This large-scale study used a survey to collect data on K-12 world language classrooms in Massachusetts public schools, focusing on core instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment. The study resulted in 383 individual teacher completed responses, representing 188 districts, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results indicate…

The Independent Cambridge Review of the Primary Curriculum [Alexander, R., M. Armstrong, J. Flutter, L. Hargreaves, D. Harrison, W. Harlen, and D. Utting. 2010. "Children, Their World, Their Education". London: Routledge] advocated 'Eight Domains' through which to organise the primary curriculum, with 'Place and Time' encompassing…

This ethnographic case study investigated the science practices of teachers at one public elementary magnet school in light of how school culture influenced science curriculum design and instruction. The purpose of the study was to address how school culture impacted the school's overall treatment of science as a viable content area. Key informant…

Contemporary educational debate in curriculum organisation and pedagogy has focused on the merits or otherwise of integrating disciplines for more effective learning. A wide range of terms is used to describe the various traditions associated with the presentation and structure of the curriculum and there are various perspectives on the purposes…

This study investigates how a teacher study group collectively examined problems in their current English curriculum and redesigned the curriculum into theme-based lessons for various grades. Comprised of seven elementary school teachers and a teacher educator, the teacher study group met bi-weekly for three hours for a total of eight meetings.…

Background: It has been claimed that thematic or integrated approaches to curriculum delivery offer a range of advantages over subject-based modes of delivery including improved pupil motivation. Purpose: This study put claims regarding pupil motivation to the test, using the achievement goals framework. This contemporary approach to understanding…

Presents a model for developing theme-based, interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum. Model includes a theme-creation phase and an activity-refinement phase. The integrated continuum model is intended to be used by curriculum developers to facilitate the creation of powerful interdisciplinary lessons. (Author/SJR)

Current reform efforts in education emphasize role changes for students and teachers within classrooms and schools. A phenomenological study examined one teacher's internal conflict while negotiating the shifting boundaries of power relations between teacher and students. The goal of this study was to explore the processes and constraints involved…

This study investigates the effects on individual students of the integration of the visual, performing and/or musical arts, within their civics, English, history, and geography curricula. The paper describes a qualitative multiple-site study of students in 11 rural, suburban, and urban elementary, middle, and high schools. Integrated units ranged…

There is increasing interest in integrated studies or the integrated curriculum at all levels of schooling. Integrated approaches reveal wide differences in interpretation of what integration actually means and how it can be accomplished within the school setting. Chapter 1 discusses the various meanings of integration and some approaches taken to…

Evaluates the effects of the scaffold explanation-based approach to collaborative discussion on students' understanding of photosynthesis. Forty-eight fourth- and fifth-grade students were divided into groups of high, average control (AC), and average intervention (AI). Students worked collaboratively and individually on two reasoning tasks.…

The Chapter 2-Carnegie Middle School Project was designed to develop educational programming and to provide appropriate services to advanced and gifted learners within the restricted middle school environment. This study examined the extent to which trained teachers could effectively implement advanced instructional techniques and curricula for…

This study examined 38 thematic units prepared by preservice elementary teachers at the end of their science methods class and their second semester in an urban, field-based program, investigating how they addressed principles of diversity and multiculturalism. The units had either a science theme or science integrated with themes from other…

The Teaching Excellence for Minority Student Achievement (TEAM) Program is a 5-year supplemental program in the Los Angeles (California) area designed to demonstrate that urban minority low income students at risk of school failure can be refocused using an interdisciplinary approach to teaching elementary and middle school science and mathematics…