Data and Dialogue in Primary School

Many primary school teachers will have not heard of the data‐handling cycle as set out in the English Key Stage 3 (UK ages 11–14) curriculum. This article argues that with a little adjustment, it could become the defining model for a holistic and dialogical approach to data handling at Key Stage 2 (UK ages 7–11).     

Investigating Change in Adolescent Self‐Efficacy of Food Safety Through Educational Interventions

A successfully targeted intervention can influence food safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as encourage participants to recognize their own responsibility for safe food handling. This acknowledgement of an individual's responsibility and capacity to address food safety can be understood as self‐efficacy of food safety (SEFS). This study investigated the impact of a specific educational intervention, Hands On: Real‐World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms, curriculum on SEFS in adolescents and was guided by two research questions: (1) to what extent can an existing food safety curriculum impact students’ SEFS, and (2) to what extent does a relationship exist between changes in self‐efficacy and changes in food safety behavior, particularly when controlling for knowledge gains. A total sample of 424 students across 6 states participated in this study. Teachers were trained to implement the Hands On program in their classrooms and then students were administered a pre‐ and posttest to measure the impact of the program on knowledge, food safety‐related behaviors, and SEFS. The data indicated that there is a strong predictive relationship between SEFS and positive behavior change. Additionally, the Hands On program was effective at increasing students’ SEFS.     

Assessment of Knowledge and Behavior Change of a High School Positive Deviance Food Safety Curriculum

High school students are a critical audience for food safety. Students may enter the foodservice industry or become primary meal preparers for their families. The positive deviance food safety curriculum was developed based on the messages from the Fight BAC! Campaign. The curriculum is designed for high school students to overcome barriers to safe food handling practices. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the positive deviance approach to change food safety knowledge and behaviors among high school students. Students (n = 218) from two high schools participated in this study. The positive deviance method uses group discussions lead by the teacher who reinforces and praises behaviors, which reflect recommended food handling practices. Measurements included pre‐ and postsurveys, preobservations and postobservation cooking classes, take‐home tasks, and in‐class activities. Results indicated that the curriculum significantly increased students’ food safety knowledge. Specifically, the percentage of students believing that color was a good indicator of meat doneness dropped from 52% to 17% after exposure to the curriculum. When observed, the students’ compliance with recommended behaviors increased. Prior to instruction, most ground beef burgers students cooked did not reach 160°F, while after the intervention, almost all of the burgers reached 160°F or higher. The curriculum will benefit from a revision that emphasizes areas such as how to use, calibrate, and to clean food thermometers.     

National Workshop on ‘Designing and Developing Innovative Science Curriculum and Instructional Material Linking Science Education to Real‐Life Situations’

The development of dynamics concepts is studied longitudinally with two groups, one between ages 12‐14 and the other from 14‐16. Data collected includes performances on APS tasks (for which there is also national data) and performance on Piagetian tasks, with interviews on tasks for selected pupils. Classroom science curriculum data was also obtained. The study can thus discuss the interaction of cognitive development and classroom experience in the development of concepts. This particular paper focuses on the APS tasks.     

完善基础教育课程标准的若干思路——来自中小学教科书实验的启示

2001年开始实施的基础教育课程标准教科书实验,对于课程标准的修改和完善具有一定启示。教科书实验(包括编写、试教、调整、推广、完善等)可以从课程标准的内容结构、目标要求、局部内容的再定位、对教科书功能的再定位、对课程理念的完善等诸多方面,为课程标准的完善提供帮助。课程标准的修改,可以从确认修改的目的及其侧重点,调整有关的课程目标,对"标准"再定位,完善内容标准,增加评价标准,完善课程标准的基本结构,妥善处理内容的衔接,改善可操作性等方面逐一加以落实。     

Examining the Alignment of Chinese National Physics Curriculum Guidelines and 12th‐grade Exit Examinations: A case study

This study reports findings from an analysis of the 2002 Chinese National Physics Curriculum Guidelines and the alignment between the curriculum guidelines and two most recent provincial‐level 12th‐grade exit examinations in China. Both curriculum guidelines and test content were represented using two‐dimensional matrices (i.e., topic by level of cognitive demands) and the Porter’s alignment indices were reported. It appeared that the curriculum documents and the standardized examinations mostly emphasized student understanding of fundamental principles and concepts of physics. Moreover, the two examinations consistently over‐represented the curriculum at both application and analysis cognitive levels. The study also indicated that neither the organization of the current curriculum guidelines nor the exit assessments encourage creativity, critical thinking, and the development of students’ abilities to conduct scientific inquiry. The findings of this study can be used for comparative studies of different countries’ science curriculum standards and assessment systems, and can provide insights into the improvement of science education from an international perspective.     

