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Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) tools are increasingly administered through technology-based modalities such as computers and tablets. Two studies were conducted to examine whether students perf...

Purpose: The primary objective was to inventory what is currently known about faculty development (FD) for competency-based medical educations (CBME) and identify gaps in the literature.Methods: A ...

Biology education should be relevant to young students so that they can become interested in biology and understand biological topics in their everyday and vocational lives. We conducted interviews...

It is widely recognised that high-stakes assessment can significantly influence what is taught in the classroom. Many argue that high-stakes assessment results in a narrowed curriculum where students learn by rote rather than developing higher cognitive skills. This paper describes a study investigating the various cognitive objectives present from Bloom’s Taxonomy Educational Objectives on the Leaving Certificate biology examination. The study analysed examination papers from the past and current biology syllabuses. Analysis was also carried out to determine the marks being awarded to the different cognitive objectives. The findings show that the examination predominately includes questions that do not promote higher levels of thinking. The majority of the marks on the paper were allocated to the lower objectives of the taxonomy, suggesting students can rely on rote learning to succeed when undertaking the biology examination. This study strongly highlights how high-stake examinations have a narrow scope in terms of student achievement and shows how current biology examination procedures promote low-level learning. This low level of thinking promotes rote learning and regurgitation of facts, requiring little to no understanding of the topics. To prepare students for the working world, there needs to be a shift from only terminal exams to a mixed approach.

INTRODUCTIONIn November 2015 the Journal of Geoscience Education Editorial Board met to review and discussed the criteria for curriculum and instruction (CI teaching approaches; professional development; or outreach to schools or the general public. We welcome innovations targeted at any grade level that are used in either formal or informal settings. All C&I papers must be grounded in appropriate educational literature, and must provide evidence of how the proposed innovation meets its learning goals. The following criteria should be met:1. Title: The title sets the stage for the paper. It informs the reader about the topic of the paper. Specific to C&I papers, the title should describe the type of educational innovation and the setting where it was implemented.2. Abstract: The paper must include an informational abstract of no more than 250 words that summarizes the purpose of the educational innovation, what takes place during the innovation, the data that supports the effectiveness of the innovation, and ''lessons learned'' that could help readers implement the innovation elsewhere. It is a succinct summary of the paper itself, rather than an introduction to the paper.3. Purpose and Learning Goals: The purpose of the educational innovation is clearly explained. Where appropriate, this includes learning goals stated in terms of what participants should know or be able to do after completing the activity, program, course, or other intervention. …

In this paper, following some brief introductory remarks, I provide a context to this Symposium by presenting a brief autobiographical account explaining how I became involved in curriculum theory and the idea of a knowledge-led curriculum and how I was led to write the paper under discussion. I then make brief comments on each of the six papers individually, concluding with some thoughts about the implications of the collection of papers as a whole for the future of curriculum theory.

Employers of marketing graduates view good writing as a core marketing skill, but many marketing students are weak writers. The improvement of student writing should therefore be an important objective in a well-designed marketing curriculum. One-page papers combine the effective teaching of marketing concepts with writing instruction while keeping demands on instructor time manageable. This innovation most improves the writing of weaker writers in a class. Combined with a more challenging group writing assignment, it provides a mechanism for improving the writing skill of all class members while fostering an ability to thoughtfully apply marketing concepts to solve unstructured problems.

In promoting equality across South Africa's 11 official languages, the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) has established a common language curriculum and common guidelines for the high-stakes, Grade 12, National Senior Certificate (NSC) or school-exiting examination. This article examines the summative assessment of the visual literacy (VL) component of the home language examination papers in six dominant languages – Afrikaans, English, Sesotho, Sepedi, isiXhosa and isiZulu – for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. It demonstrates that in spite of common curricula and examination guidelines, the assessment of VL across the languages lacks equivalence in terms of text selection; quality of questions for both technical knowledge and critical language awareness; and cognitive level demands. The article concludes by arguing that an examination guideline policy is inadequate for establishing equality of assessment across languages and that other significant dynamics must be addressed, if the desired outcome of ‘...

