Reconsidering curriculum development: A framework for co-operation

Conventional approaches to curriculum development employed in western countries have proved to be unsatisfactory. Much of the literature as well as the practice of curriculum development have focussed on two traditional stances — the administrative and grass-roots models — and neither has been able to accommodate concurrently the theoretical and practical objectives, skills, and needs of central administrators, teachers, and curriculum specialists. In this paper, a brief examination of the characteristics, prevalence, benefits, and major shortcomings of these two models provides a basis for describing an approach that may better fulfil the multiple and competing demands of educational administrators and users. The article elaborates upon and defends a theoretical plan for involving administrators and educators in co-operative curriculum development, and specifies additional organizational requirements and constraints which would need to be dealt with in order to effect its intent.     

Keiyo Cattle Raiding, Kechui Mathematics and Science Education: What do They Have in Common?

In the context of globalization, indigenous educational systems of endangered cultures are faced with extinction. Biologists recognize that biodiversity is dependent upon sustaining and promoting knowledge and values of indigenous cultures. Education researchers have a similar responsibility — to promulgate educational diversity before several thousand years of valuable educational knowledge is extirpated. This paper presents the Keiyo of Kenya who have a rich educational system. Its focus is on an indigenous game, Kechui (using calculations to sharpen your mind), based on cattle raiding, and the Keiyos' use of the game for learning mixed strategy-based probabilistic problem solving. Kechui may also have international potential for teaching probabilistic problem solving in contemporary mathematics and science, especially genetics.     

Increasing student participation in the learning process

This paper is about increasing student participation in the teaching and learning process. It describes a methodology designed and implemented by the author for an Industrial Analysis unit in 1990–91 and emphasises the underlying educational philosophy. Industrial Analysis is a second year subject within the course Industrial and Business Systems, Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering in De Montfort University (former Leicester Polytechnic).The test of educational quality is assumed to be — What students are able to do on their own after exams. The programme aimed to train second year engineering undergraduates for industrial placement in the third year and, more generally, to bridge the gap between Institutes of Technology and industries.The subject — Industrial Analysis — is compared to the rest of the course — Industrial and Business Systems. The purpose is to assess how second year students perceive learning. With such knowledge a teaching approach could be devised to improve learning outcomes.The student-centred teaching approach is based on three pillars: explanation of theory, instruction on research methods, industrial applications. A total of 111 students form 25 teams and research 18 industries. The focus is on Research capability and Group interaction.Helpful guidelines emerge from student performance — how to avoid common pitfalls in research, such as unclear objectives, wide scope, vague approach, excessive data, superfluous technicalities and digressions. Advantages of early focusing are illustrated. Factor analysis is applied in order to find out how concepts are integrated by students.Sharing of experiences and team-working routines in class is used to bring down psychological barriers to learning. Individual and team levels of learning are examined through successive exposures and cycles.     

Educational choice (vouchers) and social mobility

A quantitative approach to study the impact of vouchers is thought to yield more meaningful results than theoretical arguments. This paper makes use of a model of the behavior of young people and schools to simulate the effects of vouchers of varying sizes on students in different income categories, living in three communities — poor, average and wealthy — under two assumptions about how public schools spend their resources. The first assumption is that public schools minimize their offerings to individual students (i.e. maximize their surplus) in order to further objectives not valued by students. The second assumption is that public schools act as competitive firms, maximizing their educational offerings to individual students.Findings from the simulation are neither uniformly positive nor negative. They do not support the argument that poor young people will be better off with a voucher system. Even in the most favorable case — when public schools maximize surplus — a systemic choice system would not come close to equalizing educational opportunity across income groups.     

Education,skills and citizenship: an emergent model for entrepreneurship in Tanzania

Educating for citizenship is most often associated with a discourse of liberalism in which knowledge, skills and values of equality, rights, justice and national identity are taught. A competing neoliberal discourse with values of self-improvement, responsibility and entrepreneurialism is now quite pervasive in educational policies and practices, shifting goals and processes of education for citizenship. In Tanzania, neoliberalism's influence is evident in the private provision of schooling and pedagogy and curriculum oriented toward skills development. Neoliberal policies have created an opening for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to fill a need by providing secondary education as well as technical and entrepreneurial skills in efforts to make graduates more employable. This paper examines how an NGO entrepreneurship education programme integrated into formal secondary education in Tanzania articulates new goals and values of citizenship. In this model, learning is tied to markets; becoming a successful citizen includes acquiring business skills; and citizenship values include economic sustainability and self-reliance. This model of entrepreneurship education produces a paradox in educational goals for citizenship in that it aims to secure rights to education and provide for material needs while it also subjects young people and schools to economic and social risks tied to flexible and unstable markets.     

