Seven successive curricula for Swedish in the Swedish primary school are investigated using a linguistic method that traces its origin to the Russian literary theorist, Michail Bakhtin. The amount of dialogicity, viewed as the room given to different paradigms to argue against each other, is shown to decrease from the earlier curricula to the…

This study examines the mediating role of homework in the daily practice of a middle-school mathematics teacher and her colleagues in Shanghai. It aims to explore how a system of homework activities mediates and engenders a cultural pedagogy characterized by transforming errors into resources for teaching and learning. The transformation itself…

Physical education is one of the more difficult subjects in the curriculum for generalist classroom teachers in primary schools to incorporate confidently into their teaching. In many primary schools, the generalist classroom teacher defers to a physical education specialist. This situation has both positive and negative features. In this context,…

The gap between the educational achievements of the comparatively wealthy and those living in poverty is widening world-wide, with the associated threat to social cohesion. Twenty-five years of curriculum reform has largely failed in its objective of providing quality, basic education for all. Arguing that successful innovation requires the…

Currently, definitions of "science", "reading", and "literacy" in the US lend a seemingly nonrelativistic permanence to these terms, and render them resistant to critique. This paper offers a theoretical frame for critiquing this permanence, analysing why early-literacy instruction is tightly tied to traditional forms of print literacy, focusing…

Examines the role of elementary teachers' identities as teachers and as learners on their teaching and learning practices. Uses teachers' literacy and mathematics stories as representations of their identities. Finds a common literacy identity across the 10 teachers in the study, but only three identities in mathematics within the group. (CMK)

Examines problems associated with children's use of science text, the implied literacy demands of learning science from currently available science books and schemes, and the extent to which the current interpretation of literacy advocated by the National Literacy Strategy encompasses the skills needed to learn science from a book. Includes…

Examines transformation in the nature of public spaces for children and the school's role in producing those spaces. Draws on two years of ethnographic field-work at an elementary school. Focuses on a field trip to an art museum and explores another type of trip. (CMK)

Examines developments in social and cultural approaches to understanding child development. Focuses on the issue of narrative understanding as an important concept in discussions of how children learn. Offers a rationale for considering narrative understanding as a key aspect of meaning-making and discusses implications for classroom practice.…

Draws on survey research and case studies to examine teacher receptivity to the curriculum change embodied in the new environmental education guidelines in Hong Kong. Reveals that variables such as perceived non-monetary cost-benefits of implementing the guidelines, perceived practicality and support, and issues of concern were predictors of…

Examines teachers' efforts to reconstruct their practice in the context of national, state, and local instructional reforms. Argues that a teacher's zone of enactment (the space where teachers encounter reform initiatives) plays a crucial role in the implementation of instructional reform. Proposes a model to account for teachers' responses to…

Demonstrates that observations must not be limited to mathematics lessons in Japanese public schools when exploring the achievement of Japanese students. Focuses on mathematics education in Japanese elementary, junior high, and supplementary schools. Reveals that Japanese students spend more time on mathematics and receive more supervision and…

Uses the case study of a new private school to investigate the implementation of a curriculum designed to incorporate project-oriented, problem-based learning, and a constructivist approach to challenge gifted learners. Discusses the origins of the school, influencing factors, and implications for initiating similar efforts. (MJP)

Reports on the results of an experiment testing 58 elementary school students tasked with chronologically ordering a set of nine historical pictures and thinking aloud about their efforts. Provides increased evidence regarding the kind and sources of children's historical knowledge and how they deploy that knowledge. (MJP)

Describes the process through which a multiracial, urban elementary class of remedial students adapted the children's story, "Dr. DeSoto," for an in-class presentation. Expands on this example to discuss the role of drama in language, cognitive development, and problem solving. Includes extensive transcripts of the children's discussions. (MJP)