Big ideas, sometimes referred to as key, core, fundamental or threshold concepts, are widely applicable concepts at the heart of disciplines that are or have been central and influential for their fields. Attention here is particularly directed to meta-concepts common to sister disciplines in the sciences. "Learning thresholds",…

Indigenous studies has come a long way. In this paper, we share some bold steps we have taken to develop a learning process that situates Indigenous people as a people of place, a people of knowledge and a people of science. This teaching disengages students from learning about Indigenous people as remnants of the past. We extend earlier…

This article argues that SoTL may draw on and inform other scholarships--of discovery, application and integration--by bringing them into a classroom- and community-based scholarship of communal inquiry. In so doing, SoTL will resist teaching being regarded and evaluated as transmission and delivery of knowledge made elsewhere, reasserting the…

This article presents the results of a survey questionnaire involving 841 third and fourth year students enrolled in a French language Bachelors degree program in Elementary Education at four Quebec universities. The questionnaire dealt with pre-service elementary teachers' representations of the teaching and learning of four school subjects:…

Common approaches to ordering the curriculum content of a scholastic discipline include a hierarchical structuring of the discipline's major concepts and a view of inquiry as learners solving problems. Other approaches include logical prerequisite, concept inclusion, generalization, concept interrelationship, chronology, and subject matter.…

The article identifies and describes five broad curriculum data sources as wellsprings from which educational purposes and actions flow: society (social-political-cultural-economic forces at work), the disciplines (contributions of knowledge to learning), values, human growth and development, and learning processes. (Author/NQ)

Traditional education is irrelevant to current human experience. Displaying reality in disjointed pieces, it denies the essential oneness of things. Students must learn that everything is interconnected, and school reform should start with the reorganization of knowledge. (SK)

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)

The National Institute of Education report, "Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education," is discussed. The study group highlighted the outcomes of an undergraduate education--student learning and the implications of student learning--and concluded the appropriate source of curriculum reform is the…

Describes the Barkestorp Project that investigated the teaching and learning process for Swedish elementary school children after libraries had been introduced into the curriculum. Highlights include planning by principals, teachers, and librarians; the librarian's role; cooperation between teachers and librarians; student behavior; library…

This general guide on curriculum construction states that while each country must organize its curriculum work along the lines it regards as most relevant for its special conditions, some factors are inherent in all curriculum planning. The report concentrates on two functions each country will have to provide: (1) the determination of the…

Growing interest in teaching philosophy in elementary and secondary school prompted a 1975 national survey to determine the present status of philosophy as a component in the curriculum. Possible contributions of philosophy to students' personal growth and critical thinking skills are explored. The first section of the paper presents the following…