Higher education curriculum orientations and the implications for institutional curriculum change

This research is based on an empirical study exploring how academics make curriculum decisions and their perceptions of the influences that shape their decisions. Interviews were held with 20 academics from diverse disciplines, who were both research active and committed to teaching. The higher education curriculum was conceptualised as a field of decision-making shaped by academics’ beliefs about educational and contextual influences. The study identified five distinctive curriculum orientations representing coherent patterns of curriculum decisions aligned with academics’ beliefs about educational purposes. Case studies are presented to elucidate each of the curriculum orientations. Curriculum orientations were also found to shape academics’ responses to educational change. The following higher education change drivers are explored: graduate employability and the skills agenda, teaching–research relationships, changing understandings about teaching and learning, educational technologies and flexible delivery. The findings suggest implications for institutional curriculum change initiatives and academic development programmes.     

A writing curriculum for preschoolers

Conclusion There is no doubt that composing can add much to children's potential for learning at the preschool level. It is critical, however, that the writing should always be for meaningful communication. A play environment is rich with opportunities for meaningful labeling, drawing, and sending of messages. Preschool teachers do not have to succumb to a ditto and workbook approach to writing filtered down from the elementary school curriculum. Older children may not have trouble understanding the purposes for isolate drills, tracing, and copying from the board, but younger children become bewildered by such an abstract instruction. Their writing needs to emerge from drawing and dictating and from first-hand experiences. Their audiences must be immediate.When preschool teachers are sensitized to the values of writing for children and provide a stimulating environment in their classrooms, children will learn to write (and read) easily and naturally and will come to their elementary school experiences with a much more solid foundation for the basic skills.Linda Leonard Lamme is Associate Professor and Chair of the Early Childhood Program and Patricia Denny is a doctoral candidate in early childhood education at the University of Florida in Gainesville.     

如何主动设计学校的发展

作为教育系统的根本基地，学校必须有一个长远的价值基础，也就是要有一个有高度、有深度、有广度的理念和信仰基础，同时，不同的学校有不同的校情。因此，“以校为本”，理性地认识学校的发展状态，注重阶段，准确地把握学校的阶段特征，是学校校长和全体教职员工必须深入研究的问题。     

A cybernetic model for curriculum development

The task of the curriculum developer is to design instructional systems which will produce consistently high levels of learning despite wide variation in pupil characteristics. This can be viewed as a cybernetic question of regulating variety in a system to produce stable and high level output. Six cybernetic principles—goal orientation, limitation of input, monitoring, control decisions, restoration of equilibrium, and positive feedback—are described, and their application to curriculum discussed. It is concluded that a cybernetic model can guide curriculum developers in designing effective learning systems.     

Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement

Open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) are relatively new areas in educational research. How OER and OEP can help practitioners enhance curricula is one of a number of under-researched topics. This article aims to enable practitioners to identify and implement appropriate open practices to enhance higher education curricula. To that aim, we put forward a framework of four open educational practices based on patterns of OER reuse (‘as is’ or adapted), mapped against the processes of curriculum design and delivery. The framework was developed from the in-depth analysis of 20 cases of higher education practitioners, which revealed patterns of OER reuse across disciplines, institutions and needs. For each open practice we offer evidence, examples and ideas for application by practitioners. We also put forward recommendations for institutional policies on OER and OEP.     

论课程公平及课程改革

教育公平的核心是课程公平,衡量课程是否公平的主要维度有求知功能的假定、求知内容的安排、求知方式的选择、求知条件的提供与求知结果的评价等.在这些维度上,我国学校课程改革还应作出相应的努力,以使课程趋向公平.     

有关课程和课程标准的几个问题

一、岗位、专业和专业大类 岗位是职业教育所面向的最基本单元,许多邻近的岗位组成一个专业,许多邻近的专业组成一个专业大类.