Educators face the challenge of continually adapting and evolving their pedagogy to meet the needs of diverse learners. Learner experience design (LX) is a human-centered approach to curriculum and assessment development that is easily learned, adaptable, and repeatable. It focuses on empathy for students and creative problem-solving. In this…

The greenhouse effect poses a significant environmental challenge to humanity today. Research shows that many students lack adequate knowledge about this phenomenon. To address this issue, we have developed educational materials that utilize various instructional approaches to improve primary school students' understanding and attitudes toward the…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] A level of curricular design, called "design tactics," is identified to fill a gap in the research literature between the broad principles that guide curriculum development and the detailed writing of specific activities and lessons. The use of…

This chapter demonstrates how Decoding work can be used productively within a curriculum change process to help make design decisions based on a more nuanced understanding of student learning and the relationship of a professional program to the field.

This paper discusses the conceptual and methodological challenges facing two researchers investigating the development of interdisciplinary curricula in two new secondary schools, one in the UK and one in New Zealand. It is a discussion of research in progress that will be of interest to readers because of both the methodological challenges…

Consider that colorful photographs, eye-catching illustrations, and captivating images intended to make textbooks more appealing may actually distract students from the lesson at hand. Or that asking students to simply solve math problems might not be as effective as having them explain the steps of solutions that are already worked out--even some…

Nigeria is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declaration but till now she has not made any significant milestones in actualizing these human development goals. In spite of the coordinated efforts towards mobilizing those in the formal education system to partially address its implementation challenges, serious gaps still exit…

Australia is in the process of implementing a national geography curriculum to replace the separate state and territory curriculums. The paper describes the process of curriculum development, and identifies the different groups that were involved. These included the board and staff of the national curriculum authority, geography teachers across…

What are the basic things that compose curriculum, and what are the questions that may be posed about these things? Joseph Schwab's conception of curriculum is used to introduce a scheme of questions concerning the nature, elements, and practice of curriculum. Formulations of questions by other curriculum theorists are reviewed and analysed in…

In this article, the author seeks to identify and explain the primary rationale for having the field of technology education direct its focus on engineering design. The basis of this proposal stems from a combination of observations made over a 25-year career as a teacher/teacher educator of industrial arts/technology education and a broad-based…

Explores some current concepts of curriculum integration, and proposes some alternatives to the conceptual violence often done in the name of curriculum integration. What is lost in many efforts in curriculum integration is the "topography" of any particular thing. Curriculum integration should rely on relationships that already exist and not…

Five principles for curriculum development are need for conceptual framework; attitudes and beliefs about learning; epistemological rationale; macro- and micro-level curriculum development and planning; and awareness of political realities. (SK)

It is now almost universally acknowledged that science education must be rejuvenated to serve the needs of American society. An emerging science of science education based on recent advances in psychological research could make this rejuvenation dramatic. Four aspects of psychological research relevant to science curriculum design are discussed:…

This paper describes one pioneer effort to develop materials for teachers who operate on the premise that the student can learn from his environment. Three environments are considered: 1) the inner environment of the child; 2) the immediate environment in which he finds himself; and, 3) the global environment which is of so much concern to…

The knowledge structure in a course determines what strategies students need in order to learn the subject matter and what methods a teacher may use to teach it. The conceptual structures in university courses were analyzed to provide a baseline for understanding the characteristics and organization of course content. (Author/MLW)