This study responds to the demands of the rapidly changing landscape of education, the 21st century competencies and development of curriculum. Those competences are being interpreted all over the world resulting to differing curricular changes. In the Finnish National Core Curriculum 2016 they are presented as seven transversal competences that…

Last month, Rodger Bybee's article, "Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms," provided an overview of Chapter 3 in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" (NRC 2011). Chapter 3 describes the practices of science and engineering that students are expected to develop during 13 years…

This essay responds to and develops ideas set out in Robert Davis' 1999 essay "Can there be a Catholic curriculum?" It takes the measure of far-reaching changes that have taken place in curriculum studies and strategic educational thought in the intervening period as the process of globalisation has intensified. It re-engages with the…

The STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) movement has developed from a non-educational rationale. Although some think it may enliven the delivery of maths and science in classrooms, the social and economic rationales are those that have initiated this movement. Spurred on by the global financial crisis, it is hoped that…

Mark Van Doren, the noted literary scholar, once remarked, "The college is meaningless without a curriculum, but it is more so when it has one that is meaningless." Many current critics of undergraduate curricula in America assent to the crucial need for programmatic renewal in our colleges and universities. They bemoan the cookie-cutter…

In the late 1990s, the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a problem. The department was responsible for teaching the two required physics courses that are part of the General Institute Requirements (GIRs), MIT's core curriculum--Physics I (mechanics, or in MIT parlance, 8.01) and Physics II (electricity and…

The article documents the complex process of changing Argentina's science curriculum and implementing those changes over the last 15 years. It recounts how reformers tackled the challenges of balancing national (federal) unity in education with local (provincial) autonomy from the political, social and pedagogical points of view. It also analyzes…

The Colorado School of Mines is in the 4th year of a comprehensive curriculum revision process. After refining the mission statement and graduate profile, the school has developed and begun to implement a new undergraduate curriculum which features design-across-the-curriculum, a sequence of "systems" courses, an enhanced and integrated…

Discusses the dilemma that writing across the curriculum (a strategy for teaching writing which started in the 1970's) presents for science professors and for science majors. One area addressed is how the strategy can interfere with the teaching of college-level science subject matter. (JN)

This paper describes the progress of applying the integrated curriculum in two elementary classrooms. Utilizing science as the core course of integrated curriculum, three elementary teachers and two university-based educators worked together to design and to conduct the experimental course of integrated-curriculum. Based on the approach of…

Multiple Intelligences (MI) curriculum has demonstrated increased student achievement including improved engagement and performance on standardized tests. MI-based instruction also improves student achievement in science. Many educators focus solely on delivering content standards instead of infusing their curriculum with pedagogy that engages…

The future of school chemistry is discussed in terms of its popularity and some of the extra- and intra-school pressures of the curriculum. (BB)

Examines various issues related to the establishment of a core of physics studies at 16+ and 18+. Indicates that a core physics syllabus should be concerned with phenomena, theory, models, and applications and not with such topics as the use of a U tube manometer. (JN)

Discusses suggestions for improving preclinical medical training in British Medical Schools and how these ideas were flawed by excessive idealism. Suggests a core curriculum should be defined in terms of need. Techniques in developing a core curriculum should include critical incident studies, task analysis of established practitioners, the study…

The draft version of the A-level biology common-core syllabus is currently being debated. The syllabus is included as part of a discussion highlighting its development. (JN)