The precise effect and the quality of different cases used in dermatology problem-based learning (PBL) curricula are yet unclear.To prospectively compare the impact of real patients, digital, paper PBL (PPBL) and traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) on academic results and student perceptions.A total of 120 students were randomly allocated into either real-patients PBL (RPBL) group studied via real-patient cases, digital PBL (DPBL) group studied via digital-form cases, PPBL group studied via paper-form cases, or conventional group who received didactic lectures. Academic results were assessed through review of written examination, objective structured clinical examination and student performance scores. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to evaluate student perceptions.Compared to those receiving lectures only, all PBL participants had better results for written examination, clinical examination and overall performance. Students in RPBL group exhibited better overall performance than those in the other two PBL groups. Real-patient cases were more effective in helping develop students' self-directed learning skills, improving their confidence in future patient encounters and encouraging them to learn more about the discussed condition, compared to digital and paper cases.Both real patient and digital triggers are helpful in improving students' clinical problem-handling skills. However, real patients provide greater benefits to students.

Herbert Courthope Bowen was a progressive spirit in English teaching during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Ideas about the role of activity in the development of the child – ideas usually associated with progressive teaching in the 1960s and 1970s – may be found in Bowen's published papers. In connection with the time that Bowen was Head Master of a London secondary school, I explain what turned on the amount of Latin in the school curriculum, why Latin mattered so much at the time and why English teaching at Grocers' (Hackney Downs) where Bowen taught, was so controversial. Bowen published a series of remarkable papers on key themes. At the core of all these writings lies his passionate interest in the psychological development of the individual child. From Froebel Bowen gained a rich conception of the productivity of mind as well as a sense of children's individual worth and dignity. I argue the case that his writings deserve revisiting as pivotal contributions to a theory of English that h...

Initiatives in many countries to transform teachers' instructional practices have been described as largely unsuccessful (Ottenvanger, van de Akker, & de Feiter, 2007; Stoffels, 2005). One of the reasons put forward to explain this has been lack of alignment or coherence in the policy documents. The view that researchers hold is that curriculum coherence marks the beginning of quality in any educational system. In South Africa beyond 1994, much has been done to understand the dilemmas faced by educators and learners, especially in the implementation of outcomes based education (OBE). However, little has been done to understand the different forms of curriculum coherence and their impact on curriculum implementation in the context of the National Curriculum Statement for Mathematics (NCSM). This textual analysis is aimed at identifying the espoused orientation to mathematics in the NCSM and to explore whether it is being articulated in a coherent manner. Wilson and Bertenthal's (2005) model of dimensions of curriculum coherence provides the theoretical framework for this study while Webb's (2002) categorical coherence criterion together with Porter's (2002, 2004) and Porter, Smithson, Blank and Zeidner's (2007) Cognitive Demand tools were used to analyse the documents. This paper argues that the higher order cognitive skills (HOCS) of problem solving (PS) and critical thinking (CT) are espoused and articulated consistently in the new curriculum. However, the paper also argues that there is a very weak alignment between the curriculum objectives and the 2008 exemplar papers in that the HOCS seem not to be tested. Given the widespread evidence of high stakes assessments impacting on the enacted curriculum, this analysis suggests that the lack of alignment on HOCS endanger the teaching and learning of such skills in the FET mathematics classrooms.

Interest is growing at the precollege level in computer testing (CT) instead of paper-and-pencil testing (PT) for subjects in the school curriculum, including economics. Before economic educators adopt CT, a better understanding of its likely effects on test-taking behavior and performance compared with PT is needed. Using two volunteer student samples of CT and PT test scores collected as part of the field testing and national norming of the Test of Economic Knowledge (Walstad, Rebeck, and Butters 2010), the present authors investigated how CT and PT affect student test responses. The authors found that eighth- and ninth-grade students perform better with CT than PT, that CT has the potential to limit item guessing, and that CT may reduce item bias from the order of item placement on a test.

This paper contends that psychoanalytic theory, a neglected component of social work education, has much to offer in explaining social policy, cultural diversity, and human behavior. It serves to introduce four papers presented at the Presidential Symposium of the December 2001 meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association and provides a framework supporting the integration of psychoanalytic theory as essential curriculum content for successful social work practice in the 21st century. This position is supported by evidence illustrating how other professions have incorporated psychoanalytic theory in explaining dynamics of social change and human behavior, such as violence. The authors challenge social work educators to expand their vision of psychoanalytic theory and to institute curriculum modifications supporting its relevance and inclusion.

