Environmentalization of the physical education curriculum in Brazilian universities: culturally comparative lessons from critical outdoor education in Australia

‘Environmentalizing’ curriculum in Brazil is a worthy goal of global educational reform for sustainability but is challenging given the limits to rational change thesis already argued in critical social science and post-structural deconstructionism. The federal government mandate to environmentalize undergraduate physical education programs poses the question of which aspects of physical education are conducive to change. ‘Nature’ sports, or outdoor/adventure activity education, is the most likely candidate. In Australia over the past three decades, the environmentalization of ‘old’ physical education outdoor activities has led to the development of ‘new’ discourse practices that integrate environmental studies and outdoor education and are designed for ecological responsibility and social sustainability. In this culturally comparative light about the possibilities for curriculum change in environmental, outdoor and physical education, we examine the potential for change in Brazilian approaches to physical and sport education by critiquing broader ‘environmentalizing’ issues as they have occurred historically within the Australian outdoor education context in the university and secondary schooling sectors.     

Determinants of Study Progress: The Impact of Student,Curricular, and Contextual Factors on Study Progress in University Education

The subject of this research is the impact of student characteristics, curriculum, and contextual factors on the careers of students in university education in The Netherlands. A theoretical model including various measurements of these factors was evaluated by means of linear structural equation modelling. Students in the ‘prestatiebeurs’ (performance scholarship) system, which requires a shorter nominal duration of a given study programme, achieve better results compared to those in the ‘tempobeurs’ system, which allows more study time. Women make better progress in their studies than men do. Students in technical education obtain fewer study points than others, even though they spend more time studying and have earned better grades in secondary school. In general, paid work during higher education has a negative effect on study progress, while the amount of time spent studying has a stronger influence on the study progress of men than of women.     

Environmental Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in Korea: current developments and future agendas

In the past, environmental education in Korea was not effective, in part at least, because it was not dealt with as an independent subject. However, in the Sixth Curriculum for schools in Korea, which will take effect from 1995, ‘Environment’ subject is included as an optional course for junior high school students. This paper gives details of the curriculum of ‘Environment’ subject and describes the development of the course textbook which focuses on values and attitude change. The paper also discusses Ministry of Education plans for teacher education and training courses for teachers of the new subject. Despite the current lack of qualified teachers for the subject and the fact that it is not mandatory, the introduction of the ‘Environment’ subject in the national curriculum is seen to be of great significance. With rapidly increasing national concern about environmental issues, and with an increasing number of schools teaching ‘Environment’ subject, it is expected that environmental education in Korea will move more efficiently and profoundly towards realizing its ultimate purpose.     

Teaching strategies for moral education: a review

We present the results of a literature review of studies on teaching strategies for moral education in secondary schools (1995–2003). The majority of the studies focus on the ‘what’ and ‘why’, i.e. the objectives, of curriculum‐oriented moral education. Attention to the instructional formats for enhancing the prosocial and moral development of students (the ‘how’) is relatively sparse. Most studies on teaching strategies for moral education recommend a problem‐based approach to instruction whereby students work in small groups. This approach gives room for dialogue and interaction between students, which is considered to be crucial for their moral and prosocial development. Other studies discuss more specific teaching methods, such as drama and service learning. We conclude that the theoretical discourses on moral education are not reflected on the practice of curriculum‐oriented moral education and its effects on students’ learning outcomes. We recommend that future research on curriculum‐oriented moral education includes the subject areas encompassing moral issues and the social differences between students.     

Building key competencies into an environmental education curriculum using a modified Delphi approach in South Korea

Abstract

This study adopted the modified Delphi method to build key competence indicators for the course subject ‘Environment’ in the secondary school curriculum in South Korea. 15 Delphi panelists participated, and were provided a three-stage questionnaire survey. The findings classified eight secondary school ‘environment’ curriculum key competencies into three domains: intellect-oriented, personality-oriented, and relationship-oriented. The intellect-oriented domain includes ‘critical-thinking ability,’ ‘creativity,’ and ‘problem-solving ability’; the personality-oriented domain includes ‘autonomy,’ ‘ability to reflect,’ and ‘environmental sensitivity’; and the relationship-oriented domain includes ‘communication ability’ and ‘ability to manage conflicts.’ These environmental competencies were utilized to revise the current environmental education curriculum as part of the 2015 revision of the National Curriculum and set the key competencies for environment classes. The paper concludes with the significance of developments in theorizing and implementing environmental education curriculums in Korea and abroad.     

