The USA has had a new set of science standards entitled the Next Generation Science Standards since 2014. While their adoption has not been ubiquitous, as curriculum choices are a state rather than a federal decision, they have been adopted by 19 states (plus the District of Columbia). Moreover, they have been influential on the curriculum choices…

Differentiating instruction can be difficult, however, when higher performing students yearn to be stretched and lower performing students benefit from scaffolded support. One way to meet these students' learning needs and everyone in-between is to embrace the notion of novel exploration in support of critical school mathematics concepts. Novelty…

The authors present evidence-based digital literacy practices and resources for teaching and learning English as an additional language in two different educational contexts where these practices have been applied successfully with adolescent learners.

This article concentrates on the necessity for teachers in just one discipline area, namely, science, having philosophical competence and using it to inform their professional life--in their classroom teaching, assessing and institutional engagements--in other words, having a philosophy of science teaching. This group of questions and issues might…

The national common educational standards and the role of citizenship education is an important issue for all social studies educators--preK through college. This article presents websites that examine the Common Core Standards Initiative's work and plans for the future and some that focus more specifically on the social studies/citizenship…

For the "Extending the Conversation" section in this issue, the authors invited English educators from the United States and abroad to reflect on the state of English education in their countries. All five contributors have interacted through their participation in the NCTE Annual Convention, the CEE summer summits, the International…

Nationwide education initiatives are underway in various parts of the world, including a push for national curricula in the U.S. and Australia. In Australia, school librarians have been invited guests to provide input into the integration of digital/information literacy across curriculum areas. Conversely, U.S., school librarians crashed the…

The New Social Studies movement was an effort by social scientists to reform US social studies/history curriculum at all levels during the 1960s and early 1970s. In the end, more than 50 different projects attempting to revitalise social studies were developed. Many of the projects focused on inquiry-based teaching practices and curriculum.…

Whether in the business center of Sydney and its suburbs to the east, in the mining and agricultural communities of the remote Kimberley region in the northwest, or elsewhere, most of Australia's 3.3 million K-12 students share the customary features of schooling--from physical structures to academic schedules. The content also has a common…

This book focuses on the International Examinations Inquiry (IEI), an international, well-funded scientific project that operated in the 1930s, attracting key world figures in educational research, and which undertook significant exchanges of data. Originally involving the USA, Scotland, England, France, Germany and Switzerland, the IEI grew to…

Japanese, Germans, and Britons value the study of foreign languages, art, and music and favor long school years, state-supported preschool activities, and homework. Examining other nations' curricula is a valuable exercise that helps U.S. educators question the cultural values embedded in their own education system. (10 references) (MLH)

Geography teaching has been under constant change over the last decades. Innovations from research in geography and higher education have diffused in school practices in various ways. International trends have been applied to national contexts in co-operation among academics, administrators and school teachers depending on policies and educational…

In this article, the authors begin with a look back at the emergence of English education in the social and political context of the United States as a nation, situating the development of the research-practice divide narrative in debates concerning the nature and purpose of English as secondary-school subject in changing times. The authors turn…

This paper describes new approaches to assessment in dance and dance education. The first part examines assumptions behind traditional models of evaluation in academic and performing arts contexts. I consider whether it is useful to understand human ability as unitary or if it is meaningful to evaluate people according to a single dimension of…

Both the United States and England initiated ambitious standards-based education reform to eliminate large gaps between their highest and lowest achievers. England appears to be ahead, having started in 1988 with a national curriculum, tests, and performance tables. The United States' No Child Left Behind Act began rewriting state rules in 2002…