In this age of technological change and innovation which has had a major impact upon schools, together with the continuing demands of an assessment driven curriculum, are schools providing opportunities which will develop and enhance children's creative, aesthetic and spiritual experiences? It is the contention of this paper that learning through the medium of creative dance can provide an opportunity which can deepen children's spiritual awareness and provide a context for the development of a kinaesthetic intelligence which enables children to embody, and give expression to, abstract ideas and concepts. In the discussion of the initial findings from a small scale research project carried out with Y3 children, we shall see that although the children's developing spirituality is very much interconnected with their everyday lives and preoccupations, the dance work enabled them to connect with an abstract theme in a concrete way, and inspired them to create a symbolic interpretation of the Creation story.

The Eastern European block frequently looks to its western neighbours to help develop its medical faculties through the creation of exchanges supported by charitable organisations or through the development of International Exchange Fellowships. Such fellowships allow a unique opportunity to encourage observation, exchange and debate in the field of healthcare and medical education. This paper describes the Royal College of General Practitioners Ukraine Fellowship Programme (1993-1997), which has created two unique opportunities to explore healthcare delivery in a new primary care setting and discuss university curriculum design. The authors use these observations to discuss the possible reasons behind Ukraine's poor health statistics and what is needed at both primary care and university levels in an attempt to improve these figures.

(1992). Curriculum organisation and classroom practice in primary schools: That discussion paper. Education 3-13: Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 3-8.

When elementary school children first learn to write, they often find it difficult to think of things to say. One hypothesis is that young writers rely on a conversational model of communication and find it difficult to generate content in the absence of a conversational partner. The present experiment was designed to learn if a dialogue writing task, in which the story characters “talk” directly to one another, would help children write longer narratives. Dialogue writing samples from sixth-grade students in three classrooms were compared with standard narratives written by the same subjects. The results showed that children wrote longer stories and enjoyed the sessions more when writing in dialogue. There was no difference in the results for children with different levels of reading skill or academic motivation. The results suggest that dialogue writing may be a valuable component of the elementary writing curriculum.

(2008). Book Review: Democratic Education for Social Studies: An Issues-Centered Decision Making Curriculum, by Anna S. Ochoa-Becker: (Greenwich, CT: Information Age, 2007), 348 pages, $73.99 (cloth), $39.99 (paper) Action in Teacher Education: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 93-94.

Fibre optics is still a new and developing industry. Because of its expected growth, some thought and planning must be given in educating those workers who will be needed to sustain this growth. This paper reviews the history of educational activities that parallelled (and contributed to) the introduction of fibre optic technology. It describes the educational experiences of the the first fibre optic workers and the evolution that has seen fibre optic instruction grow to become an integral part of the curriculum of many leading educational institutions. An array of educational opportunities are described which are suitable for the novice and for the advanced practitioner. Guidelines are presented for designing a fibre optic educational program.

For gerontological educators, topics such as mortality, loss, and end-of-life issues often emerge or are central in their courses. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised our awareness of loss and death on a global scale and teaching during the pandemic has raised questions about how educators, communities, or systems of higher education can support students’ learning while simultaneously experiencing losses during intense times of uncertainty. In this mixed-method study of 246 students enrolled in undergraduate thanatology courses, we explored their levels of death anxiety and their experiences with pandemic-related losses. We found that students’ death anxiety increased significantly during the pandemic, in comparison to the years prior (p < .001). We also conducted a content analysis in a subset of students’ written narratives (n = 44) regarding their pandemic experiences. We identified three themes. Participants desired: (a) more flexibility from instructors, no questions asked; (b) more compassion and understanding; and (c) specific, targeted support resources. The voices of students were filtered through the authors’ interpretation as educators to provide several teaching recommendations that support student learning during challenging times. The recommendations align with a trauma-informed approach, given the high rates of death anxiety and ambiguous loss among students, and have immediate implications for educators teaching during the pandemic, and for years to come. Finally, we also advocate for more university and community-based thanatology, and gerontology education offerings in general, to help normalize conversations about death, loss, and bereavement.

adds the component of affordable, local access to information via data banks and communications networks, access that can aid student learning and personal productivity. The trick for campuses in coming years, then, will be to integrate computing into the curriculum in ways that recognize all three dimensions and their interdependence, especially when it comes to the support of instruction and student learning.

