhetorical problem of relating a predetermined message to an audience that must be persuaded to accept the author's point of view. In this tradition the writing problem is one of audience analysis rather than of thoughtful examination of the topic itself. The second tradition assumes that the process of writing will in some inevitable way lead to a better understanding of the topic under consideration, though how this comes about tends to be treated superficially and anecdotally.

How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms, 1890-1990

Abstract: In this new edition, Cuban returns to his inquiry into the history of teaching practice in the US, responds to criticisms, and incorporates the scholarship of the last decade. He also investigates socioeconomic contexts, the evolution of curriculum content and the implications for policymakers.

The bilingual special education interface

Abstract: 1 Background and Rationale for Bilingual Special Education 2 Bilingualism and Bilingual Education 3 The Education of Children with Exceptional Needs 4 Bilingual Special Education: A Judicial Perspective 5 Development of the Bilingual Special Education Interface 6 Language Acquisition and the Bilingual Exceptional Child 7 Issues and Theoretical Considerations in the Assessment of Bilingual Children 8 Procedures and Techniques for Assessing the Bilingual Exceptional Child 9 Developing Individualized Education Programs for Exceptional Language Minority Students 10 Developing Instructional Plans and Curriculum For Bilingual Special Education Students 11 Methods and Materials for Bilingual Special Education 12 Including Bilingual Exceptional Children in the General Education Classroom 13 How Educational Consultation Can Enhance Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional (CLDE) Students 14 Family Involvement in Bilingual Special Education: Challenging the Norm 15 Issues in Policy Development and Implementation

The Medical Interview: A Core Curriculum for Residencies in Internal Medicine

Abstract: A core curriculum for teaching medical interviewing is presented that enhances the internist's skills in a broad range of interactions with patients. Learning these skills is now left to chance and is often deficient. Four objectives are developed: patient-centered interviewing and treatment; an integrated (biopsychosocial) approach to clinical reasoning and patient care; personal development of humanistic values; and psychosocial and psychiatric medicine. Teaching options include real and simulated encounters with patients, observation with discussion, and use of groups. A general strategy for implementing the curriculum at the local level requires the intellectual and financial support of the dean and department chairman, and a multidisciplinary faculty committed to developing, implementing, and evaluating the curriculum. At many programs, faculty development will be necessary.

Towards a Semiotics‐based Curriculum

Abstract: (1984). Towards a Semiotics‐based Curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 247-257.

A qualitative approach to the study of a teacher's beliefs

Abstract: This article describes a qualitative study of the beliefs and principles of one science teacher. The study employs the Repertory Grid Technique of Kelly (The psychology of personal constructs, New York: Norton, 1955). This technique is illustrated thoroughly by the case study, and ample segments from an interview with the teacher concerned are provided. All relevant information obtained from working with this teacher is used to establish the dominant beliefs held by her. The significance of the study is argued within the framework of curriculum and instructional innovation and implementation.

Electromagnetics with Applications

Abstract: Adapted to tie in with the university curriculum and suitable for a one term course, this book covers numerical techniques and accessible computer programs, giving students the chance to gain direct experience. The text comes with a Website, containing projects, demos and recent advance

Discipline-Based Art Education: Approaching Art as a Subject of Study

Abstract: The focus of discipline-based art instruction is on art within general education and within the context of aesthetic education. Four parent disciplines—aesthetics, studio art, art history, and art criticism—are taught by means of a formal, continous, sequential, written curriculum across grade levels in the same way as other academic subjects. Activities and skills presented in sequence produce an evolution from a naive (untutored) to a sophisticated (knowledgeable) understanding of art, taking into account children's level of maturation and tasks ordered from simple to complex. When art is taught with this kind of structure, it answers critics who maintain that art education has little to do with art. The artworks of children become examples of concepts learned, in addition to being expressive efforts.

Experience Counts, Theory Doesn't: How Teachers Talk about their Work.

Abstract: This article analyzes the ways in which and extent to which teachers draw on their own personal classroom experiences when making collective educational decisions. It is based on transcribed tape recordings of a series of curriculum decision-making meetings among the staff of an English 9-13 middle school and on interviews with the staff concerned. It is noted that there is an absence of references to nonclassroom experience in staff discussions but that this phenomenon is not repeated in the interview setting, where teachers often accord much greater weight to their experience as parents and so on. Thus, the exclusion of nonclassroom experience from discussions reveals not so much a neglect or unawareness of other perspectives but a shared cultural valuation of classroom experience to the exclusion of virtually all other kinds of experience. The article then concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the outcomes of curriculum decision making andfor possible policy options.

