Curriculum deliberation is an approach to constructing, operationalizing, and evaluating curricula. The essay describes the deliberative format, discusses habits that impede deliberation, and makes suggestions for the amelioration of these habits. (RM)

Identifies three assumptions underlying the emphasis on good instructional practice as a way to improve education and the curriculum. Discusses how to determine good practice and endorses a research approach to look at good teaching. Notes that the logic of basing curriculum on good instructional practice is not unproblematic. (KO)

Shows how a matrix, developed for identifying various strategies of curriculum development, can provide a basis for making a policy analysis of alternative strategies. (RM)

Reports curriculum concerns of Israeli secondary school teachers. The study indicates that subject matter decisions have high priority and that teachers express ambivalence in attitudes about their role in curriculum implementation. (KC)

Explains how nontraditional postsecondary education can provide ideas to help traditional curriculum theory developers when they are required to develop and implement theories for novel situations. Information is presented on case studies of curriculum development theories and on evaluation models. (Author/DB)

The classroom experience contains an infinite number of variables that cannot realistically be related to in any manageable teacher's manual. When manuals aim at being "practical", what is produced is often something that looks like practicality, but is not. Curriculum-writing needs a new approach, intended to educate teacher rather than students.…

This study first offers a defence of the view that natural science has transcultural intellectual characteristics relevant to its educational purposes and examines those characteristics under their ontic, epistemic, and value-related aspects. While the epistemic domain has been most prominent in relation to the science curriculum and its reform,…

The gap between the educational achievements of the comparatively wealthy and those living in poverty is widening world-wide, with the associated threat to social cohesion. Twenty-five years of curriculum reform has largely failed in its objective of providing quality, basic education for all. Arguing that successful innovation requires the…

Jewish history is unique in the sense that it expands over a vast period of time and takes place in almost all places in the world. This creates a major potential for historical debates. The state of Israel, which views itself as the high-point of Jewish national identity, has inherited these debates but attempted to find a way between them by…

Examines "The National Curriculum 5-16: A Consultation Document" that became law in 1988. Outlines the document's content and argues that the document offers solutions to various problems without demonstrating how the solutions address the problems. Raises some issues about the ownership and control of educational institutions. (GG)

Examines the radical shift in educational policies in England and Wales since 1980, and how the shift has affected the curriculum industry. Considers teachers' attempts to influence policy, and the relationship between the curriculum industry and teachers' work in the future. Delineates implications of a national curriculum, an education market,…

This paper reports a study on teachers' domain-specific beliefs about the chemistry curriculum for upper-secondary education in The Netherlands. Teachers' beliefs were investigated using a questionnaire focused on the goals of the chemistry curriculum. The design of the questionnaire was based on three curriculum emphases: "fundamental…

The study, "Young Children Learning," used a sample of 30 four-year-old girls to examine children's language development, their cognitive processing, and the differential effects of home backgrounds. Discussed are the development of girls and the ideas that are being presented to them both implicitly and explicitly by home and school.…

Defines images that teachers have of themselves within their teaching context. Employs a grounded theory approach and interviews to study how these images contribute to curricular decision making in six secondary school teachers. Analyzes the effectiveness of teacher images as tools for connecting teachers' past experiences to current curriculum…

Delineates key features of four European projects designed to consider the effects of assessment on student motivation and academic achievement. Focuses on the experiences and needs of less successful students and how assessment may contribute to poor performance. Highlights concerns for changes in education that will promote high-risk student…