The speech communication discipline seems to be stuck in status quo. The current climate of the discipline K-12 is one that is not mobilized for the future. However, a paradigm shift within the Speech Communication Association may be evolving in the creation of a model for the process for development of assessment strategies and instruments.…

The Kentucky Competency-Based Adult Education (KCBAE) curriculum was developed over a 3-year period and ultimately distributed to all Kentucky adult education and literacy programs in 1995-96. Sixteen competency/duty areas define the subject content. Although each duty area is divided into three skill levels (beginning and intermediate adult basic…

After a 1978 meeting, eight professional education organizations drafted a position statement on the essentials of education. The statement affirmed that the interdependence of skills and content is the central concept of the essentials of education, and that subject disciplines are interdependent. The statement also listed specific essentials of…

Continued communication about environmental education (EE) issues is a goal of UNESCO. This document consists of the four issues of the UNESCO-UNEP Environmental Education Newsletter published in 1993. Each issue contains a lead story, followed by regular sections that report EE activities in participating countries and regions, new EE centers,…

National concerns about the quality and effectiveness of science teaching have resulted in several efforts directed at restructuring the United States' science curriculum. This digest discusses recent initiatives of the Earth Systems Education. Topics discussed include: (1) efforts to understand the planet Earth; (2) the Program for Leadership in…

Native education has often been perceived as a low status cousin of the "regular" (that is, middle class, suburban, white) education system, and the achievement levels of Indian students have historically been low. This situation is often attributed to the past policies of many different federal governments and to a succession of poorly…

Instructors' knowledge of linguistics can affect the way they teach writing. For example, in traditional linguistics, O. Jespersen's important contribution is his descriptive rather than prescriptive study of English in a historical context. Writing teachers influenced by Jespersen will place students in writing situations where they do not rely…

Discusses problems related to the lack of mathematical competence in school physics, the contribution of modern math to the teaching of school physics, and the lack of cooperation between physics and math teachers. Presents a promising model to create a satisfactory liaison between math and science in the schools. (GS)

Racial social work is defined by four alternative models: For One Race Only, For One Race Mainly, Cosmopolitanism, and Egalitarianism. The construct and its conceptual models can be used as guides to curriculum modification and practice innovation in social work addressing the social ill of racism and those abused by it. (Editor/JT)

In the past, parents have rarely become involved in the curriculum of the school. What happens when we deliberately take steps to include them? (Editor)

The author presents a communications-content domain model to assist educational planners create a graphics communications cluster which can better prepare students for a future of change. The concept of clustering is explored, especially in its applicability to graphics communications. (AJ)

This paper on the curiculum development process describes how primary sources may be used to teach history. Three frameworks related to historical understanding are presented: (1) the thinking skills/information processing framework; (2) the cognitive structure framework; and (3) the response theory framework. A curriculum development model is…

George Beauchamp's 1968 book, "Curriculum Theory," stresses the importance of developing subordinate constructs, or theoretical relationships, with other components of education, until ground rules are laid down through meanings ascribed to the term "curriculum". According to Beauchamp, theories have three functions: to…

These five papers address various issues related to bringing about curriculum change. The first focuses on developing a strategy. It discusses the concept of performance gaps, identifying the cause of the performance gap, and involvement in decision making. Paper 2 on the nature of the proposed change provides a number of ideas or frameworks for…

The mass communications discipline is a creature of sociology and technology. The result has been a hybrid of science and craft and an academic rift that has pitted theory against practice. For a while the theoreticians, through control of the doctoral credentialling process, asserted dominance of the academy, but "demassification of mass…