Modern-day educators often share a sense they lack voice and agency with school administration. A classic example is curriculum development, where third-party designers develop uncontextualized curricula, and teachers then must implement the design even if inefficient and ineffective. What happens if this identical situation occurs at the program…

As English is widely accepted as a lingua franca in today's world, the importance of the language has been acknowledged globally in the present case. To rank the countries in terms of their English language proficiency, the EF Proficiency Index is prepared each year. In this study, five countries having the highest scores according to the Index…

Outcomes-based program evaluation is a systematic approach to identifying outcome indicators and measuring results against those indicators. One dimension of program evaluation is assessing the level of learner acquisition to determine if learning objectives were achieved as intended. The purpose of the proposed model is to use Bloom's Taxonomy to…

Introductory sociology casts a wide net with regard to its audience and plays an important role in capturing the public eye as well as helping students to make more informed choices in their lives and communities. I ask six questions that help us as sociologists to think about how introductory sociology can better serve our discipline, our…

The United Nations (UN) proclaimed the years 2005 to 2014 the World Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). As a follow up on the World Decade, the UN launched a Global Action Programme (GAP) that is designed to set the framework for international activities on ESD. The GAP focuses on five priority areas that are of high relevance…

The growth of online programs has been substantial over the past decade; such growth has required that an equally substantial number of faculty become proficient in the pedagogy of online learning and the best practices in online course design. At the same time, universities are being called on to provide evidence of student learning and…

This new updated fourth edition of "How Good is Our School?" is the result of a wide-ranging consultation through which stakeholders have contributed to the development of a substantially new set of quality indicators and supporting toolkit. This publication is designed to promote effective self-evaluation as the first stage in a process…

The United Nation's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) aims to prepare students for pressing economic and environmental problems. In this article, I argue that an exclusive emphasis on an ambiguous goal, sustainable development, raises important questions for educational ethics. Specifically, I argue that DESD mission…

The following six ideas relating to the work of the Cooperative Extension Service are presented: (1) Giving instruction is the Service's major function; (2) Tyler's curriculum and instruction principles are a good guide in developing the instructional function of the organization; (3) Instruction is the principle tool used in influencing behavior…

Divides curriculum development into 10 steps to aid administrators at the local level in planning for whole systems or for single courses. (JW)

This document discusses the need to control curriculum quality and describes two methods to assess school districts' efforts at curriculum quality control. Exercising such control means effecting a congruence between what should be taught (the school district's objectives), what is taught, and what students learn. In the first method of assessing…

The goal of Curriculum, Attitudes, and Resources for Ethnic Studies (CARES) is to promote ethnic literacy through affective and cognitive avenues. The objectives are to develop positive attitudes, to enhance the self-esteem of students and teachers, and to use these in the implementation of an ethnic oriented curriculum. The major activities of…

Offers a step-by-step guide to course design and development. Includes information on design basics, underlying objectives, course description, evaluation, standards, recordkeeping, and administration. (JOW)

The language skills category of objectives of the Appalachia Preschool Education Program as measured by the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), is discussed. The point is made that one of the difficulties associated with evaluating language development is the loose fit between available theoretical and operational definitions of…