This article presents extracts from interviews with 14 teachers of English. It indicates some of the tensions which result for such teachers from having to prepare Year 9 students for the "national" tests in English toward the end of Key Stage 3. These are high-stakes tests: they supply the means to compile school "league…

Against the backdrop of growing conflicts in Israeli society and concerns about its democratic character, the current curriculum guidelines and official textbook for civic education in Israel were set to offer a more inclusive civic education that would stress ideas such as pluralistic and democratic citizenship. However, this curriculum does not…

The Polish school education system makes a distinction between two types of assessment: (1) Intra-school or internal assessment; and (2) External assessment. The idea of introducing external examinations into the Polish school education system emerged in 1992. This was directly inspired by study visits to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

Suggests that Korea's cultural changes and trends are reflected in the country's kindergarten curriculum. Provides an overview of traditional Korean early childhood education and the historical evolution of kindergarten curriculum. Discusses the modern national kindergarten curriculum and its relationship to Korean culture and concludes that…

Describes the principal features of Great Britain's National Curriculum for English. Examines British educators' responses to this national curriculum mandate, paying particular attention to their criticisms, thus illuminating work in the United States in curriculum development and uncovering some of the problems in an approach that features…

Discusses concerns regarding the assessment of scientific investigations in the National Curriculum. Presents observations and assessment advice and guidance. (JRH)

Compares La Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles (JUNJI), Chile's federally funded preschool system, with the United States' Head Start program. Notes that, unlike Head Start, JUNJI is administered at the national level; requires preschool teachers to have four-year university degrees; follows a national curriculum; and, due to budget…

Considers how design and technology may contribute to the development of students' economic understanding. Defines design and technology and the connection to economic understanding through values. Suggests that technology teachers need to be made aware of a broad range of contexts that can be used to develop economic understanding through…

In Great Britain, recent declarations of the Department of Education and Science and the National Curriculum Council have suggested that the National Curriculum will banish continuity difficulties for students transferring from primary to secondary schooling. The National Curriculum, however, does not address the main issue--lack of communication…

A discussion of the teaching of poetry begins with a brief look at attitude toward poetry within British educational institutions, followed by an assessment of the relationship between poetry teaching and teaching reading skills to children and foreign language learners. A new approach for teaching poetry is presented. (11 references) (Author/LB)

In the absence of national standards, we have evolved a haphazard, accidental, disconnected national curriculum based on mass-market textbooks and standardized, multiple-choice tests. This article explains former Education Secretary Lamar Alexander's efforts to ameliorate this situation by promoting America 2000, establishing the National Council…

Argues that the British national curriculum has made science exciting for students aged 5-16 and that future development should be informed much more explicitly by the underpinning rationale and philosophy of the subject. (DDR)

The York-Finnish Project compares how national-policy changes affect implementation in two countries where curriculum reforms are moving in opposite directions. English primary schools were implementing National Curriculum changes while Finnish schools developed decentralized curricula. Teachers in both countries experienced negative…

Discusses the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in homes and its impact on teachers in schools, based partly on case studies of British secondary schools. Topics include home learning environments; the National Curriculum for England and Wales; and initial teacher training curriculum for ICT. (LRW)

Presents an action research project and analyzes the problem of enabling students to become competent readers in light of the new Israeli English-as-a-foreign-language curriculum. Describes a process that shows how students who lack reading comprehension skills cannot access information in a written text. (Author/VWL)