Towards internationalizing the curriculum in a context of globalization: comparing policy processes in two settings

The primary focus of this paper is two case study schools, one in Singapore and one in Australia, which have both been actively pursuing an agenda to build a unique internationally‐oriented curriculum, in a context of globalization, but also within the constraints set by national/State curriculum frameworks, examinations and league tables. Interviews were used to collect data in each school, and then cross‐case analysis was conducted to reveal both similarities and differences in the way the two schools are moving towards internationalizing their curriculum. Emergent meta‐level conceptual themes around policy for ‘internationalization’ of the curriculum are discussed: enablers and constraints; the issue of whether such internationalization fosters a market ideology; changing power relationships; and the relevance of distinctions between internationalization and globalization. The paper concludes by pointing to the contribution of the ‘sociology of knowledge’ and ‘critical policy analysis’ in disrupting the potentially hegemonic economic discourses associated with internationalizing the curriculum.     

Understanding curriculum as normalizing text: disability studies meet curriculum theory

Although post‐structuralists within curriculum studies have examined many contexts of curriculum theory, they have been silent on disability. This silence is worthy of study, especially because of the growing significance of disability studies in the humanities and the social sciences. I question post‐structuralist arguments in curriculum theory from the epistemological standpoint of disability studies. I extend the post‐structuralist project of deconstructing and reinterpreting text to examine the material implications derived from interpretations of normality as a discursive construction. I ask the following questions: What are the historical, social, and economic conditions that produce the distances and inter‐relationships that exist between the ‘disabled’ and the ‘normal’ world? How do these conditions prevent scholars from providing emancipatory representations of Otherness? How can educators construct a curriculum that can produce oppositional knowledges that will contribute to the possibility of not just textual but also material and social transformation for all students?     

CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING AT THE TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE: THE TYPES OF DATA USED

After decades of rapid expansion, community colleges have begun to examine their internal academic processes; this study examines how curriculum is approved at one two‐year college. A previously developed classification system is utilized to examine data utilized by a college's curriculum committee in their deliberations preceding decision making. The system employs the use of three judges trained in the use of the system and also in the research technique of Content Analysis. The study classifies two groups of data—data sources and data subjects. It identifies some specific avenues in which data enter the curriculum deliberations; reveals some patterns of data usage; and develops a hierarchy of subjects, or topics, most often used in curriculum decision making at the college.     

新加坡科学课程普通水准教育证书考试评析

在新加坡科学课程改革中,普通水准教育证书考试起着积极的引导作用。它们具有这样一些特点:重视对科学概念原理理解、信息处理能力和解决问题能力以及实验操作技能和科学探究能力的评价;控制数学运算的分量和复杂性;尊重学习者的差异、给予充分的选择权。这些对于我国科学课程考试评价改革有着重要的借鉴意义。     

Undergraduate Computer Science Enrollment Trends in Liberal Arts Colleges

There has been a good deal of informal, anecdotal discussion about undergraduate computer science enrollment trends at liberal arts colleges. While this information can be helpful, it is difficult to do detailed planning on the basis of informal and unsubstantiated evidence. This article presents quantitative data about enrollments in the computer science program at Macalester College for the eight‐year period 1985‐1992. The article also compares our local data with information on computer science enrollments from 11 national liberal arts colleges. These data incorporate enrollments at all levels of the curriculum‐‐service, introductory, core, and advanced courses. They also include information on the number of majors and graduates. Based on the data, we draw a set of 10 “observations” about enrollments trends which can help computer science departments in their long‐term planning and budgeting process.     

The Microcomputer and The Curriculum: A Critique

The classroom experience contains an infinite number of variables that cannot realistically be related to in any manageable teacher's manual. When manuals aim at being ‘practical’, what is produced is often something that looks like practicality, but is not. Curriculum‐writing needs a new approach, intended to educate teacher rather than students. Such curriculum‐writing can be described as ‘rehearsal curriculum’. A rehearsal curriculum allows the teacher to work through a process of learning, as a ‘rehearsal’ for directing his or her students through that same process. A rehearsal curriculum is written in a way that also motivates the teacher to learn.     

Using Electronic Mail in Initial Teacher Education to Develop European Awareness

ABSTRACT

The development of European awareness in teacher training is a particularly difficult task in one year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in the United Kingdom because of the short length of the course and the need to ensure that students are well prepared for handling the national curriculum. This paper describes how students on such a course at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland were able to experience a European dimension through an electronic mail link with high school pupils in Norway. The scheme, which was offered on a pilot basis to students taking history as a major or a minor option, also.gave the group a focus for work on two of the cross‐curricular themes in the Northern Ireland common curriculum, namely Information Technology and Education for Mutual Understanding. The pilot suggests that the scheme has provided a valuable experience of real contact with Europe in a way that is cost effective and manageable within the time constraints imposed by an intensive one year teacher training programme.     

