Only in the last several years have state curriculum guides become prominent in education reform discourse and policy. This paper focuses on the organization and content of curriculum guides in four states regarded as leaders in education reform--Florida, Texas, California, and New York--in an effort to develop a way of comparing and contrasting…

Cultural and national history have profoundly modeled Greek society and continue to play a vital role in Greek policy and in cultural and social life. This handbook provides a brief overview of secondary education in Greece. The first part describes the country's societal, historical, and political background; educational history and current…

After providing a historical context for art education, this text explores the implications for art education from the broad themes found in art across the cultures. Discussions focus on how art education programs promote cross cultural diversity in art, affirm and enhance self-esteem and pride in students' cultural heritage, and address issues of…

This paper examines the curriculum Charles Dickens wrote for his children, an "easy account" of selections from the New Testament. Dickens designed the curriculum to make this material accessible and meaningful to his children prior to schooling under the direction of other teachers, tutors, or governesses, and earlier than the language…

Technology education as a key learning area can be viewed as the designing, making, and appraising of systems, materials, and information. This study examined young Australian children's technological experiences prior to beginning school in order to build on their learning base in curriculum planning. The purposes of the research were to: (1)…

The block schedule is fast becoming the new instructional delivery format of choice for the 1990s in American secondary schools. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effects of changing from a six-period day to a four-block schedule on two large high schools in Knox County, Tennessee. Part I of the study examined the…

This guide is intended to assist tech prep consortia/councils and high schools throughout Wisconsin in developing tech prep career maps. In the first section, a tech prep career map is defined as a counseling resource that presents a recommended sequence of specific courses and experiences designed to enable high school students to develop written…

While the call to restructure schools represents the latest quest for reform and improvement in American public education, efforts to improve have always been ongoing in many schools and districts. The eight elementary schools described in this book have been engaged in the processes of improvement for many years. A major theme that emerges from…

One of the greatest dilemmas in grass-roots school reform is how local participants can take the initiative to construct new and more powerful educational environments for students. The 11 chapters of this book provide a "how-to" guide for curriculum dynamics development, implementation, and assessment. Chapter 1 offers guidelines for establishing…

This curriculum guide for North Carolina social studies teachers stresses the fact that social studies traditionally has accepted the dominant burden of preparing young people to inherit the right and the responsibility of effective citizenship. It is the single curriculum area whose subject matter is the entirety of human experience. The sequence…

This qualitative, ethnographic study documented an upper primary school teacher's thinking as she planned to integrate a block play center into her classroom. Data was collected through a series of seven interviews in May, July, and August. Other methods of data collection included journal entries, stimulated recall, drawings, pictures, and notes…

The fourth edition of this curriculum planning resource takes users through the entire process of planning a social studies program, from deciding on a rationale to selecting curriculum materials to installing and maintaining the program. The guide incorporates current concerns such as standards-based curriculum, authentic assessment, and…

Canada's provincial programs of study are legal documents that state what students are expected to learn and expected to do in all subjects and grades. In Alberta, programs of study exist for elementary, junior high school, and senior high school students. These programs contain two types of information: a philosophy of learning, which includes…

This digest discusses Language Across the Curriculum (LAC), an approach to teaching language that works with faculty in other content areas to identify the specific vocabulary and genres that students need in order to function effectively in another language in their respective disciplines. LAC also draws from the content-based approach to…

The National Curriculum, introduced under the Education Reform Act of 1988, has influenced the cultural politics of secondary schools in England and Wales. The National Curriculum began a new phase in the role of teachers developing school curriculum that is characterized by centralized control and external accountability. To many it suggests a…