Curriculum coherence and teachers’ decision-making in Scottish high school history syllabi

Abstract

Debates over which historical content should be compulsory for study in the school curriculum are a common feature of education systems across the globe. These debates invariably weigh the perceived benefits to social cohesion of a ‘common core’ of knowledge against the perceived risks to democracy of government-sanctioned ‘official knowledge’. Scotland has, perhaps, taken an extreme position on this debate by specifying no mandatory historical content in its social studies curriculum. This paper uses 21 interviews with Scottish history teachers to explore how schools use this curricular autonomy: which historical periods they choose to teach and why.

?The paper suggests that, without access to theoretical debates about the nature of historical knowledge, schools fall back on instrumental justifications for content selection within the curriculum. The result in many cases is an extremely narrow and fragmented syllabus in which pupil preference, teacher interests and the logistics of timetabling guide content selection.

?The paper concludes that the formulation of coherent school-level history curricula is dependent on the fostering agency among a theoretically-informed teaching profession.     

Conceptualizing ‘preoccupation’: evidence from attention‐seeker questioning

Human beings ought to use critical reflection to define and decide their courses of action. This paper examines the use of attention‐seeker questions in the framework of critical pedagogy purposely to study the way some Ugandan teachers are constrained in their practice by their lack of participation in developing the school curriculum. This enables one to explore and discuss curriculum overload, poor resourcing, and imposed curriculum as fundamental issues surrounding curriculum development in Uganda. The major conclusions are centred on putting teachers in charge of the curriculum. This involves making decisions on key issues during its design and its management, as well as training them for a critical approach. It is recommended that policy‐makers consider means for encouraging practitioner participation in developing curriculum theory and policy.     

Chapter 1 Introduction,The Field Study

This study was an investigation of the effectiveness of eight types of visual illustrations used to complement oral instruction. An attempt was made to evaluate the instructional value of black and white and colored visual Illustrations. Two hundred sixty-four eleventh-grade students were randomly assigned by class to one of nine treatment groups. Student learning was evaluated by means of five criterion tests designed to measure different educational objectives. Comparisons among the means of the nine treatment groups yielded significant differences. It was found that the realism continuum for still visuals is not a reliable predictor of learning efficiency; however, visual illustrations were found to significantly increase student learning on three criterion tests. Color in visual illustrations did not appear to be an important variable in increasing student learning in is study.     

Problem Solving and Prior Learning

The effects of conceptual hierarchies as supplemental aids to textual materials was investigated. Sixty-five fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were given a 1000-word reading passage describing the real number system. One group received a conceptual hierarchy in addition to the text; one group was asked to draw this hierarchy from the information in the text; a control group read the text. The group that was provided with the hierarchy scored significantly better than the control on Production and Comprehension subtests. The ineffectiveness of the draw hierarchy treatment was due to the inability of subjects to construct the hierarchy. Those able to complete the hierarchy scored significantly higher than control on Production and Comprehension subscores and on the total test. No differences were found between the successful drawers and the group provided with a hierarchy.     

Relationships between Teachers’ Views on Education and their Socio-Economic Attitudes

Twenty preschool children identified as in the poverty group by OEO standards were compared with twenty preschool children from upper middle class families, as judged by father’s occupation, as to the extent and nature of their ability to recognize their own photographs from five other unidentified photographs on each of a series of six different views. Statistical analysis supported the hypothesis that preschool lower class children cannot recognize themselves from photographs as well as preschool middle class children (P = . 005). Although some views were significantly more recognizable by both groups of children (P = .01), sex and’’time to respond" differences were not significant.     

Combining Best-Practice and Experimental Approaches: Redundancy,Images, and Misperceptions in Multimedia Learning

This experiment combined controlled experimental design with a best-practice approach (i.e., real course content, subjective evaluations) to clarify the role of verbal redundancy, confirm the multimodal impact of images and narration, and highlight discrepancies between actual and perceived understanding. The authors presented 1 of 3 computer-based lecture conditions: audio, redundant (audio with redundant text), or complementary (audio with nonredundant text and images). Audio and redundant conditions produced similar actual understanding, whereas the complementary condition produced greatest actual understanding. Redundant condition learners perceived their understanding as greater than their actual understanding. Findings encourage multimedia research to balance controlled experiments with a best-practice approach to better understand effective multimedia design.     

What Leadership Practices Are Associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study of IB Schools in Southeast Asia

This article explores what leadership practices are associated with International Baccalaureate (IB) student achievement. Using a combined data set of Diploma Program (DP) exam scores and teachers’ survey responses about school leadership from 29 schools in Southeast Asia, the article reports certain leadership practices (i.e., strategic resourcing, monitoring classroom teaching and curriculum, encouraging teacher learning and development) exercised in the sampled IB schools that are significantly associated with student academic outcomes. This article contributes to empirical literature on school leadership effects on student learning in international school settings, which is an underresearched inquiry in the field.     

Speaking of books

Clinical Experiences in Teaching for the Student Teacher or Intern. Edgar M. Tanruther. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, Inc., 1967, 297 pp. Paper $4.50.

Education in a Free Society: An American History. S. Alexander Rippa. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1967. 369 pp. $3.75.

Education of the Disadvantaged. A. Harry Passow, Miriam Goldberg, and. Abraham J. Tannenbaum, editors. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967. 497 pp. $7.95.

Programmed Teaching: A Symposium on Automation in Education. Revised edition. Joseph S. Roucek, editor. New York: Philosophical Library, 1965. x, 195 pp. $10.00.

The Friend of the Singing One, E. C. Foster and Slim Williams. Illustrated by Fermin Rocker. New York: Atheneum, 1967. 122 pp. $3.75.     

Reviews

Chambers, Mary D. Nature Secrets. (Little Gateways to Science series.) Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1923. Pp. 155.

Gault, Robert H. Social Psychology, The Bases of Behavior Called Social. New York: Holt, 1923. Pp. x + 336.