The paper analyses and compares developments in history teaching in Germany, England, and the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th centuries. The development of history teaching in the three countries shows striking similarities. National politics have always used history education for purposes which did not necessarily tally with distanced critical…

In his article, Jack Thomson counsels against crudely instrumental models of English curriculum. His imagining of a national curriculum draws on the strong traditions of English curriculum in this country, and it is built on what he calls "Foundational Principles of Good Educative Practice."

This is the second publication in the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) Project Plus series. Project Plus aims to inform questions of policy and practice by synthesising findings of educational interest from projects funded by the TLRI. This Project Plus focuses on literacy in the early childhood education (ECE) and school…

This article explores the history and development of interdisciplinarity within the Australian context. Conditions and circumstances for the emergence of interdisciplinary approaches are explored with discussion identifying how these approaches impact and shape national curriculum, teachers' practice and pedagogy. Policies, proposals, and debate…

Models are included in the science National Curriculum because modelling is a key tool for scientists and an integral part of how science works. Modelling is explicitly referred to in the Programmes of Study for Science at Key Stage 3 and 4 (age 11-16) and in Assessing Pupil's Progress (APP). Pupils need to learn how to use models because they are…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the construction of health knowledge in the Finnish national curriculum and recent Finnish health education textbooks, at primary and secondary levels of education. The authors examine the visual and textual content of the textbooks in an attempt to identify their pedagogical style and approach to…

New Zealand has become an increasingly multicultural society since the 1990s. But multicultural education is complicated in this nation by its position on biculturalism, a commitment founded in its postcolonial history. The finding of an investigation in secondary schools, which showed that national and visual arts curricula emphasize…

New developments and challenges regarding early childhood education (ECE) policy and practice in Norway and in the Flemish and French communities in Belgium are presented in this issue. There are clear differences between the countries when comparing systems they have chosen for ECE. In Belgium, supervision and responsibilities for education,…

This article provides insight into the nature and scope of home-school cooperation in Finland. Situating the study is a brief overview of the Finnish education system and a discussion of the Programme for International Student Assessment reports that place Finnish student outcomes at the top of rankings among industrialized nations for the past…

For more than 50 years, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has been instrumental in developing an analytical model for understanding the relationships between educational policy (the intended curriculum), classroom and instructional practices (the implemented curriculum), and educational learning…

Schools and teachers in England have found themselves coerced into a situation where high-stakes testing, scrutiny of "performance" and the generation of data for competitive league tables have dominated the educational experience of young people. There is a growing recognition from all quarters that this model is failing and that…

One of the most distinctive qualities that characterize present-day society is the social fact that people are shifting to the information age. In recent years, they have witnessed remarkable developments in information and communication technology (ICT), in which microelectronics, computers, and telecommunications have converged. Transnational…

Although research has traditionally discussed the ways in which societies in conflict develop educational practices, only recently have scholars begun to examine the role of education in creating or sustaining conflict. In Afghanistan, changing regimes have had an impact on state-sanctioned curricula over the past fifty years, drastically altering…

A systematic review was undertaken in 2006 to answer the question "What is the evidence for successful practice in teaching and learning with regard to non-fiction writing (specifically argumentational writing) for 7- to 14-year-olds?", using EPPI-Centre methodology. Results showed that certain conditions have to be in place. These…

This article examines the goals and consequences of an educational reform introduced in all Japanese schools beginning in 2002. The Integrated Studies (IS) programme was designed to increase teacher autonomy and to augment student interest in learning. The reform has the potential to alter significantly the way education is organised and delivered…