Provider recommendation is a primary reason for patient uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Most provider-focused educational interventions are focused on physicians, even though nurses are also important sources of vaccine-related information for their patients. This study examined whether a HPV educational intervention could improve nursing students' HPV knowledge, beliefs, and comfort with counseling. The same lecture on HPV and HPV vaccination was given to both medical and nursing students. To determine the effects of the lecture, students were asked to complete identical pre- and post-lecture tests with questions on demographics, knowledge, attitudes, and comfort with counseling on the HPV vaccine. Pre- and post-lecture test scores were compared between nursing and medical students to assess whether there were differences in pre-lecture test scores and/or changes in post-lecture test scores. On the pre-lecture tests, fewer nursing students responded correctly to knowledge questions, indicated positive attitudes or comfort with counseling about the HPV vaccine compared to medical students. However, similar frequencies of nursing and medical students responded correctly to knowledge questions and indicated a positive attitude, as well as a high comfort level with counseling on the post-lecture tests. Study results show that integrating lectures in a nursing program curriculum could be a feasible way to increase students' HPV knowledge. Having health-care providers with similar levels of knowledge, attitudes, and comfort with counseling on HPV vaccination is ideal, as all share the responsibility of recommending the vaccine to patients.

This policy study examines how policymakers and policy experts in Norway made us of research and studies – produced in Norway, in the Nordic countries and outside the Nordic region – to explain the 2020 incremental school reform. In total, 2 White Papers, 12 Green Papers and 3438 texts, cited in the White and Green Papers, were used as data for the text-based social network analysis. The three major findings were the following: First, the policymakers and experts make excessive use of references (on average, 246 references per White or Green Paper). The publications they cite are highly specialized and issue centred with little overlap between the various papers. Second, the policy references for the 2020 reform were mainly domestic. Approximately 70% of the referenced texts were published in Norway. Finally, the social network analysis enabled the authors to identify five texts that were influential and that bridged curriculum with quality monitoring reform topics. The authors suggest that more attention should be paid to an analysis of incremental reforms such as the 2020 reform in Norway. They identify a few of the blind spots that the more commonly used focus on fundamental reforms tends to produce.

The article is a position paper on inclusive practice in education with respect to students with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties (sld/pmld). It asks if children and young people with sld/pmld have been excluded from the policy and the practice of inclusive education. A review of the literature found that there is a research gap around inclusive education for learners with sld/pmld, and a review of historical and current practices indicated that this group of learners has indeed been excluded from both the policy and practice of inclusion in the United Kingdom with the use of curricula based on a mainstream linear and academic model reinforcing this exclusion. The study makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the continuing debate about inclusive education and will be of interest to teachers, parents, policy-makers and the learners themselves.

As a result of the phenomenon of a rapidly aging population and low birth rates, Taiwanese universities face a shortage of traditionally aged students and as a result must respond to older learners' needs. In response to this demand, the Ministry of Education issued the Lifelong Learning Act in 2002 and White Paper for implementing education for older persons in an aging society in 2006. Universities now face unprecedented challenges as they play a leading role in facilitating these programs. The purpose of this article is to explore the challenges Taiwanese universities face in educating an aging society and to provide some suggestions. First, this article notes current challenges. Second, the development of the status quo of senior education is presented. Third, the changing landscape of universities is discussed. Finally, some suggestions are presented for both university administration and program developers. In conclusion, universities should grasp this opportunity to modify strategies for involving older adults.

ing bodies "permit," "accept" or even "en courage" innovation in curriculum content and arrangements, these differences may be come greater and the search for "prin ciples" at the same time more difficult and more necessary. A closely related factor, which would seem to have more than a little significance for the future of faculty advising, is the modern student who is less willing to seek in himself reasons for his difficulty and more inclined to look to the limitations of

Nanotechnology has been touted as the next ‘industrial revolution’ of our modern age. In order for successful research, development, and social discourses to take place in this field, education research is needed to inform the development of standards, course development, and workforce preparation. In addition, there is a growing need to educate citizens and students about risks, benefits, and social and ethical issues related to nanotechnology. This position paper describes the advancements that have been made in nanoscale science and nanotechnology, and the challenges that exist to educate students and the public about critical nanoscience concepts. This paper reviews the current research on nanotechnology education including curricula, educational programs, informal education, and teacher education. Furthermore, the unique risks, benefits and ethics of these unusual technological applications are described in relation to nanoeducation goals. Finally, we outline needed future research in the areas of na...

