In this article we report on the results of an evaluation of a two-tiered strategic approach to the development of sessional teaching staff in one Australian university. Analysis of the data reveals a tension between the institutional imperatives underpinning the strategy and its local implementations. This tension ultimately undermines the…

The current Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation guidelines suggest an enhanced role for faculty members in information literacy instruction. A campus-wide information literacy committee can play a key role in accomplishing this. Such a committee at the University at Albany, SUNY, has been critical in addressing this…

This article is concerned with the connection between religions and education. It explores the case of one particular values education programme, "Living Values: an educational program", and its link with the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) to show how the programme originated and developed, which individuals and…

This paper examines the effectiveness of "Bridging"--a performance-based assessment and curriculum development tool for teachers of young children--in shaping preservice teachers' learning and teaching experiences. The experiences are examined for evidence of whether the use of "Bridging" during the student teaching period 1) facilitates student…

This paper reflects on the relevance and applicability of "key transferable skills" to the higher education curriculum. Although they are regarded as having common currency within universities, it is argued that their uncritical acceptance devalues and distorts the nature and character of the teaching and learning employed in academe.…

This paper describes how the Web-based Inquiry for Learning Science (WBI) instrument was used with preservice elementary and secondary science teachers in science methods courses to enhance their understanding of Web-based scientific inquiry. The WBI instrument is designed to help teachers identify Web-based inquiry activities for learning science…

This study examines the effects of a systematically designed innovation strategy on teachers implementation of a sex education curriculum and its related determinants. A quasi-experimental group design was used to assess the effectiveness of the innovation strategy. Teachers filled in questionnaires on the determinants of curriculum implementation…

Most medical school curricula do not equip students with adequate attitudes, knowledge and skills to care for elderly populations. We describe an effective geriatric curricular infusion model compatible with preserving the overall curricula schema. Course and clerkship directors, staff and faculty from the Office of Educational Development, Center…

This article outlines the experiences of educators in three teacher education institutes in the USA, Australia and the UK as they experiment with carrying out programmes based on ideas of action research. The emphasis is on experiences with programmes of initial education for secondary school teachers. A descriptive case study aimed to find out…

This paper reports the findings of a case study aimed at investigating the forces influencing curriculum policy in one Catholic school in Western Australia (WA). The student-outcomes' focused Curriculum Framework was released in 1998 and is mandated to be implemented in all WA schools by 2004. This has made non-government schools answerable to the…

This study followed a small but diverse group of biology teachers through the first two years of the pilot for a new Advanced Level Biology course--Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology. SNAB aims to modernise A-level Biology using real world contexts and examples as the starting point, promoting conceptual understanding rather than factual recall,…

Like all models, the new model is also based on a theoretical foundation; constructivism, which emphasis is placed on the learner or the student rather than the teacher or the instructor. Students learn by fitting new information together with what they already know. People learn best when they actively construct their own understanding. The new…

The United States produces the most media--film, television, and music--in the world; yet, media literacy is still a new concept to most Americans, including educators. What media literacy is, why it matters, and how it can be implemented--especially in the schools--constitute the subject of this yearbook. The answers are diverse, as the chapters…

In France, technology is a compulsory school discipline at the junior high school level (ages 11-15). Technology studies were initiated at the beginning of the 1960s when school attendance until the age of 16 became mandatory and when it was decided to delay vocational training because of the irreversible drive towards technical modernity, a…

Over the past twenty years American education has seen many changes, and most notable have been those related to accountability and assessment. One aspect of these changes has been the movement toward more specified student learning outcomes. In discipline after discipline content standards have been developed outlining that which students should…