This engaging text examines issues in education and curriculum theory from multiple critical perspectives. Students are encouraged to look at education from the "inside" (the complex processes, methods and relations that operate within schools) and from the "outside" (the larger social, economic, and political forces that have affected schools over time). Each essay begins with "Guiding Questions" and concludes with "Questions for Discussion," "Teachers as Researchers" activities, and "Suggested Readings."

This unique volume takes readers behind the scenes for an "insider/outsider" view of education policymaking in action. Two state-level case studies of social studies curriculum reform and textbook policy (California and New York) illustrate how curriculum decision making becomes an arena in which battles are fought over national values and priorities. Written by a New York education professor and a California journalist, the text offers a rare blend of academic and journalistic voices. The "great speckled bird" is the authors' counter-symbol to the bald eagle--a metaphor representing the racial-ethnic-cultural diversity that has characterized the U.S. since its beginnings and the multicultural reality of American society today. The text breaks new ground by focusing on the intersections of national debates and education policymaking. It situates the case studies within historical and contemporary cultural contexts--with particular attention to questions of power and knowledge control and how influence is exercised. By juxtaposing the contrasting cases of California and New York, the authors illustrate commonalities and differences in education policymaking goals and processes. By sharing stories of participants at and behind the scenes, policymaking comes alive rather than appearing to result from impersonal "forces" or "factors."

Originally published in 1993. The appearance of design and technology in the National Curriculum has offered primary teachers opportunities for imaginative and stimulating work which is directly related to the lives of their pupils. Its sheer scope can, however, be daunting for the teacher already overloaded with the other demands of the National Curriculum. Tina Jarvis provides some much needed guidance on strategies for including design and technology effectively within the whole curriculum, including the development of co-operative group-work and finding effective ways to assess individuals in group situations. The author also looks at how teachers can tackle subject areas which may be unfamiliar to them, such as systems, environments and economic enterprises.

This volume explores higher level, critical, and creative thinking, as well as reflective decision making and problem solving -- what teachers should emphasize when teaching literacy across the curriculum. Focusing on how to encourage learners to become independent thinking, learning, and communicating participants in home, school, and community environments, this book is concerned with integrated learning in a curriculum of inclusion. It emphasizes how to provide a curriculum for students where they are socially interactive, personally reflective, and academically informed.
Contributors are authorities on such topics as cognition and learning, classroom climates, knowledge bases of the curriculum, the use of technology, strategic reading and learning, imagery and analogy as a source of creative thinking, the nature of motivation, the affective domain in learning, cognitive apprenticeships, conceptual development across the disciplines, thinking through the use of literature, the impact of the media on thinking, the nature of the new classroom, developing the ability to read words, the bilingual, multicultural learner, crosscultural literacy, and reaching the special learner.
The applications of higher level thought to classroom contexts and materials are provided, so that experienced teacher educators, and psychologists are able to implement some of the abstractions that are frequently dealt with in texts on cognition. Theoretical constructs are grounded in educational experience, giving the volume a practical dimension. Finally, appropriate concerns regarding the new media, hypertext, bilingualism, and multiculturalism as they reflect variation in cognitive experience within the contexts of learning are presented.

This volume explores higher level, critical, and creative thinking, as well as reflective decision making and problem solving -- what teachers should emphasize when teaching literacy across the curriculum. Focusing on how to encourage learners to become independent thinking, learning, and communicating participants in home, school, and community environments, this book is concerned with integrated learning in a curriculum of inclusion. It emphasizes how to provide a curriculum for students where they are socially interactive, personally reflective, and academically informed.
Contributors are authorities on such topics as cognition and learning, classroom climates, knowledge bases of the curriculum, the use of technology, strategic reading and learning, imagery and analogy as a source of creative thinking, the nature of motivation, the affective domain in learning, cognitive apprenticeships, conceptual development across the disciplines, thinking through the use of literature, the impact of the media on thinking, the nature of the new classroom, developing the ability to read words, the bilingual, multicultural learner, crosscultural literacy, and reaching the special learner.
The applications of higher level thought to classroom contexts and materials are provided, so that experienced teacher educators, and psychologists are able to implement some of the abstractions that are frequently dealt with in texts on cognition. Theoretical constructs are grounded in educational experience, giving the volume a practical dimension. Finally, appropriate concerns regarding the new media, hypertext, bilingualism, and multiculturalism as they reflect variation in cognitive experience within the contexts of learning are presented.

The assessment of the National Curriculum has evolved from the first blueprint of the TGAT Report through a series of policy decisions and early experience of implementation. The pace of change, the complexity of the proposed assessment system and the political rhetoric associated with it have served to confuse and so obscure the trends in policy and practice. This book offers an account of that system and explains why it is now emerging in a substantially different form from that envisaged by its originators.

The assessment of the National Curriculum has evolved from the first blueprint of the TGAT Report through a series of policy decisions and early experience of implementation. The pace of change, the complexity of the proposed assessment system and the political rhetoric associated with it have served to confuse and so obscure the trends in policy and practice. This book offers an account of that system and explains why it is now emerging in a substantially different form from that envisaged by its originators.

