The study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large-scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown…

Based on the EU FP 7 project, PROFILES, this article presents our findings from a three-round Delphi study conducted in Sweden that aimed at establishing a consensus on how science education should be developed for citizens to enhance civic scientific literacy. A total of 100 stakeholders (9th graders, school teachers, scientists, and science…

This article reports on action research conducted at a primary school in rural New South Wales, Australia. The research responded to an expressed school aspiration to foster greater understanding of local Aboriginal culture, historical perspectives and knowledge systems within the school. An exploratory model was developed using a mixed methods…

An increasing number of Danish teachers have started introducing school-based outdoor learning as a weekly or biweekly "outdoor school" day for school children--often called "udeskole" in Danish. Although at least 14% of Danish schools practise this form of outdoor teaching with some classes, it is not mentioned in the national…

Early Childhood Education as a subject in primary schools in Nigeria was first noticed among the private primary schools in the 80s while the public primary schools did not incorporate it in their curriculum in Nigeria. Of recent, some state governments in Nigeria have just adopted and organized early childhood education unit into their primary…

Popular wisdom has it that collaboration is "the new black" in the arts and arts education. Collaboration is viewed as the basis for the making of new and novel artefacts in contemporary cultures, while also being repeatedly used as a catchword in the development of curriculum. Yet, collaboration as praxis entails complex and…

Background: Academics, teachers and policy-makers across the world have discussed how to develop a relevant physical education (PE) curriculum that addresses the "body education" needs and interests of twenty-first-century students. In Brazil, after the launch of the national curricular parameters (PCNs) in the late 1990s, many new PE…

In 2011, the Taiwanese Government began a campaign to encourage new immigrants to teach their native languages (heritage languages) to their children. However, these heritage languages are seldom used in cross-national families and the effectiveness of formal heritage language courses in Taiwan has yet to be explored. The present study examines…

Teaching is interventionist. Agreement is necessary to decide what is to be taught. May one begin from the premise that God is worthy of attention? And how can teachers help pupils discern true from false in religion? This article compares the Non-Statutory National Framework for Religious Education with the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus to consider…

After the March 2011 great East Japan earthquake, school teachers became much more interested in education for disaster prevention. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the extent education for disaster prevention is present in the Japanese National Curriculum. Before March 2011, some elements of disaster prevention education were added to the…

This article charts some of the most notable ways in which the science curriculum has changed over the past 50 years and identifies the influence of members of the Association for Science Education (ASE) in both projects and policy developments. The world is different from that of 50 years ago but there are continuing issues about the teaching,…

Mike Murray shares a lesson sequence in which his students examined changing interpretations of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879. Building on earlier work on teaching interpretations across an extended chronological period and the work of Wheeley et al on Rorke's Drift in particular, Murray develops new emphases, fresh ways in to the puzzle and…

This article provides an insight into the development of primary geography since the inception of the national curriculum in England in the late 1980s. It is hoped this is informative as the "Australian Curriculum: Geography Foundation to Year 12" is introduced to and implemented in primary schools. It draws out various matters which…

Background: Although there has been considerable research into the reliability of marking for the Key Stage 3 (KS3) National Curriculum tests (NCTs) and public examinations such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations (GCSEs) in England, little is understood about the level of reliability of marking of the Key Stage 2 (KS2)…

In this paper, the authors investigate what global visions of education are reflected in the selected national curriculum standards, with special reference to two seemingly contradictory forces: globalization and nationalism. This paper examines the socio-economic and cultural foundations of the curriculum and explains how the national curriculum…