Explores professionalism, the ideal of service, the professional community, and the epistemology of practice as key dimensions of teacher professionalism. Urges practitioners to consider teaching as an aspiration. Calls for the creation of a community of intellectuals and practitioners in order to develop a basis for practice. (KO)

Relates the history of computer studies and its impact on the secondary education environment in Australia. Discusses how the mass media and computer distributors have made parents feel that access to computer education is essential in their children's education. (GG)

Critiques an elementary social studies program by analyzing commercially available curriculum materials. Discusses goals, content selection, organization and sequencing, and explication in the text. Suggests that publishers should (1) shift from content coverage objectives to more general social education purposes; (2) connect information in…

Asserts that curricularists need to move away from curriculum based on objectives, and that they should embrace the notion of curriculum as social construction at the level of prescription and also at the level of process and practice. Maintains that methodological foci need to be developed which integrate studies at the preactive and interactive…

Argues U.S. secondary school reform requires a serious rethinking of the curriculum, in addition to revising the structures and relationships within schools. Explores problems posed by disciplines as the primary influence on curricula, and proposes an alternative model that evenly integrates the influence of disciplines with other influences on…

Analyzes three widely-held conceptions of critical thinking: as one or more skills, as mental processes, and as sets of procedures. Considers each a misconception and offers alternative proposals for teaching critical thinking. (CMK)

Describes the main ideas in the work of Dutch mathematician and mathematics educator, Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990), related to curriculum theory and didactics. Explores his idea of mathematics as a human activity and his criticism of education research and theories. Focuses on three aspects of his work. (CMK)

Provides a model for curriculum development using constructivism to help democratize science education. Illustrates how to put this model into practice, focusing on: (1) expressing current conceptions; (2) sharing and learning new conceptions; and (3) applying and testing conceptions. (CMK)

Explores the evolution of the curriculum field during the era of "curriculum renaissance." Addresses the generational bases of the curriculum renaissance, the responses among the current generation of curriculum workers to the renaissance, and the direction the millennial generation is taking the field. Includes references. (CMK)

Explores the efforts of a curriculum development team who set out to create a virtual frog for use in biology education, but instead, after several design studies, developed a virtual world called Frog Island. Argues for incorporating educational design studies into other educational development projects. (CMK)

In recent years, US curriculum policy has emphasized standards-based conceptions of curricula in mathematics and science. This paper explores the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to argue that the presence of content standards is not sufficient to guarantee curricula that lead to high-quality instruction and…

This paper examines curriculum differentiation (i.e. streaming or ability-grouping). After placing curriculum differentiation in an international perspective, it outlines the main conclusions from empirical research on differentiation over several decades. Against this empirical background, it describes and considers the three specific…

The author examines the reading level of curriculum materials developed in Africa and discusses the findings which suggest that readability indices have a high potential of being useful in the formative stages of curriculum development. (Author/RM)

The social changes and the microeconomic issues which aided or militated against curriculum reform at the secondary level in Guyana are identified, and the influence they exerted is examined. (Author/ND)

States that the schools and curricula of Latin America neglect the culture, interests, aspirations, and values of the majority of the population. Argues that radical changes in the curriculum-planning process are necessary. Considers the use of a cultural analysis model as a framework for planning curricula directed toward the achievement of…