标准化的课堂观察对课程标准修订的政策意义

当前课程标准的修订方式和依据过于单一,缺少来自课堂的直接数据的支撑。课堂观察的意义不仅在于规范听评课,它对课程标准的修订和实施具有重要的政策意义。课堂观察可以判断教师课程实施与课程标准的吻合程度,提供实施过程的数据;相互调适课程标准与课堂教学,达成改革共识;形成从理想到底限的教师行为连续体,为标准实施中的教师研修提供参考。     

Conceptualizing curriculum management in an effective secondary school: a Western Australian case study

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the linkages between management processes and the curriculum using an academically effective secondary school as a case study. The aims of the study are twofold. First, in view of the acknowledged importance governments and others place on the quality of school leadership and management on the one hand and curriculum, teaching and learning reforms on the other, there is a need for empirical data as to how school leaders and managers work to secure improvements in curriculum, teaching and learning. This study purports to provide such data. The second aim acknowledges the need to develop conceptual frameworks and data collection instruments as aids to better understanding of complex relationships within school organizations.two deputy principals do play an indirect and important part in promoting academic performance by reinforcing school values in a wide variety of ways. Third, curriculum management is the responsibility of senior teachers and there is tight linkage between both senior teachers and teachers and high quality teaching and learning. Finally, the loose linkage between departments, and also between departments and senior management, provides little opportunity for a school‐wide approach to curriculum matters. It is evident that a whole‐school curriculum management perspective is absent in this school.     

谈中学历史新课改背景下史料教学的加强

中学历史新一轮课程改革推行之后,无论从这一过程中提出的诸多能力要求,还是从新课改导致的种种新型教育理念、教学模式的引入来看,对于中学历史从教者史料处理能力的要求不是降低,而是相应提高了。作为直接培养师范生史料教学技能的高师文选课程,在中学历史新课改全面施行背景之下,其教学侧重点仍应放在着力培养学生的史料运用能力上。     

Classroom and Worksheet Activities across the Curriculum

This article shows how teachers can create useful classroom activities to underpin data‐handling methods for pupils aged 7–19. We use the data base of responses from the UK CensusAtSchool project that are available for pupils and teachers.     

Quality assurance for distance learning: a case study at Brunel University

Brunel University currently has four distance learning MSc courses, with over 500 students registered, and one undergraduate distance learning course. Some have been running for over five years, and well‐established practices have been developed and provide a basis of support for the university. Quality assurance in the university has always been considered in three, equally important, ways: the curriculum and its assessment; the handling of coursework and assignments; and the liaison with students. The lesson we have learned is that a distance learning programme must be based on an existing full‐time MSc programme, which is the gold standard for curriculum and its assessment, and where possible, common examinations and assessment be used. This can be further assured by scrutinisation by the associated research council. This is going to become ever more important with the increasing scrutiny by overseas governments on the academic quality of distance learning courses, which seek assurance on the comparability and quality of degrees. Quality assurance for the handling of coursework and assignments must be secure and demands a high overhead of paperwork. Detailed feedback to students on their assignments is essential, but this can, at the same time, form a quality assurance check for later progression decisions. We also copy and retain approximately 10% of the assignments for the same purpose. Rapid turnaround is essential if feedback is to be timely and therefore useful, and quality checks on processing time should be standard. Quality assurance for the procedures for liaison with distance learning students are somewhat harder to measure quantitatively. The mark of good distance learning must be its tutorial support. This demands good communications. Our own course, entitled Data Communications Systems, benefits from the high proportion of use of electronic communications, namely email, which allows fast turnaround of questions, yet is not intrusive. However, it is deemed essential that hard copy of all such correspondence is kept. Migration to other Internet support services, such as the World Wide Web, videoconferencing and groupware, is inevitable.     

Developing Curriculum Leadership in Schools: Hong Kong perspectives

This study is designed to investigate the impact of school‐based curriculum development teams on teacher development within the tradition of school‐based curriculum development in a primary school in Hong Kong. Teacher interviews were used to evaluate the extent that teacher engagement in curriculum decision‐making processes within two school‐based curriculum development teams has led to teacher professional development which were triangulated with the videotaped meetings and tryout lessons. Qualitative evidence has revealed positively that participating teachers have developed themselves professionally through the process of planning, experimenting and reflecting (PER model) upon curriculum practice and innovation under certain conditions. However, the complexity of the structures and processes that were established for involving teachers in curriculum decision‐making processes needs further empirical and theoretical work. This paper only looks at data relating to teacher development in curriculum leadership collected in the second action cycle of the project from January to June 2005.