This article describes an attempt to bring disciplinary historical inquiry into the social studies classroom. This work emerges from a five-school 6-month intervention in San Francisco, "Reading like a Historian", which found main effects for student learning across four quantitative measures: historical thinking, factual knowledge,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate socio-cultural factors underpinning curriculum change by examining teacher beliefs in the context of professional development. Scottish teachers in the study were participating in policy implementation based on formative assessment. Teachers were selected who were positive about the formative assessment…

The goal of this paper is to introduce the curriculum strategy framework as a way to characterize teachers' interactions with curriculum materials. The framework focuses on three key interpretive activities: reading, evaluating, and adapting curriculum materials. Describing an individual teacher's curriculum strategy involves identifying the…

Description of a general model of teaching which emphasizes certain inherent, fundamental tasks and constraints, and a review of literature related to the model and to open education attempt to increase understanding of what the class-room is and what reform of the classroom entails. (Author/KM)

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)

Describes materials and a specific teaching approach aimed at improving an aspect of children's communication known as referential communication. Argues that this ability and the complementary listening skills are basic to successful classroom discourse and that they are important abilities in most communication. (KO)

This study began as an examination of the amount and scope of economics information taught in three high school history classes. Results revealed that the teachers' inflexible control of information caused students to become alienated from the classroom activities and cynical about the validity of any information conveyed there. (AM)

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)

Describes the efforts of a group of Australian primary and secondary teachers who have taken an innovative approach to in-service education. Notes that current attempts at educational reform seem to have failed because the major actors have been largely excluded from the action, except as respondents to the agendas of others. (KO)

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…

Reports a case study that examines the efforts of one teacher to increase the computer literacy of her mathematics students. Examines the implementation of a new topic and the curricular decisions made by the teacher, offers an interpretation of factors influencing these decisions, and studies their consequences. (KO)

Explores the impact of classroom environment on curriculum implementation. Provides historical background for this area of study, describes instruments for assessing prosocial behavior, and examines studies of teacher and student perception of classroom environment. Reports on two studies that combine qualitative and quantitative methods, and…