Student voice has held a prominent place in the tradition of progressive and democratic schools and classrooms around the world. Once engaged it offers a chance to develop and use crucial skills for democratic living and to shape meaningful contexts for learning as students bring their own personal questions, cultural experiences, resources, and…

Contemporary educational reform discourses in Taiwan call for the modernization of education to meet the needs of society of the 21st century. The principles and rules of 'reason' that historically order educational discourses can't be taken for granted. This article uses Popkewitz's notion of alchemy to think about the principles. The notions of…

Purpose: We hope to provoke a conversation about preparing students for an uncertain future that unforeseeable technological innovations will transform in ways we cannot predict. The unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic makes this an opportune time to reconsider all dimensions of education. Design/Approach/Methods: We present…

Participatory collaboration involving multi-stakeholder engagement generates opportunities for creativity and innovation in curriculum planning, building partnerships between students, teachers, institutions, and communities. Integrating student voices at planning and design levels places students at the center of this process, where meaningful…

Eisner (1991) defines culture as a place for growing things. School constitutes an essential culture where students' minds can be grown and developed and where learning can be fostered. Teachers are in charge of developing and fostering young minds and because they participate in the culture called school they have many possibilities and…

The process of effective teaching--teaching that directly leads to student learning of standards-based content--is tenuous at best and easily disrupted by contextual and behavioral factors. In this commentary, I discuss the role of student support and mediation in teacher effectiveness and curricular reform. The most vocal students in physical…

The intentions with which hands-on simulations are used in vocational education are not always clear. Also, pedagogical-didactic approaches in hands-on simulations are not well conceptualised from a learning theory perspective. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the added value that hands-on simulations can have in an innovative vocational…

Curriculum is constructed with the learner as its central focus. Yet the voice of the learner is largely excluded from the curriculum design and implementation process. The author is both an educator and administrator and the intent of this paper is to provide other educators with a deeper understanding of the potential for increased learning when…

Preparing all students to succeed in today's increasingly global economy and complex world requires a shift from a teacher-centric culture to learner-centered instruction, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. This report examines the characteristics of learner-centered instruction and the support that educators and…

This paper reports on the findings of a research project which explored the value for secondary school teachers of consulting with pupils about the curriculum. Twenty volunteer teachers across a range of subject areas in an 11-18 and three 11-16 secondary schools in a city in the East Midlands of England were given an open-ended remit to…

Examines the curricular change process, presenting results of an ethnographic study of an elementary school moving from a teacher-directed curriculum toward a textbook-based, standardized curriculum. Focuses on students' (negative) reactions to changes. Educators must question any curriculum that limits teachers' opportunities to make coursework…

The nature of distance education is to shift the locus of curriculum control toward the institution and its staff and away from the students. This imposes a responsibility on the institution to examine and evaluate the values and assumptions underlying the decision-making and the implications of the patterns of control that emerge. (Author/MSE)

This report presents a case study evaluation of a mastery system of individualized instruction called Project Excellence at Ecole Secondaire Cochrane High School, Ontario. The curriculum consists of 20-unit learning guides in all courses. Students work in subject area resource centers and consult with teachers as needed. Teachers act as…

Narrates one year in the life of a fourth-grade class that moved from teacher-directed to student-initiated learning, or what is referred to as "emergent curriculum." Encourages readers to reconsider students' and teachers' roles in developing curriculum. Describes changes over time in physical environment, academic curriculum, and…

The need of American youth to be responsible and contributing members of society has led to the rise of "youth participation" projects across the country. Various programs have been established to enable young people to participate in meaningful activities. (JN)