The authors, a team of literacy teacher educators who are focused on extending our own understandings of preservice teacher (PST) learning, conducted a cross-case analysis of how PSTs learned to teach literacy in three concurrent practicum experiences. We draw on Grossman's framework of representations, decompositions, and approximations to…

This article evaluates the curriculum reform implemented in Turkey in 2004 by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The curriculum reform targeted primary school education and reorganized the curriculum for several primary school courses. The AKP declared that renewed curricula would replace the former behaviorist approach, which had been…

Notes the importance of developing listening skills through direct instruction. Identifies specific listening skills and suggests how to teach them. Describes how both teachers and students can develop a listening skills curriculum. (MM)

Systematic curricular accommodations reduced the problem behaviors of four elementary students with behavioral disorders. Assessments identified student interests and curricular assignments associated with high levels of problem behavior. Curricular modification was then implemented. Results support adaptations that incorporate student interests…

Argues that the language arts curricula of the public schools should be more student centered and that future innovations should be aimed at meeting each student's needs. (RB)

As a classroom teacher of art, the author questions the definitive ends that often accompany progressive enterprises in education. He questions the pressure he has experienced to reduce curricular possibilities and learning outcomes to the space of a single document. He argues that planning a learning outcome is "not" an architectural…

Two team teachers in an open-area elementary classroom describe how they create with their students a curriculum derived from the students' interests and varied experiences. They stress the importance of connecting the life of each child outside the school with the life of the classroom. (SK)

The 21st-century integrated curriculum will be based not on themes, but on broad, unchanging concepts. The concept-based curriculum will require teaching of necessary language arts and other skills as needed for in-depth concept study. This approach offers common learning for all students by broadening specific objectives of many subject areas.…

A learning center is a designated area of the classroom where resources are provided to guide individuals and groups of children in specific activities. The rationale, suggestions for themes, and design and construction of the learning center are examined. (Author/DE)

Laerplan 97 (L97) is a program of curriculum reform recently introduced in Norway. The reform lowers the age of compulsory school attendance from age 7 to age 6 and provides a compulsory curriculum framework. The framework requires the subject-centered curriculum to be delivered thematically for periods of time dependent on the pupils' age while…

Describes a massive cultural transformation project at two Charlotte, North Carolina, elementary schools that used Deming's total quality management principles to restructure curricula according to Boyer's eight commonalities of learning. Shows how the FADE (focus, analyze, develop, and execute) model was used to develop a well-coordinated,…

Argues slavery has historically impacted children, and that children need to reflect on this practice, study its forms, look for examples of subjugation and domination in their own lives, and decide whether and how they might eradicate the need to subjugate others. Suggests procedures, activities, lesson sequence, materials, and expected outcomes…

Offering more practical ideas and a rich description of how their curriculum moved from writing and reading to include inquiry, the first half of this book focuses on the authoring cycle and the ways in which educators have used the cycle as a curricular framework. The second half of the book provides detailed descriptions of "curricular…

Following a statement of philosophy for developing an elementary school language arts curriculum, this paper presents a list of assumptions to serve as a guide to the many criteria that should influence educators' decision making as they plan language arts programs. The assumptions, developed by a committee of teachers and administrators from one…