Social science, social relevance and the politics of educational development

This article raises some broad questions about the relevance of the current content and teaching methods in undergraduate social science generally. First, it examines critically the general teaching patterns which often stress the teaching of concepts, theory, history and techniques in isolation from current or historical problems. It next argues that our major methods of teaching—notably the lecture—contribute little to achieving the widely advertised pedagogic objectives of independent, critical thinking by students. Thirdly, it argues that we need to inject more relevance into the content of social science courses by shifting the emphasis towards a greater use of contemporary or historical problems or incidents as the starting point for the appreciation of theory and methods. It suggests that the teaching methods best suited to this are the various versions of the ‘case’ or ‘enquiry’ or ‘problem’ approach, which involve a more active participation by students in the process of learning, rather than their current passive role as consumers of teaching. Some illustrations of how this can be done are given. The article concludes by indicating some of the problems which are likely to be encountered in educational development of this kind. These problems are considered to be ‘political’ ones in that they involve a changed use and distribution of resources (of staff, students, times and buildings), which are likely to run counter to current systems of academic and institutional power, social organization, culture and ideology.     

A value-added student assessment model: Northeast Missouri State University

The Northeast Missouri State University Value-added Student Assessment Program developed from the proposition that an educational institution should be able to determine the value added to a person as he or she proceeds through that educational system. While traditional measurement practices assess normative output differentials. NMSU's Value-added Program attempts to measure gains in the total person — knowledge, skills, values, cultural awareness and other personal development — by measuring changes within each individual. The program has been in place for over a decade and impacts, today, nearly every aspect of the university: student development, academic curriculum, faculty development, university funding and fiscal formulas, long-range planning and even the regional accreditation association's institutional review. NMSU recently received the G. Theodore Mitau Award for Excellence in Higher Education for this program. The program's philosophy, evolution, implementation and impacts are described in this article.     

Linking rights,needs, and fairness in high-stakes assessments and examinations

This paper presents a novel explanation for the continued absence of a children’s rights strategy within high-stakes educational assessment with reference to the competing purposes of high-stakes assessments and group-based constructions of fairness in assessment. We provide an original critique of group-based perspectives on the validity of assessment accommodations which supports an individual perspective on fair educational assessment. From this, the (almost forgotten) concept of ‘student assessment needs’ is (re-)introduced as a central axiom, to be constructed through feedback from, and dialogue with, students about their experience of high-stakes assessments, giving primacy to their purpose as an attainment demonstration opportunity for the student. To promote a new movement towards student participation in educational assessment processes and reforms, we propose ‘rights respecting assessment’, complementary to UNICEF’s ‘Rights Respecting Schools’ initiative, in which regular system-wide student representation would contribute to the development of high-stakes examination systems. In recognition of this aspiration, this paper is co-authored with a recent school-leaving age examination candidate.     

Structure of Scientific Knowledge and Curriculum Design

In the theory of teaching, the problem of interrelation between two types of cognition — the scientific and the educational — has been discussed for a long time. The author of this paper has come to the conclusion that logic of an educational subject does not unambiguously follow from the logic of science (paradigm). The same content of the course can be realized with the help of several isomorphous structures of equal value and consistent with the existing logic of science. The choice of structure is determined by educational aims, types of education institutions, periods of studies, the presence of connections between subjects and other conditions.     

Does the Brain Have a Place in Educational Psychology?

Byrnes and Fox (1998) present the case for the relevance of cognitive neuroscience in educational psychology, including both logical and empirical arguments. In this commentary, I begin by briefly reviewing the history of the case for including the brain in educational psychology: Early educational psychology—as reflected in Thorndike's (1926) educational psychology textbook—emphasized the neuronal basis of learning; contemporary educational psychology—as reflected in educational publications—tends to ignore the brain; and future educational psychology will need to overcome the pitfalls encountered in previous misuses of brain research. Next, I examine two logical arguments for Byrnes and Fox's case, namely, that including cognitive neuroscience research makes educational psychology more complete and more plausible. Then, I examine the empirical argument of Byrnes and Fox by focusing on the value of cognitive neuroscience research in attention and memory as well as in reading and arithmetic. Finally, I suggest criteria for evaluating the contributions of cognitive neuroscience research in educational psychology, including the need for research on educationally relevant tasks and issues.     

Language, literacy and bilingual education: An amazon people's strategies for cultural maintenance

This paper is concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their own languages which are seen as fundamental to the maintenance of their own cultures and for the transmission of culture from one generation to another. Taking the examples of two small neighbouring groups belonging to the Harakmbut Amazon people, it shows that even though their objectives are the same — the maintenance and strengthening of their language and culture — they have very different views about how this should be done. The paper argues that it is necessary to understand the communities' reactions to new proposals for language maintenance introduced from outside and of the importance of them developing and following their own strategies for maintaining their cultural identity in a rapidly changing world.     