Why do Chinese postgraduates struggle with critical thinking? Some clues from the higher education curriculum in China

There has been a good deal of research into the problems Chinese postgraduate students studying in English-speaking universities face with regard to critical thinking. This project is an attempt to tackle this issue from a new perspective. It aims to explore how a unique aspect of the university curriculum in China – the so-called ‘four treasures’ (four compulsory modules of political thought taken by all Chinese undergraduate students: ‘The Fundamentals of Marxism’; ‘Maoism and Chinese Characteristic Socialism’; ‘The Outline of Modern Chinese History’; and ‘Moral Thoughts, Legal and Civic Education’) – influence Chinese students in terms of their political and cultural values. It will trace the emergence of this programme and offer a content analysis of the curriculum. The study also uses focus groups to investigate how the Chinese postgraduate students regard their undergraduate courses in China. This article will argue that the higher education curriculum in China, which is heavily regulated by the state, has become one of the main obstacles preventing Chinese undergraduate students from developing independent and critical thinking, particularly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.     

Popular Culture goes to school in Hong Kong: a Language Arts curriculum on revolutionary road?

English teaching and learning has taken an interesting shift in Hong Kong schools with the implementation of the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum under the ‘334’ education reform. Situating the paper within the broader considerations of the intersection of Cultural Studies and English teaching, this paper examines the challenges and prospects of teaching the new Language Arts elective called Learning English through Popular Culture module. It is argued that while the module endeavours to connect and motivate Hong Kong students to learn English through popular culture materials, the official curriculum and schemes of work, however, narrowly articulate the teaching of popular culture texts conceived as ‘text-types’. Such a formulaic approach to using popular culture in the classroom is limiting and locks students into a procedural way of ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ popular cultural texts. The paper concludes by offering some ways forward that might deliver what is otherwise a revolutionary and innovative curriculum. Beyond the specific case of Hong Kong, the curriculum challenge discussed is instructive for other education systems and curriculum scholars looking to develop new pedagogies from the intersecting disciplines of Cultural Studies and English teaching.     

Standardised curriculum and hermeneutics: the case of Australian vocational educators

Curriculum theorists have acknowledged the relevance of ‘hermeneutics’, or theory of interpretation and understanding, to curriculum studies. In the European ‘Didaktik’ tradition hermeneutics has also been applied to the curriculum work of educators, but such an extension is rarer in the Anglo-American tradition. Educators in the latter tradition are expected to implement rather than actively interpret standardised curriculum. However, working with standardised curriculum is a process rich with hermeneutic significance. In this paper educator work with one form of standardized curriculum, so-called ‘competency-based’ education, is investigated. The touchstone of this investigation is a small study of educator curriculum interpretation practices in the Australian vocational education system, a system that allows educators very little scope to exercise professional autonomy with respect to the content of learning. Wilhelm Dilthey’s seminal hermeneutic theory is used to analyse the interpretative work of these educators. The paper foregrounds the complexity of this hermeneutic practice and challenges the assumption that the interpretation of standardised curriculum is a straightforward process. The argument is made that Australia’s vocational education system underestimates the hermeneutic dimension of educator work and further complicates the process by promulgating a textual form that is hermeneutically ambiguous.     

[Re]considering queer theories and science education

We take Mattias Lundin’s Inviting queer ideas into the science classroom: studying sexual education from a queer perspective as a point of departure to explore some enduring issues related to the use of queer theories to interrogate science education and its practices. We consider the uneasy, polygamous relationship between gay and lesbian studies and queer theories; the border surveillance that characterizes so much of science [education]; the alluring call of binaries and binary thinking; the ‘all’ within the catchcry ‘science for all’; and the need to better engage the fullness of science and the curriculum, in addition to noting silences around diverse sexes, sexualities, and desires. We catalogue some of the challenges that persist in this work, and offer thoughts about how to work with and against them to enact a more just and compelling science education.     

‘Nature’ and the ‘environment’ in Jamaica’s primary school curriculum guides

In cases where environmental education is institutionalised within schools, the curriculum can affect what and how students learn about ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’. In Jamaica, schools are considered important settings for environmental education; the curriculum therefore includes environmental issues. Using content analysis, representations of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ in the nation’s primary level Curriculum Guides were examined. Findings indicate that although many units emphasise an anthropocentric view of nature, this is tempered by depictions of nature’s fragility and, in some instances, nature’s ‘divine’ dimensions. Several curricular units also facilitate student’s creative engagement with nature, allowing for multiple views of the natural world.     

