School gardens are ideal places for students to ask and answer questions about science. This paper describes a case study of two 3rd grade teachers and two STEM coordinators who were recruited to implement and evaluate a horticultural-based curriculum developed for this study. Informed by the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform model we conducted a…

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is advocated by many applied linguists as a common vehicle to curriculum innovation in many ELT contexts. It represents a change of focus in language teaching from linguistic structures to learners' need for developing communication skills. In recent years, the Iranian Ministry of Education has introduced the…

The central role that tasks play in student learning has become clearer in the last decade. As a result of calls for a structured design process, task design has become one of the main fields of investigation in mathematics education. Here, we propose five design considerations (deciding on the mathematical content, choosing the context, deciding…

Backward design provides a framework for curriculum planning that can be used at unit, course or school level. The approach places assessment at the heart of the planning process. In this article the ideas of backward design are outlined and their application to a current curriculum development project, York Science, is described.

Purpose: This paper was written for practitioners in higher education, including academics and instructional designers who are engaged in curriculum revision. It aims to examine the notion of outcomes-based education, survey the literature and provide a critical review of the outcomes-based approach to quality assessment and curriculum improvement…

The aim of this article is to contribute to the debate on the nature of technology education. This is especially pertinent at times of curriculum change and uncertainty, such as currently exist in relation to the Primary school curriculum in England and Wales. Two phrases ("technological literacy" and "design capability") have…

Helping students understand "chemical energy" is notoriously difficult. Many hold inconsistent ideas about what energy is, how and why it changes during the course of a chemical reaction, and how these changes are related to bond energies and reaction dynamics. There are (at least) three major sources for this problem: 1) the way biologists talk…

Millions of adult Americans lack the basic literacy skills necessary to perform everyday tasks requiring basic reading and math. This stifles our economy, given that employers are increasingly likely to require education or training beyond high school. Organizations that provide job training to lower-skilled adults through Jobs for the Future's…

The purpose of this research is to set the effect of Layered Curriculum on learning-teaching processes. The research was conducted on 2011-2012 educational year. The implementation process, which lasted for 4 weeks, was carried out with the theme named "The World of All of Us" in Social Studies lesson at 5th grade. Observation and…

The authors describe a vocational training course that was developed to give more than just an overview of how aircraft work, or a course on how to fly. This training course was a half-year course in aviation technology. Powered flight is an area of interest for many students, and the intent of creating a curriculum rich with science, technology,…

This paper examines the traditional engineering-based provision delivered to Product Design and Technology (B.Sc.) undergraduates at the Loughborough Design School and questions its relevancy against the increasing expectations of industry. The paper reviews final-year design projects to understand the level of transference of engineering-based…

The authors of this article, all of whom have been a part of this effort to assess argumentation in literacy-rich science curriculum, have struggled with our attempts to build 3 argument-related assessments--understanding, critiquing, and constructing arguments about scientific phenomena in both oral and written modes. Loosely affiliated with the…

Background: Academics, teachers and policy-makers across the world have discussed how to develop a relevant physical education (PE) curriculum that addresses the "body education" needs and interests of twenty-first-century students. In Brazil, after the launch of the national curricular parameters (PCNs) in the late 1990s, many new PE…

This qualitative study sought to understand how Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Project-Based Learning (PBL) can be used to help Costa Rican students gain and participate in the global knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. The purpose was to examine the influence that globalization, foreign direct investment, and…

The purpose of this research was to make comparative study of the development and review process of the entrepreneurship curriculum at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Faculty of Commerce and Botho University, (BU) Faculty of Business and Accounting in Gaborone, Botswana. The study focused on the processes and influences of curriculum development…