Basic education is universal education, which aims to improve the basic quality of a nation's people. In the three decades since reform and opening up, earth-shaking changes have taken place in the quality of China's basic education. This article describes the path of development and changes in China's basic education over the past thirty years…

This study was conducted in a large urban school district. Fifty-nine elementary schools, designated as Fine Arts Schools by the district, were organized as a Fine Arts School Network. The school district partnered with an external arts organization to deliver research-based, consistent and collaborative professional development to art, music,…

Describes a project that the authors created to develop an English/Language Arts standards-based curriculum. Discusses the rationale for the project, the theoretical base, the search for teachers, and the implication of a focus unit. Hopes that the model of creating curriculum described here will be useful for many teachers throughout this world…

Proposes an approach for helping school-age children to think critically about environmental health risks. Discusses elements of a school curriculum--defining a decision perspective, making choices under uncertainty, and thinking about consequences--and recommends classroom implementation procedures. (Author/JOW)

The 1936 curriculum was an important innovation in the history of Belgian primary education. According to a recent study, educational practice did not fundamentally change. Personal tensions and rivalries, lack of continuity in educational policy, and failure to involve teachers in the decision-making process greatly inhibited the new curriculum's…

The Achieving-Behaving-Caring (ABC) Program is an evidence-based approach to addressing the needs of elementary students at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties and promoting successful home-school collaboration. This practical guide demonstrates how classroom teachers and parents can work together to boost individual children's…

Presents developmental approach to career guidance consistent with the developmental philosophy of contemporary elementary school counseling programs. Looks at program development and evaluation, and discusses these aspects of elementary school career development program: counseling with children, parent counseling and training, and developmental…

A group of teachers at a large, urban Texas district participated in a project to develop and teach study units based on E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Curriculum. Drawing on their deliberations and university coursework, teachers selected topics, built units, and devised literacy strategies to teach core knowledge content. (Contains 34 references.)…

Four general issues concerning energy education are addressed: 1) why energy education has emerged as an identifiable curricular component; 2) what is happening to energy education today; 3) why energy education is still important; and 4) how energy education programs can be promoted in the classroom. A list of six objectives to be considered in…

Outlines 30 steps for planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating a children's art program in a school, community, university, or other setting. Brief summaries of lessons that illustrate the way art concepts are introduced to children in grades one to three are also provided. (RM)

Results of a study of the relationship between teachers' perceptions of five attributes of an innovative curriculum and the observed degree of its implementation generally supported the hypothesis that perceptions of the innovation's relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, and observability correlate positively with degree of…

The Netherlands' new basic school (bringing together kindergarten and primary schools) was implemented in the mid-1980s to increase individualized instruction and curriculum differentiation for young children. This article summarizes a study mapping the new program's implementation by principals and teachers, and identifies three response patterns…

Despite increasing recognition that whole-school approaches to sustainability have an important contribution to make in moving society towards a more sustainable existence, progress in this area remains slow. By examining the practices of the Ananda Marga River School, a small independent school in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland of Queensland, this…

The National Literacy and the National Numeracy Strategies (NLNS) are part of the British government's major education reform initiative, an attempt to significantly raise standards of achievement in schools. This report is a summary of the first annual report from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto…

Presents a review of approved states' proposed Reading First implementation plans. Notes the International Reading Association had three major areas of concern relating to the application process: selection of curriculum materials, selection of assessments, and determination of eligible professional development providers. Finds that interviews…