This position paper focuses on how the new national curriculum for school and the new general plan for teacher education in Norway change the underlying premises for teaching and learning in today's teacher education. This has become particularly pressing as a result of the new educational reform ‘Knowledge Promotion’ in schools, whereby digital competence is now the fifth basic competence in all subjects at all levels, as well as in the new teacher education curriculum in Norway. Against this background, the aim of this position paper is to elaborate on how a digital competence model can function on a micro level to fulfil the intentions from the national and institutional policy level. The research question considered by this paper is whether (and if so, how) a digital competence model for TEs can function as a model on an individual level.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of existing school entry and education mandates on HPV vaccination coverage, we compared coverage among girls residing in states and jurisdictions with and without education and school-entry mandates. Virginia and the District of Columbia enacted school entry mandates, though both laws included liberal opt-out provisions. Ten additional states had mandates requiring distribution of education to parents or provision of education within school curricula. Methods: Using data from the National Immunization Survey-Teen from 2009–2013, we estimated multilevel logistic regression models to compare coverage with HPV vaccines for girls ages 13–17 residing in states and jurisdictions with and without school entry and education mandates, adjusting for demographic factors, healthcare access, and provider recommendation. Results: Girls residing in states and jurisdictions with HPV vaccine school entry mandates (DC and VA) and education mandates (LA, MI, CO, IN, IA, IL, NJ, NC, TX, and WA) did not have higher HPV vaccine series initiation or completion than those living in states without mandates for any year (2009–2013). Similar results were seen when comparing girls ages 13–14 to those ages 15–17, and after adjustment for known covariates of vaccination. Conclusions: States and jurisdictions with school-entry and education mandates do not currently have higher HPV vaccination coverage than states without such legislation. Liberal opt-out language in existing school entry mandates may weaken their impact. Policy-makers contemplating legislation to improve vaccination coverage should be aware of the limitations of existing mandates.

The crucial quarter century is from 1945 to the designation of the polytechnics at the end of the 1960s. Technology after the Second World War was ‘in the news’, and recommendations for higher technological education in and outside the universities came from individuals, organisations, governments and reports in the 1950s. A White Paper on technical education in 1956 further promoted ‘advanced work’ in technical colleges, and the Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs) and a National Council for Technological Awards (NCTA) were created. A major feature of these developments (and later of the polytechnics) was the expansion of sandwich courses. The CATs became universities following the Robbins Report of 1963 and the NCTA was replaced by the Council for National Academic Awards. This paper addresses these and other developments and traditions and the controversies surrounding them. It underlines the relative absence of research on higher technological curricula in universities and other higher education.

This paper argues that the claims of current UK education policy, for children with special educational needs (SEN) toprovide excellence and equality of opportunity, are false. Critically examined are issues of social justice and equity in relation to the work of disability theorists and this critique is then applied to recent policy in education, in particular the Green Paper Excellence for All Children; Meeting Special Educational Needs, to demonstrate that as long as the organization of schooling, the curriculum, and assessment and testing procedures remain unchallenged, equal educational opportunity will remain amyth. In conclusion, having shown that the central energy in educational change seems to be devoted to perpetuating the status quo, thus reinforcing inequality and discrimination and precluding excellence for all children, this paper attempts toset anew agendafor the 21st century that might possibly offer agenuine entitlement for all children to an equal educational opportunity. Although the p...

It has been increasingly recognised that classroom discourse plays an important social role as a semiotic mediator of knowledge construction with respect to curriculum content. The assumption is that through active verbal engagement with a topic of interest, students are enabled to master the modes of language use associated with schooling – the various genres and registers specific to the different school subjects. In this conceptual position paper, we examine how appropriate these assumptions are in the case of school-aged English as additional language (EAL) learners who are learning English as the language of instruction. In the first part, we will make the case for the importance of dialogue in learning, both first and second languages and the need for an inquiry orientation to the curriculum in order to promote dialogic interaction. In the second part, drawing on examples from our research, we will present three instantiations of dialogic inquiry involving EAL learners in elementary and intermediate...

