This article applies a current example of curriculum reform to investigate mechanisms driving the push for international comparative assessment of social and emotional skills in contemporary education. Using a combination of bibliometric and content analysis the article identifies key sources in the recent Norwegian curriculum reform. The article…

Trends in curriculum reform recognise the need to develop skills and competencies in addition to specifying what knowledge should be taught and when. However, a balance between skills and knowledge is sometimes difficult to achieve. In this paper which takes mathematics as the focus, we consider reform currently underway in Wales, from the…

This paper addresses a call for teachers to promote students' knowledge of criteria and standards within curriculum domains for self-monitoring and improvement purposes. We present the case for students to develop, as part of their learning in content areas, the evaluative knowledge and expertise of the type that teachers bring to the classroom.…

Primary objective: The significance of critical thinking (CT) has grown worldwide in recent years. In teacher education, for example, educators are expected to impart this skill to students but we lack comprehensive international comparative research on CT in pre-service teachers. To begin to develop such assessments, we comparatively analysed CT…

We identify a recent trend in school mathematics as well as in some of the research literature in mathematics education: an emphasis on the practical uses of mathematics and an increased emphasis on verbalizations as opposed to numerical and computational skills. With tools provided by John Dewey, an early advocate of contextual and practical…

Curriculum policies internationally are increasingly concerned with the promotion of national competitiveness and economic development. This involves more emphasis on skills than on knowledge, on learning than on teaching and on school/teacher autonomy than regulation from the centre. At the local level such global influences are inevitably…

This paper brings a sociology of knowledge lens to the practice of school history. It is set against a backdrop of curriculum reform in post-apartheid South Africa, which has embraced a competence curriculum with a strong focus on the generic skills (outcomes) that learners should develop at school. This study argues that history as a discipline…

The subject of this article is the structure and evolution of skills developed by pupils at primary level. Starting from an analysis of the panel data provided by the French Ministry of Education, the main object of this paper is an original measurement of skills using structural models. The findings of this research raise two complementary…

Discusses curriculum literature on mental skills, with emphasis on Bruner's work. The skills model offered in the literature is found to be somewhat simplistic in conception and inadequate when applied to higher-order mental activities. The difficulties inherent in the notion of the transferability of mental skills are examined. (RM)

Presents highlights from a paper which was delivered at a seminar concerned with science education in elementary schools. The specific focus of the seminar was the possibility of developing process skills through the teaching of science in elementary schools, the means of assessing such skills, and the implications of so doing for teacher training…

Discusses the results of a study of the teaching and learning of mathematics in 21 countries, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Reports that a clear distinction between support for broad educational objectives and for the learning of narrow skills did not exist among teachers. (SG)

Reports a research project with the goal of learning about the barriers to promoting higher-order thinking in high school social studies. Compares social studies departments that are successful at promoting higher-order thinking with less successful departments. Describes the technical aspects in the development and use of the 17 observational…

This paper examines the question of whether there are useful general thinking skills. It offers a working definition of "thinking skill" and identifies ways in which this concept has been over-applied. Thinking skills, used across domains, are not inevitably weak as a result of the generality-power tradeoff. Admitting that thinking skills require…

Analyzes three widely-held conceptions of critical thinking: as one or more skills, as mental processes, and as sets of procedures. Considers each a misconception and offers alternative proposals for teaching critical thinking. (CMK)

This qualitative study examines mentors' interpretations of their practice as revealed through writing and discussing their cases in a university postgraduate course in Israel. The data were examined for emergent features of the practice of in-service mentoring in the Jewish and Arab sectors within the Israeli school system. Content analysis of…