This is the first of a two-volume publication which provides an international perspective on how children learn to read. Research studies and classroom experiences from around the world are reported, highlighting implications for the design implementation and evaluation of classroom reading programmes. Contributions and evidence is drawn from over 18 countries and, despite the national differences, there are many common concerns and controversies. From these, three areas are identified: the first is developing an improved understanding of the nature of children's early reading development; the second is the consideration of the ways in which children's reading can be encouraged; and finally issues of assessment in the context of accountability are addressed. This volume deals with the first of these concerns.

This is the first of a two-volume publication which provides an international perspective on how children learn to read. Research studies and classroom experiences from around the world are reported, highlighting implications for the design implementation and evaluation of classroom reading programmes. Contributions and evidence is drawn from over 18 countries and, despite the national differences, there are many common concerns and controversies. From these, three areas are identified: the first is developing an improved understanding of the nature of children's early reading development; the second is the consideration of the ways in which children's reading can be encouraged; and finally issues of assessment in the context of accountability are addressed. This volume deals with the first of these concerns.

This is the second of a two-volume publication which provides an international perspective on how children learn to read. Research studies and classroom experiences from around the world are reported, highlighting implications for the design implementation and evaluation of classroom reading programmes. Contributions are included from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Jamaica and Israel with evidence drawn from over 18 countries. Despite the contexted differences, there are many common concerns and controversies. From these, three areas are identified: the first is developing an improved understanding of the nature of children's early reading development; the second is the consideration of the ways in which children's reading can be encouraged. This volume addresses the issues of curriculum and assessment in the context of accountability.

Like the first reader, this collection examines the grounds which are accepted for inclusion or exclusion of students, and looks at how appropriate support can be guaranteed for people who experience difficulties in learning, who are disabled or who experience social or other kinds of disability. This volume explores national and international contexts for educational practice and research and discusses practical, ethical and political issues which are relevant to undertaking that research. Part one covers issues facing local government and the consumers of educational services in the UK. Part two compares policy and practice in eleven different countries and part 3 discusses research which explores the issues of equality and diversity in education. This volume and her sister, Equality and Diversity in Education 1: Learning, Teaching and Managing in Schools are reraders for the Open University course, "Developing Inclusive Curricula: Equality and Diversity in Education" (E829). The two books in the series will appeal to teachers, non-teaching assistants and other school-based staff,parents,disabled people and those who have experienced difficulties in learning,social and health workers, and those working for voluntary organisations.

Using an analysis of learning by a case study comparison of two undergraduate courses at a United States University, Nespor examines the way in which education and power merge in physics and management. Through this study of politics and practices of knowledge, he explains how students, once accepted on these courses, are facilitated on a path to power; physics and management being core disciplines in modern society. Taking strands from constructivist psychology, post-modern geography, actor-network theory and feminist sociology, this book develops a theoretical language for analysing the production and use of knowledge. He puts forward the idea that learning, usually viewed as a process of individual minds and groups in face-to-face interaction, is actually a process of activities organised across space and time and how organisations of space and time are produced in social practice.; Within this context educational courses are viewed as networks of a larger whole, and individual courses are points in the network which link a wider relationship by way of texts, tasks and social practices intersecting with them. The book shows how students enrolled on such courses automatically become part of a network of power and knowledge.

Using an analysis of learning by a case study comparison of two undergraduate courses at a United States University, Nespor examines the way in which education and power merge in physics and management. Through this study of politics and practices of knowledge, he explains how students, once accepted on these courses, are facilitated on a path to power; physics and management being core disciplines in modern society. Taking strands from constructivist psychology, post-modern geography, actor-network theory and feminist sociology, this book develops a theoretical language for analysing the production and use of knowledge. He puts forward the idea that learning, usually viewed as a process of individual minds and groups in face-to-face interaction, is actually a process of activities organised across space and time and how organisations of space and time are produced in social practice.; Within this context educational courses are viewed as networks of a larger whole, and individual courses are points in the network which link a wider relationship by way of texts, tasks and social practices intersecting with them. The book shows how students enrolled on such courses automatically become part of a network of power and knowledge.

The ten modules included in "Science for Curriculum Leaders" cover the two areas of particular concern in the teaching of science--organizing the classroom for investigations and reviewing science coverage on a whole school basis--and the ways in which issues of more general concern in elementary school curriculum (multicultural education, planning for individual progression, assessment) affect the teaching of science.

With the advent of the National Curriculum, computer based modelling (CBM) is now a compulsory part of the school curriculum. Teachers are increasingly being encouraged to seek out opportunities for CBM in their own subject and across the curriculum. The new demands on the curriculum have left eachers and teacher trainers concerned as to their lack of experience in the area. This book sets out to provide a comprehensive guide to the area through an examination of a number of funded projects on CBM and their application to the school curriculum, setting them in the context of wider theoretical and practical concerns. It is acknowledged that computers bring about change in the classroom, both in teachers' professional development and innovative practices in teaching and learning. In highlighting how CBM can aid in the effective delivery of the curriculum, this book should be essential reading for teachers and researchers in the field.