The 1996 education White Paper on self‐governance confirms the government's long‐standing commitment to diversify educational provision and to employ grant‐maintained schools to take that agenda forward. This paper considers the extent to which self‐governing schools have contributed to diversification of the system and argues that there is little evidence that they have provided programmes which are innovative or mould breaking. Why this is the case is explored through interviews with headteachers of nine grant‐maintained schools. It suggests that school responses are crucially shaped by the headteachers’ interpretations of the conflicting demands of national policy frameworks and local competitive markets in education. In curriculum terms they show a propensity to consolidate their schools’ identities around what the schools have done in the past rather than embrace the opportunities to modernise presented through the government's funding priorities.

This article aims to stimulate debate about the nature of field courses in higher education. We use a colloquium format that allows each of us to reflect on the philosophy of field course teaching and our writing endeavours to establish a dialogue between the authors and leave the reader with a sense of curiosity. It starts with a position paper that sets out a particular viewpoint on field courses to which responses were invited. Two of the respondents were experienced field-course teachers in disciplines traditionally associated with this type of curriculum, the other a lecturer in a non-field-course-oriented discipline.

Since high school students use both public libraries and media centers for school assignments, this research examined those collections in three separate communities for books relevant to the high school curriculum. Both textbook bibliographies of recommended titles and subject searches of term paper topics were used to identify appropriate titles for English and science courses. Public libraries and media centers both have titles that are appropriate and available for use in the preparation of term papers. Public library collections have quantitatively more titles, while media centers have significantly more books when proportions are compared When textbook bibliographers were searched, there was no discernible pattern in the titles found: Both types of collections have some of the books. In order to devise a collection development strategy, reviews were located for as many of the science textbook titles as possible. Science Books and Films and Choice should be used to identify and purchase science title...

The Times editorial writer could see through the rhetoric months before the 1992 white paper (Department for Education [DFE], 1992) had been finalised, but when it was published the white paper was still couched in terms of specialisation, choice and diversity. The reality is a vision of the future where some schools will be encouraged to offer high quality educational experiences, while others will not. They will 'specialise' in selected curriculum areas and give differentiated educational experiences deemed appropriate for particular pupils. Popular schools will be able to select children on a broad range of criteria, which may include the Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tasks, but will also undoubtedly include parental knowledge and interest in schooling and the child's motivation, wider interests and determination to stay in full-time education after 16. It is also likely indirectly to include social class, gender and ethnicity.

This short paper considers a response to requests from schools to help them when working with children who have been bereaved. It sets out a consideration of a more systematic way of providing teachers with a context in which they might address questions about death and how they might do so in a way that considers death as an event in which we are all involved and not one needing specialist intervention. The method outlined suggests that death can be incorporated across the British school curriculum into every subject already being taught and does not need to be either a specialist area, part of religious education or to be left to personal, social and health education. A small survey with children is included to illustrate children's own attitudes towards teaching death in schools.

Around of reports calling for the reform of middle level schooling began appearing in the mid-1970s. Although middle schools were supposed to be responsive to the psychosocial, intel lectual, and physical needs of young adolescents, many seemed to resemble the junior highs they had replaced. Still in existence were six-period days, teachers organized by subject departments, and a curriculum which emphasized drill and practice in the four academic subjects. In 1975 The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development published The Middle School We Need which reasserted the need to develop schools around the needs and characteristics of young adoles cents. The National Middle School Association pub lished This We Believe in 1982 and revised its position paper on the developmentally responsive middle level schools in 1992 and 1995In 1985 The National Association of Secondary School Principals released Aw Agenda for Excellence at the Middle Level which aimed at building school programs responsive to the needs of middle grades students. Summing it up in their 1989 report, Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development claimed that "a volatile mismatch exists between the organization and curriculum of middle grade schools and the intellectual and emotional needs of young adolescents" (pp. 8-9). These reports all offered the education communi ty suggestions for improving what was happening in America's middle schools. These suggestions included, but were not limited to (a) the recruitment of educators who were knowledgeable about and committed to young adolescents, (b) the use of varied teaching and learning strategies, (c) the implementation of interdis ciplinary teaming, (d) reengaging families in the educa tional process, and (e) the availability of guidance and support services, including advisory programs. Beane and Lipka (1987) presented the following description of advisories

