Focuses on how the construction of understanding can be supported through the visual arts in the context of the British National Curriculum for Art and Design. Giving students experience working with art materials is not, in itself, sufficient; the experience must be shaped in order for students to develop artistic understanding and appreciation.…

Interview participants comprised a purposive, theoretical sample of 10 senior education policy leaders from across Australia. Participants argued that the current bureaucratic organization of schooling would persist in the future because of intensifying pressure for schools to satisfy diverse political priorities; current funding arrangements had…

In those far off days, before the days of the National Curriculum, there lived two rare beasts in the primary jungle. The beasts were known as "science" and "citizenship", and it depended on which school one went to, and which teacher one got, as to whether one learned any science at all or whether discussion of ethical issues…

When one begins to look at science in primary schools elsewhere, one is immediately struck by the fact that those in England are the odd-ones-out. Hence this is the second in a series of articles looking at how science is dealt with in other systems, beginning with England's immediate neighbours and then looking outwards towards school systems in…

This paper considers the tension that can exist in the aims of religious education between the desire to encourage open-minded, critical thinking through exposure to diverse traditions, ideas and cultures and the encouragement, overt or otherwise, into uniformity whereby learners take on the values of a particular tradition, culture or ideology…

Exploring how global changes affect education today, in the classroom and in local, national, and international contexts, this book explores the future of education's capacity for effectiveness in multicultural and multilingual contexts. The chapters deal with lifelong learning (a critique), immigration, anti-racist education, parental involvement…

This article aims to set out considerations resulting from international collaboration between educational thinkers in Norway and Wales concerning the proposed Foundation Phase in Wales and the Norwegian Framework Plan for Day Care Institutions, which cater for the same age of child. The essential feature of the Welsh proposal is the aim to place…

The question of what to include is a constant challenge to those given the responsibility of education, whether writing at the level of a national curriculum or the departmental scheme of work. Dan Lyndon and his department have been rethinking inclusion in history. In any school, representative history is essential in communicating a sense of…

Balanced development of compulsory education is not only the cornerstone of education equity, but also the fundamental part for realizing a harmonious society. There have been several achievements in balancing the development of compulsory education in China, such as narrowing the gaps in compulsory education between rural, urban, and other areas.…

'Scientific Investigation' was the first of the four Attainment Targets which prescribed the science component of the national curriculum in England and Wales in 1991. Following a brief historical account of the origins of scientific investigation as a curriculum objective, this paper comments upon the attempt by the central government to define a…

This booklet provides an overview of the policy and status of early childhood education in Portugal and includes the text of Law 5/97, the Framework Law for Pre-School Education, as well as the Curriculum Guidelines for Pre-School Education adopted by Portugal's government. Two of Law 5/97's nine main goals are: (1) to promote the child's personal…

In 1984 Australia's federal government decided to reactivate the Curriculum Development Centre, an agency abandoned in the early 1980's for political and economic reasons. This paper examines the context in which the center currently acts and the operations that it conducts. The paper first considers background issues related to national…

The successful study of history requires many things, but few would contest that an understanding of time is one of them. Quite what we mean by "an understanding of time" needs clarification, however. Chronological understanding is one feature. But it is not simply an ability to place events in order that drives our teaching (although…

When pupils study interpretations or representations of the past which are neither from their own period nor from the period being interpreted/represented, they are having to employ sophisticated knowledge and skill. Jane Card describes this as "double vision": the pupils must think about "the period depicted" (in this case the…

This brief pamphlet provides a description of the obligatory and optional subjects taught in all 10 forms of the "Folkeskole," as of August 1976. Those subjects include: (1) Danish; (2) Arithmetic/Mathematics: (3) Physical Education and Sport; (4) Christian Studies (compulsory school, i.e. 1st-9th forms); (5) Christian Studies/Religious…