Evaluates the Early Literacy Inservice Course (ELIC) supported by the Australian Basic Learning in Primary Schools (BLIPS) program. Assesses ELIC and identifies a number of general issues about literacy programs. Focuses on improving standards of literacy and teacher quality through inservice activities. (KO)

Describes the public education system in Norway. Discusses steering and decentralization, political and professional responsibility, and proposals for governing by goals. Identifies the EMIL plan, which calls for establishing goals and evaluating results from the view of the government and teachers. Lists political and professional…

Investigates the role of social studies department heads and principals in five schools involved in a project studying higher-order thinking skills. Identifies similarities and differences between department heads and administrators. Develops indicators of the success of the five schools in promoting higher-order thinking in social studies…

Discusses theories of curriculum objectives ranging from mainstream social science to the view of education as an autobiographical experience. Includes initial responses to "currere" and existential and phenomenological foundations of its intellectual framework. Suggests that reconceptualism represents one of the best hopes for keeping the human…

Describes a Critical Language Awareness course developed in South Africa to open the minds of prospective teachers. Discusses how language may coerce people into accepting as given practices that can be changed. Emphasizes the relationship between language and power and the role of textbooks and official language in reinforcing the status quo of…

Reports on a project with five schools in which students and teachers engaged in participatory research of water resources and water quality. Describes the student-teacher interaction, a computer network linking the project to an international conference on water quality, and the impact on local public opinion about water resources. (CFR)

Describes interactive educational technology and discusses its use in the classroom. Asserts that research about the effectiveness of interactive technology ignores links to curriculum goals and educational objectives. Asserts that a human tutor may still be needed to extend the thinking of a group. (CFR)

Contends that curriculum theorists often distinguish between the formal or official curriculum from the actual or hidden curriculum. Argues that the hidden curriculum always has a normative, or moral, component and that educators have a responsibility to make the hidden curriculum as explicit as possible. (CFR)

Reviews the role of history in the U.S. social studies curriculum. Explains that differing interpretations of history and the purposes of history have had a significant impact on the structure of the K-12 social studies curriculum. Argues that the time is ripe for historians and social studies educators to renew cooperative efforts. (CFR)

Reviews educational history and curriculum development in Norway from the eighteenth century to the present. Describes the development and implementation of centralized curriculum administration. Discusses and analyzes recent trends toward decentralized control and local efforts in curriculum development. (CFR)

Reviews the increased attention to and skepticism about student assessment and standardized testing in the United States. Maintains that alternative assessment techniques such as the use of portfolios and direct assessment provide a more comprehensive evaluation of student achievement. Includes eight criteria for determining validity of…

Contends that there is an almost universal demand for the reform of the postsecondary curriculum in England and Wales. Explores the relationships among postmodernism, self-actualization, and empowerment. Presents a holistic empowerment model and relates it to current issues regarding curriculum reform. (CFR)

Maintains that courses in curriculum studies should be evaluated on "why" they should be part of teacher education and "how" they should be taught. Asserts that curriculum studies occupies a more tenuous position in teacher education than do established disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, and psychology. (CFR)

Maintains that Australian curriculum governance takes place at different levels and all are targets of competing debates. Reviews recurring social influences and themes between 1981 and 1991. Asserts that the trend toward the devolution of management and curriculum control to local schools is the key to restructuring efforts. (CFR)

Examines school reform efforts by reviewing the origin and development of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). Discusses findings from the school ethnography project study, characteristics of schools that continued with restructuring efforts, and student attitudes about reforms made by CES participating schools. (CFR)