Increasing public concern about the extent of adolescent drinking, smoking and illicit drug use has been addressed by a number of Government initiatives. The 1996 Task Force to Review Services for Drug Misusers has recommended the development of services specifically for young people, whilst the White Paper Tackling Drugs Together (1995) recommended that youth services and other agencies aim to reduce experimental behaviour amongst adolescents not yet using drugs, and to encourage cessation and abstinence among those already initiated. Furthermore, drugs education has become a statutory part of the Science Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, a measure further supported by two guidance documents from the Department for Education and the School Curriculum Assessment Authority. Circular 4/95 Drug Prevention and Schools, (DfE, 1995) and Drug Education: Curriculum Guidance for Schools (SCAA/DfE), essentially set out the expected broader policy and curriculum framework for schools implementing dru...

Increasingly, university administrators are urging that all classes, including introductory science courses like introductory geology, require a significant amount of written work. Student resistance to writing, and especially to writing well, can be extremely high. Further, term papers in a course like introductory geology seem inappropriate to many students who cling faithfully to the idea that they cannot be expected to write a full paper in a laboratory science class. Finally, there are severe time constraints on most instructors and teaching assistants in introductory geology owing to structured laboratory assignments, lab quizzes, field trips, and so on. Another avenue may be helpful. Short but frequent writing exercises can be used to reinforce the vocabulary of introductory geology; such assignments are much easier to assess than traditional term papers. A first step for such assignments is to provide students with a clear format for their writing efforts. Second, handing out photocopies of the be...

The authors present a position paper suggesting that while there is evidence for change within engineering curricula towards best practice, there are significant barriers primarily at the operational level, which bring into question the likelihood of more widespread adoption of hard won gains. It is argued that transformational change is required which (i) alters the culture of the institution by changing select underlying assumptions and institutional behaviours, processes, and products; (ii) is deep and pervasive, affecting the whole institution; (iii) is intentional; and (iv) occurs over time (Kezar & Eckel, 2002). It is also argued that change leadership of this nature must be distributed, not solely laid at the feet of Deans and Vice Chancellors. A strategy for change is presented based on observations and evidence from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project "Design based curriculum reform within engineering education" and the recently completed ALTC Discipline Scholars' Survey of Engineering Academics grounded in the research for transformational change within businesses, universities and teaching and learning. This model for change proposes the development of a network of change agents built on a brokerage model to improve best practice and leadership capacity through systematically and directly engaging with the strategic/tactical and operational levels of engineering faculties. © Institution of Engineers Australia, 2013.

Numerous high school seniors nationwide are required to write a term paper in order to graduate. With more and more emphasis on the improvement of student writing, one approach that can be used to prepare students to write an "exit" term paper individually is to require first a co-authored paper. This approach is actually a variation of a cooperative learning program called Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC). CIRC, which is designed for reading, writing, and language arts in grades 3-5 (Slavin 1987), can easily be incorporated into the secondary school English curriculum through co-authoring. Cooperative learning is a methodology in which students work in small groups. Each group member is responsible for learning information provided by the classroom teacher and for helping other group members to learn that information. A cooperative learning group works to produce a product or achieve some other goal (Slavin 1987). Co-authoring is an example of cooperative learning. In co-authoring, students work in small groups to produce a paper. Each student co-author uses previously learned, correct grammar and principles of composition to write a specific section of the paper. Through critiques of sections written by other student co-authors, students help each other learn. The result of co-authoring is a completed paper comprised of sections written and edited by individual group members. Cooperative learning approaches, like co-authoring, provide students with opportunities to discuss and apply information previously presented by the teacher. When students learn in this manner, they increase their knowledge and understanding of a subject (Prescott and

Governments are now addressing the issues of the contribution, efficiency and value for money of higher education in the face of its increasing demands on national resources. The structures in which higher education has now to operate are subject to radical change and the financial pressures will continue to increase. The following factors pose increasingly insistent challenges for universities and other institutions of higher education: the conflicts arising from the revision of the school curriculum particularly in the United Kingdom and its impact on the nature of pre‐1991 White Paper University education, especially; the pressure to offer greater opportunities for access at different points in an individual's life; increases in sophistication and hence cost in the infrastructure needed for leading‐edge research leading to demands for greater selectivity and concentration of support for curiosity driven research and the simultaneous pressure for clearer directions for research in supporting increasingl...

