This book provides beginning teachers and educational leaders with a series of articles that can help them build their curriculum knowledge base. Features include: (1) Provides a historical context of the curriculum field, giving educators a solid foundation for curriculum knowledge; (2) Describes the political nature of curriculum and how we must…

Information technologies are often depicted as possessing the potential to correct social inequalities by democratising information access and economic opportunity. This view of technology, however, tends to overemphasise virtual spaces to the neglect of the material and social conditions of technological infrastructures. The goal of this article…

Supporters of public education fear attempts to privatize schools, while the private sector has always struggled against the monopolistic power of the public schools that educates almost 90% of all K-12 students. This trepidation has recently been intensified by the creation of a "third sector" that includes charter schools, voucher…

This paper reviews early childhood teacher education in the People's Republic of China in the past years and raises the issues about teacher's education in the future. With thinking about early childhood education reform in China, unevenness in development in different areas and regions, and disparity in resources and programming among teacher…

English language teaching (ELT) has played an important role in the Chinese Radio and Television Universities (RTVU) network since its establishment in the late 1970s. Based on a literature review and reflection from an insider's perspective, this paper gives a full account of the RTVU distance ELT model, examining how it supports autonomous…

This paper describes how Turkish teachers of English in state primary education approach the implementation of a Communicative-Oriented Curriculum innovation and factors that impact on teachers' classroom practices. Using multidimensional research procedures, including a questionnaire, observations and teacher interviews, a picture has been…

Earthlearningidea will use the opportunity of the International Year of Planet Earth (2008) to publish on the internet a new Earthlearningidea each week for use in classrooms that have few resources. The International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) was proclaimed by the United Nations for 2008, with the activities extending from 2007-2009. IYPE has a…

If your mission is to teach children how to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste and create the next generation of Planet Protectors, perhaps leading a Planet Protectors Club is part of your future challenges. You don't have to be an expert in waste reduction and recycling to lead a a Planet Protectors Club. You don't even have to be a teacher. You do…

The purpose of this study is to review 10 NCES databases that can be used for researching postsecondary issues and provide lesser-known facts to using the datasets that are important but may not be widely understood. Issues addressed include: (1) access; (2) statistical issues; (3) database nuances; and (4) database training opportunities. A…

The states have always been central to the American public school systems, and they have been sharply expanding their authority over local school districts since the 1980s, when they adopted education reforms that increased course requirements (especially in science and math), mandated uniform testing, and put in place higher teaching standards. A…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness of the "Bug Investigators" pack in improving children's knowledge about micro-organisms, hygiene and antibiotics when it is used within the National Curriculum in junior schools. Design/methodology/approach: Teaching, using the "Bug Investigators" pack, was given by…

Educational balance refers to the ideal that educational organizations and people who receive education enjoy equal treatment in educational activities under the thought of fair education and principle of educational equity, and the educational policy as well as legal system that guarantee its actual operations. The essence of balanced education…

Computers have been in schools and indeed some mathematics classrooms for more than 35 years. Some schools have chosen to centralise their computers in laboratories, while others have a mix of configurations and networks. Whatever the case, how extensive has been the classroom use of computers for teaching and learning in mathematics? What has…

Levels and Dronkers (2006) showed that educational achievement differs between immigrant students from different regions of origin (Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia). This follow-up paper establishes whether these differences in educational achievement between immigrant students from different regions of origin can be explained by…

The purpose of this study is to understand how beginning teachers actually utilize online resources in their everyday teaching contexts. Using a qualitative interview study design, the researchers investigated beginning teachers' use of online resources in three dimensions: professional tasks, emotional/personal support, and teaching practice. The…