This article addresses how 'powerful' curriculum theory might be constructed from the perspective of the German "Didaktik" tradition--highly compatible with Schwab's the Practical. To start with, I scrutinize Joseph Schwab's model of curriculum planning and Wolfgang Klafki's model of lesson preparation and examine two theories of content…

Working within a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) perspective requires a rigorous approach based on conceptual frameworks in order to build on previous developments. Nevertheless, in health sciences education, the development, implementation, and evaluation of many educational innovations are carried out without an underlying conceptual…

This article discusses intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as a present-day theoretical and practical concern. Byram's (1997) model of ICC serves as a point of departure for the discussion since this is a theoretical construct which has had considerable impact on curriculum development and teaching materials in a number of countries over…

STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons and activities as students apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise enabling STEM literacy (Tsupros, Kohler and…

The purpose of this capstone project was to design a course description on gelotology, the study of laughter, at a XYZ Institute. The course provides a detailed analysis of the background of gelotology, how the course was designed and how to put the course into application at the capstone site. The course was designed using a sample curriculum as…

This paper re-examines Ivan Illich's ideas as expressed in his seminal work "Deschooling Society" from a 21st century point of view. It explores the validity of his ideas for our current education system. Illich's work was published at the time of a paradigm shift in curriculum theory which resulted in the development of Reconceptualization and…

This study used a needs assessment, process analysis, process design, and textbook design to develop a new process and new textbook, based on Cargile-Cook's layered literacies, Quesenbery's five qualities of usability, and Carliner's information design theories, for use in technical writing service learning courses. The needs assessment was based…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

Earth Systems Science (ESS) is emerging rapidly as a discipline and is being used to replace the older earth science education that has been taught as unrelated disciplines--geology, meteorology, astronomy, and oceanography. ESS is complex and is based on the idea that the earth can be understood as a set of interacting natural and social systems.…

This research concerns the culture of design education in the context of great change in the social and professional conditions of practice. Findings illuminate interrelationships among pedagogy, professional identity and the design of the instructional setting in programs that teach visual communication and interaction design. Participants'…

Argues that two types of theory exist, "pure" theory and "process" theory, and develops the position that theory is at the heart of the curriculum and is indeed very practical. Through a systematic approach understandings obtained in theory can be used in dealing with daily administrative tasks. (Author/RK)

Argues that the predominant research, development, and diffusion model of curriculum development maintains the present emphasis on factual or empirical questions about the environment and views curriculum change as training teachers to adopt ideas and behaviors determined by external authorities. Examines two alternative curriculum theories for…

Having broadly defined the process of curriculum formation as a complex set of interactions among many specified internal and external factors, the authors review the field of curriculum theory with the goal of finding the most potent theory for structuring and guiding studies of how changes occur in the curriculum of American public schools. For…

Examines the difficulty which the limited scope of Mary Louise Segeul's history, contained in The Curriculum Field: Its Formative Years, poses for an understanding of the development of the curriculum field and suggests the outlines of a more adequate curriculum history. (Author/RK)