This article addresses the "National Common Core Curriculum" in Brazil, focusing both on its "Introduction" and the sections dedicated to music teaching. The paper draws on contributions from broad critical curricular perspectives, arguing for the access to "powerful knowledge" as a means of achieving social justice…

Recently there has been a renewed interest in the development and use of pedagogical games, as they provide an interesting approach to the appropriation of knowledge in the context of active learning. However, most didactic games fail to completely implement a cycle of reflection and action, thereby fostering mostly lower-order thinking skills and…

As a result of its direct link to the labour market, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) plays an important role in equipping the modern workforce with in-demand skills. This discussion paper aims to inspire the introduction of entrepreneurial learning in TVET towards a fully mainstreamed approach, whereby entrepreneurial…

This collection, comprised of chapters focused on the intellectual histories and present circumstances of curriculum studies in Brazil, is Pinar's summary of exchanges (occurring over a two-year period) between the authors and members of an International Panel (scholars working in Finland, South Africa, the United States). From these and the…

This essay presents the Educational Policy from Mauá, which has been, as the epigraph says, built and organized by articulating thoughts from different people and institutions. At the level of democratic and popular governments of city, the women's leadership in education has been essential to identify the needs of the population and the educators.

"Alphabetização" (literacy) of young children involves a school exclusively devoted to the early years, parental participation, and teachers specialized in early literacy. This is the basis of José Carani's proposal for an "escola familia" in the municipality of Cambé (Brazil). This "Note from the Field," based on our…

This article describes a pioneering initiative of a Brazilian university to introduce sustainability in all undergraduate curricula and in its operations. The Methodist University Sustainable Program was developed in a bottom-up way and began with the introduction of sustainability as a core value in the Institutional Political-Pedagogical Plan,…

Reports on the experience of the pharmacy course at UNIMEP (Methodist University of Piracicaba (Brazil)) in diagnosing itself. Offers models for the elaboration of an innovative curriculum which is the desire of those who make up the course. (BT)

Discusses the operation of cultural therapy in the conduct of an ethnographic study of teacher supervision and curriculum implementation in a Brazilian urban school system. Cultural therapy was an important, although not explicitly labeled, aspect of the study. (SLD)

The use of computers as a control device for large numbers of students is described in its five phases of operation: registration, instruction, examination, termination, and evaluation. Flow charts are included. (RAO)

Two presentations at the 1981 International Conference on Chemical Education are summarized: (1) issues related to chemistry curriculum development in Brazil and (2) types of knowledge "sub-cultures" (for example, theorists, empirists, applicists, pedagogists, or epistemologists) would foster in chemistry curricula. (JN)

This paper reports on the conclusions drawn from an investigation of the modern mathematics reform movement in Brazil. The main focus is the dissemination of reform ideology to the Brazilian mathematics education community and the outcomes resulting from misinterpretations of the intended curriculum during the implementation process. (Author/JJK)

After finding that French language learning was declining in Rio de Janeiro schools because of inadequate resources, oversized classes, and irrelevant curricula, several teachers turned to a magazine for adolescents for motivating students to read. Extracts from an article and a series of exercises developing varied competencies illustrate the…

A self-help group approach was used to enhance medical students' cooperative skills within an elective course. The task profile envisaged included team building, cooperative information search and problem-solving skills, and providing and receiving constructive feedback. Findings suggest that training for productive cooperative learning is useful…

Curriculum innovations succeed or fail according to the extent to which teachers, and to some extent students, feel that they are meaningfully involved in the process of change. For change to be effective, it cannot be simply imposed from above; rather it depends absolutely on the people who implement it. The innovations described in this book…