Curriculum guides can effectively guide practice if the guide writer pays attention to the context in which teachers work and to the language that teachers use in that context. Problems encountered by a curriculum project illustrate what happens in practice when guide writers fail to appreciate teachers' objectives. (RM)

To produce a curriculum guide that is practical calls for an awareness of the working context of the practitioner and an ability to translate that intuitive awareness into an explicit description which captures the essence of what teaching is. Health education project materials are used to illustrate the translating demands. (RM)

Factors which affect communication with teachers via curriculum guides include how authors and readers conceptualize educational practice and teaching and audience characteristics. Although each of the predominant forms of discourse (persuasive, descriptive, theoretical) used to communicate practice prescriptions for teachers is flawed, the three…

Presents examples of common problems that day-care centers often unwittingly create for themselves, such as overly harsh parent policies and late penalties, which frustrate parent-center relations; poor first impressions for prospective clients; overly large or small classrooms; penny-pinching in difficult times; and nondelegation of authority.…