Views the spectrum of opinions on curriculum issues as ranging from advocacy of measurable, programed, teacher-prepared objectives to advocacy of a flexible, limited, pupil-oriented framework. Also discussed are structuring the learning environment, existentialism vs behaviorism, process vs product, and other issues. (BP)

Argues that teachers need to think of and implement quality methods of teaching spelling. Offers 10 criteria from the psychology of learning to assist students to achieve optimally in spelling. (SG)

Discusses four philosophies of education (existentialism, realism, experimentalism, and idealism) and their implications for the reading curriculum. (SR)

Lists advantages and disadvantages of statewide testing. Presents examples of highly specific objectives, as emphasized by realism as a philosophy of education. Considers the advantages idealism/perennialism, as a philosophy of instruction, has in a quality reading curriculum. (SG)

Videodiscs have much to offer in developing the school curriculum, but teachers must use definite criteria in planning teaching-learning situations that will enable students to achieve on an individual basis. Thus, students should find meaning, interest, purpose, provision for individual differences, and a balance among objectives in their…

Types of elementary social studies curricula can be categorized according to the amount of subject integration included in each approach. Individual subjects such as history, geography, or economics may be presented as separate and distinct, or these descriptives may be integrated fully within the presentation of social studies materials. Faculty…

Teachers, principals, and supervisors must become very knowledgeable and conversant about different approaches utilized in organizing the language arts curriculum. Thus, the separate subjects approach, the correlated approach, the fused curriculum, and the integrated curriculum represent diverse ways of organizing each of the curriculum areas in…

Arguing that great ideas from the past possess intrinsic value and provide students with the knowledge and attitudes essential in developing the liberated mind, this paper identifies the world's significant thinkers from Plato (427-347 B.C.) to Bertrand Russell (1873-1971). Structural ideas from each philosopher are discussed in an effort to…

Designed for use in preservice and inservice teacher education courses, this document focuses on the development of social studies curriculum. Chapter 1 provides information about recent trends in elementary level social studies. The value and development of resource and teaching units and lesson plans are emphasized in chapter 2, while chapter 3…

Through numerous contributions from the field of linguistics, a modified language arts curriculum has resulted. Language arts teachers need to be thoroughly versed in content and methodology recommendations made by linguists. One such recommendation, for example, is that students should understand sentence patterns in English. These patterns…

The design of the reading curriculum presents a vision of what will be stressed in reading instruction. A first ingredient to discuss in developing the reading curriculum emphasizes the degree to which different curriculum areas should be related in teaching and learning. Reading then could be taught as a separate subject matter area from the…

In designing a social studies curriculum, teachers and administrators need to consider issues of scope and sequence. Scope refers to the ways in which the content of various units taught in the social studies curriculum are fashioned. Sequence refers to the order in which these units are taught. An examination of the following guidelines is…

Elementary school students differ in interest, capacity, achievement, social development, socioeconomic level, and psychomotor skills. These individual differences are discussed in reference to the process of designing the elementary social studies curriculum. Part One suggests ways in which teachers can respond to students' individual…

Many decisions made in the curriculum of life are philosophical. Few choices are made empirically. In the school/class setting, teachers and supervisors need to choose from among opposite ideas: (1) programmed learning versus learning centers or open space education; (2) basal readers versus individualized reading programs; (3) stated objectives…

This collection includes 13 essays on various aspects of learning and elementary education. Individual essays describe, discuss, evaluate, or make recommendations about: (1) the urban school curriculum; (2) individually guided education; (3) in-service teacher education; (4) design of the science curriculum; (5) use of psychology in mathematics…