美国的服务-学习模式对中国高校课程体系改革的启示

服务-学习以杜威的经验教育为哲学基础,避免了传统教育与现实社会脱节的缺陷,将学校教育与校外服务经验结合起来,不失为教育改革中的重要教学策略.在世界各国和中国香港及台湾地区,服务-学习理念得到了普遍认可和广泛应用,但在中国大陆,它仍是一个相对较新的概念,值得深入研究.在中国高等教育改革进程中,高校可以借鉴服务-学习理念与实践做法,以推进全人教育,构建实践教学体系,培养应用型创新人才.     

A private matter? Religious education and democracy in Indonesia and Israel

The article examines state-supported religious education and its consequences for civic attitudes in Indonesia and Israel, two democracies that grant religion a prominent place in the public sphere, particularly in education. The comparison reveals that while in Indonesia the state was able to gradually introduce a secular curriculum in religious schools and establish an accreditation system by which it could exert influence on the way religion is taught, in Israel, by contrast, state-funded religious schools over time became increasingly opposed to a mandatory ‘core curriculum’ of general studies. The comparison further suggests that in Indonesia the inclusion of a secular curriculum in religious schools in the 1970s should be seen as one of the factors promoting the production and dissemination of ‘rationalist approaches to religion’ and brought religious actors on board of democratisation, while in Israel the exclusion of a secular curriculum from religious schooling has undermined civic commitments among ultra-Orthodox Jewish citizens and as such weakened Israeli democracy. The article is based on public opinion data, data from the Ministries of Religion and Education, and court decisions in both countries.     

In Favour of Ethics Education,Against Religious Education

The questions that I address are: ‘What ought to become of Religious Education (RE)?’ and ‘To what extent do non‐religious beliefs belong in RE?’ I will argue that there are compelling reasons for studying religious and non‐religious views alongside each other, but that there are serious objections to doing this in the context of any subject called ‘religious education’ and that a new compulsory, national curriculum subject called Ethics would be an appropriate context for such study.     

社区教育课程资源开发研究——以大榭开发区为例

课程资源是形成社区教育课程的因素来源和实施条件。以社区、村、相关企事业单位为个案,研究特定地域社区教育课程资源的内涵、鉴别标准、存在形态与分布情况,通过建立强有力的人力资源支持系统,开发知识拓展类、技能类、生活类和可"开放"类课程资源,对构建和谐社会、推进社区教育具有积极的意义。     

Postmodern Challenges and Modern Horizons: education ‘for being for the environment‘

This article argues that a ‘humanly‐constructive’ critical theory of environmental education called ‘a critical ecological ontology for educational inquiry’ provides a necessary complement to the ‘socially‐critical’ perspective. This humanly‐constructive curriculum theory focuses on our individual and collective ‘being‐in‐the‐world’. It invites learners, teachers and researchers to study how their ‘lived experience’ of socio‐environmentally problematic circumstances is shaped and stretched globally by various economic and technological imperatives. In so doing, ‘a critical ecological ontology’ highlights the personal politic required for a socio‐ecological praxis. Of particular relevance to the socio‐ecological politic ‘for being’ are interpretations of postmodern agency that emerge from three practical applications of ‘a critical ecological ontology’. This dialogue of theory and practice is necessary in the critical curriculum project of environmental education     

Developing values in primary classrooms and the place of the humanities

ABSTRACT

In this article, I discuss how the context of children’s classroom activities and the quality of their participation and agency are key to learning around values. These pedagogical approaches lie in a socio-cultural theoretical framework which I use to show how ‘empowered’ participation in classrooms and in enquiry activities in curriculum areas is bound up with learning democratic values. Focusing on humanities subjects, I show how such values-based democratic pedagogical approaches in these areas of the curriculum (along with others) can be transformative, promoting values education, personal agency and social change.     

Young children learning about well-being and environmental education in the early years: a funds of knowledge approach

Early childhood educators currently provide content focused learning opportunities for children in the areas of well-being and environmental education. However, these are usually seen as discrete content areas and educators are challenged with responding to children’s interests in popular-culture inspired food products given these influence their consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor and highly packaged food in the early childhood setting. This paper reports preliminary findings from a pilot randomised trial examining the interconnectedness of sustainability, well-being and popular-culture in early childhood education. Planning, assessment documentation and summaries from twenty-four learning experiences implemented by six educators over a six-week period were analysed using a deductive approach. Twenty well-being and environmental education topics were identified and shown to be generated by the educators when considering the children’s ‘funds of knowledge’ on popular-culture inspired food products. We argue that topics derived from children’s engagement with popular-culture may help educators to create an integrated approach to curriculum provision. This may impact child weight and facilitate obesity prevention and environmental sustainability as children create stronger connections between these content areas and their everyday choices and practices.