As computers become more widely used in schools, it is clear that they have the potential not just to support the achievement of conventional goals, but also to redefine what we mean by reading, writing and discussion. The contributors to Language, Classroom and Computers - all with experience of teaching about language and computers for The Open University - use teachers' accounts together with their own research to examine how the use of computers in school can affect the ways in which children learn and teachers teach. The first section looks at some generic aspects of computer use, focusing particularly on class management: individual and group learning, the role of the teacher as facilitator and co-learner and the problems of limited access. The second section examines the contribution of specific sorts of software package: word processing, e-mail, hypertext and so on to lanugage learning. This is a book for everyone who wants IT to add a new dimension to their teaching.

The final volume of four, the authors, all specialists in the areas of the curriculum, consider how the concerns of ethnic groups may be addressed within the framework of the National Curriculum. Despite the indecision surrounding the structure, content, pedagogy and assessment of many components of the primary school curriculum, it remains that the multicultural nature of the population and of schools will develop. These developments and their educational implications must be considered if the educational system is to respond adequately.

Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts presents a compelling argument that the creative and cultural inquiry undertaken by artists is a form of research. The text explores themes, practices, and contexts of artistic inquiry and positions them within the discourse of research. Author Graeme Sullivan argues that legitimate research goals can be achieved by choosing different methods than those offered by the social sciences. The common denominator in both approaches is the attention given to rigor and systematic inquiry. Artists emphasize the role of the imaginative intellect in creating, criticizing, and constructing knowledge that is not only new but also has the capacity to transform human understanding.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203422023

This is a practical guide to designing and implementing the vocational curriculum. All the issues specific to a vocational programme of study, in particular relating to new GNVQS, are considered. It has been written to assist the curriculum developer in schools, colleges and private practice faced with the task of gaining validation for a vocational programme and then implementing a work-related curriculum. The text supplies the reader with an interpretation of all the main changes taking place in the vocational curriculum and practical assistance in preparing vocational programmes for submission and validation.

Two decades have now passed since the revolutions of 1989 swept through Eastern Europe and precipitated the collapse of state socialism across the region, engendering a period of massive social, economic and political transformation. This book explores the ways in which young people growing up in post-socialist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union negotiate a range of identities and transitions in their personal lives against a backdrop of thoroughgoing transformation in their societies. Drawing upon original empirical research in a range of countries, the book's contributors explore the various freedoms and insecurities that have accompanied neo-liberal transformation in post-socialist countries - in spheres as diverse as consumption, migration, political participation, volunteering, employment and family formation - and examine the ways in which they have begun to re-shape different aspects of young people's lives. In addition, while 'social change' is a central theme of the issue, all of the chapters in the collection indicate that the new opportunities and risks faced by young people continue both to underpin and to be shaped by familiar social and spatial divisions, not only within and between the countries addressed, but also between 'East' and 'West'. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Youth Studies.

This edited collection takes as its theme a subject topical not only in Britain, where a spate of laws and regulations has affected the structure and content of education available in this country, but also in developed and developing countries, where the overriding motivation has been to raise economic performance. The first part of the book deals with the way legislation affects education and training both directly and tangently, and how the law, through its influence on such things as participation rates, certification and employer involvement, can affect the level and degree of economic activity. The USA, Japan, Germany, France, Nigeria, Kenya and the UK are examined in detail to illustrate the inter-relationship of the elements involved. The second part is concerned with the concept of curriculum control. Responsibility for what is taught in the classroom is viewed comparatively, this is followed by an analysis of the parts played by the state, headteachers, governors, parents and pupils. The implications of tight legal controls over both content and delivery of the curriculum are examined. Contributors are drawn from various parts of the education system.

This book identifies neglected areas of research and indicates how research results can be integrated in secondary school curricula. It compares research findings and encourages cooperation in a field of particular interest.

Creative form drawing is a fascinating and meaningful artistic activity for health and well-being. It is focusing and fun. It engages the right brain, by getting into the flow of colour, form and movement. It offers the space for personal creativity, with stunning colourful forms to stimulate originality. Creative form drawing can be both energising and relaxing, calming and enlivening, a valuable aid to harmonising body and soul. This first creative form drawing book for adults features fourfold patterns of increasing challenge. It references Celtic, Moorish, Native American and Buddhist patterns, and encourages the development of new forms. The forms have symmetry, a balance between left and right, above and below, connecting the centre with the periphery, providing stability and harmony. Some forms are rhythmical, having a pattern that moves in flowing rhythms and lines. Other forms are organic, as drawing organically inspired forms such as flowers helps experience nature's colours, and designs. Flowers provide inspiring ideas for colour combinations and for new forms. Drawing with line, form, colour and beauty is a balancing, healing and enlivening process. Originally developed by the educator Rudolf Steiner, creative form drawing is used widely in Steiner/Waldorf education to support healthy child development and learning.