Professional development: a key to Kentucky's educational reform effort

Despite its essential role in educational reform, professional development typically does not receive adequate support in systemic reform efforts. This article presents an exception—a state that incorporated professional development as a central priority in its reform effort and four schools that used state resources to build their capacity for enacting the reform agenda. We describe central features of Kentucky's approach to professional development, characterize elements of professional development within the four schools, and discuss how these elements promoted three dimensions of school capacity: individual teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions; professional community; and program coherence. Based on this “image of the possible,” we offer recommendations for professional development that supports systemic, standards-based educational reform.     

The dilemmas of teaching for creativity: Insights from expert specialist dance teachers

This paper offers part of the findings of a qualitative, interpretive Ph.D. study, which used a case study approach to explore and illustrate the conceptions of and approaches to creativity of three expert specialist dance teachers working with late primary age children. The specialists had extensive expertise as dance educators in different educational settings together with experience as dance artists. One way of framing their conceptions and practice was in terms of the pedagogical puzzles or dilemmas that they encountered. This paper focuses on the dilemma of ‘balancing personal/collective voice and craft/compositional knowledge’ when teaching for creativity. The findings articulate the foundations of embodied knowing (intrinsic to aesthetic understanding) and the processes fundamental to their teaching for creativity. This is followed by details of the key pedagogical spectra which emerged when responding to the dilemma: prioritisation of creative source—inside out or outside in; degrees of proximity and intervention—distanced reactivity or close proactivity; and spectrum of task structures—purposeful play to tight apprenticeship; and their use in action by the teachers in their different situations. The paper relates these findings to two current questions within education: that of the relationship between knowledge and creativity, and the ways in which adults/experts might engage in teaching for creativity. The paper concludes that this research supports calls for a re-evaluation of aesthetic understanding's role in creativity, grounded in embodiment, within dance pedagogy, which might also be fruitfully heeded within wider educational contexts. It also provides the findings as ‘images of possible’ approaches to inter-relating knowledge and creativity both within dance, and other disciplines, and argues for the use of dilemmas and their solutions as one way of acknowledging complexity and encouraging reflective practice in teaching for creativity, both within teacher training and continuing professional development. Finally, the paper highlights the unique perspective of a group of hybrid education professionals at the arts/education interface, and suggests future areas of research which might develop from this investigation of their practice.     

Discursive practices, genealogies, and emotional rules: A poststructuralist view on emotion and identity in teaching

This paper invokes a poststructuralist lens—and, in particular, Foucauldian ideas—in conceptualizing teacher emotions as discursive practices. It is also argued that within this theoretical framework, teacher identity is theorized as constantly becoming in a context embedded in power relations, ideology, and culture. In terms of the methodology used when studying teacher identity and emotion through this lens, it is shown that long-term ethnographic investigations offer important advantages. This is shown through an ethnographic study of the emotions of teaching with one teacher over three years (1997–1999) and a semester long follow-up study with the same teacher four years later (spring 2003). The contribution of this study in what is presently known about teacher emotions in educational settings consists in the following three ideas: first, that emotional rules in teaching are historically contingent; second, that a teacher plays a part in her own emotional control; and third, that a teacher's identity is constituted in relation to the emotional rules in the context in which she/he teaches. The contribution of a poststructuralist perspective in research on teacher emotion is discussed and analyzed.     

Dimensions of cultural differences: Pancultural, ETIC/EMIC, and ecological approaches

We investigated the factorial structure of four major domains in social psychology (personality traits, social attitudes, values, and social norms) with an emphasis on cross-cultural differences. Three distinctive approaches—pancultural, multigroup, and multilevel—were applied to the data based on 22 measures that were collected from 2029 participants from 73 countries. First, in a pancultural approach, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the entire sample of participants, disregarding country of origin. Second, in the multigroup (etic/emic) approach, nine societal clusters were fitted using a four-factor model. Several tests of invariance were applied to assess equivalence across the cultures. Finally, a multilevel approach was used to assess the structure at the individual-level and at the between-country (ecological) level. Our results show that the four-factor solution emerges from the cultural domains, and this is supported by all three approaches. The factors are Personality/Social Attitudes, Values, Social Norms, and Conservatism. In the multilevel analysis, only two factors emerge at the ecological (between) level as opposed to four factors at the individual (within) level, but due to methodological difficulties, their status needs to be studied further. We discuss our findings in terms of the inside–out view of social interactions.     

