This research analyses preservice teachers' knowledge of fractions. Fractions are notoriously difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. Previous studies suggest that student learning of fractions may be limited by teacher understanding of fractions. If so, teacher education has a key role in solving the problem. We first…

Worldwide, the interest of policy-makers in participating in studies from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has been growing rapidly over the past two decades. These studies offer the opportunity to relate the teaching and…

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…

One route to uncovering schooling's goals for an improved citizenry is to track certain subjects of the compulsory curriculum. In this case, health is investigated, and especially its messages on smoking and drinking. First introduced as scientific temperance instruction (in the 1880s), renamed hygiene (from about 1910), then as health (from the…

Educators need to think about pedagogical as well as ethical issues when asking if dissection has a role in contemporary K-12 science education. I consider some arguments for and against dissection as a way to teach students the biological concepts of form and function.

Building upon past studies of curriculum textbooks in the US, this paper presents an analytical framework that classifies curriculum texts according to their representation of reconceptualized curriculum scholarship. It uses four indicators of the representation of curriculum scholarship in the analyses of eight curriculum texts published in the…

Although post-structuralists within curriculum studies have examined many contexts of curriculum theory, they have been silent on disability. This silence is worthy of study, especially because of the growing significance of disability studies in the humanities and the social sciences. I question post-structuralist arguments in curriculum theory…

This paper examines the debate over the teaching of Canadian history that has been in progress in Canada since the early 1990s. It considers four criticisms: schools do not teach enough Canadian history and students, therefore, do not know it; the history that is taught is no longer sufficiently national; social history has destroyed the old…

Many educational theorists in recent decades have argued for the plurality of forms of knowledge, both in the mind and in the curriculum. Two popular ways of conceptualizing this plurality have claimed that individual students either differ in their "learning styles" or possess "multiple intelligences". Both theories have encountered numerous…

Using an economic analysis of market forces in schooling, this paper investigates change and diversity in the 14-19 curriculum of 16 schools in three local education authorities in England. Using qualitative data from interviews with several teachers in each school, it focuses on changes in the schools' curriculum for modern foreign languages,…

This paper explores competing stories around consciousness, ecology and education, with particular reference to conceptual refinement of the idea of an "ecological consciousness." Phenomenological and functional models of consciousness are examined in terms of their implications for developing ecological consciousness in and for education.…

Focuses on the relationship of social change to educational innovation and reviews selected studies from the beginning, middle, and end of the 1960s to determine perspectives which have been brought to bear on educational innovation. (Author/DB)

Discusses a study to evaluate pedagogical alternatives for teaching social studies (particularly geography) to adolescents. Topics discussed include individualized learning, learning from resources, autonomous pupil learning, and competing ideologies of education. (Author/DB)

Contends that feminist theologians and reconceptualists have much in common and that the feminist voice should be stronger in the area of curriculum theory. Identifies particular ways in which feminist ideas can contribute to curriculum theory. (Author/DB)

Reviews literature related to the study of human environments as a preview to investigating ways of assessing learning environments in informal settings. Describes a measurement instrument (the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire, ICEQ) and reports some validation data based on several field trials with the measurement instrument.…