Should counseling psychology remain a distinct specialty or should it merge with clinical psychology? Recently, a growing amount of attention has been directed toward the increasing similarities between the counseling and clinical specialties, and musings about integrating them into a generic training model have emerged. This position paper considers some problems with the current divisions existing between counseling and clinical psychology. Three basic points are examined: (a) the effects of language systems on the counseling and clinical specialties; (b) the normal-abnormal dimension of behavior as a weak justification for distinct specialties; and (c) the fostering of distorted views of human behavior through counseling and clinical training programs.

level students revolving around themes that provide practice in life skills such as reflec tive thinking, problem solving, valuing, and social action. The National Middle School Association's Curriculum Task Force in its initial position paper (1993) supports learn ing experiences which are integrated, address students' own questions, and focus upon enduring issues and ideas, and active ly engage students in problem solving and a variety of experimental learning opportuni ties.

This contribution to the “Comments” section first introduces a metric designed to estimate the amount of attention given to different countries of the world in academia using Internet “term paper mills”. This metric is used to introduce a call for the incorporation of more geographic education regarding peripheral areas of the world into the broader college curriculum. Even as geography courses struggle to incorporate knowledge of many peripheral parts of the world, the rest of the university experience is continuing to reflect perceived “national interests.”

The title of this paper is derived from the 1983 position paper issued by the Committee on Primary Education.' As we will see, this paper makes a large number of recommendations about the form and content of Scottish primary education. Its five main sections are concerned with respectively the curriculum, responsibilities of teachers, the school community, schools, teachers and the wider community and, finally, staff development. One question we can ask about it concerns the rationale for its recommendations: for, like the Plowden Report of 1967, the document is coy on the matter of educational aims.2 Moreover, when it does mention aims, these are so vague as to be thoroughly unhelpful to our assessment of its recommendations. To some extent, the authors of the paper are aware of this deficiency, for they call upon the succeeding committee to produce a statement of the aims of education. In a modest way, this paper is intended as a first step towards that goal. My main interest is in matters of curriculum policy, and to a lesser extent with the role of teachers in the community and the role of parents and other non-teachers, in the schools. To start with, then, I look at the main curriculum recommendations in the report.

Prediction is impossible because circumstances alter and the pace of change is accelerating. We must not therefore be surprised, as we look at the programmes, strategies and aspirations of our predecessors to find them unsuccessful, poorly implemented or simply unfulfilled. We still await some of the aspirations of the 1943 White Paper Educational Reconstruction, and perhaps Better Schools (1985)2 will suffer a similar fate. On a shorter time span, what seems a watershed to a Secretary of State at Sheffield in 19843 at the beginning of a Parliament may look increasingly like a catastrophe. One recurrent theme in the educational debate is partnership. We need a set of principles to govern the continuing development of educational partnership in the school curriculum, the breadth of which partnership is promoted, I think, by HMI's definition in Curriculum 5-16.4 In the first part of this paper I want to note the context of partnership by examining massive social changes that have been taking place since 1945, the changes in government interest in 'the secret garden' in the past twenty years, and the general concern about the public service and professionalism in the modern state. In the second part I want to draw these remarks together to indicate how they affect an educational partnership but I shall focus particularly on two of the many relevant matters, namely the school and the local community and teacher professionalism. I shall end by sketching out the principles for partnership which we might seek to follow.

The main arguments advanced in this article are that major curriculum innovations are likely to be most fruitfully developed if they incorporate the best features of tried and tested models existing both in the UK and abroad. Also a coherent approach to the management of innovations is a sine qua non for their success. Both TVEI and CPVE are considered comparatively and relevant management issues outlined. It is concluded that the secret of success lies to a great extent in management training. Both the HMI report (1986) on education in the FRG and the White Paper (Education and Training, 1986) add eloquent testimony to the message of this article.