This book explores how curriculum reform is interconnected with policy, practice and society. Curriculum reform is increasingly associated with efforts to better the lives of citizens and provide a competitive edge to national prosperity. Educational policy and practice have been the subject of unprecedented convergence worldwide in the quest for so-called 21st century skills. This book offers a case study of curriculum reform within the Republic of Ireland, focusing on antecedents, processes and outcomes of government efforts to evoke fundamental curriculum realignment at lower secondary level. Set against a backdrop of fluctuating economic fortunes and concerns about academic standards and educational equity, this volume has wider relevance beyond Ireland for any system undertaking education reform at scale.
The curriculum is a live issue in universities across the world. Many stakeholders – governments, employers, professional and disciplinary groups and parents – express strong and often conflicting views about what higher education should achieve for its students. Many universities are reviewing their curricula at an institutional level, aware that they are in a competitive climate in which league tables encourage students to see themselves as consumers and the university as a product, or even a ‘brand’. The move has prompted renewed concern for some central educational questions, about both what is learnt and how. Strategic Curriculum Change explores the ways in which major universities across the world are reviewing their approaches to teaching and learning. It unites institution-level strategy with the underlying educational issues. The book is grounded in a major study of curriculum change in over twenty internationally-focused, research-intensive universities in the UK, US, Australia, The Netherlands, South Africa and Hong Kong. Chapters include: Achieving curriculum coherence: Curriculum design and delivery as social practice Assessment in curriculum change The whole-of-institution curriculum renewal undertaken by the University of Melbourne, 2005-2011 The physical and virtual environment for learning People and change: Academic work and leadership This book presents a theorised and contextualised approach to the study of the curriculum, and carries on much-needed research on the curriculum in higher education. It is an essential for the collection of all academics at university level, and those involved in policy making, quality assurance and enhancement.
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution—as well as on people who are working to make things better. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth has the breadth and depth ofRethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World, one of the most popular books we’ve published. At a time when it’s becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at risk, here is a resource that helps students see what’s wrong and imagine solutions. Praise for A People's Curriculum for the Earth "To really confront the climate crisis, we need to think differently, build differently, and teach differently. A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is an educator’s toolkit for our times." — Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate "This volume is a marvelous example of justice in ALL facets of our lives—civil, social, educational, economic, and yes, environmental. Bravo to the Rethinking Schools team for pulling this collection together and making us think more holistically about what we mean when we talk about justice." — Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Bigelow and Swinehart have created a critical resource for today’s young people about humanity’s responsibility for the Earth. This book can engender the shift in perspective so needed at this point on the clock of the universe." — Gregory Smith, Professor of Education, Lewis & Clark College, co-author with David Sobel of Place- and Community-based Education in Schools
One of the educationist’s major concerns today is to find effective ways of translating new goals for the curriculum into classroom practices. American and British contributions analyse curriculum change as it actually occurs, with people, institutions and constraints of time and money acknowledged and accepted as a necessary and rightful part of the whole process. Detailed accounts are given of curriculum change in a wide variety of settings: American and English school systems, a college of education, an art curriculum project, Scottish classrooms. Analytic perspectives are employed that help to clarify the underlying forces at work. The contributors probe the adequacy of current theorizing about curriculum development, and suggest new ways of thinking about the problems involved in bringing about change.
Curriculum Change and Innovation is an introductory textbook on Hong Kong’s school curriculum. Written in an approachable style using illustrative case studies, the textbook provides an introduction to the basic concepts and theories of "curriculum" as a field of study. It also discusses how sociopolitical and economic changes as well as technology advancements help transform teachers' roles and reshape curriculum policies. The chapters cover a wide range of topics, including curriculum design, planning, implementation and evaluation. These discussions are included to help readers critically reflect on their roles as change agents in curriculum development. Shirley S. Y. Yeung is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. John T. S. Lam is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Anthony W. L. Leung is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Yiu Chun Lo is an associate professor of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
This book analyses and explains the role that the study of media texts has played in English curricula across the last 30 years, exploring the implications of these changes for teachers and students. Presenting a documentary analysis of the key evidence surrounding the history of media texts within English, the book focuses on how media has been characterized in the subject of English in the UK National Curriculum, while also reflecting on the position of media texts in other English-speaking National Curricula such as Australia and New Zealand. It dissects the changing role of media texts in English, considering media texts which range from newspapers and print adverts, films and TV through to digital, web-based and multimodal texts. The book charts the history of this part of English and considers what it can tell us about the nature of curriculum and English education more broadly. Speaking to important issues of curriculum in education, this book will be key reading for researchers, students and practitioners of media education, English education and the history of education.
Biology is where many of science's most exciting and relevant advances are taking place. Yet, many students leave school without having learned basic biology principles, and few are excited enough to continue in the sciences. Why is biology education failing? How can reform be accomplished? This book presents information and expert views from curriculum developers, teachers, and others, offering suggestions about major issues in biology education: what should we teach in biology and how should it be taught? How can we measure results? How should teachers be educated and certified? What obstacles are blocking reform?
"What year are you preparing your students for? 1973? 1995? Can you honestly say that your school's curriculum and the program you use are preparing your students for 2015 or 2020? Are you even preparing them for today?" With those provocative questions, author and educator Heidi Hayes Jacobs launches a powerful case for overhauling, updating, and injecting life into the K-12 curriculum. Sharing her expertise as a world-renowned curriculum designer and calling upon the collective wisdom of 10 education thought leaders, Jacobs provides insight and inspiration in the following key areas: * Content and assessment: How to identify what to keep, what to cut, and what to create, and where portfolios and other new kinds of assessment fit into the picture. * Program structures: How to improve our use of time and space and groupings of students and staff. * Technology: How it's transforming teaching, and how to take advantage of students' natural facility with technology. * Media literacy: The essential issues to address, and the best resources for helping students become informed users of multiple forms of media. * Globalization: What steps to take to help students gain a global perspective. * Sustainability: How to instill enduring values and beliefs that will lead to healthier local, national, and global communities. * Habits of mind: The thinking habits that students, teachers, and administrators need to develop and practice to succeed in school, work, and life. The answers to these questions and many more make Curriculum 21 the ideal guide for transforming our schools into what they must become: learning organizations that match the times in which we live.
The process of curriculum development is highly practical, as Goodson shows in this enlarged anniversary third edition of his seminal work. The position of subjects and their development within the curriculum is illustrated by looking at how school subjects, in particular, geography and biology, gained academic and intellectual respectability within the whole curriculum during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He highlights how subjects owe their formation and accreditation to competing status and their power to compete in the provision of 'worthwhile' knowledge and considers subjects as continually changing sub-groups of information. Such subjects from the framework of the society in which individuals live and over which they have influence. This volume questions the basis on which subject disciplines are developed and formulates new possibilities for curriculum development and reform in a post-modrnist age.
Through the work of the Schools Council and other national agencies, the difficulties of achieving effective curriculum change through centralized initiatives and directives have been well documented. At the same time the importance of teacher involvement in such activities, and the advantages of curriculum development over revolutionary innovation, have become plain. This knowledge and the understandings it has generated are important today, when unusually sweeping changes are being brought about in the school curriculum. The authors of this book draw together these ideas to assist people promoting curriculum changes, as well as those on the receiving end of such projects.
