This paper examines a particular methodology of teaching engineering design to undergraduate engineering students, which relies on Lego[R] Mindstorms[TM]. A number of important issues are addressed, including the timing of the design module within the programme, prior knowledge required and assessment components. The module, which has been running…

The management of curriculum change in religious education is of interest to all who are concerned with a continuing pursuit of excellence in this curriculum area. Utilising a grounded theory approach, this paper describes some findings concerning the management of curriculum change in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia. It reports…

Rigorous research provides information that will allow other schools and districts to select interventions that have a scientifically based track record of effectiveness. All Striving Reader grants include the mandate to evaluate literacy intervention(s) targeted to adolescents who are reading significantly below grade level. Although all studies…

Increased attention to student engagement and active learning strategies have become particularly relevant in today's classroom environments. These approaches are also considered to be meaningful when teaching "net generation" students who have different styles and expectations. This study attempts to address these challenges through the…

Practical and engaging, this book contains 21 case studies that help students apply curriculum theory to classroom reality. Each case is authored by an in-service teacher, reflecting on ways to improve instruction by making changes to various aspects of the curriculum. These real-life examples investigate up-to-date curricular issues ranging from…

Australia has a National Technology Statement (Curriculum Corporation, 1994) that specifies the content and process of technology studies in schools. However, as in the United States, the implementation of curricula is a state responsibility. In the state of Queensland the implementation has been a very gradual process with schools having the…

This paper investigates how two male teachers construct health and physical education (HPE) as a particular site for schooling the gendered body. Using knowledge of productive pedagogies and a theoretical framework that draws on the work of Foucauldian analytic categories, we foreground how issues of identity, the body and gendered knowledge/power…

In the fall of 2003, the Eastern Townships School Board grades 5 & 6 teachers were faced with implementing a one-to-one laptop initiative, a new provincial curriculum, a balanced literacy framework and a language initiative whereby the students would receive more of their instruction time in a second language. To guard against Initiative…

This study, taking place in a grade 9 class in an urban south-eastern Ontario community, sought to answer two research questions: What are the factors that impede or facilitate the implementation of multiple assessments? What are students' views of being assessed using multiple assessments? In the end, five factors emerged that impeded the…

This article describes a new curriculum which explores a disturbing side of the Progressive Era. The national education program Facing History and Ourselves is a 25-year-old organization best known for its trenchant examination of the Holocaust and other genocide campaigns. Facing History discovered in the course of that work that many of the…

This paper presents the application of the problem-based learning (PBL) method as an innovative approach to teaching engineering. This paper supports the idea that the PBL method is aptly suited to teaching the engineering disciplines, as its methodology nurtures critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are central to a graduate's…

This paper presents the student evaluation of a problem-based learning (PBL) implementation in the postgraduate engineering curriculum of a public university in Brazil. This investigation adopts a qualitative and collaborative design, as suggested when the research objective is to study phenomena in their natural settings in terms of the meanings…

A number of countries, including Sweden and the UK, are considering the introduction of compulsory teacher training for higher education (HE) lecturers. This paper assesses whether such a policy is likely to achieve its aims, and the issues that may arise as the policy is implemented. The paper draws on experience with this policy in Norway,…

This paper describes the results of a national study to investigate teachers' experiences in the implementation of the technology curriculum in New Zealand schools from years 1-13. This investigation of the implementation of the technology curriculum is part of a larger study being undertaken nationally in all curriculum areas (National Schools…

In 2002 a paper entitled "Writing Church-sponsored Religious Education Textbooks" by Engebretson was published in the "British Journal of Religious Education". This paper reported on and analysed some aspects of the development, by the Catholic Archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, of a series of religious education textbooks to…