This article traces the career of one teacher through his involvement in a number of school based curriculum design innovations. The idea of "depth" or distance is used to discuss a number of dimensions against which it is possible to judge the worth of a curriculum from a range of perspectives, most especially that of the student. The…

The increasing number of children with profound and multiple learning difficulties means that many schools for children with severe learning difficulties are having to review the curriculum that they offer. In addition, these schools are continuing to question whether a subject-based approach, in line with the National Curriculum, is the most…

Drawing on the work of Bernstein and Maton and using a case-study approach, this study explores the formation of an undergraduate history curriculum at the University of Cape Town. This article focuses on two periods of curriculum formation referred to as history as canon and history as social science. With respect to these two curriculum periods…

What does it mean to teach meaningful and powerful social studies? What curricular frameworks might be useful to this end? What does vibrant social studies look like in the classroom? The purpose of this article is twofold--to propose a curricular and pedagogical framework for teaching powerful social studies and to illustrate outstanding…

Students have been largely ignored in discussions about how best to teach science, and many students feel the curriculum is detached from their lives and interests. This article presents a strategy for incorporating students' interests into the formal Biology curriculum, by drawing on the political meaning of "shadow government" as alternative…

Despite the proven success of using computer video games as a context for teaching introductory programming (CS1/2) courses, barriers including the lack of adoptable materials, required background expertise (in graphics/games), and institutional acceptance still prevent interested faculty members from experimenting with this approach. Game-themed…

In the 1998 Taiwanese national curriculum revision, environmental education was one of six new "Important Issues". To some early observers, the generic "framework" sections of this 1998 curriculum (Aims, Goals, Core Competences) resonated well with the integrative and transdisciplinary nature of environmental education. This…

Procurement in the corporate world is increasingly complex, multi-faceted and interdisciplinary. This paper explores existing knowledge specifications relating to procurement management competencies and proposes a new procurement management competency framework (PMCF) and a competency-based postgraduate programme for postgraduate students in…

Deferential differentiation occurs when the curriculum modification process defers to students' preferred ways of learning rather than relying on teachers' judgments. The preferences of 416 students identified as gifted (grades 3-8) for features of differentiated curriculum recommended for gifted students were compared with those of 230 students…

This study examines young children's ideas about natural science phenomena and explores possibilities in starting investigations in kindergarten from their ideas. Given the possibilities inherent in how young children make sense of their experiences, we believe it is critical to take children's perspectives into consideration when designing any…

In this article we describe the processes and outcomes of the development of the "New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars for Students with Special Education Needs". The project focused on teachers working with students described as working long term at Level 1 in the "New Zealand Curriculum". Earlier research had shown that teachers…

This paper focuses on the issue of how engineering programmes demand and/or promote argumentative reasoning, which is a subsequent aspect of curricular development. This was the main objective of the project on which this paper reports. This is to say that the focus is on assessment as a way to establish to what extent argumentative reasoning is…

Countries around the globe are responding to the pressures of globalisation, standardisation, accountability and market rationality. In curriculum reform, we theorise these pressures as neoliberal cosmopolitanism because they are intended to promote a new type of entrepreneurial citizen that navigates an increasingly interconnected global…

By 2010 all educators in the English lifelong learning sector were expected to embed "education for sustainable development" to support their learners in becoming sustainable citizens. The teacher training team at a college in southwest England used a "cooperative inquiry" approach to develop themselves and their curriculum, to…

In an attempt to give a general but critical review of school-based curriculum development (SBCD) in China's new curriculum reform (NCR), this article discusses at length some issues remaining in SBCD, including misconceptions in Chinese discussions about SBCD, most significantly, the Chinese literal expression of the policy statement on…