I identify and discuss ways in which different types of connections are described in the South African mathematics National Curriculum Statement and its related documents, particularly at the Further Education and Training (FET) level. I argue that connections are central to the way the discipline of mathematics, its learning outcomes, and…

This article presents the process of recent curricular revision and material development in English at the national level in India in a limited way. Teachers' needs and wants, their participation in the development of materials, the dilemmas of teachers and their implications for classroom transactions are discussed from the experiences of one of…

The purpose of this study was to review five initiatives in national curriculum collaboration, which have emerged since the move to national consistency arose in 2003, and to examine reports on these initiatives published by the news media and the education profession. Searches on web sites of education organisations, an electronic magazine, and…

Compulsory moral education has been included in the Japanese national curriculum since 1872. Recent demographic trends have created an unstable society, and with the increase in heinous juvenile crimes, urgent demands are being made for a more effective program. Japan's Education Reform Plan for the 21st Century has as its second major strategy…

This article provides a chronologically presented overview of policy reforms designed to enhance skill levels via education and training for school-age learners attending post-compulsory education institutions. It is argued that the catalyst for the creation of vocational diplomas is economic rather than educationally based, arising from the…

This report highlights the key findings of the ACT National Curriculum Survey, a nationwide survey of educational practices and expectations conducted by ACT every three to five years. This survey tells us what postsecondary institutions believe is important and necessary for their entering students to know and what middle and high school teachers…

The "Playing for Success" (PfS) initiative is targeted on underachieving young people. It aims to contribute to raising educational standards, especially in numeracy and literacy, bringing the attainment levels of lower achieving pupils closer to the average expected for their age. This study set out to consider whether there was any evidence of…

The value of any subject on a crowded, contested and compulsory curriculum is, or at least should be, open to debate. More importantly, when different subjects are prioritized over others, the justification for the ranking of such subjects should also be submitted to sustained enquiry. Mathematics enjoys a prestigious place in the English National…

The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy. Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is…

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)

This article traces the "cultural turn" in UK educational policy through an analysis of the Creative Partnerships policy (New Labour's "flagship programme in the cultural education field") and a consideration of an arts project funded under this initiative in one primary school. It argues that current educational policy…

Back in 1992, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded grants to five curriculum development teams and charged them with the task of starting over. Five years later, each of the development teams had produced an innovative and "integrated" curriculum. All represented notable departures from the commonly encountered, calculus-driven high…

Reasoning with data is already pervasive in society, and its importance as a life skill is increasing. We argue that the current statistics curriculum in the United Kingdom at the secondary level does not prepare our young people adequately, and suggest ways in which it could be improved.

The curriculum landscape in Singapore has been undergoing significant changes recently. While there exists a national curriculum and a central curriculum agency, the Curriculum Planning and Development Division (CPDD) within the Ministry of Education (MoE), there is a movement toward what is termed "school-based curriculum development."…

An equating study was carried out in autumn 2006 by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of Renaissance Learning, to provide validation evidence for the use of the Renaissance Star Reading and Star Mathematics tests in English schools. The study investigated the correlation between the Star tests and established tests.…