Research and development at the Children's Television Workshop

Since its establishment in 1968, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW)—as a matter of policy—has incorporated research into the process of designing and producing educational materials. The first CTW project to use this team approach wasSesame Street, the educational television series created for in-home viewing by preschoolers. Today, the scope of CTW's efforts has widened dramatically to include other media (home video, print, computer software), other learning environments (schools, community organizations, afterschool child-care settings), and other national cultures. This article introduces this issue ofETR&D, which has been authored entirely by CTW researchers, producers, and executives. It describes CTW's approach to research and development, and sets out in broad terms the opportunities and constraints imposed by the environments in which the various projects and productions function.     

Multisectoral partnerships in e-learning: A potential force for improved human capital development in the Asia Pacific

Since their inception, a dominant characteristic of higher education institutions has been their reliance on the advantages conferred by geographic and political boundaries. However, emerging technologies and growing consumer power are challenging the status quo. The application of Internet-based information and communication technologies in education—e-learning—is now making it possible for education to transcend space, time, and political boundaries. In e-learning, content and mode of delivery are increasingly defined by external groups: students as well as employers. The emergence of e-learning is weakening the dominance of traditional providers of higher and continuing education—nonprofit colleges and universities—and they are being challenged by a proliferation of alternative institutions and providers with the skills and attitudes required to succeed in the new educational marketplace. Partnerships will allow traditional suppliers and intermediaries to contribute from their respective comparative advantages. In a common emerging model, traditional universities provide the intellectual capital, content, and content support; evaluate student performance; and award appropriate degree credit or certification. Intermediaries contribute in such areas as hardware and software provision, instructional design for the Web, website and communication for maintenance, record keeping, teacher training, and technical support for courseware development and marketing. Although this trend is not yet well advanced in the Asia Pacific Region, there are already a few pioneers, and interest is strong and growing among the major stakeholder groups—traditional academic institutions, traditional students, emerging intermediaries, professionals with a need for continuing education, and private sector corporations with the need to provide educational opportunities for their workforce. The Asia Pacific Regional Technology Centre (APRTC) is an example of an emerging intermediary organization. Its primary focus is on providing continuing educational opportunities for agricultural professionals throughout the Asia Pacific. It relies almost exclusively on e-learning for educational delivery and carries out its work through multisectoral partnerships. Initial experience indicates that the approach works in the region and is cost effective and that all partners and the clients can and do benefit from the collaboration.     

The cost-effectiveness of raising teacher quality

Econometric studies suggest that student achievement may be improved if high-performing teachers are substituted for low-performing teachers. Drawing upon a recent study linking teacher performance on licensure exams with gains in student achievement, an analysis was conducted to determine the cost-effectiveness of requiring teacher applicants to meet a minimum 1000 SAT test score requirement, while raising teacher salaries by 45 percent in order to maintain an adequate pool of candidates. Results indicate that the cost-effectiveness of this approach to raising teacher quality is substantially lower than the cost-effectiveness of a competing approach for raising student achievement, involving the implementation of systems that provide formative assessment feedback to students and teachers regarding student performance in math and reading. The implementation of formative assessment instead of less cost-effective approaches would help to achieve the important goal of raising math and reading achievement while using fewer resources. The savings in resources may then be used to achieve other important educational goals—those that are not well-addressed through formative assessment.     

Evolution of children's rights and implications for present policy

The decent treatment of children is a radical invention of our times. We believe that children have rights — rights to adequate food, shelter, and consistent care - based on their needs as developing organisms. Because of our concern for children as human beings, we are sensitive to their brutalization by adult caretakers. These ideas would have been incomprehensible to a person born several hundred years ago, when the concept of individual rights was almost unknown. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the evolution of children's rights and to place what we know about child abuse in the context of this evolution. We can then see how far we have progressed and perhaps get some perspective on desirable directions for the future.     

Applying Lakatos' theory to the theory of mathematical problem solving

In this paper, the relation between Lakatos' theory and issues about mathematics education — especially issues about mathematical problem solving — is reinvestigated by paying attention to Lakatos' methodology of a scientific research programme. By comparing the same findings about mathematical problem solving with the discussion in Lakatos' theory — e.g. research programmes' hard cores, their negative and positive heuristics, and their goals — we establish the correspondence between research programmes and solver's structures of a problem situation, i.e. structures given by a solver to a problem situation. After establishing this, the implications of Lakatos' theory, i.e. the nature of selection from competing programmes and the social origins of the cores of programmes, are applied to the discussion about mathematical problem-solving, with indications of the related evidence in the theory of mathematical problem solving which seems to support the application of those implications. Such an application leads to one view of mathematical problem solving, which reflects the irrational nature and social aspects of problem-solving activities, both in solving problems and in selecting better solutions.