In this historical study, the author reexamines the relationship and role of social efficiency and scientific curriculum making in the early years of the social studies (1916-1929). The author argues that historians have applied the term "social efficiency" too bluntly to label and ultimately dismiss a variety of educational reformers in…

How can curriculum history be re-envisioned from a feminist, poststructuralist perspective? "Engendering Curriculum History" disrupts dominant notions of history as linear, as inevitable progress, and as embedded in the individual. This conversation requires a history that seeks "rememberance" not representation, "reflexivity" not linearity, and…

Examines the Primary Education Project (PEP) which is designed to integrate the separate subjects of geography, history, and civics into one class of "social studies." This study examines differences in classroom instruction between this integrated curriculum and the individual subject areas. Concludes PEP was successful but questions…

Four unexpected patterns of teacher behavior are identified and elaborated: selecting national project curriculums on the basis of pragmatic criteria; visualizing the teaching problems with new materials only after classroom experience with these materials; rejecting abstract analysis of curriculum issues in favor of concrete thinking; and viewing…

Presents results of a national survey collecting data about the current status of and trends in elective social studies programs in secondary schools. Reports that most schools offer elective programs, usually optional rather than required electives. Concludes that psychology and sociology were the most common electives. Includes tables showing…

The Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) is a research unit of the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i. Part of its mission is to develop curriculum materials for students in grades K-12. The social studies section of CRDG has been developing curriculum materials on Asia since the early 1990s. As part of a project…

Describes curricular and pedagogical experimentation in humanities and social studies instruction conducted in New Zealand immediately after World War II. Compares such developments with the Freyberg Integrated Studies Project, a later three-year curriculum development and research program. Concludes that the Freyberg model provides support for…

Educational evaluation is ideally much broader than the examination of students' work at stipulated intervals. It addresses the selection of objectives, the methodology, the capability of management, the adequacy of data sources, the resources required, and even the alternative educational purposes that could be served. This study evaluates the…

The purposes of this Newsletter are: to summarize the Consortium's recent experience with the Curriculum Materials Analysis System (CMAS); to report the activities of others using CMAS; and to describe available analyses of curriculum materials, including their prices. Most of the analyses were done by teachers and supervisors in work groups…

Reports results of a survey of professional literature, curriculum guides, textbook advertisements, and newspaper articles from World War II era in order to assess response of social studies educators to crisis of World War II and effect of the war on the social studies curriculum. Concludes that rapid curriculum change resulted in response to the…

Discusses a study of global education in 16 Delaware County, Pennsylvania, public high schools. Reports that global education was more widely taught than the written curriculum indicated. Describes factors that promote global education. Offers recommendations for increasing the impact of global education on the curriculum and in the classroom. (SG)

Another in a series of articles summarizing results of a study sponsored by the National Science Foundation, discusses the minimal impact of curriculum revision due to the extraordinary social complexity of schools and systems. (Author/MLF)

This practicum paper presents a thematic K-12 social studies curriculum to meet an expressed need of social studies teachers of a school corporation to upgrade the teaching of social studies. The teachers wanted the subject to be more relevant to students' lives and to incorporate a more holistic approach. Content overview of the K-12 currriculum…

Recent research suggests that there may be systematic differences in instruction and learning associated with particular social studies subjects. The researchers question whether social studies instruction differs across the various subjects that constitute the social studies curriculum. If so, to what extent do these differences have…