Plants as producers: A case study of elementary science teaching

Abstract: This case study is part of a larger study of teachers' use of curriculum materials in planning and teaching fifth-grade science. This case study focuses on one of the nine teachers observed teaching an activity-based unit on plant growth and photosynthesis. Although the teacher became aware that her students held certain misconceptions about plant growth, she was unsuccessful in helping them replace their misconceptions with the scientific conceptions she wanted them to learn. The analysis revealed several factors that contributed to this disappointing result. The teacher and the curriculum developers held different views about learning and the nature of science, and several problems surfaced about the content and organization of the teacher's guide.

Language Curriculum Development

Abstract: In this survey paper the field of language curriculum develop ment is defined as encompassing the processes of needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, methodology and evaluation. Each of the...

What Do We Know about Teaching Effectiveness

Abstract: In an update of his seminal work, The Scientific Basis of the Art of Teaching, Mr* Gage discusses the growth of the "bodies of fairly well-confirmed knowledge" about teaching and its effects on student achievement? There is a scientific basis that can inform our knowledge of the teaching process, he says; we have only to act on it to begin to affect practice* TEACHING IS the central process in education. It comes after eco nomic resources, physical facili ties, and curriculum have been determined, and it is intended to lead to ward learning. It is the social function through which societies foster achieve

Two Axes for the Analysis of ‘Commonsense’ and ‘Formal’ Geographical Knowledge in Classroom Talk

Abstract: Teaching and learning the various aspects of a school discipline's contents (its ‘subject knowledge') are obviously part of the main agenda for high schools While a vast body of material exists on curriculum contents, on pedagogic techniques for their dissemination and on the psychology of learning, very little attention has been paid to actual sites of learning in relation to the production of knowledge and its acquisition This is especially so regarding the discursive practices which are the main means of teaching and learning in those places

Curriculum Reform and School Performance: An Evaluation of the "New Basics"

Abstract: The National Commission on Excellence in Education report proposed the imposition of a new high school curriculum, organized around "Five New Basics." We examine whether the commission's New Basics are likely to enhance levels of cognitive performance, which is the commission's central concern. Using data from the ETS Growth Study, we find that completion of the core curriculum has sizable effects on senior year test performance, even when prior levels of test performance are controlled, and enhances test performance beyond the effects of course work in a particular outcome area alone. However, core completion is effective only if students perform at relatively high levels in their courses. We conclude that the New Basics effectively promote generic verbal and quantitative skills. For this, the commission gets high marks. However, the commission fails to take stock comprehensively of the condition of American education.

Research on Disseminating and Implementing Health Education Programs in Schools

Abstract: Numerous school health education programs have been developed. No matter how effective a given program may be, however, its impact will be determined by the extent to which it actually is disseminated and maintained in classrooms. The dissemination of a program involves purposeful efforts by agencies usually outside the school to implement the program in many different schools, efforts by agencies usually outside the school to implement the program in many different schools, while program implementation involves efforts by those within a given school to effectively use the program in its classrooms. This paper has been prepared to review concepts, strategies, and methods used to study dissemination and implementation; to specify the functions of dissemination and implementation research; and to describe general approaches and specific procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of dissemination and implementation activities. As we develop more and better school health education interventions, the need for research that will allow us to efficiently transport these interventions to classrooms throughout the nation becomes increasingly important.

A National Survey of Curriculum Needs as Perceived by Professional Environmental Educators

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess perceived environmental education (EE) curriculum needs in the United States (K-16) The Environmental Education Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire (EECNAQ) was developed, validated, and direct-mailed to 169 randomly selected professional environmental educators (586% return rate) The EECNAQ elicited perceptions about the desired status and the current state of EE curricula, the need for curriculum development, the anticipated use of curricula teachers, and the need for inservice teacher education These five major questions were posed relative to fifteen goals which reflected the Tbilisi objectives and four levels of environmental literacy The findings reveal a consensus among the professional participants that the EE goals are important ones, that they are not being met to a large extent in existing curricula, that extensive needs exist for both goal-oriented curricula and teacher education, and that the goaloriented curricula would be used by t